Santa Ana Youth Festival to Promote Anti-Gang Attitude

With mounting concerns about drugs, gangs and high school dropout rates, a Santa Ana cable television show producer is planning a festival for Latino youths to “say thank you for trying, thanks for staying in school, thanks for not being in a gang.”

Armando Valenzuela, producer of “Ejemplos Hispanos,” a weekly show on Santa Ana cable Channel 26, wants the event to “say to our young people: ‘You have something great. We’re going to help you make it.’ No one has ever told them, ‘Hey, you’re great. Thank you.’ ”

In what is believed to be the first such event in Santa Ana--where the Latino population is more than 60% and the Latino high school dropout rate more than 28%--the festival will present guest speakers and exhibitors showing youths how to get their future off to a promising start.

“Many don’t know they can make it,” Valenzuela said. “They never bothered trying.”

The festival, Juventud Hispana Gracias or “Hispanic Youth, Thank You,” is planned Sept. 28 at Eddie West Field-Santa Ana Stadium from 6 to 9 p.m.

Gang-prevention groups, job-training programs and City Council members have supported the festival, but warned that more is needed.

“It will be a shot in the arm for the old ego. Kids need that,” said Santa Ana Councilman Miguel A. Pulido. “But this is only the first step.”

Valenzuela, a former Santa Ana city job-training coordinator, said he expects about 7,500 people from throughout Orange County to attend the event. Organizations such as the March of Dimes, the National Council on Alcoholism, the city’s Operation PRIDE and Mothers Against Drunk Driving have agreed to participate, he said.

Wary that Latino students don’t want to hear rhetoric, Valenzuela said he intends to provide live entertainment and speeches by well-known Latinos to grab the attention of students ranging from grade school to high school and their parents.

Rip Ribble, Santa Ana’s manager of recreation and community services, said the event “is very much needed,” but he wondered if it will appeal.

“You can have bands playing and tables out, but kids will get bored real quick,” he said.

James Sanchez, executive director of SEAR-Jobs for Progress Training Center, which runs a nonprofit vocational school in Santa Ana, said his group will participate.

“If it’s organized properly, it could be a winner,” Sanchez said of the festival. “If it’s poorly planned, it could be a fiasco.”

Santa Ana entertainer Jose Guttierrez, 41, said he will provide music for the festival, as well as a donation of $1,500 to cover stadium rental costs.

“I like to help the people, and I like the guy’s idea, so I’m giving money to make it happen,” Guttierrez said Tuesday. “I am helping because I have been in Santa Ana for 18 years and I would like to help in the cause of improving the world for kids.”

Tony Borbon, director of Turning Point Gang Prevention and Intervention, a nonprofit outreach program based in Garden Grove, said he applauded the festival idea, because too often “we don’t pay attention to a child until they’re at risk. By then it’s too late. Today you have to be in trouble to get the attention of parents.”

Latino gang members, estimated by police to number 5,000 in Santa Ana alone, won’t attend the event, Borbon said, but their siblings might. “We’ll be getting the kind we can help,” he said.

Valenzuela said he wants Latino students to feel proud of their heritage--and make the best of their resources.

“Instead of dwelling and saying, ‘Oh, poor me,’ we want them to use their intelligence,” he said. “This is a time to bring all organizations together and say thank you for trying, thanks for staying in school, thanks for not being in a gang.”

Valenzuela also wants the festival to become an annual event to help youths who don’t always get motivation from home.

“Parents don’t know how to tell kids they can accomplish anything they want,” he said.

A few Latino teen-agers had differing reactions to the festival idea.

“A lot of my friends won’t come because anything organized is looked on as suspicious,” said Luis Salazar, 14, shopping along Broadway in Santa Ana. “I don’t think it’s going to make a difference.”

Others were more hopeful.

“Something has to be done,” said Maria Lorenzo, 17. “I’ve seen too many of my friends without hope.”

Times staff writer Charles Strouse contributed to this story.