Some See New Activism in Huge March : Protest: Leaders of Sunday’s demonstration against Prop. 187 predict surge of political energy among Latinos. The measure’s backers call the event a display of Mexican nationalism that bolsters their case.

A day after the largest demonstration in recent Los Angeles history, enthusiastic organizers and participants exuded optimism Monday about a new political activism that would energize an increasingly diverse Latino community.

“This is the beginning of a new era of civil rights struggle--headed by Latino immigrants,” said Fabian Nunez, a Pomona-based activist and one of the march coordinators.

But to proponents of Proposition 187, the hotly debated immigration measure on the November ballot, the march was an outrageous display of Mexican nationalism that bolsters the case for reducing immigration.

“Any time they’re flying Mexican flags, it helps us,” concluded Alan C. Nelson, Proposition 187 co-author.

While an impressive organizational spectacle, Sunday’s massive march from the Eastside to Downtown has left many questions in its wake.

Organizers tended to emphasize the long-range benefits in marshaling solidarity and building coalitions among all Latinos, both immigrant and U.S.-born, for anticipated future battles at a time when the U.S. public is increasingly hostile to immigration.

“Our political history is just beginning, and this (march) is part of our beginning,” said Los Angeles City Councilman Mike Hernandez, who was among the column of marchers that the police estimated at nearly 70,000. “I thought the march was a tremendous statement. . . . I think there’s no question in my mind that the silent majority is ready to speak.”

Organizers are planning a 1996 march on Washington shortly before the next presidential election, a kind of immigrant reprise of the landmark 1963 civil rights march. Before then, they hope to register 6 million new voters, mostly immigrants who are now signing up for citizenship in record numbers.

But such ambitious goals may be difficult to meet.

Mexican nationals, by far the largest group of Latino immigrants, have traditionally been hesitant to renounce allegiance to their homeland and become U.S. citizens--the only way that immigrants can vote. If the march and other organizational activities motivate more to become citizens and participate, Latino activists agree, it will surely be judged a success in the long term.

“If people see the link between this demonstration and the electoral process, then the march will have a great benefit,” said Harry Pachon, president of the Tomas Rivera Center, a public policy institute at the Claremont Colleges.

Although Latinos make up 25% of the state’s population, they constitute only about a tenth of the state’s registered voters.

Looming on the Nov. 8 ballot is Proposition 187, which, among other things, would bar illegal immigrants from receiving public-school educations and tax-supported, non-emergency health care and social services.

Reflecting on the historic march, many participants spoke of an updated version of the Chicano movement of the 1960s and 1970s, which resulted in a certain degree of political empowerment for Latinos--but this time with a much stronger immigrant input.

Yet the Chicano movement was far different--and in some ways less complex--than current plans to marshal the vast Latino immigrant population that has arrived since the 1980s. It also unfolded during the tumultuous Vietnam War era.

While the Chicano movement was largely limited to U.S. citizens, today’s organizers face the daunting challenge of encouraging eligible millions of foreign nationals to sign up for citizenship--and then persuading them to register and vote, despite the widespread voter apathy already apparent in the United States.

Moreover, the Chicano movement took root among a Mexican American population considerably less diverse than today’s extremely heterogenous Latino population. High immigration has greatly increased the numbers of Latinos residing in the United States but born in Mexico, Central America and other nations from the Caribbean to South America.

“In the last 25 years, we have seen a real redefinition of the Latino community,” noted Gloria Romero, a professor of Chicano studies at Loyola Marymount University.

While the Chicano movement was largely led by students, Romero noted, the leadership behind Sunday’s march is much more broad-based and includes recent immigrants, more women and older activists. And their organizing goals are more sweeping.

Opposition to 187 has also galvanized Latino students, who have staged statewide rallies, teach-ins, classroom boycotts and voter registration drives on college and high school campuses. For many of them, Sunday’s march represented a chance to participate in an action of historic magnitude.

“I read about these things for years,” said Angel Cervantes, who studies the history of social movements at Claremont Graduate School and is the son of Mexican immigrants. “But it wasn’t until yesterday that I felt involved in a mass movement of people. People of my generation haven’t experienced that.”

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Given the complexity of the Latino population, it is perhaps not surprising that serious divisions are already evident. Ironically, Sunday’s march served to underline deep rifts: Many Latino activists had sought to cancel it, viewing such a march as a bad idea just three weeks before the election.

Some feared a sea of Mexican flags and brown faces in Downtown Los Angeles could only reinforce voters’ concerns about a state that has experienced a dramatic--and, to many, extremely unsettling--demographic shift since the 1980s.

“Some people felt that the more visible we are, the more difficult it may become to beat this initiative,” noted one Latino activist.

Representatives of Taxpayers Against 187, the leading opposition group, declined to assess the march’s repercussions. “It’s difficult to assess whether it helps or hurts us at this point,” said Scott MacDonald, a spokesman. “It’s time to move on.” But the images from the march clearly angered some voters.

“I see a lot of Mexican flags, I see a lot of Spanish writing, and I don’t like it,” said Carol Sledge, a 45-year-old African American mother and resident of San Bernardino who said the march helped her make up her mind to vote in favor of Proposition 187.

The pro-187 camp quickly seized upon the march as ammunition.

“These people certainly have a right to protest, but I don’t believe in using a foreign flag,” said Jesse Laguna, a Mexican American with a San Diego-area group called the Border Solution Task Force.

Laguna is among a majority of Latino registered voters, who, polls show, support Proposition 187. He sees no place for himself in what organizers term a new coalition of Southern California Latinos.

Notwithstanding the many differences in the Latino community, march organizers spoke of unity.

“We recognize the imperative that we all come together,” said Juan Jose Gutierrez, an Eastside political activist and march coordinator. “That’s what the people want and that’s what we have to do.”

From a practical standpoint, independent observers said that the march could bolster support among those angered by what many will view as an expression of Mexican nationalism.

“In the cold reality of politics,” said political analyst Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, “the pictures that went out on the front pages and on television may have well energized proponents of the proposition.”

Times staff writer Isaac Guzman contributed to this story.