When Fernando Lopez Sr. watched live footage of the wildfires that ravaged Southern California last week, he immediately thought of horses.

The 47-year-old is the general manager of Pico Rivera Sports Arena, which sits beside the San Gabriel River and has been a mecca for Mexican horse culture for decades. Lopez's extended family, which runs nightclubs and restaurants and promotes concerts in Southern California, owes its American dream to generations of Latinos who flocked to the 6,000-seat open-air venue to see Charro Performing and riding singer wearing Stetson shoes. , jeans and boots.

“We are horse people,” he told me recently. "Horses help each other."

While the Hurst Fire was raging, Lopez tried to drive a livestock trailer from his Tarzana home to Sylmar but was told all roads were blocked. He then called Pico Rivera City Manager Steve Carmona and suggested opening the stadium for anyone who needed to evacuate large animals.

His cousin Lalo Lopez broke the news on social media and local media, and had politicians like Los Angeles City Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez spread the news. A message. Fernando's son, Fernando Jr., received calls from frantic horse owners, who soon began sending their four-hoofed friends around the stadium, including a pot-bellied pig named Ellie.

Horse shrines have become their sanctuary.

“Imagine your horse is stuck — you’re going to rescue it no matter what,” Fernando Sr. said. "Then imagine that you no longer have a place to put them. You look for a safe place."

We were standing outside the entrance to the stadium. The walls are decorated with banners for upcoming shows. It will soon be joined by two more: a benefit concert for fire victims on Saturday and a farewell party for Mexican firefighters who helped in Pacific Palisades. More fundraising efforts are underway.

Horse evacuations occur almost every time a wildfire breaks out in Southern California because wildfires tend to break out on horse ranches. This time, it's a equine Dunkirk as fires break out in Malibu, Altadena and Sylmar.

Pierce College's Equestrian Center and Hanson Dam Horse Park (each with a capacity of 200 horses) fill up quickly. Horse owners from the Inland Empire to Compton to Los Angeles County's seven equestrian districts opened up their properties and drove to affected areas to assist with rescue efforts.

These places used to be places for disaster relief. Not so with Sports Center.

“We brought in some horses from Malibu in 2018 when there were fires in Malibu,” Fernando Sr., 47, said. "But this one..." His voice trailed off.

“I was in South Central during the ’92 riots, and I was in Northridge during the 1994 earthquake,” said Lalo, 52. “What we saw this time was just no words.”

Also with us are Fernando Jr., Carmona and Pico Rivera Mayor John Garcia. The city is coordinating donations to ensure the evacuated horses receive feeding and medical care. Thirty people have passed so far and eight remain.

“For the victims, the last thing they want to worry about is their animals,” said Carmona, Pico Rivera’s city manager since 2019. "They're like family to them. People know the stadium and trust it, so it's great that we're opening the doors."

"Their heart is to help," added Pico Rivera Mayor Garcia. "It's important to help because you never know when bad luck will strike you, and if we can do anything for the fire victims Provide a glimmer of hope and we've done our job."

This is not the first time Los Lopez uses the sports arena for events other than entertainment. During the epidemic, they transformed it into a COVID-19 testing station and a place to receive supplies. When Los Angeles officials kicked out street vendors from a popular night market on 26th Avenue in Lincoln Heights in 2021, the sports arena provided parking for them. The market there has remained popular ever since.

Fernando Sr. made 600 burritos for the Los Angeles Fire Department Granada Hills Station 87 crew at El Mariachi restaurant in Encino. "My mom would take us to church growing up, and she would always say afterward,"come to help," he said.

Come and help.

His father, Leonardo, came to the United States with his four brothers from La Noria, Durango, in the 1960s and worked as a caregiver and dishwasher before opening a chain of restaurants named after Leon. A chain of nightclubs named after Leonardo. The family took over operations of the stadium in 2012, and Fernando Sr. is now president of the family company, La Noria Entertainment.

Lalo said his late father and uncles taught him and his cousins ​​a simple mantra: Always lending a helping hand to the country folk.. Always lend a helping hand to your fellow man. “If you come from a ranch, this is what we do,” he said, before referencing my family’s own rural Mexican roots. "You know what's going on."

We walked to the livestock area of ​​the stadium. The Lopez family's small herd of horses and bulls roamed an open corral to make room for "their visitors," Fernando Sr. jokingly described the evacuated horses. Opposite them sat eight neighing horses in the stables. Taped to the door of each booth was a piece of paper with their arrival date and hometown: Altadena, 1/9. Eaton, 1/10. Thelma, 1/11.

“These people are not feeling well,” Fernando Jr. said as he approached the evacuees. The 20-year-old head of La Noria Entertainment chareria team. "They want to go home."

"Check their eyelids for burns," his father said. "And their ears."

Garcia looked at a brown stallion. "If their eyes are really red, what does that mean?" the mayor asked loudly.

"It means they're really nervous," Fernando Jr. replied. Then he went to find a pregnant mare.

"When she first came here, she wouldn't even go near anyone," he said. Now she was nuzzling his hand.

Workers are on call 24 hours a day to care for the horses and walk them daily, though Fernando Jr. said owners prefer to come and walk their horses themselves. Some, he said, admit to losing everything; Others keep their situations private.

Despite being in unfamiliar territory, trotting with a horse is a way for owners to "get away from all the problems they're going to face."

"They don't know where the water is. They don't know where the food is," Fernando Jr. said. "They don't know where anything is because it's not their base. It's like asking someone to borrow your shoes."

He checked on the other horse. "But the owners appreciate it. They say, 'Can we pay you to help?' "But no, no."

El Monte resident Baltazar Almanza pushes a wheelbarrow piled high with small alfalfa bales from stall to stall. He hung them on a tack rack. The horse ate quietly.

"It's all very sad," the 79-year-old said in Spanish. He has worked at the stadium for more than 20 years. "Life is hard - don't think it's easy. But we're moving forward - the only thing left to do."

Fernando Sr. showed me the video on his phone of the Hurst fire. In the darkness, lit only by flames, people scrambled to rescue the horses from what seemed like hell.

"You think they're not scared? They're not hurt, are they?" he said of the horses. "I felt terrible, but now that they're here I'm relieved. They're just chilling."

He worries about the weeks and months ahead. During the pandemic, stadium staff often found abandoned, half-starved horses roaming the San Gabriel riverbed and its trails. They take in stray animals, nurse them back to health, and then turn them over to equine nonprofits.

"I could see people losing everything and having to abandon their horses," Fernando Sr. said. "But you can't just abandon a horse. You can't do that to any animal."

We were standing next to a huge horse trailer. He looked back at his guest. "It's getting crazier now".

Now it gets really tough.