The growth of immigration in this area has created a vibrant community, but also has problems of crime and urban decay. DP
By Tony Castro, Staff Writer
dailynews.com: Fernando Valley's Latino population has grown more than four times faster than the rest of Los Angeles' Latino population, leading demographers to project Latinos may outnumber Anglos in the Valley by as early as 2010.
Fueling the growth is immigration of Central Americans and Mexicans to the Northeast Valley, where once-isolated Latino pockets have mushroomed into full-scale communities.
While the boom has created a vibrant, multicultural Valley, it has not come without problems - including urban decay and crime.
According to law enforcement officials, the Valley is now home to 20,000 gang members - predominantly Latino - and gang violence has increased 42 percent in the past year.
And 85 percent of the time, those most victimized by the gangs are other Latino residents of the Valley.
On any given night, Esteban Martinez, 43, hears gunshots outside the North Hollywood home where he lives with his wife and four children.
"Everybody is afraid, but they don't speak (to police) because they are afraid to get into trouble with the gang members," Martinez said. "I'm worried about my family."
But immigrant advocates say it is all part of the hardship of America's assimilation process.
A landmark 1996 Pepperdine University study on Latinos found Latino immigrants settle longer in Southern California and tend to escape poverty - after 30 years, barely one in 10 is poor and three out of four are solidly middle class.
"Absolutely, the analyses of that study have borne out pretty damn well," says Gregory Rodriguez, the study's author whose book on Latinos, "Monstrels, Bastards, Orphans and Vagabonds: Mexican Immigration and the Future of Race in America," was published by Pantheon last year.
"More than anyone expected."
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