Fear and confusion in Pahrump

By Timothy Pratt (contact)

Monday, Nov. 20, 2006 | 7:31 a.m.

PAHRUMP - Keily Miller had never seen one of Pahrump's Hispanic viewers at the television station that she owns, much less a small crowd.

But there they were at KHMP Channel 62 on the northern edge of town on Wednesday morning, the day after the "English Language and Patriot Reaffirmation Ordinance" passed 3-2 in a contentious town board meeting.

"These were normal, working people, and they were scared," Miller said. "They wanted to know what it (the ordinance) meant."

Many thought they would no longer be able to speak Spanish in their homes and businesses.

Reaction in the Hispanic community in this town on the western side of the Spring Mountains may soon go beyond fear and hunger for information.

Observers in Southern Nevada and places where similar measures have passed in recent months said the ordinance may lead to an unintended consequence: Pahrump's Hispanics, up to 15 percent of the town's 35,000 residents, will get more civically involved.

"It's in moments of crisis when the Latino community unites," said Alonso Flores, the adviser in Southern Nevada to the Institute for Mexicans Abroa, a nongovernmental organization that works in immigrant communities across the nation.

Flores was making the first of what he hopes are many visits to Pahrump Friday afternoon to help organize clubs according to Mexican states of origin, as a way of building community.

Such clubs in Las Vegas and elsewhere have launched projects ranging from voter registration to college scholarships, as well as backing public works in Mexico through a program that matches private with public funds.

Jerry Gonzalez, executive director of the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials, said the dozens of anti-illegal ordinances and laws being passed or tested in local governments across the country have pushed Hispanics into becoming more engaged in their communities' political life.

"The climate is forcing the community to stand up for itself, both legal and illegal Latinos," Gonzalez said.

At Aztech Realty on Route 160 Friday morning, Realtor Carmen Ruiz said she had never been involved in town politics, sticking instead to selling hundreds of houses and plots of land during the past six years, mostly to Hispanics.

A billboard four miles into town advertises her company with the phrase, "Hablo Espanol."

Ruiz said she, too, was confused about the ordinance as it became stripped in recent weeks of clauses that would have prohibited loaning money or renting or selling homes to illegal immigrants.

During that time, one of her clients, the owner of two Mexican restaurants in Las Vegas, called to say he might have to pull out of buying a $330,000 home in Pahrump if the town was going to prohibit Spanish.

An anonymous caller also phoned her office to tell her to stop speaking the language and "read the newspaper, beaner."

The version passed Tuesday makes English Pahrump's official language for local government. It also prohibits flying a foreign flag by itself and blocks town services to illegal immigrants.

But Ruiz and others said they're concerned about the attitude some in town may have toward Hispanics, lumping them together in a group seen as lawbreakers.

They also mentioned hearing stories of police asking Mexican restaurant owners about the immigration status of their employees, or stopping motorists for "driving while Hispanic." True or not, the fact that such stories are spreading illustrates the volatile climate enveloping the town.

"Nobody wants to be in a town where he doesn't feel welcome," Ruiz said.

She visited Miller's station Friday, a sort of gathering place on the issue since Tuesday's meeting.

On Wednesday, Las Vegas Mexican consul Mariano Lemus Gas was at the station to help clarify the ordinance's meaning on a show taped for broadcast Saturday.

Lemus said he had planned months ago to visit Pahrump to provide consular services on Dec. 2, but now thinks it would be better to reschedule the trip "for a time when things cool off a bit."

Miller, born in Calexico, Calif., of a Spanish mother and a German father, broadcasts almost entirely in English, except for an hour-long program in Spanish devoted to local issues.

Ruiz, at the station, mused about somebody like Miller or herself running for office someday.

"It is time to have somebody who represents us (in the town government)," Ruiz said. "I need to get involved, because this affects me."