Tearing Down a Wall of Shame
Living on the wrong side of the symbol of intolerance
By
Abelardo de la Peña Jr.
Published on LatinoLA:
March 5, 2002
Early last week, I was enjoying my daily dose of the LA Times when I caught a headline by columnist Al Martinez. Something about a tearing down a "wall of shame".
Imagine my surprise when it turned out that he was writing about a concrete barrier located at the end of the street where I live, Via del Rey. The people he interviewed, which included LA city councilman Nick Pacheco, were all pretty pissed off about it, stating quite eloquently that whereas it may have been originally constructed to prevent traffic from flowing from El Sereno to South Pasadena, by now it has become a symbol of racism and humiliation.
"They decided they didn't want trashy people going through their neighborhoods," states one anonymous resident of El Sereno. "They didn't want Mexicans."
Well, this Mexican family has lived on Via del Rey in So. Pasadena for about a year and a half. We are about two blocks from the "Wall of Shame". On the other side of the wall, the street is called Van Horne Avenue.
Before that, we lived on Alpha Street in El Sereno, about a block south of the So. Pas border. On Alpha St., it was not a wall that separated the two communities, it was a wooden fence. It went down a little more than a year ago, and So. Pas has managed to survive.
We moved to this part of the San Gabriel Valley in the mid-90s, being that my wife and I work in the area. She is a library assistant at the Central Library. I worked in Pasadena, now in downtown LA. For years we lived in the Harbor Area, mostly in Wilmington, where we both grew up, met, married and raised our family.
El Sereno is a lot like Wilmington: working class, single family homes, apartments, small retail establishments. Un barrio, pobre pero con mucho orgullo. The main difference is that heavy industry surrounds Wilmington, whereas in El Sereno, the industry borders the south end of the community.
We enjoyed our El Sereno neighborhood and some of our neighbors, although there was a young gang-banger terrorist right across the street. He ended up being sent away.
At the time, three of our six kids lived with us. Our four older kids had graduated from good old Banning High in Wilmington, same place where my wife and I graduated. In checking out the schools for my then-middle school age daughter, we found the local junior high somewhat wanting. It was quite a ways from where we lived, had poor test scores and wasn't the best environment for her, a semi-at-risk kid. So with the "help" of a friend, we were able to enroll her in So Pas Middle School. The friend moved on after a couple of years, and we had to make a choice: enroll her in a LAUSD school, fork out some big bucks for private school,
or actually move into So. Pas so that she could continue there.
We made some budgetary adjustments and moved in.
I know we upped the So. Pas. Latino demographic by at least a percentage point.
Our first home was in a winding hilly road right off Via Del Rey. Nice enough, quiet, but no real neighborhood feeling. Through another friend we found the Via Del Rey home. It's roomy enough for the kids -- who keep on coming back -- along with a yard for our granddaughter, who also lives with us. Expensive though, but with four workers in the households, we are somehow able to make it.
I noticed the wall the first time I tried to drive down to El Sereno for my regular Sunday run to Panaderia Aguila on Huntington Drive. Blocked by the silly wall, I had to drive all the way around, up one hill, down the other. What should have taken a 5 minute round trip took about 20.
Now, I either walk, ride my bike or scooter down Via Del Rey/Van Horne to get my pan dulce. It makes for a nice Sunday morning trip, walking past the "immaculate" but somewhat sterile front yards on So. Pas, which give way to the funkier but livelier environs of El Sereno.
On Via, I hardly ever see anybody outside, except for the gardeners (and that's just on weekdays); on Van Horne, even early in the morning, there are people outside, washing their cars, cleaning their yards, or just conversing with their neighbors. Kids ride bikes on the streets, radios blast out of homes, good smells of home cooking.
Early in the mornings, I can hear roosters from El Sereno, and sometimes the low moan of the locomotive traveling out there near Valley Blvd. It reminds me of Wilmington.
I miss my barrio, yes. Should I give up living in So. Pas? My wife says no.
But should the walls go down? I say yes.
Although I hope that it was not racism that built the wall, I can assert that it's ignorance and fear that keeps it up. Although it will certainly bring more traffic to Via Del Rey, it could also bring a better understanding to the residents of So. Pas
that their neighbors to the south are not that much different then they are. Then we are.
There are lots of immigrants in both communities: Latinos in El Sereno, Asians in So. Pas. There are families on both sides, all wanting what is best: schools, places to shop, parks to enjoy.
Bringing down the fence on Alpha did not destroy So. Pas. Taking down the wall and reuniting Van Horne and Via del Rey can only lead to more personal encounters, better communication, and a greater appreciation of our differences and commonalities.
There's a So. Pas city council meeting coming up soon, and I'm going to be there.
Maybe by this summer, the wall will come down and the paletero will finally be able to bring his sweet cool treats up to this side of the street.
About
Abelardo de la Peña Jr. :
Abelardo de la Pe?a Jr. is the editor of LatinoLA. You can read Al Martinez's column at latimes.com. Click on Columns and go to Al's Archives.
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