Marchers in Santa Ana Call for End to Street Violence : Rally: The second annual gang unity march draws about 200 participants. The event is held as a reminder of the commitment for peace.

Calling for an end to street violence, about 200 people--many of them gang members--participated Saturday in the second annual gang unity march.

Alex Vega, 33, showed up with his two daughters, two sons, eight nieces and two nephews, their ages ranging from 7 to early teens.

“These little ones,” Vega said, pointing to his children and young relatives, “I don’t want them to be gang members. But I also want them to see that gang members also want to end the killings.”

The goal of stopping the bloodshed had united Orange County gangs for the first time last year, when they marched in a truce and later, in January, signed a peace treaty.

Vega, who is not a gang member, and his family met about 100 other participants at noon in front of the Santa Ana City Hall and marched a mile northwest to El Salvador Park. Accompanied by three police vehicles helping to clear traffic, the march through 10 gang barrios was peaceful and mostly quiet.

Sometimes chanting “peace united peace!” and waving unity signs, the marchers attracted stares from weekend shoppers and passing motorists.

A few observers waved and smiled to the marchers while others gave the thumbs-up signs.

“I’ve had my barber shop here for 24 years and have seen a lot of tragedy among the gangs,” said Manuel R. Ysais, 56, after seeing the marchers go by his business on 1st Street. “But for the past year now, there has been a remarkable change.”

Gang wars have decreased, he said, giving part of the credit to the community leaders who recognized that youths in gangs needed help.

Since the truce was signed, the United Gang Council of Orange County has organized semiweekly meetings to help resolve misunderstandings between barrios, said Alfredo Amezcua, 41, a Santa Ana lawyer and march organizer.

“But this march, the second annual and right before summer, is to remind the gang members of the commitment we all have for peace,” Amezcua said.

March organizers had expected 2,000 participants when they originally scheduled the march for the previous weekend, which was rained out, he said. “Many people didn’t get the word that we rescheduled it,” Amezcua said.

At the park, the first 100 marchers were joined by another 100 participants.

Some of them were from the Low Riders Ministry of Riverside County. The ministry’s band entertained the crowd as they waited for speeches and the barbecue.

Johny Esquivel, a member of the United Gang Council, looked around the park in contentment as the music played.

“We just want people to hang out and get used to not having so much tension between them,” Esquivel said. “If they see each other later at a movie theater, instead of starting trouble, they can say: ‘I just saw that guy at the peach march,’ wave hello and go on with their business.”