People of Cypress Park: Veronica Beltran

My name is Veronica Beltran and I live in Cypress Park. I've been living here for over 20 years, since I was seven. This neighborhood is really, really nice. Now and then, you hear about problems, but nothing too violent. There are a lot of friendly people, what else can I say. Not a lot of traffic. It's safe for the kids to walk at night.

I love the program here. This is my second year bringing my kids. I like how they are with the kids. They feed them, they teach them, and the kids learn a lot. I think it's good to put them in programs at this early age because they say one through five is the perfect age to teach them letters, numbers, colors, shapes and everything else.

The park that we have right here on San Fernando is called L.A. River. It's great. They have two or three soccer fields, a basketball court, and playground. In the summer, kids love to go there because they have water where the kids can get wet. There are games there even at 10pm, so if you go out at night you can still be safe.

It keeps kids out of trouble and into sports. My husband is the coach of a soccer team, and he's always pushing them to be good in school. If they aren't, then they're not allowed to play. We see that sports help kids to stay out of trouble.

The above interview is transcribed and edited from the following interview: