Valley Gang Members Join to Mark Peace Anniversary : Celebration: In the church-sponsored ‘summit,’ more than 30 groups renew commitment to 2nd year of treaty.

VAN NUYS —  Several hundred Valley gang members joined Saturday in an emotional celebration of the first anniversary of a peace treaty that has been credited with dramatically reducing gang killings.

Sitting side-by-side on the stage of the Church on the Way auditorium, representatives of more than 30 gangs from North Hollywood to Canoga Park renewed their commitment to a second year of gang peace.

Joined by local elected officials, leaders of the Valley Unity Peace Treaty used the “peace summit” as an occasion to portray their church-sponsored movement as a force of national significance.

During a two-hour program that stretched to nearly three, pop singer Stevie Wonder made a surprise appearance, giving a brief pep talk and singing a solemn song titled “Conversation Peace” to recorded background music.

“We’ve got it going now,” William (Blinky) Rodriguez, the gym owner who inspired the treaty, later told the cheering youths.

Throughout the carefully orchestrated program of speakers and songs laced with religious overtones, there was little interaction among the young men, many who arrived late. But adult church members responded with enthusiasm, clapping and saying “Amen!” to the speakers’ frequent praises to God.

The summit also launched an affiliation between the fledgling Valley group and a nationwide nonprofit dropout prevention program called Cities in Schools.

Bill Milliken, president of a Virginia-based organization that operates 97 local programs with projects in 600 schools, announced that Rodriguez will serve as executive director of a new program in the Valley, headquartered in his Van Nuys martial arts center, The Jet Center.

Rodriguez said the affiliation has been in the works for some time, but was not formally announced until Saturday. He did not elaborate on what projects the organization would sponsor.

Cities in Schools’ Southwest regional director, Robert Arias, said the affiliation with Valley Unity showed the organization’s belief that there must be peace on the streets before educational programs can be effective.

Famous British chimpanzee expert Jane Goodall, who is associated with the program, set an international tone during her brief comments, telling the audience of stony-faced young men that she has spread the word of their accomplishment to at least 20 countries.

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The star quality of the program highlighted the quantum leap that has been taken by Rodriguez, a deeply religious lay minister, and several other Valley Christian leaders who joined him in building the truce.

Their efforts included months of work during which they spent nights and weekends dashing from one gang altercation to another, defusing emotions and urging rivals to talk.

Last Halloween they were able to declare the truce, which according to some reports was also assisted by an order to street gangs from the powerful prison-based Mexican Mafia to stop the killing.

Since then, gang killings dropped precipitously in the Valley. Police report that contrasted with 37 such killings during the year ending in September, 1993, there were nine in the past year.

During the year of the truce, Valley Unity has evolved into a loose structure with eight gang counsels, each acting as a liaison to a Valley church, said David Navarro, associate pastor of Church on the Way, one the two churches that initially supported the peace treaty.

The eight counsels sat stage-front Saturday, with at least 30 representatives of individual gangs behind them.

Throughout the ceremony Saturday, gang members from different Valley neighborhoods sat near each other in the large auditorium, but maintained stern demeanors, even declining to join Church on the Way congregation members in clapping along as Stevie Wonder sang a song called “Conversation Peace.”

But they gave a standing ovation when Rodriguez and the other leaders of Valley Unity took to the stage.

The youths cheered unhesitatingly when Councilman Richard Alarcon told them he knew that if it were not for the peace treaty, 50 to 100 of them would not be alive.

“You all need to take credit for doing the right thing this year,” Alarcon said.

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At the end of the program, individual gang representatives filed to the microphone to say the names of dozens of their “homies” who have been killed in gang violence. “Rest in peace. . . . We love you,” they repeated over and over.

“I call it a generational curse that has been on the Valley for 50 years,” Rodriguez said. “That generational curse is being stomped out today.”