One small town. Centuries of history. An extraordinary American story waiting to be told.

In The Entrance: Pacoima’s Story, author and historian Crystal Jackson uncovers the remarkable history of a Southern California community whose story mirrors many of the struggles, transformations, and triumphs that have shaped America.

Long before Pacoima became part of Los Angeles, the land—once known as Pacoinga—was home to Native people whose lives were forever altered by Spanish colonization and the Mission era. Over generations, Pacoima would evolve into one of the nation’s distinctive suburban minority communities, shaped by Native, Latino, Black, Japanese, and White residents who repeatedly challenged the social and racial barriers of their time.

Jackson spent five years researching Pacoima’s history, interviewing dozens of current and former residents whose firsthand accounts bring the community’s past vividly to life. Her interviews include U.S. Congressman Tony Cárdenas, U.S. Congresswoman Barbara Lee, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla, longtime residents in their nineties, Native leaders, Mexican migrants, descendants of Japanese American internment camp survivors, and civil rights leaders.

Their stories reveal a community that endured displacement, discrimination, forced imprisonment, civil rights struggles, economic hardship, and the devastating crack epidemic—yet continued to reinvent itself and produce people whose influence reached far beyond the San Fernando Valley.

Among those who grew up in Pacoima are rock-and-roll legend Ritchie Valens, Heisman Trophy winner Charles White, actor Danny Trejo, world boxing champion Bobby Chacon, and Grammy Award-winning gospel artist Andraé Crouch.

But Pacoima's history extends far beyond its famous names.

Discover the stories behind groundbreaking schools, historic athletic achievements, extraordinary engineering projects, neighborhood activism, cultural change, and generations of residents who refused to allow outsiders to define their community. Even as Pacoima became the target of jokes and negative stereotypes in popular culture, its people were building a legacy of resilience, achievement, and influence.

Filled with hundreds of rare photographs and historical documents from the archives of the Pacoima Historical Society, The Entrance: Pacoima’s Story takes readers from the area’s earliest inhabitants through its modern-day evolution.

Provocative, revealing, inspiring, and deeply human, this is more than the history of Pacoima. It is an overlooked chapter of the American story.

The entrance is open.

Step inside and discover Pacoima as you have never known it before.