Sunday in the Park With Richard

It was the kind of afternoon outing you can’t find often enough in Los Angeles: not too hot, not too crowded, plenty of parking, good entertainment and two very different communities peacefully enjoying each other’s company.

Fiesta Shalom, the Latino Jewish Cultural Committee’s Sept. 24 festival at California State University, Northridge (CSUN), attracted some 5,000 people over the course of the day, according to estimates by campus police. The event was sponsored by a variety of community groups, including B’nai B’rith and the Valley Economic Development Center, and corporations such as Galpin Motors, Kaiser Permanente and Pacific Bell.

State Sen. Richard Alarcón, co-chair for the event’s honorary committee, acted as primary host, aided by B’nai B’rith’s Scott Svonkin and emcee Archie Barkin. (Alarcón’s honorary committee co-chair, Councilman Hal Bernson, did not appear as scheduled because of minor surgery over the weekend. ) Alarcón said he was pleased with the success of the committee’s first attempt at bringing the two communities together.

“As impressive as the number of people who attended was, [so was] the composition of the audience; it wasn’t biased either way,” Alarcón said. “The Latinos appreciated the klezmer as much as the Jews appreciated the mariachi.”

The host committee took cues from previous events at the site and placed the stage for the entertainment and the audience seating among a grove of trees within the Sierra Quad, providing some shade while onlookers enjoyed performances by groups like Ballet Argentina, the Los Angeles Incas and members of the Kadima String Quartet. There were booths representing a wide range of organizations, from The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles to the Northeast San Fernando Valley Chamber of Commerce and, of course, there was food, although the selection was decidedly limited on the Jewish side (kosher pizza).”I thought we could do better on the food,” Alarcón said, adding that next year the committee would try for more diversity.

Meanwhile, about 60 people gathered under a nearby tent featuring art exhibits and a panel discussion with Dr. Steven Windmueller of Hebrew Union College; Dr. Rodolfo “Rudy” Acuña, founder of CSUN’s Chicano Studies program; Dina Siegel-Vann, director of Latin American Affairs for B’nai B’rith; and publisher and talk-showhost Phil Blazer.

Acuña clearly believes the Los Angeles community has a long way to go in terms of fair treatment for Latinos, citing statistics showing that only 10 percent of teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District are Latino and that physicians are even more grossly underrepresented in the Latino population.”We talk about quotas, but after a while we need to look at the creation of injustices in the greater system,” Acuña noted.

Some audience members brought up the issues of affirmative action and school vouchers, the latter a hot topic because of Proposition 38. Acuña disagreed that vouchers would provide help to his community. “There’s an insanity to [Proposition 38],” he said. “Every family would be getting a voucher no matter how much money they have. Right now there are more non-Latinos in parochial schools than Latinos, so I do not see how this would help. You have to look at [the issue] on the basis of economics.”

Strangely enough, few candidates took the opportunity to put in an appearance in an election year. In addition to Alarcón, the festival drew mostly local officials like City Councilman Michael Feuer, who is running for city attorney in 2001; mayoral candidates Steve Soboroff and Kathleen Connell; City of San Fernando Council members Jose Hernandez and Cindy Montanez; and Cong. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks). Of the political groups, a few Green Party volunteers could be found passing out flyers asking people to support candidate Ralph Nader’s right to participate in the presidential debates.

Overall, the event attracted mostly families. The B’nai B’rith Youth Organization held its regional meeting on the campus early in the day, and BBYO members could be found savoring freshly made corn tortillas and cool lemonade. Members of the D’vash chapter of B’nai B’rith Girls, who won a prize at the regional meeting for being the chapter with the most spirit, strolled through the festival dressed in matching purple tank tops and leis.

“We’re really enjoying the festival. We can explore the two cultures and get to know other people,” said 14-year-old Lara Miller.

“It’s neat seeing how many people are both Latino and Jewish,” said Ashley Mintz, also 14. Alarcón said the organizing committee hopes to attract even more people next year, with perhaps an essay contest or art project to involve local schoolchildren.

“Hopefully, the success of this event will carry over, and we will be able to do an even better job next year,” the state senator said.