LEARNING TO LIVE SIDE BY SIDE; HISTORY OF AREA'S RACE RELATIONS MARKED WITH CONFLICT, COALITIONS.

Byline: Yvette Cabrera Daily News Staff Writer

Irene Tovar's first lesson on race relations came in the 1940s at the city of San Fernando's only theater. There, moviegoers knew the protocol - whites sat in the main section, Latinos in the balcony.

``It clearly told us where we were placed in the Valley, that we were not good enough or equal to the other citizens,'' said Tovar, whose father didn't allow her to go to the theater until the segregation policy was eliminated in the early 1950s.

``I've seen some things in the Valley that I've been proud of as a citizen and other things which I am shameful of,'' said Tovar, 58.

That little girl who got her first taste of discrimination from a movie house grew up to become executive director of the San Fernando Valley's Latin American Civic Association, which provides instruction, health care and food to the Valley's poor children. She is one of many in the Valley who are working to increase tolerance and opportunity in the community.

As it has all across America, race has been an issue throughout the Valley's 200-year history.

At times, it has boiled into conflict and enmity but community leaders said the Valley has a long legacy of people trying to work together to resolve racial conflicts by building coalitions.

``The Valley has in a sense been pretty pro-active in dealing with race relations,'' said the Rev. Zedar E. Broadous, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's San Fernando Valley chapter.

Broadous vividly remembers how his father, also a pastor, jumped in a truck with fellow deacons and reverends and rode the Valley's streets during the 1965 Watts Riots, calling on youngsters to resist the temptation to loot.

``I remember back then there was always a coalition of all types of people,'' said Broadous. ``Today there's not the same sense of community, but I feel we're building on a sense of community.''

The explosion of new ethnic groups in the Valley may be one reason people have become less willing to come together. Since the 1970s, an increasing number of immigrants has moved to the Valley, a trend which California State University, Northridge, geography professor James P. Allen projects will continue along with suburban flight.

But Herman L. De Bose, associate professor of sociology at Cal State Northridge, believes that a threshold has been reached.

``There's only so much space and, as groups come to Southern California, I think we as a community, as a society, are going to be forced to live in diverse communities because we aren't going to have a choice,'' said De Bose.

If the Valley wants to avoid regression when it comes to race relations, today's residents need to follow the example of those who have lived here before us, said Joe Hicks, executive director of the Los Angeles-based Multicultural Collaborative.

``Where there had been a longstanding population of African-Americans in Pacoima and San Fernando, those communities now look more Latino than African-American,'' said Hicks. ``This causes tension. But if you continue to have good leadership and people-building coalitions to help them understand that their destinies are quite linked, you can avoid (conflict).''

Early conflicts

As far back as the founding of a mission in San Fernando, there were conflicts between the Indians, the Spanish and the Mexican ranch owners, said College of the Canyons history professor Thomas Davis.

The ranch owners were known to have robbed the Indians of their land in gambling bets. And during the Gold Rush era, forty-niners ``systematically annihilated'' the Indians, said Davis.

When California became U.S. territory in 1848 through the Treaty of Guadalupe with Mexico, white settlers began moving into the Valley. By the 1860s, there was a mixture of Mexican, Spanish and white ranchers in the area, said Allen. With construction of the railroad in 1876 through San Fernando, the Mexican population grew sharply thanks to jobs in agriculture, said Allen.

But the city's development brought in thousands of people from all over the country, most of them whites who formed the core of the dominant community.

African-Americans began moving in large numbers to Pacoima during World War II, attracted by jobs in the service industry and a large housing tract named after African-American boxing champion Joe Louis.

They joined a burgeoning community of Mexican, Filipino and Japanese workers in the fruit and vegetable picking industry.

Anti-Japanese sentiments ran high during World War II, and Japanese people residing in the Valley and elsewhere - even many born in the United States - were sent to desert internment camps.

Harold Muraoka, four-time president of the San Fernando Valley Japanese American Community Center in Pacoima, remembers being taunted as a student at Burbank High School after returning from an internment camp in Manzanar.

The situation was starkly different when he transferred to San Fernando High School, he said.

``San Fernando High School for Japanese-Americans was very good. . . . At the time there was Hispanic, black and white students and we got along,'' said Muraoka. ``Some of our closest friends were the Hispanics there.''

But beyond school grounds, minority groups were feeling the effects of discrimination with real estate covenants that prevented minorities from purchasing homes. Muraoka's sister was told to look elsewhere when she tried to buy a home in Canoga Park in the early 1950s.

``The salesman asked them what nationality she was and she said `I'm Japanese-American.' And he said, `I can't sell to you,' '' said Muraoka. ``So she went back with her husband, who said he was Hawaiian, and that changed everything and they were allowed to buy.''

Valley minority groups came together to fight housing discrimination, forming the Fair Housing Council of the San Fernando Valley in 1960.

``The Valley has had its racial problems, in housing especially,'' said Broadous. ``The Valley has, by no means, been a haven of humanity. It has had its problems and continues to have problems.''

Racial riot

At San Fernando High School in 1969, Latino and African-American students clashed in a three-day riot after a Latino security guard was accidentally punched during a fight between two African-American students, said Diane Velarde-Hernandez, a student at the time.

``There was a lot of antagonism and the setting was ripe for something to happen,'' said Velarde-Hernandez, now a teacher and dropout prevention program coordinator at her alma mater. ``There was animosity, lack of understanding and lack of tolerance between blacks and Chicanos on campus.''

It was during the 1970s that a large number of minority students were bused under court integration orders into Valley schools, which were predominantly white.

``Residents saw this busing as an invasion of their neighborhood schools and blamed the incoming children for crime, the delinquency of their own children, and the urbanization of what was once thought to be a suburban community,'' wrote Cal State Northridge Chicano studies professor Rodolfo Acuna in his latest book, ``Anything But Mexican.''

Recent debates over new immigrants - spawned by initiatives such as Proposition 187, which eliminates state-funded health care and education to illegal immigrants, and Proposition 209, which ended affirmative action in public employment, education and contracting - restoked racial tensions throughout the state.

Proposition 209 helped bring together many minority groups.

``The San Fernando Valley has really historically been a community where coalitions of that nature have been formed ever since I can remember,'' said Broadous.

He recalled that during the 1992 Los Angeles Riots, the Pacoima Chamber of Commerce and Korean merchants met to discuss their concerns - one of many coalition building meetings that took place.

``With the civil unrest of 1992 you'll find, though the Valley had some problems, it was nothing like what happened over the hill,'' said Broadous.

Today, Broadous said he is working with the Economic Alliance of the Valley, which is developing a business plan that seeks to reshape the Valley's image and ultimately benefit all ethnic groups here.

``When you understand you are American first then you begin to see the world in a different way,'' said Broadous. ``Because people are working together, I see the San Fernando Valley in 10 to 15 years as being one of the premiere places in the United States - whether it's a city or suburb of L.A.''

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

Photo: (1) Irene Tovar of the Latin American Civic Association is held by her father, Bartolo, at Mission San Fernando.

(2) Many Indians, like this woman in an early 1900s photo, were driven off their farms.