Lithuanians Southern California

Hundreds of protesters of Lithuanian heritage gathered Sunday at a Silver Lake church to worry. Wearing black ribbons of mourning for the 13 killed Saturday by Soviet troops and lapel pins in the colors of the national flag, they rallied on the front steps of St. Casimir's, a Lithuanian Roman Catholic parish. Luana Masiulis was there, but her thoughts were elsewhere.

It's Saturday morning, and 3-year-old Laura Ellner would normally be home in Anaheim Hills watching her favorite cartoons. But on this day, the wide-eyed girl is sitting in a circle at the largest Lithuanian school in the United States, listening to stories of her heritage and writing her name in large colored letters in a language that is foreign to her. It is the language of her ancestors. So began the new school year last weekend at St.

It's Saturday morning, and 3-year-old Laura Ellner would normally be home in Anaheim Hills watching her favorite cartoons. But on this day, the wide-eyed girl is sitting in a circle at the largest Lithuanian school in the United States, listening to stories of her heritage and writing her name in large colored letters in a language that is foreign to her. It is the language of her ancestors. So began the new school year last weekend at St.

Hundreds of protesters of Lithuanian heritage gathered Sunday at a Silver Lake church to worry. Wearing black ribbons of mourning for the 13 killed Saturday by Soviet troops and lapel pins in the colors of the national flag, they rallied on the front steps of St. Casimir's, a Lithuanian Roman Catholic parish. Luana Masiulis was there, but her thoughts were elsewhere.

Lithuanian activists, incensed over President Bush's reaction to a Soviet crackdown on the Baltic republic, lined the steps of Los Angeles' City Hall on Monday and called for a sterner, more decisive condemnation of the Red Army's assault on civilians in their homeland. Protesters railed at the Bush Administration for warning Soviet leaders to curb military actions such as the seizure of Lithuania's radio and television center on Sunday.

As Soviet tanks rolled into Vilnius in January to wrest control from the pro-independence Lithuanian parliament, emigres of that tiny Baltic state gathered in a small Atwater Village office, staffing phones and fax machines day and night to keep abreast of the developments in their faraway homeland. The office was the headquarters of the Lithuanian Action Center founded in May, 1990, to support the Baltic independence movement.

Yes, you've heard the call for freedom from little Lithuania, the once-independent republic that was annexed as one of the 15 Soviet Socialist Republics at the end of World War II. Still, you probably couldn't locate it on a map and you surely don't know what the people there eat. You can change all that with a visit to the Lithuanian Fair this weekend at St. Casimir's Church, 2716 St. George St., in the Los Feliz area.