Faith, Hope, Charity

TIJUANA —  As the small caravan of cars entered this city’s juvenile hall compound Monday, Catita Milanes had her attention riveted on the back of Alex Jimenez’s pickup.

There, secured by ropes, were a used refrigerator and a tall freezer, equipment that Milanes, the facility’s cook, was eager to put to use.

“Thank you! Thank you!” Milanes said in Spanish as she hugged Jimenez, 69, a retired police officer from San Clemente who was among a South County goodwill entourage that brought the appliances, bundles of used clothing, bedsheets and other donated items for Mexican youths as part of a Sunrise Rotary International project.

Members had intended to bring the goods Dec. 4, including children’s clothing collected at Shorecliffs Middle School in San Clemente, but everything was stolen, nearly putting a Grinch in the Christmas holidays.

“We wanted to get down here long before Christmas,” said Don Divel, 74, the project’s chairman. “I was asked to come up with a good project, and I wanted it to be in Mexico.”

After the theft, the group put out a communitywide appeal asking everyone who had pitched in to please do it again, Divel said.

A local hotel manager came up with thousands of bars of soap and packages of shampoo, plus blankets, pillows and pillowcases, Divel said.

“Many of the Mexican youth come into the facility with the clothes on their back and nothing else,” said Frank Montesinos, a San Clemente architect and Rotary Club president who toured the facility in October and drew up a wish list for the youths.

“They didn’t have soap, toothbrushes or toothpaste and other toiletries,” Montesinos said. “Compared to juvenile halls in the United States, where they have polished floors, TVs, and hot and cold running water, here they have very little.”

At the juvenile facility, life is spartan. About 120 boys and girls ages 13 to 17 are housed in concrete dormitories monitored by guards with Mace and surrounded by high fences.

Youths here have been given sentences from one day to two years, mostly for robbery, rape or possession of weapons and drugs, said Maria Luisa Martinez, the hall’s technical coordinator.

Carlos, a 15-year-old caught for robbery, was typical. His head was nearly shaved, and he wore a watch cap to help keep warm. He had on a sweatshirt with “Nike” across the chest and long gray trousers that rode low over old athletic shoes. He spoke English, and as he helped Rotary members unload their cars, he enjoyed talking to them.

Michael Mofid, general manager of the Holiday Inn in San Clemente, said he was impressed by many of the Mexican youths.

“One boy said that when he gets released, he wants to apply for a job as a firefighter at Yosemite,” Mofid said. “He said that he had a brother who was a fireman in Bakersfield.”

Mofid and others said they were glad to have made the trip, which will become an annual project.

“At least we got to know some of these guys,” Mofid said. “Maybe it will offer them a ray of hope that someone cares for them and is interested in their progress.”

As Divel and others toured the compound, they stopped at the recreational area that included a bleak basketball court and cement courtyard that doubled as a soccer field.

Divel took a quick inventory and said, “I can see that we’re going to need basketballs, baseballs, baseball mitts and bats here.”

Outside, staff members were roasting a pig over an open fire near the basketball courts.

The pig, like the refrigerator and clothes, was the gift of another benefactor, a Mexican pig farmer, said Juan Manuel Rocha Martinez, a facility staff member.

“Each year this man drops off a pig for us, and we cook it here for everyone as part of our New Year’s celebration,” Rocha said. “Everyone will get some.”

Later, the visitors were allowed to examine the boys’ dormitories, where more than 40 boys are assigned to a dark, unheated building, with rows of bunk beds.

Jimenez’s wife, Ardis, was taken aback by the living conditions.

“They’re sleeping on just boards; those aren’t mattresses,” Ardis Jimenez said. “Boy, it looks like they need blankets too. It must be cold here at night. It’s unbelievable.”

Montesinos vowed that his group was not finished with its task.

“We’ll be back,” he said.