Valley Gangs’ Peace Is Strained but Holding : Truce: Rivals from Latino groups meet to air concerns as members and police say the violence has subsided.

The street gang rivals who lined up warily along the walls of the shabby gymnasium this past week had agreed on Halloween to stop killing one another. But living in peace was proving as uncomfortable as a too-tight Raiders jacket.

The problem was that although drive-by shootings and fighting has mostly stopped among the Latino gangs in the San Fernando Valley, disrespect hasn’t. Disrespect in the form of hats with gang insignias worn into enemy neighborhoods. Or crossing out others’ graffiti. Or throwing gang signs from passing cars. Or talking up their girlfriends.

To gang members, who some experts say often are lacking in self-respect, even the most innocuous incidents of disrespect require a response. In the past, the usual response was violent. But now that they have agreed to put down their weapons, the inevitable conflicts that remain cause confusion.

“Like, I know those vatos , homes,” said one gang member, using the Spanish-sprinkled argot of the street to refer to his rivals, “so how come they have to come around wearing their hats, homes? How come they have to hit on us (and cause confrontations)?”

Last Sunday, 150 gang members clad mostly in black and representing most of the area’s Latino cliques or sets met at the Pacoima Recreation Center, as they had for eight weeks in a row, to consider such questions. The private meeting offered a snapshot of how one so-far successful effort to achieve gang peace is progressing, at a time when gang violence, especially between Latinos and African Americans, continues to rise elsewhere in Los Angeles.

Prior to the midday meeting, the gang members hung out in small clusters, some of them smoking marijuana to steel themselves for the tense discussion that was to come. Once inside, they signed in and headed for the gym’s perimeter, as if they wanted to keep their distance from their enemies.

Leaning against the walls, crouching or sitting on child-size chairs only 18 inches off the floor, the gangsters, who appeared to range from about 15 to 30 years of age, talked about their frustrations and their ambitions. Passions rising, they complained about rule-breakers and looked for guidance in keeping their homeboys in line. They talked about pay-backs and the swift punishment that would be meted out to truce violators. And they talked about other grievances, with one another as well as with a society that they believe disdains them because they are poor, Latino and dress in gang garb.

“We don’t want to be judged by our appearance,” said Nino, 26, a member of the Pacoima Flats clique.

He said he hoped the gesture of peace by the gangs would bring them greater educational and job opportunities as well as respect. He acknowledged, however, that “it’s going to take time to prove ourselves.”

William “Blinky” Rodriguez, a Van Nuys businessman whose son was killed in 1990 by gang members and who helped organize the weekly “commission” meetings, said early sessions were so tense, he had to mediate individual gang disputes to keep things from escalating.

“At one meeting . . . I stood up and told them, ‘You are warriors with no war to fight, and there’s peace now,’ ” he said.

Handling disputes with words instead of weapons has required gangsters who value nothing more than their pride to swallow it, said Rodriquez, who works with gang members through a Christian group known as Victory Outreach.

“They’re taking care of their own problems, and slowly but surely people are starting to recognize that this treaty is on and they’ve got to abide by a certain set of guidelines in terms of keeping it going,” he said.

Gangs have agreed to put down their weapons before. The Bloods and the Crips, the two main factions of African-American gangs, began talking about peace in spring of 1992. Latino gangs didn’t follow suit until earlier this year, when a prison gang known as the “Mexican Mafia” ordered a halt to drive-by shootings.

The Mafia edict was delivered in a series of large meetings across Southern California, including one at Elysian Park in September reportedly attended by 1,000 or more gang members. Neighborhoods that broke the ban were to be punished, either by other street gangs or by members of the Mafia if the ones who did the shooting were caught and sent to prison.

Rodriquez acknowledged that “outside pressure” from the Mafia sparked the peace treaty among Valley gangs and that a representative from the prison gang came to the first meeting Oct. 31, which was attended by more than 700 gang members. But, he said, “the real truth . . . is that the gangs in the Valley have been given the opportunity to handle their own peace treaty.”

Helping keep the peace going, in addition to Rodriquez, has been Richard Silva of Arleta, a 38-year-old ex-drug dealer who has had four brothers murdered, three in incidents involving drugs or gangs.

Another key leader is Donald Garcia, a revered 52-year-old ex-gang leader who became a devout Christian and lay minister while serving 32 years in prison for two murders.

Also known as “Big D,” Garcia opens the weekly meetings of gang representatives with a prayer and, sometimes, uses the forum to tell the youths about the brutal reality of prison life.

He tells them he understands why peace is more difficult than conflict.

“It’s hard doing right because all you know is doing wrong,” Garcia said. “We understand there’s going to be vatos who get out of line . . . but the homeboys got to check them.”

So far, the fragile peace has held and gang killings are down for the year. There were 51 gang-related murders in the Valley as of mid-December last year and 42 this year, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. Significantly, said Detective William G. Humphry, the top LAPD gang investigator for the Valley, Latino gangs have not been involved in a killing since October, although African American gangs have been associated with two deaths during that period.

“I am glad to see they are getting along with each other and not shooting each other, because when they are shooting each other innocent people get killed,” Humphry said.

Felony assaults involving gang members also fell, by 35%, during November, but gang-related robberies were up by the same percentage, he said. “If they want to show people out there . . . that they want to stop warring, then they need to stop doing graffiti, turn their guns in and quit doing the robberies,” Humphry said.

He and other officers said the peace is visible on the streets. Hundreds of gangsters from neighborhoods formerly at war have attended raucous parties together, drinking side-by-side without incident. Neighborhoods from across the Valley now show up at Sunday night cruising parties along Laurel Canyon Boulevard, which almost certainly would have resulted in altercation, and perhaps violence, a few months ago.

“It’s hard to have a peace treaty with guys who have shot at you, but if you’re going to have a peace treaty, you have to let it go,” said 18-year-old Danny Nava, a member of the Pacoima Criminals gang.

“Everyone is tired of losing family,” said a 27-year-old Pacoima Flats Nightowls member known as Toro. Toro said two of his brothers had been killed in gang fights.

Across the gymnasium at the meeting on Sunday, he said, were North Hollywood gang members who had stabbed and nearly killed him three years earlier. “I know how it feels to have a grudge against people, and I know how good it feels to have peace and serenity in the Valley.”

Twenty-one-year-old Omar Vasquez, who represents a Vineland Avenue gang at the weekly commission meetings, agreed that the Valley feels safer since the peace. He said he has a 2-year-old daughter, “and now I feel like I can be with her and go to the store and buy her a drink and think that nothing will be happening to me.”

He said he believed the treaty would be a springboard to other accomplishments, including political involvement. “The sleeping giant is waking up,” Vasquez said, referring to the large numbers of Latino residents in Southern California, many of whom do not vote.

But such issues only surfaced late in last week’s meeting. And then, only after 20-year-old Eddie Avelar, a member of the Latin Times gang of Pacoima had had enough.

“I came here to talk about peace,” he said, “and all we’re talking about is death and killing.”

Sensing an opportunity, Rodriquez shared his own story.

His voice building in intensity, he said that, after years of working informally with high-risk youths, his son had been killed by Pacoima gang members.

He said he had prayed to God for guidance and determined that the tragic death could be a seed planted for peace.

Those efforts, through Victory Outreach as well as on his own, led up to his efforts on behalf of the peace treaty.

“We’ve got something precious right now,” he declared to the meeting. “It’s worth more than diamonds! It’s worth more than money!”

Then, overcome by emotion, Rodriquez cried. And the gang members applauded. Later, Rodriquez gathered the gang members into the center of the basketball court and asked them to hold hands and he prayed.

“This afternoon, as we stand with our heads bowed and just realize that something special is happening, Lord, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart.”