‘Somebody Help Us’ : Order to Vacate Corona Trailer Park Threatens Farm Workers’ Tightknit Community

CORONA, Calif. â€”  For years, 35 families of farm workers have lived in a tightknit community in a canyon-bottom trailer park near the citrus orchards south of here.

These people, mostly legal immigrants from the Mexico state of Michoacan, have labored in the local groves and established what amounts to an extended family of 150 friends and relatives at the Corona Growers Trailer Park.

For two generations, they have car-pooled to the same jobs, attended the same churches and schools and cared for one another’s children. In hard times, they have shared food, clothing, shelter and information about available work.

Now, they have been ordered to vacate the 25-year-old trailer park by Feb. 1. The owner of the property, Daon Corp. of Newport Beach, said it plans to sell the property to developers.

The group wants desperately to remain intact. Riverside County officials have buoyed their hopes by trying to find a new site on which to move their mostly weather-beaten trailers.

But the county officials have made no promises, and the families may be forced to disperse. Many said they cannot afford to move. Some said their trailers are so old and small that other trailer parks in the area have refused to accept them. A few have considered abandoning their trailers.

While they are considered valued workers by their employers, it seems nobody wants them as new neighbors. As the deadline approaches, they are fearful of being set adrift.

“I feel like crying out: ‘Somebody help us,’ � said Sally Espinoza, a 26-year-old mother of three who lives in a mobile home she and her husband, Ricardo, bought four years ago for $4,000. “It isn’t a crime to be poor.�

Eight months ago, Joe Hernandez, an analyst with the Riverside County Department of Housing and Community Development, came to their aid by offering to find them a site elsewhere in the county.

First Attempts Rebuffed

But his first two attempts to relocate the group were beaten back by irate homeowners who protested the possibility of having “illegal aliens� in the area.

The protests were based on a misconception, Hernandez said.

“These are not migrant farm workers or illegals,� Hernandez said. “They are California residents who happen to work in the surrounding fields.�

In what may be his last chance, Hernandez has located a third site.

Located on 18 acres of unincorporated land zoned for mobile homes, the proposed site lies just outside the city limits of Perris, about 20 miles southeast of Corona.

In two weeks, Hernandez plans to publish in local newspapers the county’s intention to buy the site for use as a low-income housing project. The financial arrangements are nearly complete, with most of the estimated $800,000 cost of the project to come from local Housing Authority funds and a state block grant, Hernandez said.

Riverside County Supervisor Norton Younglove, whose district includes the proposed site, has given tentative approval to the deal, which will be presented to local residents at a public hearing next month.

“The project won’t be shot down easily,� Younglove said. “They have selected what may be a good site.�

Nonetheless, he added, the plan is “controversial.�

Hernandez worries that strong resistance from local residents, most of whom are elderly and retired, could kill the plan. If that happens, he said, there will not be enough time to locate and secure another and the group will almost certainly be dispersed.

That “would be a great loss for the employers who have hired them over the years,� said Jessica Palacios, employer program representative for the state Employment Development Department in Corona. “They are fantastic workers and good people.�

But the citrus groves they have worked in for years are disappearing like the trailer park beneath the workers. New tracts of expensive homes and industrial parks are rapidly replacing once-plentiful groves of lemon and orange trees in the region.

Since the property owner announced its intention to get rid of the trailer park, at least a dozen families have pulled up stakes and moved elsewhere, some returning to Mexico. Others tried to move into nearby trailer parks only to be turned away because their aging, narrow trailers did not meet requirements.

“Just find us some land to live on,� vowed Everardo Cortez, 43, who has lived in the Corona Growers trailer park since 1972, “and we’ll plant trees and make it beautiful.�

Others have all but given up hope. A few are considering junking their rigs, taking the loss and living out of cars.

“I may have to abandon my trailer,� said Leovigildo Cortez, 41, standing next to the mobile home he bought for $2,000 and shares with his wife and four children. “I feel horrible about it.�