' The San Fernando valley is one of the relatively new constructed parts of LA, becoming a suburbial heaven in the 60s. It was previously farm and grazing land. Its history, however, goes back as far as LAs does. It was founded as a mission by Padre Junipero Serra in the late 1700s. Its full name is San Fernando, Rey de Espana. It was at one point the largest and most prosperous mission in the golden chain of 21. It is said that this is one of the regions were the spanish first expirimented with ranching, and breed the long horn steer. It has been continually inhabited by Mexicans since long before California passed into American hands. Recently in the sixties it was swamped with white people fleeng the black and Latino invasion in LA and is now around 75% Anglo. It is hard to tell this from just looking around though. The latin flavor is so heavy that many parts look exactly like Mexico. The Latins are concentrated in the East valley and have a concentrated pocket in the extreme West valley, with every thing inbetween being American heartland. The Pachucos have been in the valley as long as they have been anywhere else but they were traditionally very mild. In recent times the barrios of the valley have caught that West Side fever and started trying to earn fame overnight, with their goal being to have their barrio look like it was in LA. San Fernado/Pacoima/Sylmar and Canoga Park are the main Hispanic barrios with dense comunities in North Hollywood, Sun Valley, and Van Nuys. The stories in this section are: San Fer, Pacoima, Blythe St, Vineland, B Van Nuys, North Hollywood, Canoga Park, LA in the valley. ' Varrio San Fer or Varrio San Fernando Valley as they sometimes call themselves, claims to be the oldest barrio in the valley, wich is disputed by every body else in the valley. They are very old and one of the most tradition oriented barrio in all of LA. Members of San Fer claim that at one point they owned the entire valley. I have heard from members of other barrios in the valley that they used to go to all the barrios in the valley and try to clique them up or stop them from claiming their barrio. They had an agenda of dominating the valley wich led to their members being perhaps the most conceded in LA. Recently they have cooled off and dedicated themselves to San Fernando City and Sylmar, but the veteranos from San Fer still claim to own the valley. They have spread to the Antelope Valley and High Deserts, and now are the largest barrio in that region. Many of the valley barrios chide them for being bigger in the 805 than in the valley wich carries their name. I believe they started many barrios in the valley but this is hard to prove for no barrio wants to admit this. San Fer is one the barrios with the strongest veterano influence in LA. I heard from veteranos of WLA barrios that back in the day the vatos from San Fer would actually come all the way down to LA and rumble with them, and I know the barrios from WLA used to come up to the valley and rumble with the vatos from SanFer. Many vatos in ELA and SLA still think the only barrio in the valley is San Fer. Them and SanGra have many things in common. Barrio Pacoima or Pacas may not be the oldest, but it is by far the largest barrio, in numbers, in the valley. One of the reasons they are so large is because they are so fragmented, or diversified. They have at least 20 cliques ir sub-barrios, with a minimum of 50 members. With this method even if you dont want to join one clique theirs at least three other cliques that will fit your criteria. And some of the sub-barrios have cliques with in them, like Project Boys and Latin Times. They may be one of the most fragmented barrios in LA with their seperate origins hard to trace. The hardest one to figure out is Pacoima Flats, wich claims allegiance to some other Pacoimas, yet still claims allegiance to the Flats. Latin Times apparently only claims Pacoima because of geography, not getting along with many of the other Pacoima cliques. Some of the cliques like Vaughn Street may have started out as a seperate barrio, joined Pacoima, ended up not getting along with some Pacoimas, but refused to stop claiming Pacoima. They are mainly divided into Boys and Locos cliques, wich originally did not get along with eachother. It is said that the Boys were all on the East Side of the tracks and the Locos were all on the West Side of the tracks, but this is obviously not true. There are Boys cliques on the WS and Locos cliques on the ES. Now some of the worst rivalries in Pacoima are between Boys cliques, The Pierce and the PJS. Most of the Locos get along, however. Their are some Pacoimas wich are not Locos or Boys:P Criminals, Latin Times, Vaughn St, and a variety of Street cliques. Saying Pacoima isnt saying one thing, unless your their rival. The original Pacoima is refered to as the Treces, wich had a click called Tinys and Locos wich were combined to make Brown Stoner Locos, but now there is apparently a Tinys click again. San Fernando and Pacoima is probably the longest going rivalry in the valley. I heard once that it started along time ago, probably in the 30s or earlier, when a man from Pacoima stole a horse from a man in San Fernando, and when the people from San Fernado found out they got the man from Pacoima and hung him with no trial, so the people from Pacoima retaliated and so on. I have heard this story in both directions though, so it is hard to tell, but it was bound to happen. Pacoima, mainly the PJs, has absorbed alot of crews, with the biggest one probably being HPR. They have scattered members throughout the valley but they do not openly try to expand. If you count them as one barrio they are by far the largest in the valley. Blythe St is unseemingly an old barrio, with a large veterano group wich are from the original Diablos clique. Many of the barrios in the valley have had an original clique called Diablos. They started probably around 1970, in south Panorama City. They, like many barrios in the valley, started as a counter San Fer move. I heard that when they were brand new the vatos from San Fer really gave them a hard time. I heard they started off of Van Nuys, but this is uncertain. They are one of the most organized barrios in the valley and in LA. They hold steady meetings and have very good comunication, wich is more than you can say for most barrios. Their barrio, like the rest of the valley has been flooded with barrios from other parts of LA, all trying to take a slice of the crackland pie. You can find at least one member of almost every barrio in LA trying to slang in Panorama City. Various barrios have tried to start satellite cliques in Panorama but have failed, not because of pressure from Blythe but because of pressure from the PD. PD was caught off guard at first, but is now aggressively attacking the drug gangs. Blythe Street had a period of fame in the ealry 90s but has found it hard to live up to. They have now absorbed a crew and started new cliques to speed up growth, and it is working. They are still shadowed by Pacoima and Van Nuys though. They also suffer from a high dropout rate due to members lacking will to back up the neighborhood. Maybe half the people that get initiated into Blythe end up getting out. They claim to have cliques in other cities and states, but that is uncertain. They almost lost the war to LA barrios but have now bouced back and are larger than they have ever been, and have a larger amount of members who have been to YA or county to hold them up. ' Vineland Boys is one of the most reckless barrios in the valley. They are relatively new, but are very large. Apparently Vineland Boys is the product of three former barrios. These barrios are Vineland Boys wich formerly claimed North Hollywood, Sol Trece or Sol Valle, and another barrio called Village Boys. What they did was make themselves SVVBS, wich is a combination of all their former names and initials, SV for Sun Valley, VBS was the former initials of Village Boys, but now it stands for Vineland Boys, whose former initials were VLB. Vineland is perhaps the newest barrio in the Valley, but Sol Trece is the first barrio in that region and claims to go back to 1943. This move made them very large and helped them monopolize a large crackland. When I first heard the story it sounded to convenient, but it works out almost perfect, the only one that lost was Village Boys, wich lost its name, but they kept their initials. Vineland had to switch from North Hollywood to Sun Valley even though they were still in North Hollywood. This caused them to lose territorial arguments with North Hollywood Boyz, who can now claim to be the only rightful barrio in North Hollywood. North Hollywood was perhaps the first drug market in the vallley and is still the strongest. This has made competition for Vinelands barrio heavy. 'Barrio Van Nuys is another old barrio in the valley, and maybe the only one recognized by San Fer to be original. Their Barrio is around the High School campus and Delano Street in South Van Nuys. They are formally divided into North Side and South Side, but they are mainly in the South Side and mainly on Delano St. I have seen grafitti in school books from BVNS Delano ST wich dates back from 1975, proving that they have been an active barrio for a long time. They allegedly started as a Pachuco Club and claim to have actually participated in the ZOOT SUIT RIOTS. I have met veteranos from BVNS that are very old and claimed BVNS in the early 40s, wich would make them an old barrio in LA. Van Nuys has been invaded by MS and has had other barrios start in their neighborhood, like Vanowen ST, Haskells, Valerio ST, and other small ones. They have held strong to the LA invasion in general except for MS, wich claims Van Nuys is one of its original barrios. Since MS is new, that can be confirmed, but they have tried to spread far beyond their original boundaries wich are hard to define as it is. Barrio Van Nuys is a traditional barrio and very united. ' It has now come to my attention that the oldest barrio in North Hollywood is indeed Clanton 14th Street, as I had earlier speculated. Their is another and much smaller barrio in North Hollywood called NH Locos. Originally the two did not get along but united in order to defend themselves against the LA invasion. They have allied with NS Clanton as well. They have spread throughout regions of North Holywood wich were not formerly theirs. Yet they make it seem like LA barrios have been moving into their rightful barrio, wich is probably newer then most of the LA cliques in the valley. Sol Trece may be the oldest barrio in that region but they were only in Sun Valley until they all joined with Vineland. The oldest Vineland grafitti I have seen is from the mid 80s, wich surprised me. ' Canoga Parque Alabama Street is one of the oldest and most unique barrios in the valley. They are from at least the 50s, and have a large veterano group. They are one of the most isolated barrios in LA, with only one neighbor within a two mile distance. Their members are dedicated to being players, and accustome to having alot hinas. They have a reputation of leaving hinas pregneant and then leaving them throughout LA. For other than those reasons you may not even know they exist. They do other typical barrio activities but since they didnt have any neighbors they concentrate on one thing. They do have rivalries but not many, their main one being with Barrio Reseda. They have one of the most rigorous initiation processes in LA. A hopeful member has to go on a probation period for two years, and the ruling comitee is very picky. They have refused members after the 2 year probation period for reasons like having the wrong shoes. If they were not so isolated, believe me, they wouldnt be able to get away with that. Once you have been aproved you will get jumped into to Canoga Park Ala St, and then must choose a click, and get jumped into them. Once your in your first two years you are watched very carefully, and may be jumped out for petty things. The whole way you have to prove yourself, and the veteranos are very strict. People have been jumped out after being members for along time just because they got an a veteranos nerves in a party or at a kickback. Because of this youll find alot of members of other barrios in the valley that once tried to get into, or were actually in, Canoga Park but were rejected. When I first heard about all of this I thought it was a joke, but the more I thought about it the more it made sense. Canoga Park has a very large ratio of its members in state pens, with very few members on the street. It is virtually impossible for them to have youngsters, unless they start proving themselves when their 5. Yet they manage to keep their barrio free of invaders, even though they do have a proffittable drug market, with so many middle class white people nearby. ' Barrios from Los Angeles, meaning West, East, and South LA, are invading the valley, like every where else. If your not from LA you might assume that everything from Ventura to San Diego county is basically LA. This is wrong. Virtually nothing from ventura to San Diego is considered LA. LA is restricted to LA City land in the 323,213,and310 area codes. Everything else is not LA. The entire 818 area code is not LA, even though it is LA City land. It is considered seperate by people livihg their, and people in LA. LA barrios have been moving into the valley since before most VALLEY barrios started, but never actually had cliques exclusive to the valley until recently. Clanton 14th Street is officially the first LA barrio in the Valley, and is the original barrio in North Hollywood. 18th Street has been the valley very long as well, and is the first LA barrio to have a click exclusive to the valley. They allegedly absorbed a barrio wich already existed. They seperated as an official side as far back as the mid 70s. They had a golden period in the mid 80s, when they made Van Nuys and North Hollywood look just like Pico-Union. Since then they have enjoyed steady success, and in the early 90s doubled in size when they clicked up a tagging crew. Their territory has been invaded by MS, wich started a whole side in North Hollywood,North Side. Judging by the way Clanton has grown and their age, it is possible they were in the valley before 18, after all they are said to be the first LA barrio in San Diego, but Clanton did not officially declare a North Side until the late 90s. Until then it was just an extension of the West Side. Another barrio that is from somewhere else, I dont know where they originated, is NS Alley Locos. I know theres an ES ALS, and a large ALS in Anaheim, and I assume theres a WS. They aligned themselves with Pacoima Flats but they both have virtually disapeared. NS MS is in two places at one time, with their original barrio in South North Hills, and another one in North Hollywood. MS has dozens of spread cliques throughout everywhere so it is hard to trace them. In Granada Hills, a Harpys clique wich started out with one person is now the largest, and practiacally the only, barrio in the NorthWest valley. They still claim WS but it is only a matter of time before they become North Side. There is alot of WS harpeys members throughout the valley though. In the North Hollywood Burbank region, both Playboys and Carnales have started. The Playboys still claim WS, and the Carnales may already claim North Side. Allegedly these Carnales and the GH Harpeys are aligned. Another barrio that has enjoyed success is Drifters, wich originally tried to start in NW Van Nuys and W Van Nuys/ Tarzana at the same time. Now they are only in Tarzana but have like 4 cliques. They have spread throughout the Ventura Blvd corridor all the way to Ventura County. The thing all these LA barrios have in common, is that they find a void spot and fill it overnight. Their mission from the begining is to start new cliques, and they have the art of recruiting very refined. They are more effective than the ARMY. The main problem LA barrios have met in the valley is all the other LA barrios trying to start in the same markets. Youll find rivalries from Hollywood being played out right in NorthRidge, or Encino. When one barrio in LA finds out their rival has a prosperous clique in the valley they try to jump on the bandwagon. Most barrios fail, but they keep trying in new places, looking for the perfect void spot, or unsatisfied crew to absorb. Nobody can go from the valley to LA because the market in LA is so crowded that their isnt enough room as it is. I have never heard of a valley barrio starting in LA. In the valley there is even a barrio from San Diego, Logan Hieghts. Logan Hieghts is pehaps the oldest barrio in San Diego, and they have been in the valley since around the mid 80s. They have never been larger than 30 members but they have held there own. They were originally aligned with North Hollywood Boyz, but the relationship sowered. They are very large in San Diego, but will most likely disapear from the valley. 'It has now come to my attention from visitors that alot of the barrios in the valley started out as football teams in parks, such as Blythe St, NHBZ, Langdon St, Columbus St, and probably Reseda and Vineland Boyz.
