Erasure -- Chavez Ravine

SO we've been talking about how one person's "beautification" or "gentrification" is another's eviction notice and life-altering nightmare. It can scar generations to come.

In light of that uneasy legacy, a few years back, musician, Ry Cooder, turned his attention to the lost L.A. neighborhood we've been talking about, Chavez Ravine.

Instead of re-animating the tangle of streets on a blank page, he tried to sort out a way to make the old neighborhood -- and the rich culture that grew up in it and around it -- bloom again in a series of songs. He went back to the source and found musicians -- bandleader, Don Tosti, Lalo Guerrero (the "father of Chicano Music") and Little Willie G. (of Thee Midniters) -- to not just share remembrances of the time, but to shape and shade the recording lending their voices, instruments and arrangements.

The result was an album, Chavez Ravine, that told the story of the now vanished neighborhood -- its neighborhood rituals, its people, its music, its struggles with the city father's and power brokers, the result of eminent domain -- and of course -- hundreds of families and their displacement and, ultimately, the rise of Dodger Stadium.

Below you'll be able to listen to a couple of cuts from the project. They are bookends -- the first sketches the neighborhood as it was "Poor Man's Shangri-La" ; the second is told from the POV of a former-resident recalling where his family's house once stood "Third Base, Dodger Stadium"

This is storytelling, a study of voice. Songs take us places, the best songs do, because they articulate something specific that we can hang on to. Pay close attention to the specific details that gently place you in the moment -- a very specific time and place.

-- L.G.

Voice -- Chavez Ravine - Eviction Day

Residents Evicted From Chavez Ravine
~ An Exercise In Voice ~


This photograph tells me it takes a lot of men to tear a woman from her home. It tells me that history is often diluted by the way people see it – in heaps of black and white; never relevant. This photograph tells me that some police listen, some silence, and a good reporter stands back and lets news happen before them. This photograph tells me that the good guys are white, the bad people not, and the Angeleno sky blue all the while. This photograph tells me to listen to histories that have come to pass, like the beachgoer remembers the tide by its massive coastal wavelength. This photograph explains why the Dodgers suck, and its because their franchise grew on a now splintered staircase, a once hardwood deck, and a junkyard of broken memories. This picture evokes a sense of social justice from somewhere within me, something that perhaps has for too long been dormant, suppressed by the desire to reach, and reach, and attain. This photograph tells me that people leave their homes kicking and screaming. This photograph tells me to look for the subtle, to elaborate on the nearly invisible, and create a set of circumstances on which a reader might hang his hat. This photograph tells me to Google search it’s name, print it out in color, and re-analyze. This photograph speaks to me in so many different ways, it challenges me to tap life from the still like a fish from the pond, like yolk from the membrane; to anticipate where the subjects will be in .01 seconds, to literally predict the future and be content with being incorrect. This photograph tells me that an illegitimate voice would misrepresent these people who remain frozen in time like Dr. Evil. It tells me that depth is not 3-dimensional, not necessarily associated with the amount of ‘craze’ in an image, but with the amount of perspective one can inject into an image. It tells me there is something to tell, and tell I shall, until I shall not.

-- Mr_Cavalier

CHAVEZ RAVINE

The first thing that comes to mind is image. From the beginning, Los Angeles has been all about its image and how it is portrayed in order to bring new residents and get more revenue. The poor and close-knit community of the Chavez Ravine did not fit this image, and being that it was in close proximity to downtown Los Angeles, which was supposed to be the center of all that was great in the city, it was not acceptable. Instead, a brand new housing project plan was developed and the families of Chavez Ravine were sent eviction notices. When the housing project was axed and the Los Angeles Dodgers bought the land, a small number of residents were still there because they refused to take the cash payments and leave. This particular photo is of Aurora Vargas, forcibly taken from her home by the LAPD. Other photos from that day show her children sobbing while she is being dragged out.

At what price did Los Angeles become Los Angeles? The Dodger Stadium was another greedy ploy to bring tourists and make money but the question is why here and couldn’t they have found another piece of land in the rapidly growing city? Unfortunately, once they found an excuse to get rid of this ugly “shantytown,” they couldn’t have done it sooner. The importance of forcing the city to be this shiny, movie-like dream world full of perfect people while shoving the lesser immigrants into a corner seems unreal. Sure, they gave the families money and offered them first choice in a housing project that never happened. But they never acknowledged the people or the area as a community of generations of family and friends that was above all, their home.

The way these people were treated reflects the fact that they were never cared about by city officials or boosters or politicians. They needed a way to get them out and that was all. In a city booming with business and people, it seemed as though all anyone cared about was cashing in on the gold that was Los Angeles. These families had been living in the city for generations and they grew up in it, but in the end the city outgrew them. They were pushed aside to neighborhoods where officials believed they would fit in more, away from downtown and the beloved Dodgers stadium.


The irony of it all is that the stadium is now a staple of Los Angeles and everyone loves the Dodgers, the all-American baseball team. While there is nothing wrong with this, it is saddening to know the history of how the stadium came to be. After years of building a city on the basis of perfection, it is still not perfect today. There are beautiful areas of Los Angeles as well as completely ugly and ruined areas. Not only do “white Protestants” live here, but all kinds of cultures, races and ethnicities. That is one of the most unique things about this city, its diversity, and the undeniable fact that people have never stopped living here because of it.


The city has not decreased in population or size since it’s beginning; rather it has increased and gotten better. Los Angeles has had a bumpy history and those who took part it in were probably not proud of all the things they did to get it here. Yet, I think it is safe to say that it’s a better place today because everyone is still here, bad areas and all. The corporate giants and corrupt city officials couldn’t completely kick people out even if they did force them out of their homes. While different types of people live in certain areas and their respective neighborhoods, they are all part of the same city.
--Claire Ensey

(photo via alef.net)

Loyal to Lies

I AM a sports fanatic. Although partial to some sports more than others, give me the opportunity to go to any professional game and no matter what sport it is I’ll be there. I admit that my favorite teams range far outside L.A. county's vicinity but I'm still able to appreciate the loyalty of L.A. fans. The intense and competitive atmosphere takes focus away from racial bias or hatred and challenges that energy toward the game. Notoriously known for its die-hard fans, the Dodgers stadium fills with people of all backgrounds coming together and cheering on their team. Encouraging as it may be, this sense of camaraderie came with a cost.

Before the massive stadium was built, there was a community of around 300 families living in that area previously known as Chavez Ravine. Due to industrial purposes they were forced to move out of their homes under the impression that they would soon be able to return after reconstruction. However, the proposed project fell through and a decision was made to build the Dodger’s stadium instead. Devastated, the people of Chavez Ravine would never be able to resume the peaceful lives they once lived and were reminded daily of the cause of their displacement. A former inhabitant of Chavez Ravine said that going to a game was like “dancing on a grave,” and she could not stand it.

It’s interesting that out of the thousands of Dodgers fans that go to every single game or buy season tickets, very few of them know the history of the stadium's construction and the lives it affected. The sad thing is that if more people knew it still probably wouldn’t make a difference. There's nothing that can be done about it now so it’s not something anybody wants on their conscience. However, I choose to make a silent statement for the families of Chavez Ravine that were forced out of their homes without any place to go. I love sports, and I love going to all competitive games, but I won't step foot again in the Dodgers stadium out of respect for the families whose stories are untold. From now on I will not have a conversation about the Dodgers without sharing the “random fact” that has changed my attitude toward the importance of all sporting events. It may bring people together, which I recognize and appreciate, but a steady community was destroyed in order to create a temporary community that only comes together a couple hours a week. I have to ask myself, where’s the loyalty in that?

---- J.Garcia

caption: "A Blue History"
photo credit: Amanda Yepiz via Flickr creative commons