Chavez Ravine: 1949

For those who don't know the story, in a nutshell: The residents of Chavez Ravine, who were almost entirely Latino, were offered the promise that their community would be replaced by public housing as part of a renewal project of sorts. (Some had called their neighborhood blighted.) But as the land acquisition proceeded, and as various official pledges were reneged and political cards played (including exploitation of the then current fear of creeping Socialism/Communism-- after all, I ask you, what could be more unAmerican than affordable replacement housing?), the project proved to be a lie. The final hold-outs at Chavez Ravine were bodily removed by deputies as the last remnants of the neighborhood were cleared to make way for a sports field and parking lot. (!)

This volume is great because these photos, which speak so eloquently of one specific place and time, also speak clearly of universal things. Children play; young couples tie the knot as family celebrates; honest and good people work to protect what is theirs, to better their lot, and just to get by. -- It is about nothing less than the struggle and joy of life itself.

If there is any uplift to the wistful story this book tells in beautiful images and words, it is in that the displaced people survived, persevered, and that their old home, and what happened there, is remembered today.

Sometimes, you have to search for the bright spot. A thought-provoking read. Recommended.


First-rate photography, and a window into a vanished world   June 27, 2001
 9 out of 9 found this review helpful

As a long-time resident of LA (though not a native), one hears the occasional whisper about Chavez Ravine. It's widely known that Dodger Stadium was built atop these old neighborhoods, in millions of cubic yards of landfill.

Oh, but at what a price.

Normark, who says in his introduction that he grew up in a town in Washington state peopled by Swedish immigrants that felt similar to these three warm communities, was in exactly the right place, at the right time, to capture on film the places and the homes and the people who lived in them that we now know were doomed to either be destroyed (the buildings) or ripped from their roots (the people).

His black and white photographs, made on a knockoff of a Rollei in medium format, have the tonal range very typical of this period -- all those fine shades of black and white that film noir fans should love.

But the people he's illustrating aren't sinister like those movies at all. They're deeply human, alive, a family both "nuclear" and extended. You see a young girl, her Sunday dress on, a soft smile on her lips, with a book titled "Enchanting Stories" on her lap. You see games of stickball in the street. Confirmations at the church. Families at their meals. Goats grazing on the grassy hills.

All this in a small community maybe two or three miles, at most, to the northeast of LA City Hall.

These pictures are married to the recent reminiscences, like the other reviews here, of both former Ravine residents and their families.

Seeing this book, one understands why, 50 years later, Los Desterrados -- the Uprooted -- have a picnic every year in Elysian Park, just behind their former homes.

The most haunting image, in some ways, for me: Palo Verde School. It wasn't razed for Dodger Stadium. The roof was taken off, and then the landfill came along. So the school is still there, buried under the Stadium somewhere.

So if any of my fellow Dodger fans ever hear kids playing in a schoolyard as we walk back to our parked cars... It might be well to listen to those voices just a bit more closely. And look to this book to see the children's faces.


A great journey to the past   July 18, 2000
 5 out of 5 found this review helpful

While reading this book I was transported back to my old neighborhood, Montebello, California. It was a great journey and really brought back a lot of childhood memories. The author really captured the Mexican spirit and heart of the hispanic community. Anyone who grew up in the early part of the century, regardless of which town you lived in , should read the book.


Lost Community   January 11, 2000
 10 out of 11 found this review helpful

It makes me so proud to see my Dad's old Mexican-American community captured in a book of photos. It's great to see my Aunt Sally Anchando quoted in the book. I recently saw my Aunts and Uncles who lived in Chavez Ravine (unfortunately, it was after my Mom's funeral). They passed around the book and talked about old times. I will pass this book on to my children, neices, and nephews so that they don't forget that their forefathers sacraficed a lot to create a better life for themselves and those who followed.


Chavez Ravine, 1949 A Los Angeles Story   January 3, 2000
 6 out of 6 found this review helpful

Recapture your past! On Christmas Morning Six of us and our 92 year old Mother, Anita Salas, recaptured our youth and enjoyed the Photos of old friends in old times. La Loma, Palo Verde and Bishop are communities long forgotten in Los Angeles. In the memories of people who were born and raised there the Author recorded historical precious moments, which can be relived. It was the best Christmas Present I have ever given my brothers and sisters. A valuable record for any historian about this small enclave.