For Porn Protesters, X Marks Spot That Taints Community : ‘We have morals. We have a culture. This doesn’t fit our culture. We don’t want it here. We don’t like it here.’

On a gritty corner of Whittier Boulevard and Arizona Avenue, the faithful begin their afternoon march, back and forth, picket signs in hand. It is Day 45 of the crusade.

Their numbers have dwindled since they started their protest in March. Lately, only a couple dozen regulars are left to carry on the campaign, hoping their mere presence will ruin the business of one of East Los Angeles’ newest retailers: Andy’s Adult World.

Marta Hernandez, mother of three, paces along the sidewalk outside the adult book and video store in black platform shoes. It’s only an hour into the demonstration, and already her voice is hoarse from yelling at the passing cars.

“We don’t want no porn in our community!” Hernandez says, her rapid-fire words carrying across four lanes of traffic. “We have morals. We have a culture. This doesn’t fit our culture. We don’t want it here. We don’t like it here. We said no. They put it here anyway. . . .”

It’s been nearly two months since Andy’s opened its doors in a strip mall occupied by such businesses as a shoe shop, a beauty salon and a women’s clothing store. Hernandez and other Eastside residents appealed to county supervisors in February to deny the store’s request for an operating permit. But the residents--almost all of them women with children and grandchildren--ran into a snag.

While the supervisors said the county’s anti-pornography ordinance barred Andy’s from operating, a federal judge later ruled the law unconstitutional--prompting store owner Craig Tucker to open for business.

Now the protesters’ only recourse is to take their objections to the street. Every afternoon, rain or shine, they chant, yell and pace.

Ray Abboud, who owns a nearby clothing store, walks 10 feet along the pavement, turns on his heel and walks back. He carries a sign that says simply: “Porno Does Not Upgrade Our Community.”

“East Los Angeles is not a trash can,” Abboud yells at a passing bus. “Take this trash elsewhere.”

The traffic responds in a chorus of supportive honks.

Inside Andy’s Adult World, business is brisk.

The store is drenched in bright fluorescent light, creating a sterile, office-like atmosphere. Several men, who avoided the protesters by walking in the store’s back door, wander around, looking at racks displaying X-rated videos.

The radio plays a synthesizer-edged Duran Duran song, but the music is not loud enough to drown out the protesters’ voices.

“Why don’t they do something else?” asks a customer.

Behind the counter, Sean Samuelson, 21, and clean-cut, shrugs.

“We opened March 28, and they’ve been here since Day 1. We just let them air out steam,” he says.

Throughout the day, Samuelson says, he stays in constant phone contact with Tucker, keeping him informed of the protesters’ actions while Tucker is running the pawnshop he owns up the street.

Tucker believes the crusade will only help his business.

“They are advertising for us,” he says. “A lot of people come in and tell us that if they weren’t here, they wouldn’t know where the store was.”

One customer, wishing to remain anonymous, agrees.

“I was just driving by and heard all the screaming,” he says. “They pointed it out to me.”

The men in the shop laugh, pausing for a moment before going back to viewing the women on the covers of the videos.

*

By 4 p.m., two hours into the demonstration, the protesters have doubled, with more than 20 adults and children lining up along the sidewalk, their picket signs bobbing in unison.

Jasmine Santiago was just walking past with her five children when the crusaders, many of them neighborhood friends, urged her to join the demonstration.

“I figured, why not?” she said. “Porno is no good.”

The youngsters grab signs declaring, “East L.A. Is a Family Oriented Community” and “Get Out. Stay Out of Our Neighborhood.”

At the top of their lungs, the children scream: ‘ ‘Pitale, pitale! . . . Honk your horn!”

The yelling and the honking drown out everything else.

Juan Fernandez, a thick-necked fellow with a flattop, monitors the spectacle. He was hired by Tucker to work as the store’s security guard. He sits outside the door, teetering on a stool.

“These people are dumb,” he says, looking up for a minute before going back to his word-search puzzle book.

Fernandez isn’t the only one annoyed by the scene.

Surrounding businesses say they have no problem with an X-rated video store moving into the neighborhood. It’s the protesters who are driving them crazy.

“I’ve got such a headache,” said Susanna Shin, who owns the women’s clothing store next door. “Two months of this? I can’t make money this way.”

Marta Hernandez, who has lived in East L.A. for 23 years, knows her demonstrations have angered some people. Several weeks ago, she started bringing her camera along, to take pictures of hecklers and store customers. She has already shot 25 rolls of film.

“We are just doing what we think is right for our kids,” she says. “It’s everyone’s responsibility to come out here.

“We’ll be here every day if we have to.”