TEENS PROVE STREET ISN'T A DEAD END.

Byline: Yvette Cabrera Daily News Staff Writer

There was a time when Blythe Street was known as la calle de la muerte, the street of death. Yet amid the violence, some Blythe Street kids are changing lives.

In rows of apartments where children grow up side by side with notorious gangs, a generation of activist teen-agers is proving that despite the overwhelming odds, Blythe Street can produce achievers.

Achievers like Esmeralda Virgen, Hugo Gomez Garcia and Nora Longoria, who will graduate today from Monroe High School. They are among 14 students from the neighborhood who graduated from area high schools this month.

To celebrate, there will be a neighborhood party Saturday for 67 students in the Blythe Street Prevention Project, a youth program run by the San Fernando Valley Partnership. Kids from elementary, middle and high schools will be congratulating the ones who got diplomas.

``We need to let kids know that, even though you live in these conditions and are at risk, you can make it,'' said Cynthia Llerenas, the program's prevention specialist.

The Blythe Street Project organizes recreational activities, offers after-school tutoring and runs 10-week workshops on drug and alcohol prevention and conflict resolution.

In the four years since they entered the program, Gomez has seen friends jailed for gun possession, Virgen has dealt with the death of her father, and Longoria has battled the stigma attached to growing up on what was once called the worst block in the Valley.

Together they pushed, studied, worked, cried and survived.

A new way of thinking

After a heart attack suddenly killed her father in August, Virgen came home from the hospital at 6 a.m. and found her living room full of neighborhood friends, waiting to wipe away her tears.

As the oldest of five children, Virgen, 18, had to take her father's place as a wage-earner and help pay the family bills. She wanted to drop out of school, but Llerenas and the program's youth coordinator, Albert Melena, persuaded her to stay put.

``It was hard for me to take over the family,'' said Virgen, who would return home from work at 10 p.m. to do her homework. ``But I got a lot of support from Blythe Street and my teachers.''

Graduating had always been Virgen's biggest dream. But there were temptations in her early years of high school, like drugs, that could have sidetracked her.

``We were at a state when we were either going to go the wrong way or the right way,'' said Virgen. During rough times, ``we hugged each other and it helped us.''

Surviving also meant giving back, said Virgen. Several times she piled her old toys and clothes into a shopping cart and rolled it up and down Blythe Street, handing out the possessions to children who needed them more.

With a 3.4 grade point average, Virgen will graduate today with honors. She hopes to attend the University of California at Santa Barbara and major in psychology. But those plans are on hold. She'll attend a community college until her family can manage without her income.

Her ultimate goal is to return to Blythe Street to follow in her mentors' footsteps.

``Cynthia and Albert gave me a new way of thinking,'' said Virgen. ``I got so involved with the community that it made me think that I could be a leader for others, that you can do anything you want.''

``Why should we get shot?''

Yes, Garcia admitted, there was a time when he wanted to be one of the guys, one of the gang members. He has friends who have gone to jail. One friend was killed in a drive-by shooting.

That Gomez did not become another statistic has much to do with the Blythe Street Prevention Project. Melena, a former gang member, told Gomez the truth about gang-banging and convinced him to stay out of it.

``It was kind of hard, but I changed,'' said Gomez, 18, who plans to attend College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita.

``As we got older we thought, Why should we be in a gang and risk getting shot for just a dumb street?''

Instead, Gomez put his energies into school, earning his first set of straight-A grades this year, and into the Blythe Street Prevention Project's football league and carwashes. He organized carwashes to fund trips to amusement parks.

Longoria got used to the reaction when she handed over her class registration card. Teachers would read her Blythe Street address - and offer sympathy or show misgivings.

``I know your type already,'' one teacher told Longoria, 18. Reaction from peers ranged from awe to trepidation.

``A lot of times, students were like, wow, you live on Blythe Street, and assumed you knew someone in a gang,'' said Longoria.

She grew beyond the stereotypes and excelled in school. Next fall, the senior class vice president and honor student will head to the University of California at Berkeley.

Determined to make Blythe Street a safer place for her brother, 9, she and her peers organized toy give-aways in the park and even inspired hesitant mothers to get involved with improving the street.

``We were (the parents') inspiration,'' said Longoria. ``Once they saw us organizing they felt they could do it, too.''

For Virgen, this year's graduates are proof of what she's told outsiders all along: ``There are people doing good things on Blythe Street,'' she said.

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

PHOTO (1 -- color) Esmeralda Virgen, 18, examines her graduation tassel.

Gus Ruelas/Daily News

(2) Nora Longoria is among new high school graduates being honored by the Blythe Street neighborhood.

Gus Ruelas/Daily News