With the spread of ‘Dena Strong’, Altadena, Pasadena get a little closer after the Eaton fire ...Middle East

Welcome to the Denaverse.

This shorthand introduces viewers to madeindena.com, showcasing T-shirts, caps and backpacks emblazoned with “Dena” — “where Pasadena and Altadena’s spirit is poured into every thread of our creations.”

Another Pasadena T-shirt designer has created a best-selling design with the words “DENA Forever,” featuring praying hands over a red rose and mountains, the first a symbol of Pasadena and the latter, of Altadena.

But hold the T-shirt presses.

Did someone forgot to tell these entrepreneurs that Pasadena, the prominent San Gabriel Valley city with the Norton Simon Museum, historic Rose Bowl and annual Rose Parade, and Altadena, its neighbor to the north, a fiercely independent, unincorporated town with artists, writers and a Black community that escaped Pasadena’s redlining, haven’t gotten along?

Frankly, they could care less about political disputes and old feuds.

“The Dena” lovers say the phrase has been part of their vernacular since childhood. While it’s hard to pin down the exact etymology, although most say “Dena” is a Chippewa word meaning valley, one thing everyone agrees with is that Dena when followed by “strong,” “forever” or “lives” is making a huge comeback since the Jan. 7-Jan. 8 Eaton fire wiped out almost the entire town of Altadena (or “north valley), while burning pockets of homes in a few Pasadena neighborhoods.

“In light of the fires, when the tragedy took place, people took that ‘Dena Strong’ and pushed it further, like when you want to rebuild you’ll hear ‘Dena Strong.’ It is a good catch phrase. It is hot right now,” said Steve Sneed, 45, owner of S Claz Productions custom printing based in Pasadena, who recently came up with the “Dena Forever” T-shirt.

During a service for those who perished in the Eaton fire, the Rev. Al Sharpton heard those in the pews shout affirmations: “Dena love!” “Dena Strong!” “Dena Up!”

Brandon Lamar, president of the Pasadena NAACP, launched a relief effort shortly after the Eaton fire, helping 1,000 families and distributing $30,000 in gift cards. It was called The Dena Relief.

“It is a Black, slang colloquialism,” said former Mayor Terry Tornek, who said despite most of the tensions and ill will between the two lies in Pasadena’s piecemeal annexations, accompanied by a threat of becoming gobbled up by Pasadena and paying higher taxes. But the terms cutting out “Pas” and “Alta” and just using “Dena Strong” ” or “Dena Forever” are bringing the two very different communities closer together in time of crisis.

“People need stuff to rally around,” Tornek said. “They need to see a movement that is bigger than they are, that they can participate in.”

So is The Denas a place or a state of mind? It can be both.

Sneed, 45, grew up in Pasadena but on the the border with Altadena. His shop is in the Hen’s Teeth Square center, on North Los Robles Avenue and East Woodbury Road, straddling the border line. He remembers living in Pasadena but playing for the West Altadena Little League in Loma Alta Park in Altadena.

All Altadena kids went to high school in Pasadena, either Pasadena High or Muir High. There Sneed made friends from both communities. “In high school world I’d say Dena. Dena is the internal community-based term for people from here, since I grew up on the edge of Altadena and have a lot of Altadena connections.”

Andre Coleman, 60, managing editor for Pasadena Now, the online news site, and a former Pasadena Star-News reporter, grew up in Altadena and went to Pasadena schools. He, too, credits his younger days with gaining familiarity with the term Dena.

“You play in both places. You have friends in both places. It is a collective experience when you grow up in either town,” he said. “It came out of the schools and from the teenagers, the young people.”

After his Altadena home burned down, he received support from many Pasadena folks who offered him clothing, a car, and a place to stay. “They did not see a border. We are from one community,” he stressed.

“This is the first time that this phrase (‘Dena Strong’) is now coming above water for some people,” Coleman said.

Tornek agreed that the two communities — as in the people — are closely intertwined. “On the community level, the political boundary is meaningless. The families were so interconnected over so many generations, and the Black churches reinforced that.”

But the main issue causing long-term tensions is caused by Pasadena’s annexations of small parts of unincorporated Altadena over the last 100 years. And an existential threat of losing its identity to more affluent Pasadena.

Altadena historian and author, Michele Zack, cites 38 successful bites of annexation from Pasadena, including land in Eaton Canyon for the valuable water rights. Pasadena also took into its city the eastern part of Washington Boulevard, a commercial area that generates sales tax for the city, she said.

By the 1980s, new laws provided Altadena with greater protection from annexation. In 1980 the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors removed Altadena from Pasadena’s “sphere of influence,” granting Altadena its own  “sphere of influence,” reinforcing the town’s autonomy and shielding it from further encroachment by its “big sister” to the south.

After the fires, Pasadena City Councilmember Tyron Hampton floated the idea of the city annexing parts of Altadena, or Altadena becoming an incorporated city of its own. Adding Altadena to Pasadena would provide the devastated town with better fire, water and infrastructure resources from the city of Pasadena and speed recovery, he said.

The idea was shot down by his fellow council members and also from many Altadenans who spoke out sharply against it. History shows incorporation votes from within the community have failed every single time, Zack said.

“If there’s one thing Altadena can agree on is that they don’t want to be part of Pasadena,” she said.

“There’s a feeling of ‘live free or die’ in Altadena,” she added. “Altadenans say leave us alone.”

Zack said in her decades of research and books on Altadena, she never came across the term “Dena” or “The Denas.” However, she acknowledged that has changed in the four-plus months since the Eaton fire. She doesn’t see it as a bad thing, but she has heard some speak out against using the shortened term “Dena,” perhaps preferring full recognition of their community in the term “Altadena Strong.”

“I have noticed there are people who don’t like it and they seem to be in Altadena,” she said.

That hasn’t stopped “The Dena” spread, which gained popularity before the fires.

The Sheraton Hotel on Cordova Street in Pasadena rebranded, changing its name in July 2023 to the Hotel Dena.

As part of the change, the Marriott-owned property near the Pasadena Convention Center added a themed-decor emphasizing Pasadena’s Hollywood history. While movies using Pasadena locations include “Father of the Bride” and “Back to the Future,” TV shows are often shot there, including the Apple TV+ recent hit show, “Shrinking.” However, Altadena homes, many now destroyed, have been the setting for movies, including “American Pie” and cable-TV hit series “Mad Men.”

Also, the Light Bringer Project changed the name of its Pasadena LitFest  to LitFest in the Dena in January 2023 to be more inclusive of both communities, said Patricia Hurley, managing director. The change was inspired by Altadena author Jervey Tervalon, an Altadena resident and a supporter of the books and authors event, whose home burned down in the recent fire.

“I think the younger generations say it more than their elders, perhaps,” she wrote in an emailed response.

Just before the name change, the group moved its headquarters to the Mountain View Mausoleum in Altadena, she explained. This year’s event was held 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 the love.’ We are all one big happy Dena!,” Hurley wrote.

SCNG Staff Writer Teresa Liu contributed to this article.

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