Gridley parishioners lead action against gang violence

The families who marched through the streets of a farm labor housing community in Gridley one stormy December night had a lot on their minds.

“We want an end to the violence, drugs and gangs,” said Belinda Guzman-Ruvalcaba, assistant housing manager for the Butte County Housing Authority. “We want to save our children from this evil that is stealing our children.”

Guzman-Ruvalcaba is a member of the United Parents of Sacred Heart Parish, a group of 15 families that came together over a year ago following the murders in July 2003 of Jose Corona Castaneda and Isidro Viveros, both 18.

The group continues to meet once a month at Sacred Heart Church.

Another member of United Parents is Angel Calderone, who remembers the dual murder of the two unarmed teens and the shock wave that followed.

“We all know each other. We grew up together,” said Calderone, recalling the killings of Castaneda and Viveros, whose families had once been a part of the Sacred Heart community. “One of the first things we did one day after Mass was meet to see if there was anything we could do about it as a church.”

Like most of the residents of Gridley, a town that covers just over a square mile, the parents’ group was searching for answers to understand the community’s escalating gang problem.

Hameed Khan, Gridley Police Department Gang Officer, said the majority of the violent conflict in the Gridley area is occurring as a result of members of Norteno and Sureno gangs moving into the Gridley-Biggs area.

These Spanish-named gangs — Norteno means north in Spanish and Sureno means south — are typically geographically based.

“You would think this is God’s country but gangs exist everywhere now,” Khan said. “Sometimes parents are so busy they don’t even know their children are involved.”

Guzman-Ruvalcaba said the great majority of those living in the Gridley farm labor housing community — most of whom are Catholic — “are pretty strict with their children” and make a serious effort to keep them from associating with gangs.

One of these adults is Pedro Mota, a member of the United Parents of Sacred Heart and new member of the Gridley City Council. He is the father of five children and said that he and his wife are taking extra care that their children don’t fall prey to gang recruitment.

“It has been very painful because we knew (Castaneda and Viveros) since they were little kids,” he said. “Now with our children we try to have them come with us wherever we go.”

While gang violence has increased in Gridley, it is not new to this small rural community.

“Years ago when a parent farm labor group formed here we had a counselor come in who said, ‘Wake up, the gangs are coming this way from Los Angeles,’” Guzman-Ruvalcaba said.

The Sacred Heart parents’ group has sponsored four processions like the Dec. 6 event in both Biggs and Gridley over the last 12 months. They are taking a stand against gangs, violence and drugs by walking hand in hand with their children, who are present in large numbers on the marches.

“With all the prayers and processions God is hearing us and has kept our community from hurting anyone. No one has been injured in our neighborhoods,” Guzman-Ruvalcaba said.

She also takes heart in the fact that the few gang members living in the farm labor housing complex have backed out after the shooting.

“One of them told me he and some friends joined just to look like a group but when it turned to gangsters he got out,” Guzman-Ruvalcaba said.

Bishop Garcia has made it a priority to travel to Gridley and participate in the processions organized by Sacred Heart parishioners over the past six years. He said it is the families who offer most hope in addressing the gang problem.

“The families from Mexico who are here bring such wonderful family values,” he said. “The church has to maintain and support them and the only way to do that is to make sure they don’t feel they are isolated or alienated from their families.”

The state’s Mexican Counsel General, Alejandra Bologna, also attended the march in December in support of the Mexican community’s effort to prevent gang violence.

“It’s positive that parents are interested in what is happening with their sons and daughters and giving them an opportunity to make good choices,” she said.

At the top of a pro-active agenda to prevent children ages five to 17 from joining gangs, the United Parents group is initiating a program in which parents sign a pledge with their children who promise not to use drugs or join gangs.

“We’re clarifying our values and training our kids to say no,” Calderone said.

He added that among the factors leading Latino youth to gangs is that “they have no conception of where they come from or who they are” and are proud of nothing other than their colors.

To address this concern, the parents’ group plans to begin providing after school sports and academic tutoring programs for elementary, middle and high school students.

Jose Gonzales, current president of United Parents and the father of four children, said that local efforts to stop gang violence have dramatically changed from “a lot of people were thinking it was a Mexican problem, to understanding it is our problem.”

“Our focus is we don’t want to blame anyone. We want to find solutions,” Gonzales said, noting that Gridley Mayor Frank Cook has pledged his in full support to the group. “It’s a complex problem and we’re not going to find an easy solution.”

Cook is among a growing number of civic leaders and representatives from several local churches who participated in the December march. He said he has found the best avenue to approach Mexican families in the community is the Catholic church.

“There are some hard-core things difficult for them to address, but activities like the march are wonderful because you’ve got a lot of small impressionable people mingling with adults who are saying drugs are wrong,” Cook said.

Father Miguel Silva, pastor of Sacred Heart Parish, who serves as advisor to the parents’ group, believes they are on the right course to change a culture of violence that has been present in the community for too long.

“We want to start with little boys and girls because they are the future,” he said. “I think the gangs are afraid of what we are doing.”

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