New Leaders: Brief Sketches

Jo Ann Wysocki is president of the Harbor Coalition Against Toxic Waste. Wysocki, 49, has been involved in Wilmington issues for more than three years, most actively since a halfway house for prison parolees was proposed half a block from her house.

A schoolteacher, part-time librarian and 43-year resident, Wysocki co-founded the coalition in May, 1983, when BKK Corp. proposed a major hazardous-waste treatment facility in Wilmington.

Wysocki has led protests against four of the community’s six hazardous-waste facilities. She also has launched letter-writing campaigns and petition drives, researched myriad local issues and become a regular participant in zoning hearings.

Irma Castillo, a 46-year-old school aide, has led hundreds of east Wilmington parents in a drive for improvements at Wilmington Park Elementary School.

Beginning in early 1984, Castillo took the cause to the Los Angeles Unified School District and then to the state superintendent of public instruction. Although unsuccessful so far, the parents’ group has attracted the interest of the U.S. Department of Justice, which is trying to resolve the dispute. The parents--whose major request is for a cafeteria--have charged discrimination against the low-income, mostly Latino area.

Maria Elena Hernandez, a 43-year-old teacher aide, was also a leader in the drive for improvements at Wilmington Park Elementary.

Hernandez, a 31-year resident, also has been involved in a neighborhood battle to shut down a garbage operation and in a citizens’ planning committee that advises city officials on zoning issues.

Trinidad Godinez was a resident of Wilmington for 30 years before he recently got involved in community activist efforts. He is president of the Northeast Wilmington Community Organization, a group of about 60 residents who are trying to resolve neighborhood problems.

Godinez, 66, a retired scale operator, led a demonstration at a trucking company last spring in a successful effort to reduce traffic and noise in the neighborhood. Group members, organized in part by the 10-year-old Citizens Action League, say they also hope to begin approaching other trucking companies.

Father Luis Valbuena, pastor of Holy Family Roman Catholic Church for the last three years, has become one of Wilmington’s most influential leaders. Preaching social responsibility and community involvement to the 10,000-member congregation, Valbuena, 55, has been active in labor, legal, immigration and social issues. He also has launched an array of programs for the needy, including a food co-op, a rental assistance program, a credit union, a scholarship fund, a legal service and a dental plan.

Valbuena is on leave in Spain until next summer, but said he will return to Wilmington to continue his work.