Pacoima Historical Society

10/14/2026

It’s easy to forget that Pacoima was once a rural community where residents kept horses and chickens alongside fruit trees and vegetable gardens.

Neighborhood stables became part of everyday life, and some Pacoima horse owners supplied horses for television Westerns such as Gunsmoke.

As housing developments replaced farmland, many independent stables relocated to the Hansen Dam area. Yet horses remained a familiar sight on Pacoima streets and in neighboring Lake View Terrace. Clubs such as the Buffalo Soldiers and equestrians like Levi Slack were staples in the community.

Today, the annual Pacoima Christmas Parade keeps that equestrian tradition alive, with charros and their prancing horses among its crowd favorites. Riding opportunities around Hansen Dam offer another connection to the area’s rural past.

The Entrance: Pacoima’s Story offers a glimpse of this often-overlooked chapter of local history.

10/10/2026

Great blog article about this amazing book!

https://www.pacoimahistoricalsociety.org/post/ritchie-valens-the-first-latino-rocker-expanded-edition-brings-a-pioneering-american-music-story


Beverly Mendheim
Danny Trejo

Few artists have left as powerful a mark on American popular music in as short a time as Ritchie Valens. More than six decades after his death, his music, cultural influence, and connection to Pacoima continue to resonate with generations of fans. Ritchie Valens: The First Latino Rocker — Expanded...

10/09/2026

Celebrating the expanded republication of Ritchie Valens, The First Latino Rocker by Beverly A. Mendheim, with a foreword by Crystal Jackson.

Mendheim brings a rich background in music scholarship to the story of this groundbreaking young artist. She earned an M.A. in Music Education from the University of Hawaii in 1970 and a second M.A. in Ethnomusicology from the University of Washington in 1980. Her writing on 1950s popular music—including Ritchie Valens and Buddy Holly—has appeared in Goldmine and the journal of the Society for Ethnomusicology. Her work explores the history of rock and roll within popular culture, as well as world beat music.

In Ritchie Valens, The First Latino Rocker, Mendheim combines biography with an exploration of Valens’s musical significance. Through meticulous research and interviews with his family, friends, teachers, agents, and fellow musicians, she examines the life and legacy of a young star whose remarkable career ended far too soon.

Tracing his musical roots through Hispanic and Black traditions, including Bo Diddley's rhythm and blues, Mendheim argues that Valens pioneered a fusion of African, European, and Latin influences that helped expand the sound of American rock and roll.
This expanded edition celebrates both Valens’s enduring legacy and Mendheim’s dedication to documenting his place in music history.

10/07/2026

Today, on what would have been Connie Valenzuela’s 111th birthday, we honor her heavenly birthday—and celebrate Latino Heritage Month—with the launch of a book that preserves her son’s extraordinary story. ❤️🎸

Before he became a rock ’n’ roll legend, Ritchie Valens was a young musician from Pacoima whose voice, guitar, and daring changed American music forever.

We are proud to share a special, updated republication of Ritchie Valens: The First Latino Rocker by Beverly Mendheim. First released in 1987—the same year as the film La Bamba—Beverly’s groundbreaking work was the first full book written about Ritchie.
Beverly interviewed people who knew him personally, including his mother, Connie Valenzuela, and his brother, Bob Morales. Her book takes readers beyond the legend and into the life of a young Mexican American artist whose music crossed languages, cultures, and generations.

Pacoima Historical Society President Crystal Jackson was honored to write the new foreword and epilogue, bringing the story forward with memories and interviews connected to PacoimaStories: Land of Dreams. Her parents knew Ritchie, so preserving and sharing his story is deeply personal.

On this special day, we remember Connie with love and honor the family, community, and cultural roots that helped shape Ritchie’s life.

Ritchie belonged to the world—but Pacoima never forgot that he belonged here, too.

Ritchie Valens: The First Latino Rocker is now available on Amazon. Please share this post, tag someone who loves Ritchie’s music, and help bring this important story to a new generation.

10/04/2026

Maclay Junior High has a new name: Glenoaks Academy. The change marks an important moment in the continuing effort to reckon honestly with San Fernando Valley history.

Charles Maclay was a prominent early landowner and the founder of the City of San Fernando, but his legacy is also tied to the dispossession of Indigenous people. Historical accounts connect Maclay to the eviction of Rogério Rocha from his land in San Fernando—an episode that has prompted decades of discussion about the inhumane treatment of Native people in the region. The school’s former name therefore carried a history that many felt should no longer be honored.

The City of San Fernando previously considered removing Maclay’s name from the street, but the effort failed amid opposition from members of the Maclay family. Renaming the school, however, represents a meaningful victory: a public institution serving young people no longer bears the name of a man associated with this painful chapter of local history.

The new name also draws on the Valley’s landscape. Glenoaks Boulevard was originally known as Fourth Street in the Glendale area. It was renamed Glenoaks for the oak trees that once lined the eastern portion of the roadway; the name later extended northwest with the boulevard into the San Fernando Valley. In that sense, Glenoaks Academy takes its name not from a person, but from the region's natural landscape.

At the same time, a school is more than its name. Generations of students, teachers, staff, parents, and neighbors have deep and cherished memories of Maclay Junior High—friendships, classrooms, sports, performances, graduations, and the everyday experiences that shaped lives. Those memories remain part of Pacoima and San Fernando Valley history.

Glenoaks Academy offers an opportunity to honor that community legacy while making room for a more truthful, inclusive understanding of the land and people whose stories came before us.

10/04/2026

10/04/2026

Pacoima has a long and powerful history of standing up for itself.
Since at least 1887, residents have organized to protect the community’s future. When Leland Stanford sought to place railroad locomotives and a “turnabout” at the Pacoima train station—an industrial plan residents believed would mar the town—the community pushed back and won.

That spirit did not end there. Across the decades, Pacoima residents have mobilized for neighborhood beautification, better schools and public services, civil rights, and accountability in the face of police brutality. Time and again, Pacoima has shown what a determined community can accomplish when neighbors organize, strategize, speak out, and refuse to be ignored. Often, they gathered at places like Greater Community Missionary Baptist Church and other establishments to plan strategies.

These photographs capture just a few moments of Pacoima in action—a community with a proud tradition of advocacy, resilience, and collective power.

For more stories on Pacoima’s activism, check out The Entrance: Pacoima’s story, with more photos and accomplishments.

Original black-and-white photos have been colorized for clarity.

09/28/2026

Baby Beef Burgers once stood at the corner of Foothill Boulevard and Osborne Street near Hansen Dam—a classic Lake View Terrace drive-in remembered for its burgers, fries, Tasty Freeze treats, and distinctive A-frame building. It was also a familiar Valley movie location, appearing in Smokey and the Bandit as the “Choke & Puke.”

But that corner took on a far more painful meaning after March 3, 1991, when Rodney King was brutally beaten by Los Angeles police nearby. In the years afterward, some local residents reportedly referred to that stretch of Foothill as “Rodney King Boulevard”—an informal name reflecting how deeply that event became part of the neighborhood’s memory.

Baby Beef Burgers was eventually torn down. Today, the former corner is associated with Discovery Cube Los Angeles, the children’s science museum at Foothill and Osborne. The museum site was developed by the City in 2007, and Discovery Cube L.A. opened in 2014 after the building had sat unused for years.

It is a striking example of how Valley places change while their stories remain. One corner has held memories of late-night burgers, Hollywood filming, neighborhood life, national trauma, and now a place where children come to explore science and imagine the future.

09/25/2026

Does anyone remember the Hansen Dam Cafe?

09/20/2026

Local legend Danny Trejo