Bicentennial Parade Draws Scant Crowd

SAN FERNANDO â€”  No more than a few hundred people gathered along Brand Boulevard Saturday to watch the bands, the scouts and dignitaries representing 200 years of the San Fernando Valley.

But the modest parade in this modest corner of the Valley, full of the earnest pomp befitting a historic occasion, did more than mark the bicentennial of the founding of the San Fernando Mission. It gave residents a chance to celebrate the tight-knit community that took the mission’s name and blossomed in its shadow.

“Years ago they used to have parades every year, every June,� recalled Joe Lozano, who like other locals lamented the demise of more frequent celebrations.

Now a city of 22,580 tucked between mountains and freeways, San Fernando was a place where many like Lozano dropped stakes in the postwar boom and never left. Those early residents still visit with neighbors over the backyard fence, savoring their hometown’s independence and the small-town feel that was somehow spared from the Valley’s grinding sprawl.

Lozano, 62 and a 35-year occupant of his one-story Brand Boulevard house, sat on his neighbor’s front lawn, flipping through his collection of yellowed, archival photographs of the area.

“I won’t see another one of these occasions, unless there’s some kind of miracle,� Lozano said with a chuckle as the parade passed. He mentioned proudly that he and his wife renewed marriage vows at a special bicentennial ceremony for couples Friday night.

“I’m on my honeymoon today,� he joked.

Reminiscing with Lozano were three generations of Valley dwellers: 76-year-old Dorothy Russell, a 49-year San Fernando resident; her son Richard Russell, now living in Northridge; and 2 1/2-year-old Spencer Russell.

Remembering the evolution of her hometown parade, Dorothy Russell’s eyes widened.

“When they had parades before, they had no bathrooms for the kids� marching, she said. “We used to open up our house and send them back to our bathroom, give them a glass of water and then send them out again. We had a whole line of sequins.�

On Saturday, some had planned ahead for the suffocating heat, bringing folding chairs and coolers stocked with plenty of liquids. Others appeared to stumble into the festivities, watching them while still holding shopping bags or chatting on cordless phones from their front stoops.

Brand Park, adjacent to the mission in the Los Angeles community of Mission Hills, served as the terminus of the 1 1/2-mile parade. A festival featuring music, food and crafts followed in the park and will continue today, after a special commemorative Mass is said at the mission church.

One aim of Saturday’s parade was to highlight the Valley’s ethnic and cultural diversity, and indeed, the marchers included members of Latino, Native American and even cowboy groups from the area. The crowd, though small, also reflected the Valley’s demographics, including the many Latinos who inherited the Spanish Catholic culture of the mission’s founding priests.

The name of the cross street on Brand Boulevard where the mission, the festival and the parade converged seemed apt: Memory Park Drive.