3 Decades Give Couple a View of Neighborhood Transformed : Oxnard: They have seen G Street go from Anglo to Latino. But it's still the same cozy house they got in 1959.

By SANTIAGO O’DONNELL

March 3, 1991 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

When Ambrose and Ines Mendoza moved into their dream house in a middle-class Oxnard neighborhood in 1959, they were the only Mexican-Americans on the block.

On their first day as the proud owners of the last tract house in the 3100 block of G Street, the McKeans, the Pattersons and the Hayneses dropped by to say hello.

But as the years have past, all but a few of the Anglo families on G Street have moved out or died, making room for a new generation of first-time homeowners--most of them of Mexican descent.

Like the Mendozas, many of those now living on G Street started out working in the fields or in companies that pack fruit. After years of hard labor, they moved out of barrios and bought homes in suburbia.

The latest arrivals on G Street, Ines Mendoza said, are the sons and daughters of farm workers, many of whom earned high school diplomas and college degrees while their parents toiled the fields.

But while the faces and the backgrounds of residents have changed dramatically over the years, G Street is still the same cozy neighborhood it was when the Mendozas moved in three decades ago. Its well-kept, one-story stucco houses have manicured lawns, American flags flying out front and children playing on the sidewalks.

Sitting in front of a huge living-room window, surrounded by dozens of framed family pictures, Ines Mendoza can see almost every house on the block.

“I look out of this window, and it’s like watching TV,” she said. Pointing out one house after another, she began a who’s-who listing of her neighbors.

“Over there is Mr. Castillo. He works in a mariachi band. Sometimes he practices at home, and I hear this wonderful music. Once I asked him, ‘When are you going to invite me to one of your parties?’

“The woman next door has been walking the block back and forth for exercise ever since her husband died. When she begins, she walks very briskly, but after the third block she is getting tired. On the fourth block, well, she barely makes it.

“And over there, that house belongs to the family that owns the Terraza Casino, you know, the best restaurant in Oxnard.

“The lady in the corner has a day-care center,” she said. “I used to see Anglo children playing, now I see Mexican kids. Everything else is exactly the same.”

But of all her neighbors, Ines Mendoza says, she especially likes to chat with Mrs. Mark from across the street.

Mark, one of the last non-Latino homeowners left on the block, agreed that the neighborhood has changed over the 30 years she has lived there but not for the worse.

“I love this place, because everybody is so neat,” Mark said. “Everybody takes care of their home. Everybody cleans up. The cars don’t have flat tires, and nobody steals anything.

“I couldn’t ask for better neighbors.

“Of course, there are always some bad apples,” Mark said, “but none of them live on this street. Go ask Mrs. Mendoza. She’ll tell you.”

Ines and Ambrose Mendoza met 66 years ago, soon after their parents--part of the first big wave of Mexican immigrants to cross the border in the late 1920s--arrived in Oxnard looking for work. Ines had been born in Los Angeles, Ambrose in El Paso. He was an 18-year-old lemon picker when they met; she was 16 and worked for a lemon-packing company.

Six years later, they were married. Ambrose went to work for an agricultural equipment factory and eventually retired as a shipping clerk 19 years ago. Ines worked for 49 years at the same fruit-packing company, retiring in 1975.

Ines, now 80, and Ambrose, 83, have three children--Joe, 60, Morgan, 57, and Bertha, 41.

The Mendoza family rented houses in the Avenue section of Ventura and the La Colonia neighborhood of Oxnard--two of the area’s largest enclaves of Latino immigrants--before buying their G Street house for $11,000.

When the Mendozas finished paying off their house two years ago, it was worth more that $200,000. “It felt great to make that last payment,” Ines Mendoza said. “We celebrated with a dinner at Sizzler’s.”

The Mendozas’ home is a blend of Spanish colonial furniture, Mexican Indian decorations and touches of classic Americana.

A wheel-shaped Aztec calendar carved out of stone hangs on one wall. A Victorian doll collection is neatly arranged near an upright piano. The orange-and-brown coat of arms of the Mendoza family hangs over the fireplace. The chimney is flanked by Mexican Indian ceramic vases with a cluster of American flags sticking out.

Near the bedroom hangs a poster-size photograph of Ines Mendoza wearing an apron, smiling as she sorts lemons on a conveyor belt--a proud reminder of her working days.

Ambrose Mendoza is the quiet one. He smiles approvingly as Ines does most of the talking. But he speaks up when the subject of his children’s education comes up.

“That was the only thing for me,” he said, choking with emotion. “Just putting everybody through school.”

Ambrose Mendoza quit school in the seventh grade, while Ines managed to complete high school. But all three of the Mendozas’ children, and all six of their grandchildren, have received college educations.

In the Mexican tradition, the three Mendoza children have stayed close to home. They live in western Ventura County and either call or visit their parents daily.

And according to American tradition, the family always gets together on Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving.

“We’re an American family with Mexican roots,” Ines Mendoza said.

Though Ines Mendoza likes her new neighbors just fine, she still misses the old ones.

“I didn’t notice that they were Anglos,” she said. “They were just friends.