Minutemen spread out in Mohave

BULLHEAD CITY - They met in Las Vegas at a “Wake Up America Foundation” meeting over Memorial Day weekend and decided to form the Mohave County Minutemen.

Virginia Hilton is a retired grandmother from Bullhead City. Gianluca Zanna was an Italian immigrant who became a U.S. citizen “April 29, 2005,” a date he proudly recites.

Zanna recently relocated from Apple Valley, Calif., to Golden Valley, where he operates a music mixing business.

Hilton and Zanna said the group has 30 members spread out between Kingman and Bullhead City and has no real structure - no president or treasurer - with everyone on an equal footing.

Although they were “officially inspired” by the national Minutemen group and both are members, Hilton and Zanna decided to form their own group, which is not affiliated with the national organization.

“We’re a local group that likes to work with our local problems and take care of our local problems in our own way,” Zanna said.

Asked what the “local problems” are, Zanna and Hilton voiced their suspicion that developers are trucking in illegal immigrants to build houses.

Zanna and Hilton plan to document their hunches by taking pictures and contacting local and federal authorities.

Zanna said he’s also concerned California’s gang problems will surface in Mohave County. “We don’t have a big problem here,” Hilton said. “I’m sure it’s happening, but we don’t want it to become a big problem.”

Luis Lopez, president of the Lake Havasu City chapter of LULAC (League of United Latin American Citizens) doesn’t have a high opinion of minutemen-type organizations.

“I think they’re more racist than anything else,” he said. “They’re just using (illegal immigration) as a pretense.”

Zanna replied to the racist charge this way: “I laugh … they try to play the last card they have.” He said his grandmother was Jewish and placed in a concentration camp during World War II.

Saying racism works both ways, Zanna pointed to a Latino organization, The National Council of La Raza (The Race) and quoted their creed:

“For the Race, everything, outside the Race, nothing.”

Complete text linked below:

Source:
Minutemen spread out in Mohave
MohaveDailyNews