Special Report: Moving to the Valley : TARZANA : A Tough New Life for Bulgarian Emigre

1993 will be remembered by Sveta Ivanova as the year in which her Hollywood-induced dream of life in Los Angeles was traded in for the stark reality of starting anew in the San Fernando Valley.

“Life is hard here,” the 50-year-old native of Bulgaria said in her newly learned English, still laden with a thick accent. “It’s not like in the movies.”

She said the pressures of assimilating into such a different culture and working long hours as a nanny for little pay did not quite match her vision of the Golden State.

Still, she said, it seems easy compared to the poverty and oppression that ultimately drove her from her homeland.

“Life in Bulgaria . . . that is terrible,” she said, recounting food and fuel shortages in the dead of winter and the firm hand of Communist rulers.

Ivanova, who lives with her brother and his family in Tarzana, left her husband, two daughters and a grandchild behind when she came to the United States a year ago in search of a better life.

“It was so hard for me to leave,” said the sturdy woman with blond hair and a quick smile. “I am not young.”

The rest of Ivanova’s family has been unable to get visas for travel to the United States. And although she writes and calls frequently and sends money to Bulgaria, she said their absence is felt daily.

“The kids I take care of here are my family now,” she said. “They are all I have.”

And although the vastness of Los Angeles and the well-stocked store shelves have met with her vision of America, her experience in her first year here has led to a modest goal for 1994.

“I want to speak English better,” she said, after several instances of waving her hands in frustration at not being able to describe some of her feelings.

To that end, Ivanova has been studying English at night at Canoga Park High School and hopes her improved language skills will lead to a better job.

She said that although many Americans are friendly on the surface, it seems more difficult to get to know people here than in a European city.

“There people walk on the street all day and in the evening in Bulgaria--that’s the European style,” she said. “I (seldom see) people doing that here, they just sit in their cars and drive.”