A <i> Marcha de Miliones</i> Is a Pointlessly Divisive Idea : Latinos: The black American rally can’t be duplicated. We all need bridge-building, not a widening of the racial chasm.

Despite lingering arguments over how many people actually showed up for the “Million Man March,” the event’s symbolic success is undeniable. Even if low crowd estimates are accepted, 400,000 African Americans were there, making it larger than the historic March on Washington in 1963, heretofore the largest civil rights gathering the capital had ever seen.

The more important question is whether the “Million Man March” will have the lasting impact of the 1963 protest. African Americans aside, no minority group in this nation has a greater stake in the answer to that question than the nation’s 22 million Latinos.

Most demographers agree that sometime in the next century, perhaps even as early as the year 2000, Latinos will surpass blacks to become this country’s largest minority. But that demographic projection hides a complex reality that many Latino activists overlook in their eagerness to cite impressive numbers about how fast the nation’s Latino population is growing. For, while the numbers are impressive, they do not translate into the political clout Latino activists presume to wield. Many of those Latinos are not citizens, so they can’t vote, and many who are citizens are too young to vote.

And even if all Latinos did vote, there is little evidence that they would vote as a unified bloc. Claims of “Hispanic” unity run up against the reality that most Latinos think of themselves not as members of a single ethnic or racial group, but as members of different nationalities: Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, Cuban Americans and so on.

That is why it worries me that some Latinos are saying the “Million Man March” is something Latinos must emulate. In Southern California, no doubt, some of that talk reflects anxiety over the failure of a Latino demonstration coincidentally held in Los Angeles the day before the “Million Man March.” Only about 1,500 persons turned out for the rally at City Hall, far fewer than the 70,000 who showed up there one year ago to demonstrate against Proposition 187, the anti-immigration initiative on last year’s California ballot. That protest was the largest Latino demonstration ever held in this country, and it was stirred by anger over a pro-187 campaign whose tone was overtly anti-Latino.

With Proposition 187 still hung up in the courts and its main champion, Gov. Pete Wilson, having flopped spectacularly in his campaign for President, Latino anger has cooled. So it was naive for Latino activists to think they could re-create last year’s success, just as it is naive of them to think Latinos can, or should even try to match the “Million Man March.”

Of course, many of these Latino activists mean well. They want to show their support for African Americans and appreciation for the leadership role they have played in the fight for civil rights in this country. But I fear at least some Latinos have a somewhat more self-serving aim. They think a Latino “Million Man March” will remind the country--more specifically the political class in Washington--”We’re here too, and we expect our share.”

That makes me sound terribly cynical, I know, but I write from sad experience. As far back as the late 1960s, when the civil rights movement helped spawn President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty, blacks and Latinos in Los Angeles have spent more time fighting each other over control of government programs than they have working in political harmony. And the political gamesmanship has gotten worse since the 1992 riots, with loudmouthed leaders in both communities (who I am too polite to name) trying to claim greater victimhood than their poor neighbors.

I don’t know who started this counterproductive competition. But I know it’s untenable in the current political climate, with elected officials in Washington, Sacramento and locally cutting back on government spending and even questioning the very idea that government can do anything to help people who won’t first help themselves.

That is why the theme of personal responsibility and self-reliance resonated so loudly in the “Million Man March.” After generations of slavery and dependency, African Americans are striving to reinvigorate the spirit of entrepreneurial self-reliance that seems to come so easily to immigrants, including black immigrants.

If anything, Latinos should count themselves lucky that self-reliance is thriving among their compatriots who are recent immigrants. And it would be a step backward for Latino political leaders to try to compete with African-Americans and other minorities for government largess when it is rapidly drying up. Unfortunately, that is precisely how a Marcha de Miliones would be perceived.