Robyn Regan – Los Angeles Education Partnership, which focuses on school readiness
Eva Torres – Pacoima Charter Elementary
Marta Silva -
A woman who recently moved from the town of Imperial (near Holtville)
Chile Nakamera – Olive Visita Middle School
Maria Molina – Maclay Middle School
Blanca ___? - ?
Silvia Vazquez – Sara Coughlin Elementary
Odelia __? - San Fernando Middle School
Shane Coleman, founder/CEO of Heroes of Life (Mission: To develop our community’s youth and young adults by providing mutual technological business and other opportunities for the sole purpose on helping them discover and reach their fullest potential, we believe these things are done through caring, sharing, discipline, respect, love and forgiveness.) Heroes of Life is presenting a community talent show this Saturday, May 8 (11a- 4pm) at El Cariso Park (13100 Hubbard St, Sylmar 91342). This will also include a farmers market which is actually a regular event there on Mondays from 5:00 – 9pm.
Shane invited participation in both events and spent some time talking about the various programs that they offer and the good they do for local youth and the greater community.
I did a short presentation and invitation to the Parent Center Directors & Robyn about our project including an invitation to talk with Sigrid about the community, to get involved with the project in July and to spread the word about our Pacoima community play. We also talked for a little while about performance and rehearsal venue possibilities. A number of ideas for places in San Fernando, not so much for Pacoima locations. Many of the women requested specific needs information so that they could explore options at their schools, specifically Sara Coughlin (a block away from Maclay Comm Center), Pacoima Charter, and Olive Vista Middle School (14600 Tyler Street - Sylmar, CA 91342).
Each Parent Center Director gave an update about events and classes offered at their schools/centers. The Los Angeles Unified School District very recently announced that the school year will end one week earlier than originally planned. The last day of school will be June 18 rather than June 25.
Esther invited the Parent Center Directors to stay and talk with Sigrid about Pacoima and a few of them did. Esther also invited two dynamic longtime Pacoima residents to come talk with us at the end of the meeting: Steve Martinez and Liliana Hernandez Jarieque.
Odilia who was born in Mexico thinks it very important that we include the fact that communication within the family, between parents and children, is the key to success and survival no matter what the circumstances. Only one son of many children was unsuccessful in avoiding gang life. This one son was jumped and drugged with a combination of Ecstacy/Chrystal Meth and almost died from the experience. People at the hospital recognized him as Odelia’s son and gave him dedicated attention which probably prevented his death. Unfortunately the drug in his system left him schizophrenia.
Eva Torres has lived in Pacoima for 28 years, very near Pacoima Charter Elementary & San Fernando Gardens housing. She also raised many kids and faced many difficulties. She’s been active with the school and the community for a long time.
Marta Silva was born in Mexico and married into a generational San Fernando/Pacoima family. Her father-in-law owns a market in Pacoima that years ago was in San Fernando. She has struggled in her family because she and her husband do not agree about discipline and how to parent. She continues to work in the schools to help families find a way to be strong and get the kids a good education.
Liliana (48) was raised mostly in San Fernando. She went to SF Elementary, Middle and High schools. Her mother responded to the trouble all around her family by working all the time. Liliana and her siblings and her cousins all lived together at her grandmother’s house. There were so many of them they shared beds and had beds all over the house. They never thought of themselves as poor. Her cousins and brothers got into every kind of trouble and a lot of the bad activity—drugs, sniffing fumes, etc—all happened in their garage. Liliana was first hand witness to a lot of rough activity. She raised a number of kids and was a strong parent and open communicator with her children which she sees as the key to their success and intelligence in navigating the world.
Liliana thinks that the younger generations need to know and value where they came from, what came before to help them respect parents and older generation.
Steve M (42) was born and raised in Pacoima. He had a strong governing mother and a few different Mexican step-fathers. He went to many schools including Laurence Middle School in Chatsworth as part of 70s integration plan. Steve works in gang intervention. He told us the story of how he came to do that: In 1993 he was working as a carpenter in Las Vegas and coming home to Pacoima on weekends & between jobs to be with his fiancé and 3 step-sons. Someone called him and invited him to participate in a gang truce meeting and he agreed. Two days before the meeting he was out in his car picking up his little brother and other younger people from school and he saw some gang kids jumping younger/smaller kids. Jumping as defined as “beating on,” and in this case with (a) baseball bat(s). Steve has a temper that (back then) became physical. He stopped the car and told them to stop. One of the gang went to the back of their van and came back with a gun and shot at Steve in his car, then the gang kids took off in the van. Steve was mad and chased them, anticipating their route. They shot at him again and he could feel the bullets go by him, could feel the heat of one on his face as it went by his head. He got out of the car and the guy with the gun approached him and changed clips right in front of Steve while keeping his weapon pointed directly at him. Steve was shot in the shoulder and the chest. The younger people with him were unharmed. Steve drove halfway to the hospital before he passed out from loss of blood. Two days later he was late to the gang truce meeting. When he spoke about the need to end the violence among gangs in the community, he mentioned that he’d been shot and that the people who shot him were in the room. Everyone stood and shouted and reacted with anger and threats, but Steve would not identify the shooters and argued for all to stay in conversation to reach a truce. He works with a non-profit called Victory Outreach (I think) and grassroots/community project called Valley Unity Peace Treaty.
Liliana and Steve talked some about what it was like to grow up in the 70s/80s in Pacoima/San Fernando. They sited examples of economic and cultural injustices such as freeway placement, building SFHS across the street from a slaughter house, the lame parks in their neighborhoods growing up. They talked about the changes in how Spanish-speaking kids are treated in school. They talked about the changes in gangs and gang-culture. They talked a lot about changes in how culture influences youth’s attitudes toward adults and authority. The talked about the challenges of LAUSD for youth in schools then and now. They talked about changes in the community due to the closing of Lockheed and GM plants.
Paula Donnelly
Institute Director
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