SAN FERNANDO AT 89: TALES WILL BE TOLD.

Byline: Dominic Berbeo Staff Writer

SAN FERNANDO - Riding the electric street car with his dad from San Fernando to downtown Los Angeles every Sunday in the 1920s remains one of Ysidro Regalado's favorite childhood memories.

``But nothing was better than coming back home over the hill to see an ocean of citrus groves - lemons, grapefruits and oranges,'' the 85-year-old San Fernando native remembers.

``They had huge blossoms that smelled like a strong perfume. It was beautiful.''

On Sunday, stories like these and others of Regalado's will be featured at the city of San Fernando's 89th Birthday Celebration and Family Festival. The city has undertaken an oral history project to document the city's history and facilitate family genealogy.

``In finding out about the personal oral history of these longtime residents, we'll learn a lot about the history of San Fernando, a fascinating history,'' said San Fernando City Councilwoman Cindy Montanez, who has spearheaded the new oral history project.

As for Regalado, with one of his 25-plus great-granchildren recently making him a great-great-grandfather, he has a lot of practice telling tales.

``My grandmother, Amada Regalado, who came from Chihuahua, Mexico, in 1893, used to sit with us and tell us stories at night,'' he recalled. ``She was the best storyteller; she remembered everything.''

Regalado was born May 15, 1915, at 1022 Hewitt St., just two years after the Los Angeles Aqueduct brought in water, making the San Fernando Valley one of the richest stretches of farmland in the state with more than 20,000 acres in citrus farms by 1923, and farmers shipping produce nationwide.

``We all worked on the citrus farms,'' he remembered. ``The lemons paid best because they didn't just give you 15 cents a box like other citrus; they gave you 15 cents an hour on top of that.''

San Fernando, which was incorporated as its own city in 1911, got most of its water from wells, allowing it to buck the trend of local communities that became part of the city of Los Angeles to benefit from its aqueduct water rights.

But not all was good in the 1920s, Regalado said. The Mexican neighborhoods on the west side of the railroad tracks were tightly segregated from those on the east side, home to mostly wealthy Anglos who owned the farms and acquired most of the property when the railroad connected San Fernando with Los Angeles in the late 1800s.

``When we were boys, we knew where some special orange trees were with sweet, sweet oranges on the other side of the tracks,'' he said. ``They were nobody's trees, but the police would chase us us back to our side of the tracks anyway.''

Regalado remembered the house his father, Pedro, had built for the family on Kewen Street in 1923, a time when many of the vintage houses in the area were built.

``That house is still there,'' he said. ``But we lost it during the Great Depression because we couldn't raise the $34 monthly payment . . . Can you believe it?''

His father, who used to play guitar to accompany silent movies at the old Cody Theatre, died soon after, as did Regalado's sister, leaving him to take care of two young nieces.

During World War II, he said, many of his friends went off to fight in Europe, never to return. He remembers clashes between Mexican ``Zoot Suiters'' and military men.

``San Fernando was full of Zoot Suit pachucos,'' he said. ``They called them pachucos because they came from El Paso, Texas, and they would go all the way to downtown L.A. to get their baggy suits from Filipino suit-makers. They were sharp dressers and they liked to dance swing.''

CELEBRATION

The city of San Fernando will celebrate its 89th birthday beginning at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Casa de Lopez Adobe at 1100 Pico St. Activities, including live music, arts and crafts booths, pinatas, an antique car display, and activities for children, will continue until 8 p.m.

For more information, call Steven Veres of the city's Historical Commission at [phone].

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- color) Ysidro Regalado, here with family photos, will tell of early San Fernando this weekend.

Tom Mendoza/Staff Photographer

(2) The old Cody Theatre in San Fernando, in this 1920s photo, was where Regalado's father used to play guitar to accompany silent movies.

Photo courtesy San Fernando Valley Historical Society 

Box: CELEBRATION (See text)