SAN JOSE — Carmen Cautiverio knew that opening a children’s summer camp at Backesto Park would be risky, so she introduced herself to the homeless and lowlifes who hang out there by bringing them a breakfast of warm tamales.

“This is my backyard, and somebody has to step up,” Cautiverio explained at the 93-year-old park in San Jose’s Northside. “Nobody was stepping up. I thought I would take the chance, and it seems to be working.”

The groggy and bewildered park regulars that morning in May probably appreciated the traditional Mexican, stuffed-cornmeal treats, if not her message.

“I told them they had to go to the other side of the park from now on and stay there,” she recalled. “This side belongs to the children now.”

After only a few weeks, most of the destitute, chronically unemployed or downright suspicious types got the message that Cautiverio’s Downtown Enrichment program was not to be messed with. Housed in a cramped, old, wooden clubhouse, the program tried to keep the two dozen or so children busy outside. Cautiverio even received unexpected support from some tough hombres.

“Wow, I was blown away by it, and now I want to protect it,” said Robert Contreras, an unemployed neighborhood resident who seems to know who’s who and who does what. “I make sure that everybody knows that the kids center is off limits.”

And then the mysterious “Backesto Park King” stepped up. According to Cautiverio, the intimidating man with a scraggly beard and hard look showed up very early one morning and peppered her with questions.

“After I explained to him what we’re trying to do here, he said, ‘OK, you can stay,'” Cautiverio remembered. “I haven’t seen him since.” As summer settles in, the south side of Backesto Park has become a cheerful oasis filled with the laughter of children at play or their soft reading of bilingual books in Spanish and English. Cautiverio still has to chase drug addicts out of the children’s rest room, just not as often as before.

‘A natural’

Cautiverio is a gregarious Latina with a hearty laugh and long brown hair. She grew up in the Northside, a neighborhood settled largely by Italian immigrants in the late 19th century.

After graduating from the Job Corps, a federal vocational and academic program for teens and young adults, she took an entry-level job with Viking Trucking Co. She rose through the ranks and after only 10 years was handling multimillion-dollar accounts. But when Viking was “rebranded” by corporate parent FedEx, Cautiverio said she became disheartened by the layoffs of colleagues and took a one-year sabbatical in 2000. She never went back.

She married, tried having children of her own and after the marriage broke up volunteered at a center for medically fragile children.

“The therapist there told me I was a natural,” Cautiverio said. After taking classes in childhood education and children’s psychology at San Jose City College, she opened the first of two child day-care centers in 2001.

More than a decade later, she was driving past the shuttered clubhouse at Backesto Park and saw opportunity where others saw an eyesore. Local schools had reduced summer classes or eliminated them entirely, and the preschoolers in her day-care centers were growing up with nowhere to go before their parents returned home from work. By then, she had remarried and become a mother.

“I went to the city and told them I wanted to open a summer center for 5-year-olds at Backesto Park, and the guy said, ‘Backesto?’ I didn’t really know the situation at the park.”

A lot of people use the compact, 10.5-acre park just north of downtown. They come to jog or picnic or play tennis, softball, basketball, handball, soccer, volleyball and even bocce ball. But in recent years, a new activity — homelessness — has arrived in force and attracted a seedy crowd. A neighborhood leader, Chuck Hagenmaier, said the new crowd began lighting fires on winter nights in the barbecue pits and trash bins next to the clubhouse.

Andrew Freeman, a parks division manager, said the city is anxious and willing to re-open 42 community centers closed during the recent economic downturn and budget crisis.

“We welcomed her proposal,” Freeman said. “I can’t think of a better way to make a park feel attractive than to hear kids laughing and playing in it.”

The city let Cautiverio move in rent-free.

With bright paint and cheerfully designed wallpaper, Cautiverio made the clubhouse look and feel like a kindergarten classroom. She power-washed the women’s icky restroom next door, defiantly declared it for boys and girls only, and opened for business.

Even so, one parent, Kathryn Garcia, had to see for herself before enrolling her two young boys, Angel and Alonso. She staked out the restrooms and noted how Cautiverio’s assistants always accompany children. Garcia saw them shoo away unwanted adults from the restricted playscape.

“When it comes to their safety, I’m sneaky that way,” Garcia said. “I don’t fear for them here.”

Parents pay about $125 per child for a week at Downtown Enrichment. Cautiverio said she’s losing money right now but expects to break even or profit in the fall as word of her after-school program spreads. She’s also got her eye on other vacant parks and school buildings for expansion.

To her surprise, one or more of the homeless people have begun to leave used gifts at the clubhouse door, including pencils, erasers, toys and a tattered teddy bear. Still, there are others who need reminding that things have changed.

Cautiverio’s favorite reminder is the daily “popsicle parade” at noon. Each child gets one of the treats and walks in line on a slow stroll around the park for all to see.

“This is how we make our stand every day,” Cautiverio said. “Backesto Park belongs to us now.”

Do you have a story for Eastside/Westside? Contact Joe Rodriguez at 408-920-5767 or jrodriguez@mercurynews.com.