Panel’s Help Sought in Memorial Dispute

Organizers of an AIDS memorial are asking the city Human Relations Commission to mediate a meeting of the group and some Lincoln Heights residents who allegedly shouted anti-gay sentiments at a recent meeting and have passed out fliers saying that the park memorial is not the way children should learn about the disease.

Until recently, foes have focused on how the 9,000-square-foot memorial would eliminate parkland, while others have said that they simply do not want it. But the flier and recent debates have given the dispute a different tenor as the project heads to the Los Angeles City Council.

“While this is a very small group of residents, it only takes one to humiliate a human being or bring bodily harm,” said Richard Zaldivar, who heads the nonprofit group backing The Wall/Las Memorias.

In a letter to Councilman Ed Reyes, Zaldivar asked that the Human Relations Commission mediate meetings of the two sides.

“Let’s engage in a positive way,” said Reyes, who supports the memorial. “Otherwise, we won’t be able to create bridges in our community.”

The commission is trying to arrange meetings, said Gary De La Rosa, the panel’s education policy advisor.

The memorial, which was conceived 10 years ago by Zaldivar, would consist of eight panels, six containing artwork and two with the names of people who have died of AIDS. They would be in an open garden area with benches, a walking path, rose garden and sculpture.

The mostly publicly funded project, which would cost about $500,000, was approved last month by the Recreation and Parks Commission. The City Council is tentatively scheduled to take up the issue Wednesday.

The $344,000 appropriation from the state general fund requires that it be constructed and that the funds be spent by June 30 or the money could be lost. If the council approves the project, Zaldivar said, construction will begin in May.

The flier was distributed one Sunday last month outside Sacred Heart Church, about six blocks from the park at Mission Road and North Main Street in northeast Los Angeles. It warns that a group of “Latino gay men has been covertly trying to make a monument to themselves.”

The flier also warns that the project might lead children to the memorial’s Web site, where they “will not only read about the gay lifestyle but will also see invitations to participate in gay pool parties.”

The flier is signed by the Coalition to Save Lincoln Park. But people who have passed out the flier said they don’t know who wrote the material or who is behind the coalition.

“This is not a way of introducing the issue to children,” said Hugo Pacheco, who handed out the flier at the church. “I think it’s a very private kind of discussion that parents should have with their children.”

AIDS education should be taught at a school or hospital, not at a park, Pacheco said.

Father Gabriel Gonzales, pastor at Sacred Heart Church, said he has tried to stay neutral. “I wish people could come together about things,” he said.

The Sierra Club has long opposed the memorial, arguing that northeast Los Angeles lacks parkland and that any should be preserved. Sue Nelson, a Sierra Club representative, said she disagrees with the flier.

“Why are we focusing on this?” Nelson asked. “I think people have not examined the impact of this project.”

Opponents of the memorial said Zaldivar is using the flier to divert attention from complaints against the project, such as their belief that the Memorias staff have not done proper community outreach.

“Let’s find out if it’s true that the community embraces it,” said businessman Robert Vega, who among others has called for a community survey.

At the Lincoln Heights Neighborhood Council meeting on March 20, according to some witnesses, disparaging remarks were made about homosexuals by some of the 15 or so memorial foes during a disorderly exchange between council officials and the audience.

Edgar Garcia, who is on the neighborhood council board and is a staffer at Las Memorias, said some speakers threatened that if the memorial is built, it will be vandalized. Others suggested, Garcia said, that it should be built in West Hollywood, which has a large gay population.