Welcome to Denavers.
This stenography presents to viewers at Madeindena.com, presenting t -shirts, caps and backpacks sporting “Dena” – “where the spirit of Pasadena and Altadena is paid in all the sons of our creations”.
Another creator of Pasadena t-shirts created a best-selling design with the words “Dena Forever”, featuring hands praying on a red rose and mountains, the first a symbol of Pasadena and the second, from Altadena.
But hold the t-shirts.
Has anyone forgotten to tell these entrepreneurs that Pasadena, the eminent city of the San Gabriel Valley with the Norton Simon Museum, the historic pink Bowl and the annual pink, and Altadena parade, its northern neighbor, a fiercely independent city and not formed with artists, writers and a black community that has escaped the Pasadena Redline?
Frankly, they care less about political disputes and old quarrels.
Lovers of “The Dena” say that the sentence is part of their vernacular language since childhood. Although it is difficult to identify the exact etymology, although most say that “Dena” is a word chippewa which means valley, one thing with which everyone agrees is that Dena, followed by “strong”, “forever” or “life” has made a huge return since January 7 to Jan. 8 Eaton Fire destroyed almost the whole city of Altadena (or “North Valley), while burning pockets of houses in some districts of Pasadena.
“In the light of fires, when the tragedy took place, people took this” Dena strong “and pushed it further, as when you want to rebuild, you will hear” Dena Fort “. It’s a good slogan.
During a service for those who died in the Eaton fire, the Reverend Al Sharpton heard those who have affirmations of screams of benches: “Dena Love!” “Dena Strong!” “Dena up!”
Brandon Lamar, president of Pasadena NAACP, launched a rescue effort shortly after Eaton fire, helping 1,000 families and distributing $ 30,000 in gift cards. His name was Dena relief.
“This is a black scholarship and slang,” said former mayor Terry Tornek, who said that despite most of the tensions and the bad will between the two lies in the fragmental annexations of Pasadena, accompanied by a threat of being engulfed by Pasadena and paying higher taxes. But the terms cutting “not” and “alta” and simply use “Dena Strong” or “Dena Forever” bring the two very different communities closer in the event of a crisis.
“People need things to rally,” said Tornek. “They need to see a movement larger than them, in which they can participate.”
So, are Denas a place or a state of mind? It can be both.
Sneed, 45, grew up in Pasadena but on the border with Altadena. His shop is in the Hen’s Teeth Square Center, on North Los Robles Avenue and East Woodbury Road, riding the border line. He remembers having lived in Pasadena but playing for the West Altadena Little League in Loma Alta Park in Altadena.
All the children of Altadena went to the Lycée de Pasadena, either Pasadena High or Muir High. There, Sneed made friends of the two communities. “In the world of high school, I would say that Dena. Dena is the internal community term for people from here, because I grew up on the edge of Altadena and I have a lot of Altadena connections. ”
Andre Coleman, 60, editor-in-chief of Pasadena Now, the online news site, and a former journalist from Pasadena Star-News, grew up in Altadena and went to the Pasadena schools. He too attributes to his youth to familiarize himself with the term Dena.
“You play in both places. You have friends in both places. It is a collective experience when you grow in one or the other city,” he said. “He came out of schools and adolescents, young people.”
After his Altadena house has burned, he received the support of many Pasadena people who offered him clothes, a car and a place to stay. “They did not see a border. We are in one community, “he said.
“This is the first time that this sentence (‘Dena Strong’) has now come above the water for some people,” said Coleman.
Tornek agreed that the two communities – as in the people – are closely linked. “At the community level, the political border has no meaning. Families were so interconnected over so many generations, and black churches have strengthened this. ”
But the main problem causing long -term tensions is caused by Pasadena annexions of small Altadena parts not formed in society in the past 100 years. And an existential threat of losing your identity to a easier Pasadena.
The historian and author of Altadena, Michele Zack, quotes 38 successful bites of annexation of Pasadena, including land in Eaton Canyon for the precious rights of water. Pasadena also took in her city the eastern part of Washington Boulevard, a commercial area that generates sales tax for the city, she said.
In the 1980s, new laws provided Altadena greater protection against annexation. In 1980, the Council of Supervisors of the County of Los Angeles withdrew Altadena from the “sphere of influence” of Pasadena, granting Altadena his own “sphere of influence”, strengthening the autonomy of the city and protecting it from the additional encroachment by its “big sister” in the south.
After the fires, the member of the Pasadena municipal council, Tyron Hampton, launched the idea of the city annexing the parts of Altadena, or Altadena becoming a city made up of itself. The addition of Altadena to Pasadena would provide the devastated city with better fire, water and infrastructure resources in the city of Pasadena and speed recovery, he said.

The idea was killed by his colleagues member of the Council and also many Altadenans who have strongly spoken against this. The story shows that the votes of the incorporation of the community failed each time, said Zack.
“If there is one thing on which Altadena can agree, it is because they do not want to be part of Pasadena,” she said.
“There is a feeling of” living free or dying “in Altadena”, she added. “The Altadenans say that leaves us alone.”
Zack said that in her decades of research and books on Altadena, she had never met the term “Dena” or “The Denas”. However, she admitted that it had changed during the four months and more since Eaton fire. She does not see him as a bad thing, but she heard about it against the use of the abbreviated term “Dena”, perhaps preferring the complete recognition of their community in the term “Altadena Strong”.
“I noticed that there are people who don’t like it and they seem to be in Altadena,” she said.
This did not stop “The Dena”, which gained popularity before fires.
The Sheraton hotel on Cordova Street in Pasadena renamed, changing its name in July 2023 at the Dena hotel.
As part of the change, the property belonging to Marriott near the Pasadena Convention Center added a theme decor emphasizing the Hollywood history of Pasadena. While films using Pasadena locations include “Father of the Bride” and “Back to the Future”, television shows are often shot, including recent Apple TV +success, “Shrinking”. However, Altadena Homes, a lot of now destroyed, was the film framework, notably “American Pie” and the successful series of cable television “Mad Men”.
In addition, the Light Briner project changed the name of its Pasadena Litfest in Litfest in Dena in January 2023 to be more inclusive of the two communities, said Patricia Hurley, general manager. The change was inspired by the author of Altadena, Jervey Tervalon, a resident of Altadena and a supporter of the events of books and authors, whose house burned in the recent fire.
“I think the young generations say it more than their elders, perhaps,” she wrote in an answer by email.
Just before the name change, the group moved its headquarters to the Mountain View mausoleum in Altadena, she explained. This year’s event took place in May at the Pasadena Presbyterian church. But Hurley said the new name includes Pasadena, or Altadena or both areas.
“Dena to us means” family with Pasadena “. It means “sharing love”. We are all a big happy Dena! “Wrote Hurley.
The writer of the SCNG, Teresa Liu, contributed to this article.
California Daily Newspapers