UDLA and Korean Americans hold "Beautification Day"

By Alfredo Santana

Hoping to eradicate street garbage and graffiti scrawled on posts and walls of the Wilshire District, the group Unification of Disabled Latin Americans (UDLA), in coordination with LAPD officers, and small businesses from Koreatown held on Jan. 8 a street cleanup event called Beautification Day.

The event was held to also celebrate the Korean American Day.

UDLA members, armed with plastic bags, brooms, shovels and latex gloves, marched from the Seoul International Park, located at 3250 San Marino St. in Los Angeles, north to 8th St., walked west on the same street, and came back down to the park on Oxford Ave.

About 100 people who either support UDLA, or need to meet court-mandated community service work, also picked up trash, cigarette butts, broken bottles of glass, beer cans, and wilt tree leaves along the route. At least two LAPD patrol units watched closely the workers as they trudged along the streets.

Almost all UDLA members live with either a cognitive, or a physical disability. Several have recovered from gunshot wounds, some of them to their heads.

Rubén Hernández, director and founder of UDLA, said the cleanup event, now held several Saturdays a year, has slowly, but surely garnered support from local institutions such as the LAPD, the Korean Business Community, and local council members, mainly because “it’s a positive activity that helps residents and the city” to say “no” to urban blight.

“We keep working hard at it. In the beginning, we had a hard time getting support from local groups and organizations, but it’s happening to the point that residents are picking up the message,” said Hernández, who is blind.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa kicked off the event, which ran from 8 a.m. to noon.

“You don’t have to wake up this early morning to be here, but you’re doing the right thing,” Villaraigosa told the UDLA participants, and to a crown of about 200 Korean youth clad in traditional Korean outfits, who carried Korean drums to celebrate the special date.

“The cultural diversity of this community, and the cleaning efforts of its communities will continue making of Los Angeles a better place to live,” he said.

Thirteen District councilmember Eric Garcetti also attended the event.

Geovany Echeverria Jr., a 30-year-old UDLA member, who suffered a back injury several years ago when he worked as construction worker in a downtown Los Angeles building, said the Beautification Day improves the quality of life in the neighborhood, and helps people to realize keeping streets clean of graffiti is one effective way to stop gangbanging.

“I do this because I want to help Rubén and his organization. I do this because I see the need in this community, and because I want to help them,” said Echeverria, who was born in Bronx, New York. “This event really makes a difference in the way people think about how to better communities they live in.”