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Evicted

DIOCESE OF ORANGE CLOSES HISPANIC MISSION

By Maria Elena Kennedy

A decision by the diocese of Orange to close St. Isidore's, a small chapel in Los Alamitos that has served Spanish-speaking Catholics for more than 70 years, has prompted a campaign to keep the chapel open.

Parishioners first learned of plans to close St. Isidore's in May when the diocese's director of Hispanic Affairs, Monsignor Jaime Soto, came to St. Isidore's to tell parishioners the chapel would be closing on September 1. Monsignor Soto told parishioners it was necessary to close the chapel because repair costs to bring the structure into compliance with construction standards for earthquakes was too high. Estimates for the repairs range from $300,000 to $350,000. Another reason given for the closure was an insufficient number of Spanish-speaking priests. The diocese proposes instead that parishioners move to nearby St. Hedwig's parish, which is the home parish for St. Isidore's, a mission chapel.

Some of the 200 parishioners at St. Isidore's have responded by offering to raise funds for the earthquake retrofitting of the chapel, which was built in the 1920s. They have also offered to sponsor a priest from Latin America to celebrate Mass for them at St. Isidore. The parishioners have formed a fund-raising organization they call the "Committee of Love." One member of the committee, Leticia Aguilar, said that they could easily raise the $350,000 necessary to retrofit the building. "I remember during my childhood, one of the Guadalupanas, Concha Sevilla, would raise lots of money with her fiestas. We were always having fiestas and Concha and the Guadalupanas would make $18,000 to $20,000 per day with the fiestas. This was all money made for the maintenance of the church." Aguilar added that the Guadalupanas were ready to raise the funds for retrofitting the chapel. They are already planning a fiesta at Laurel Park, which is near St. Isidore's, to raise funds for the effort to save the parish.

Because the purpose of raising funds is to stop the closure of the parish, Father Daniel Hopcus, pastor of both St. Hedwig's and St. Isidore's, told the committee they could not have their fund-raiser on the church property. "It's not appropriate," he said. Parishioners have, however, put up a sign on the side of the chapel saying, "Help Save St. Isidore" in order to gain support from the community.

The planned fiesta has generated excitement in the close-knit Latino community that surrounds St. Isidore's. Paulita Cano, who at 101 can boast of being the oldest parishioner, said that she will attend the fiesta. In an interview at her home, Cano said that during the 1930s the parish was used to house priests who came from Mexico fleeing persecution of Catholics during the Cristero wars. "We were always hosting priests from Mexico," she recalled. "They would stay at a little house across the street from me and would celebrate Mass at St. Isidore. Mother Margarita Maria (the much loved and now deceased superior of the Carmelite Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart) was a tremendous help to me when I was taking care of a paralyzed priest. I took care of Father for 29 years." Cano has spent her entire life attending the chapel, which is around the corner from her little house.

The parish has many other longtime parishioners who have spent their lives at St. Isidore's. Maria Sanchez De Leon has had a long association with St. Isidore's. In an interview at the chapel, De Leon remembered how she made her first Holy Communion there. Later she was married at the chapel, and all her children were baptized there. The children also made their first Holy Communion at St. Isidore's. The chapel was too small to accommodate all the guests that were invited to De Leon's 50th wedding anniversary, so the celebration was held elsewhere.

De Leon says she gets solace from the chapel that she has known her entire life. "It's been part of my life since I was five years old," she said. "The chapel has a lot of meaning [for me]. There are lots of happy memories for me here. One of my first memories is offering flowers to Our Lady. My class and I would pray the Rosary every day here during the month of May. I remember when I was very young, my mother and a lady named Adelina Ramos would clean the church and my sister and I would help. Later both my sister and I took over the cleaning of the church when we grew up. My sister also was married here and my mother and father had their 50th wedding anniversary here. In fact, my mother-in-law and father-in-law also had their 50th wedding anniversary here."

Fred Sisneros, Sanchez De Leon's son-in-law, was named after Fred Bixby, one of the original founders of Los Alamitos. Sisneros' father worked for Bixby and the family lived on the Bixby ranch. In an interview at the Bixby ranch, now a historical landmark, Sisneros also recalled his fond memories of St. Isidore's. "I have so many memories," he said. "I taught Confirmation there. I was St. Joseph in a Christmas play that we put on at the church. I remember when my grandfather died, I stayed the entire night at the chapel keeping watch over my grandfather." Sisneros, like others, is pained at the thought of losing the little chapel. "We are like a family," he said of the parish.

Because the chapel was once part of the Bixby ranch, which plays a prominent part in the history of Orange County, one of the issues the parishioners are pointing out is the historic nature of the chapel. Liz Myers, president of the Los Alamitos Museum, wrote a letter to the diocese of Orange asking that the building be preserved. "The St. Isidore building itself represents one of the few last links to the architectural history of our City," she wrote. "Because of its importance to the heritage of our community, our museum board has recommended to the city of Los Alamitos the placing of St. Isidore on the City Registry of Historic Places. "The City of Los Alamitos has already declared St. Isidore's church a historic landmark," said Los Alamitos Mayor Marilyn Poe in a telephone interview. "Unfortunately, it is largely ceremonial because there are no legal ramifications. Rumor has it that the diocese plans to use the structure for other types of religious services, but that would be contradictory with their contention that the building is unsafe for use. If it is to be used at all, it has to be retrofitted." When asked about the possibility of the building being razed, she said: "I would do everything I can to prevent that from happening".

Local lore says that Mexican workers on the Bixby ranch asked the Bixby family for land on which they could build a chapel. Pamela Seger, executive director of the Rancho Los Alamitos Foundation, which maintains a part of the Bixby archives, said there is no documentation confirming which Bixby donated the land for the chapel. Since three Bixby brothers owned the land, Seger said that the task was to figure out which Bixby donated the land. "Typically the Bixbys put in covenants in the deed of gift when they donated land," she explained. "It would make sense that somewhere there is a deed of gift that would outline any restrictions on the use of the land."

The wood-framed structure is largely original on the exterior. The interior was altered during the 1960s. At that time, the archdiocese of Los Angeles (at that time the Diocese of Orange had not been formed) decided to close the chapel and removed most of the interior. The interior of the chapel included a highly ornate high altar and intricate communion rail. One parishioner recalls that an attorney was hired in the 1960s to challenge the closure of the church. According to the parishioner, the attorney discovered a covenant in the Deed of Gift when the land was given to the church. After this was discovered, the diocese decided not to close the chapel, but none of the interior fixtures were put back.

Support for the parishioners at St. Isidore has come from many quarters. Myers, of the Los Alamitos Historical Society, said that she was concerned that the diocese would not do the retrofitting, and that the diocese would then want to dispose of the property. "The parish is a wonderful community," she said. "They are a little segment of people but they are important." Myers said that her group wholeheartedly supports the parishioners in their quest to keep the chapel open.

Monsignor Lawrence Baird, director of communications for the Diocese of Orange, responded to a request for comment on the situation at St. Isidore's with a faxed statement: "Beginning September 5, St. Hedwig's parish in Los Alamitos scheduled a Sunday Mass in Spanish at 1:30 p.m. to accomodate the congregation which has been attending the Spanish Mass at St. Isidore's. St. Isidore's, a mission church within St. Hedwig's parish which requires a seismic retrofit, will continue to be available as determined by Father Daniel Hopcus, St. Hedwig's pastor, who has pastoral care for the historic church. It is the hope of Father Hopcus that the newly scheduled Spanish Mass will better serve the resident community with the larger seating capacity at St. Hedwig's."

-- from the Los Angeles Lay Catholic Mission, October 1999

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