Perez

Marisol Perez

History 301-02

May 17, 2016

Chavez Ravine

One minute you’re playing down your street with neighborhood friends. Enjoying the

time you have with each other. Making memories that you believed you can come back to when

you’re all grown up. The next moment your home has been bulldozed and your friends are miles

away. You’re forced to leave your home and relocate to a neighborhood that does not except

you. How would you feel if this happened to you? Lost? Sad? Or unwanted? These feelings are

what the community of Chavez Ravine felt when their neighborhood was picked to for the

Housing Project of 1949. The housing Act of 1949 was set to relocate the community and

replace their homes with public housing. However the community of Chavez Ravine voiced their

opinion of their conditional patriotism and their efforts such as attending meeting to try to keep

their homes. Their options were only taken into consideration to be shut down just like the

Arechiga family.

The small community of Chavez Ravine was located Northeast of downtown Los

Angeles including residents of Palo Verde, Bishop Canyon, and La Loma. Chavez Ravine was

home to over 1,110 families. Many of which were Mexican or Mexican American that have lived

there for generations. Also many of the residents made their home there after World War II in

which many of the men died and women were left widowed with families to take care of. The

community from the point of view of the residents was a thriving community that was working

on improving its streets by petitioning the city to add streetlights as well as paved roads.
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They had also made an effort to decrease juvenile delinquency and crime. They also had

an increase in school attendance. The attempts that Chavez ravine had made weren’t enough for

the city to look at their community as “a blighted area”. Supporters of the act “argued that slums

and “blighted” conditions caused

overcrowding and fostering

delinquency and rat infestations that

spread disease and endangered the

public.” (Lopez pg 461) As well as it

the supporters believed that it would

improve living conditions, reduce

poverty, and crime. However other

groups believed that public housing

was socialism and a way that communism can arise. (Picture shows how the Guzman lived

comfortably in a clean house with their five children.)

The official plans were set fourth was to relocate the community of Chavez ravine into

“Elysian Park”. They were promised that they would have first pick of the new housing for their

sacrifice of being displaced. The area was going to be replaced with one hundred and sixty three

two-story buildings and twenty-four thirteen story apartment towers. Unfortunately they were not

told that non-citizens were ineligible of the promise that was made to them because of federal

law does not permit immigrant or non-citizens to live in public housing. The Los Angeles City

Housing Act (CHA) were the ones that promised first priority on new housing with no racial

discrimination. However “some residents reported being threatened with the forcible eviction
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and were intimidated to sell their homes”. (Lopez. pg.462) The intimidation that the CHA placed

on them lead them to sell their homes.

Not everyone was intimidated by the CHA for example the women of Chavez Ravine

voiced out their opinions and testimonies. Mexican American women played a huge role at the

two public hearings that were held by the Planning Commission. Originally Mexican American

women were not likely to engage in political or public activities. However they did when it had

to do with family concerns. Women were seen to have more moral authority because they were

seen as the homemakers in the 40’s. The women’s testimonies in both public hearings consisted

of family and community relationships as well as their conditional patriotism. The first and

second hearing were held on April 24, 1951 and June 1951. The first meeting more of a shouting

meeting where opponents (residents of Chavez Ravine) wanted to make it clear that they did not

like what the CHA has planned for their community. Words like “ Don’t believe them. They’re

trying to take your land. They never cared about you before. Why should they now”. (Lopez. pg.

464) In defense the CHA executive director Howard Holtzendorff said that the Chavez Ravine

project is the key to the future of replaning downtown Los Angeles. In other words what they

really meant was that they wanted to run the Mexican Americans and others who lived in the

community out. Since Chavez Ravine made up the majority of Mexican in downtown. The

community of Chavez Ravine viewed themselves not as immigrants but as US citizens for their

efforts post war. For example “they emphasized that their sons, brothers, and husbands had

fought in World War II”. (Lopez. pg. 464)

Statements not only were shouted towards the CHA but also the men responded to the

proponents of the projects, while the women made objections towards their envelopment as

patriotic mothers. One person that spoke up but testimony was later refuted because she did not
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live in the area but outside the boundaries was Mabel Hom. Mabel an Asian American felt for

the people of Chavez Ravine and testified saying that the city had forced the residents to live

there because of discrimination that they faced. Now that they (capitalists) find the area/ location

suitable for their Anglo vision they want it. Mable also spoke about how the families of Chavez

Ravine fought in the war and Korean War for their home but when they come back they are

fighting to keep their home again. Lastly Mable called the public housing “creeping socialism”.

Mabel’s perspective was seen as anti-public housing which is the feeling that the residents were

feeling, most importantly the residents who were threatened to sell their homes. Another speaker

at one of the meeting was Agnes Cerda the secretary of the CCDIA (City Center District

Improvement Association) spoke for the Mexican Americans of Chavez Ravine. Agnes

questioned the city health department about where were they when the community of Chavez

Ravine was trying to better their living arrangements. Now that the community was thriving

from their own scarifies such as building up their homes from the own sweat. Agnes stated that

now that the Housing Authority wants to take their homes away it is not just and not American

like. Agnes also compared going to war to fight for a home and coming back to fight for their

home that they do not have anymore because of the Housing Act. The women of Chavez Ravine

represented themselves as being patriotic because of their men who fought in the war for the

United States as well as raising their boys to be proud Americans. Unfortunately the meetings

that were held did not take any effect. As of May 17th the city planning commission approved the

public housing act.

Chavez Ravine was not the only community that was displaced a part of Rose Hills was

chosen as well. However their hearing went differently. The community of rose hills is

predominantly white Americans. The rose hills residents were being given the attention by the
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Los Angeles Times saying that they should pay attention to the white middle class residents and

stonewall the residents of Chavez ravine. The Los Angeles times were showing how racism was

being allowed in the era as well as it was evidence of racial bias. Another example is from a

resident of Rose Hills H. G. Tuthill that wrote letter that voiced his opinion. One of Tuthill’s

letters said he wanted his children to be free of influences. He stated that Mexicans have little

regard to American citizenship and they care little about their children. However he cares more

for his children being exposed to their kids. Tuthill’s focused on his citizenship and his rights of

being American. However Marbel and Cerda’s did the same as well but effect was taken

differently. Rose Hills resident embraced the idea of creeping socialism by saying it threatened

the racial integrity of their daughters.

Another Article was written in the Los Angeles times about the Arechiga Family called

“The Chavez Ravine Incident”. This article was about how the family was given plenty of time

to move out of the land that was bought from them legally. They chose not to and fight for their

homes. However this article was meant to give backlash at the family for daring to confront the

city hall members and saying that they were being sacrificed. The article also gives information

of the housing act that was meant to condemn the Arechiga property to build low rent

apartments. However as well all know the act did not go through because the Housing Act went

under fire because of poor planning. The Act was rejected by the city because it failed to regard

the equality and fairness. The director of the CHA Fran Wilkinson was questioned by the house

of Un American Activities Committee (UAAC) later he was arrested and set to jail because of

his un-American spending. He was sent to jail because of what he used the money for during this

era communism was being feared in the United States and the UAAC felt that Fran was taking

part of communism as he pushed for the Act to go through. After the Act not going through the
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Arechiga sued the city for on grounds that the housing project was abandoned. They hired a

person to appraise their house and it was more than 10,039, which was what they were being

offered. The 10,039 was a total for two houses and three lots. The article goes on about how the

family lived on the property rent-free even though they had lost their lawsuit. The money that

they refused to take was wired to their account. Eventually the land was sold to the dodgers so

that they can build their stadium. The Arechiga were give notice of eviction on March 9,1959

and were given 30 days to vacate their homes. However they did not do so and decided to stay.

The article continues to lash out on the Arechiga family and supporters that believed that the

family was given the short end. Also the article defends the choice of the housing act and

evictions stating how else would freeways have been made and where schools were located.

Lastly the article defends the creation of the baseball stadium that was voted on to be built by

Los Angeles. The article ends with it saying that they apologize to the sheriffs who had to drag

out the Arechiga family and bulldoze their home instead of apologizing to the family.

This picture depicts Aurora

Vargas being carried out of her

home by the sheriffs of Los

Angeles County. Later she was

arrested for assaulting police

officers. As well as her mother

was sentenced 30 days in jail.

Where was the former mayor Royball when all this was happening. He stated that he told

the community of Chavez Ravine to stick together during the though times that the CHA wanted
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to buy their homes. However Royball was then replaced with Mayor Norris Poulson that

promised to buy back the land to use for public purpose and eventually sold it to the Dodgers.

“The evictions of the community of Chavez Ravine serve as a lesson in history of the Mexican

Experience in Los Angeles: coercion for profit and the appropriation of land for Anglo use”.

(Estrada pg. 288) The displacement of 1,110 families of Chavez Ravine was played out as

though the city wanted to help them out but unfortunately that was not the case. The city saw

their neighborhood as a way of fulfilling the Anglo vision. By overpricing the public housing in

Chavez Ravine the community was being forced out of their homes that they were forced into

because other communities did not accept them. Where else were the people of Chavez Ravine

could go. They were paid very little for the homes that they owned. For example a elderly

resident who lived with her granddaughter had no way of providing for her grandchild.

Eventually she would need help from the state to help her provide for her granddaughter. The

Anglo vision of the city wanted to remove the “slums” so that more Americans can settle into the

modernization of Los Angeles. The Anglo vision had no regard to the current families that lived

in Chavez Ravine for years.

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Work Cited

Estrada, Gilbert. “If You Build It, They Will Move: The Los Angeles Freeway System

and the Displacement of Mexican East Los Angeles, 1944-1972”. Southern California Quarterly

87.3 (2005): 287–315. JSTOR. Web…

López, Ronald,W. "Community Resistance and Conditional Patriotism in Cold War Los

Angeles:; the Battle for Chavez Ravine." Latino Studies 7.4 (2009): 457-79. ProQuest. Web. 16

Mar. 2016.

Los Angeles Public Library

Nadel, Loenard. Willaim Mead Housing Project. 1952. Housing Authority Collection,

Los Angeles.

Los Angeles times

Hugh, Arnot. Los Angeles Sheriffs Physical Removal of Aurora Vargas. 1959. Los

Angeles Times, Los Angeles