Humor With a Message : As Cha-Cha the Clown, Activist Elena Valencia Spreads Goodwill

More than 100 whimsical clowns peer down from the walls of Elena “Cha-Cha” Valencia’s snug East Los Angeles home, quiet testaments to two decades of goodwill.

Fanciful ceramic dolls with polka dot shirts and red noses dangle their legs from her living room shelves. Paintings of clowns adorn the walls, and gold clown bookends bracket her bookcase.

“People are always giving me another one,” the longtime Eastside volunteer said with a laugh. “I think to myself, ‘Oh, not another clown,’ but I just smile and hug them thanks.”

At 66, Valencia is an indefatigable presence in her community. As regional director of the Volunteer Center of Los Angeles, she mobilizes residents and resources for neighborhood cleanups, parades and other community events.

She founded and helps run the Special Fun Games, an annual Eastside event for disabled athletes. Valencia organizes pancake breakfasts for homeless senior citizens and makes holiday food baskets for families in need. She is a board member of half a dozen agencies and organizations.

She is also Cha-Cha the Clown.

For the last 16 years, Valencia has gotten dolled up in a red nose, clown suit and fuzzy wig and headed out to public functions. At marathons, health fairs and ribbon-cutting ceremonies, Cha-Cha is on hand to hug strangers and entertain children.

She started the character to add some color to local events, selecting the name because of her fondness for the dance. Since buying her first clown suit at a thrift store for 98 cents, Valencia has now collected more than 30 costumes.

“My son sat me down when I started doing this and he said, ‘What are you doing? At your age, why are you dressing up crazy?’ ” she said with a laugh. “But I love it, because it brings smiles to people and makes them happy.”

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Her well-known alter ego is a household word on the Eastside, where community leaders jump to help when Cha-Cha comes calling with her latest project.

“She’s one of those community heroes who never gets enough credit,” said John Longoria, an aide to county Supervisor Gloria Molina who often works with Valencia on community events. “She’s involved in everything. She’s sort of an institution out here. Everyone knows Cha-Cha.”

After 20 years of volunteering, Valencia was officially honored last month as most outstanding East Los Angeles senior of the year by White Memorial Medical Center. But she downplays her role in local projects.

“Whenever I do something, it’s not me doing it, it’s the community doing it,” she said. “God gave me the ability to reach out to people. After all I’ve gone through, I have empathy for everyone.”

Valencia was born and raised in a tiny house in Boyle Heights, the youngest of 18 children. Her father, a wealthy hacienda owner from a mining town in Mexico, came to the United States with his family during the Mexican Revolution. He worked as a concrete layer in his new home, one of many laborers who helped build the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

Times were often hard for the large family. Valencia’s father tacked extra bedrooms onto their small house to make room for all the children. Valencia waited in bread lines with her father as a young girl during the Depression, and rummaged through grocery store bins for vegetables.

She also learned the thrill of performing at a young age. When she was 5 years old, her father would take her to downtown taverns where she would dance on the bar to get him free drinks.

As she grew older, Valencia said, she quickly felt the sting of being different. She struggled in school, where teachers all called her Helen, and was held back twice in the first grade because she did not know English. She also had a hearing problem and stuttered.

“I had all these ideas and I wanted to speak up, but when I opened my mouth, I felt all these eyes on me,” she said. “It was horrible. But then I thought, ‘Damn the torpedoes; I’m going to speak.’ ”

After graduating from Roosevelt High School, she worked in a factory for a while before going back to night school to learn how to type. Eventually, she would spend more than 20 years as a proofreader and copywriter in Sears’ promotion department.

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Valencia said she learned deep empathy for other people after suffering searing losses as a young mother.

Two of her sons died of Gaucher’s disease, a rare genetic disorder, before they were 5 months old.

Then she had a third child, a girl.

“Right after I gave birth, I said, ‘She has it, too, doesn’t she?’ ” Valencia recalled, wiping away tears. “The doctor said, ‘Yes.’ They wanted to take her away from me, but I said, ‘No, leave her with me for a little bit.’ They took her away from me when she was 5 days old.”

The baby died when she was 4 months old.

Then, after 16 years of marriage in which her husband was in and out of hospitals, he died of a heart condition.

Valencia was left alone, a single mother with one son. The medical bills piled up, and she had file for bankruptcy. She came close to having a nervous breakdown.

“Sometimes I would think, ‘Why me? Why me again? What do you want from me, God?’ ” Valencia said. “But in spite of everything, I’m strong. I have learned to work with the resources in the community.”

And when there were no resources, Valencia created them.

In 1980, she formed Advocates of Single Parent Youths, an organization dedicated to providing scholarships for children of single-parent homes and creating a support group for families of disabled children.

When the Special Olympics board in East Los Angeles dissolved, Valencia rallied residents and organized the Special Fun Games, a day of noncompetitive activities for the disabled.

At the first event in 1986, 50 children ate hot dogs and played games at a local park. Last year, more than 300 athletes participated in the annual tournament held at Montebello High School.

Valencia’s work extends to people outside of East Los Angeles. After the Northridge earthquake, she mobilized hundreds of people in a “Burrito Brigade.” East L.A. residents drove around Pico-Union and other areas hit by the quake, passing out homemade bean burritos, diapers and bottled water.

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As usual, Valencia rode in the back of the trucks dressed as Cha-Cha the Clown.

Valencia is now busy gathering volunteers for Navidad en el Barrio, a program that provides holiday food baskets to thousands of families.

She also faces another challenge. In the last few months, Valencia has suffered from severe dizziness related to Meniere’s disease, an inner-ear disorder. The illness has slowed her down, forcing her to stop driving, but she said she has no intention of retiring from public life. She still wants to learn sign language and create an educational TV show with Cha-Cha and disabled children.

“I have all these ideas,” Valencia said. “I tell God he needs to make me well or I can’t fulfill our mission. There’s still so much to do!”