Ethnic clashes brew in Steinbeck country

GREENFIELD, Calif. -- Down wind-swept El Camino Real, where women in shawls push strollers and men in cowboy hats linger on dusty benches, farmworkers spill from white contractor buses. From the main drag, it's only blocks to the fields and vineyards that sustain this peaceful town in the Salinas Valley, "the Salad Bowl of the World." But there's tension in this part of John Steinbeck country.

Nearly all of Greenfield's 16,300 people are Latino -- and yet an ugly conflict has been brewing between longer-time residents and newcomers from another part of Mexico. Established residents say a massive influx of migrants from the Mexican state of Oaxaca has changed their city for the worse.

Over the past decade, the migrants -- Triquis, Mixtecs and other indigenous people who streamed from mountain villages to Greenfield to plant and pick crops -- spurred the town's growth and now make up about a third of the population.

They speak their own languages, not Spanish; they keep their own customs, such as arranged marriages; and, despite a long-standing tradition of sanctuary and tolerance in Greenfield, they remain separate.

In a town feeling heavily pressured by the economic crisis and gang activity, the influx of Oaxacans and their lack of understanding of U.S. customs has led to an ethnic clash.

It's a new round in a conflict as old as the United States, in which successive waves of immigrants have often feuded with each other. But what's happening in Greenfield is distinct, partly because the split here pits immigrants rooted in the same country, but also because of the hard look it's forcing the town to take at itself.

Rachel Ortiz became so displeased with the new migrants that, after more than five decades in Greenfield, she left her cul-de-sac home and moved to Salinas, 30 miles away.

Ortiz and others in newly formed community groups complained that the Oaxacan families overcrowded apartments, threw trash on the streets, thronged city parks and held loud parties.

"It's fine when you live over there in Oaxaca," said Ortiz, 53, whose grandfather came from Mexico. "But here things are done differently. Here you have to maintain your home, your children, your job and yourself."

Ortiz helped form "Beautify Greenfield." The group's goal was to clean up graffiti, trash and weeds. Among Beautify Greenfield's charges: The new migrants ruined the town financially, "destroyed" its school system, caused violent crimes and were part of gangs, which are pervasive in the Salinas Valley. The migrants, "invaders from the south," should be deported.

The community groups were, in turn, labeled racist by the press and migrant leaders. An unfair label, Ortiz said, considering members of Beautify Greenfield are mostly Mexican-American.

Triqui leader Andres Cruz said he was shocked by the sudden shift in attitude of his once welcoming adopted city.

Cruz was frustrated. His people were afraid. New migrants continued streaming in from Oaxaca for the harvest. Cruz said he didn't know what the future of his community would hold.

But he was happy to have a job.