EDITORIAL : VALLEY IS RICH IN DIVERSITY HERITAGE FAIR REFUTED STEREOTYPES.With ethnic foods, music and dancing, the Valley Heritage Fair last weekend celebrated the cultural diversity of the San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. . Besides providing three days of fun, the festival refuted old stereotypes of the Valley as a white, middle-class enclave. It showed that the Valley is rich in diversity, drawing strength from the nation's big-tent tradition. As Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. Mayor Richard Riordan Richard J. Riordan (born May 1, 1930) is a Republican politician from California, U.S. who served as the California Secretary of Education from 2003–2005 and as Mayor of Los Angeles from 1993–2001. Riordan ran for Governor of California unsuccessfully in 2002. told the festival crowd, the Valley is an important part of the mosaic of Los Angeles - people representing more than 150 races, creeds, colors and ethnic groups. That diversity is evident in the Valley's neighborhoods, markets, schools and places of worship. It also was demonstrated in the most recent U.S. census in 1990. That official head count found that 38 percent of Valley adults - more than one in three - were born outside the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. . In addition, it showed that from 1980 to 1990, there was a doubling of Valley residents of Hispanic origin. One-third of Valley residents are of Hispanic origin, and Spanish is spoken in one-fourth of Valley homes. Also during the previous decade, African-American residents increased by more than half, and other minorities almost doubled. Non-Hispanic whites formed a majority (57 percent), but it was decreasing. Obviously, the Valley - which is pondering restructuring in public education and, perhaps, in municipal government - can no longer be criticized as an insular community. ``It's an extraordinarily urban, multicultural population,'' Edward Soja Edward Soja (b. 1941, in Bronx (New York City), U.S.) is a postmodern political geographer and urban planner on the faculty at UCLA, where he is Distinguished Professor of Urban Planning, and the London School of Economics. He has a Ph.D. from Syracuse University. , professor of urban and regional planning at UCLA UCLA University of California at Los Angeles UCLA University Center for Learning Assistance (Illinois State University) UCLA University of Carrollton, TX and Lower Addison, TX , said in a Daily News report on the Valley Sunday. ``People who exercise a white-bread, middle-class perception of the Valley have a vision that's 10 or 20 years old.'' |
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