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Neighbors march to evict drugs

Organizers affiliated with Farmworkers Self-Help launch an effort that pulls in those who want drugs out of Tommytown.

By EMILY VASQUEZ
Published June 29, 2005

	[Times photo: Kathleen Flynn]
	Nine-year-old Cesar Limas, center, and Hector Vera, 11, right, lead about 50 others in a march on Tuesday in Dade City. Even children participating in the march knew friends and neighbors who had gotten in trouble because of drugs.

DADE CITY - From the back seat of a deputy's car, Leon Hernandez, 11, smiled at his neighbors as he was driven through Tommytown on Tuesday evening, every few seconds proudly flashing a deputy badge out the window at onlookers.

Almost everybody else, who like Leon traveled the dirt streets for the anti-drug march, did so on foot, despite the drizzle and mud puddles. But Leon took advantage of the ride and kept dry.

He has lived in the neighborhood since he was 3 months old, he said, and knows well that drugs are dangerous. He has known friends and neighbors who have gotten in trouble.

Drugs, Leon said,"they'll kill you."

As about 50 marchers passed, some pushing strollers, neighbors peered out from their front porches, drawn by deputies' sirens. Some marchers yelled out their message: "Say no to drugs."

"It's the first time something has happened like this," said Letty Jasso, 29, who watched the march from her front porch in Tommytown.

Jasso said her four kids, ages 5 to 12, haven't had problems with drugs, but she agrees the move to get an anti-drug message out is a good idea. She hopes it makes a difference for the neighborhood, she said.

Jose Morales, 48, one of the neighborhood parents who helped plan the march, said the rain couldn't stop him from marching.

"The rain doesn't matter," Morales said in Spanish. "What matters to us is that this happens; that it's fruitful."

The march was planned by groups of youth and parents affiliated with Farmworkers Self-Help Inc., an advocacy group for migrant workers based on Lock Street. But individuals from well beyond the neighborhood turned out to march.

Mary and Wayne Lopusnak, who have just moved to San Antonio, wore T-shirts with their son's picture on the back. Sean Lopusnak died at age 25 of a heroin overdose after a long struggle with drugs.

"I'm really touched these children came out here against drugs," Mary Lopusnak said before the march began. "Just because people are impoverished doesn't mean they have to be resigned to this."

Margarita Romo, director of Farmworkers Self-Help, shook hands with Michael Holden, who attended the march with friends and the family of a man who he said was killed in the Tommytown neighborhood by drug dealers.

Romo said she was happy Holden's group joined the march, as well.

"We didn't know what we were doing," Romo told Holden. "But we knew we had to do it."

Emily Vasquez can be reached at 727 869-6232, or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6232. Her e-mail address is evasquez@sptimes.com

[Last modified June 29, 2005, 01:19:17]