LATINOS CATCH ON TO PEOPLE POWER PROTESTERS - YOUNG, HISPANIC - REPRESENT A SHIFTING POLITICAL ARENA.

Byline: Sue Doyle Staff writer

SANTA CLARITA - Waving Mexican flags, about 30 teenagers returned to the streets Tuesday for a second day of demonstrations against proposed federal immigration legislation.

Nearly 40,000 high school students throughout Southern California walked out of class Monday, with about 200 of them from the William S. Hart Union High School District.

To some outside the debate, seeing youth mobilize for a political cause is reminiscent of uprisings from the 1960s, such as protests against the Vietnam War and the fight for civil rights.

However, this time the voice is strongly Latino - a group that has largely remained politically silent, in particular the 12 million estimated to be in the U.S. illegally, but now appear to be finding a voice in American politics.

This time, the voice behind the loudspeakers belongs to Latino teenagers, many of whom learned of walkouts through talk radio, the Internet and from friends. But nonetheless they risked detention and other consequences from school because they felt so strongly about national policy changes.

"It's been 40 years since the last time students got this included. And these are high school students, not college students," said Bob Stern, president of the Los Angeles-based Center for Governmental Studies. "This could be the start of something."

A ragtag army of students wearing hoodies and backpacks marched with signs down Soledad Canyon Road through the rain Tuesday. They hailed from local junior highs and high schools and decided to band together after their schools on Monday prevented them from rallying on campus, they said.

Some drivers passing by honked horns in support of the group, while others yelled at them to go back to their country.

Students were headed to Hart High School in Newhall, because of the large Latino population there, and hoped their peers would join in the cause.

"We're here for our rights," said Gerardo Perez, 14, wearing a bandana around his head with the word Mexico on it. "We're humans and need to be treated equally."

Although immigration is a national issue, the sight of Latino protesters evokes memories for some of demonstrations held with California's Proposition 187.

The 1994 measure prohibited illegal immigrants from accessing government services, from public schooling to health care. Although it passed, the law was later declared unconstitutional.

For some Latinos, the protests against Proposition 187 were their first steps into the political arena, with many realizing the unshakable power they had when they worked together, as special-interest groups do.

"It certainly helped to mobilize Latinos," said Tom Hogen-Esch, political science professor at California State University, Northridge. "It was the wake-up call for the sleeping giant."

Hogen-Esch said that since then, people are becoming more accustomed to Latino political leadership.

There are more Latino faces these days holding legislative offices, from Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

But will protests by students - many too young to vote - make a dent in national policy? Demonstrations are expected to take place through the rest of the week.

Hogen-Esch said it would be to the peril of lawmakers to ignore these protests and demonstrations held over the weekend in major cities, including Los Angeles where an estimated half-million people gathered around City Hall.

Although California Republicans won the 1994 election and Proposition 187, their politics backfired on them later, and they lost many Latino voters, Stern said.

The same could certainly happen for Republican and Democratic lawmakers nationally. But any significant loss of votes will also depend on the demographics of legislators' constituents at home.

Latinos don't necessarily follow one political party more than another, because certain values put them in Republican camps whereas other values put them in Democratic camps, said Hogen-Esch.

"This is a large block of voters who are up for grabs," he said.

"And political parties are still trying to figure out how to play this issue."

sue.doyle(at)dailynews.com

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(color) Carrying Mexican flags, a small group of about 20 students from La Mesa Junior High marched around Canyon Country on Tuesday to protest the House of Representatives immigration bill.

David Crane/Daily News