Patriotism, Protest on the 4th

With bunting and bullhorns, fireworks and 1st Amendment tests, the Fourth of July came and went in fine form in the Southland on Wednesday.

Anarchists staged a symbolic takeover of a power plant in Long Beach, quaintly costumed soldiers re-created the first Independence Day ceremony ever held in Los Angeles, and a ragtag group of bikers, one-man bands and ordinary Joes ambled down Main Street in Ventura.

Police and fire authorities reported few incidents beyond rowdy backyard barbecues, illegal fireworks and alcohol-related brouhahas.

But a 5-year-old girl drowned in a backyard swimming pool in San Bernardino, police there said. It was unclear whether the death was related to holiday festivities. And in Laguna Beach, divers spent the last hours of daylight searching for a Costa Mesa man reported missing about 3:10 p.m. from a boat off Emerald Bay.

In downtown Los Angeles, celebrants turned the calendar back to 1847 on Hill Street, with people in period garb as soldiers and cannoneers re-creating the first Independence Day celebration in Los Angeles, handing out copies of the Declaration of Independence and spooking pigeons with roaring cannon shots.

Muskets slung over their shoulders, and fife-and-drum playing at their sides, several hundred history buffs gathered at the foot of a long-forgotten outpost called Ft. Moore, now the site of a bureaucratic bulwark called the Los Angeles Unified School District headquarters.

The ceremony paid tribute to the Mormon Battalion: 500 soldiers who marched 2,000 miles from Iowa, 150 members dropping out on the way, then built the fort in a strange land still three years away from statehood--at a time when the Declaration of Independence already was 71 years old.

Speakers described a cheery Fourth of July at Ft. Moore in 1847, saying the soldiers and a group of Californios--the descendants of the Spaniards who first conquered the region--celebrated together well into the night.

“It just gives me chills,” said Carol Autenrieth, 62, whose great-great-grandfather marched with the battalion and helped dig the footings for the fort. “Those pioneers were good, hearty stock.”

This being polyglot Los Angeles, not everyone felt as rosy.

“We would have liked to see some Indians in the show. They represent the true identity of this continent,” said Jalmet Santizo, a Guatemalan immigrant of Maya ancestry. “The U.S. Army were the savages driving the legitimate owners from their land.”

Twenty-six miles south in Long Beach, meanwhile, about 200 anarchists, activists and environmentalists symbolically ousted the owners of the Alamitos power plant, Virginia-based AES Corp.

The protesters marched with a solar-powered sound stage to the generating station’s entrance, where they posted a mock seizure order, passed out pamphlets, chanted, sang and otherwise milled about for 45 minutes.

“We fought against one kind of tyranny--Britain,” said Medea Benjamin, a rally organizer. “Now we’re fighting against a new kind of tyranny--greedy out-of-state energy companies.”

Wearing a cravat patterned with dollars, Clifford Tasner led his band in a satirical twist on “Yankee Doodle,” singing, “Power profits going up, profits are so thrilling; when you use the power up, we really make a killing.”

About two dozen Long Beach police officers followed the march closely, wary of a repeat of the May Day street melee that ended with 95 demonstrators arrested.

“We have enough officers to ensure that these folks can peacefully exercise their 1st Amendment rights,” said Cmdr. Gary Richens.

The group relied on that amendment to obtain a court order so it could stage the protest. The irony was not lost on Long Beach City College student Lucius Martin. “This is the Fourth of July,” Martin said. “We just wanted to exercise our free-speech rights.”

Elsewhere in the Southland, holiday fetes were more mainstream.

Nearly a dozen Orange County cities held fireworks displays or parades under occasionally overcast skies. Those heading to beach cities faced heavy traffic on Pacific Coast Highway, but no major problems were reported.

Newport Beach hosted a boat parade along Lido Isle. And Huntington Beach drew close to 100,000 people with its 97th annual parade.

“It’s a crush of cultures. Americana meets Surf City,” said Scott McClintock, who lives along the Huntington Beach parade route.

Four black Army helicopters flew overhead, and there were floats, mariachis, equestrian troops, high school marching bands, a clown on a tricycle and dragons and drummers from the Chinese Assn. of Orange County.

City spokesman Richard Barnard said it was the first time since the 1930s that the annual parade began on Pacific Coast Highway. The parade was half a mile longer than in the past.

In Ventura, tattooed and leather-clad bikers strode beside children on bicycles and scooters festooned with patriotic colors in the city’s traditional Pushem-Pullem Parade, an informal Main Street stroll for the average and the outrageous.

On his 13th consecutive jaunt as the “One-Man Band,” Lee Schroder, 53, of Oxnard capped himself in a stars-and-bars hard hat, waved a broomstick flag and blasted John Philip Sousa tunes from a boombox. “I’m a big kid at heart,” Schroder said.

And spirits were high in the Inland Valley. Claremont had a parade and a festival with plenty of food and games. At the Speaker’s Corner, a tradition for 24 years, residents from the city came to give speeches.

*

Times staff writers Anna Gorman, Sarah Hale, Karima A. Haynes, Jerry Hicks, Pam Noles, Andrea Perera and Margaret Talev contributed to this report.