The East Los Angeles cultural community and Self Help Graphics & Art held press conference Friday to seek outside help, and demand answers from Los Angeles Archdiocese.

The sale of the building that for now is the home of Self Help Graphics & Art, the East Los Angeles cultural center that opened in 1978, spread quickly through the Latino Arts community this week. By Friday, a morning press conference was held in the parking lot with supporters and artists standing behind Self Help board president Armando Duron and L.A. First District County Supervisor Gloria Molina, and the mosaic Virgin of Guadalupe in the background. The sale is regarded as a slap in the face from the hands of the Los Angeles Archdiocese.

As been reported, the Sisters of St. Francis’ lawyers informed Duron of the sale July 3, the day after escrow closed, with no warning that the building was on the market. As he did all week with countless calls, Durango stated during the press conference that the Self Help board was assured in November of 2007 that the building was not to be listed in order to fulfill the priest sexual abuse scandal settlement.

According to spokespeople for the Archdiocese the owners of the building, the Sisters of St. Francis, requested the deed to be transferred to the Archdiocese and asked that it be sold due to a dwindling art center budget.

When asked if that claim was believed, board and supporters said in union; “No!” “This is not the market to sell anything unless you need to,” said Stephen Saiz, Self Help board vice-president, and considered the scandal is causing “the fire sale.”

“The Archdiocese’s blatant disrespect for the community is unacceptable,” Molina said during the conference. “I commit to working with Self Help Graphics & Art to mobilize my elected official colleagues and other community leaders to demand that the archdiocese tell us why they mishandled this situation – and how they plan to correct it.”

The negotiation phase of the sale was so secretive that, according to Duron, the party purchasing the building (who visited the location Friday morning at 6:30 am) was told by the Archdiocese not to visit the site before the sale was final and that the art center was “only on the top floor.”

The Bottom Line

In November 2007, the mosaic-covered building––with a stage and adminstrative offices on the upper floor and a gallery and workshops on the lower floor––was appraised at 1.5 million dollars. As the market softened, it was listed for 1 million.

Self Help has ben using the building rent free, and will continue doing so under new ownership until the end of the year, allowing a short time for a new location to be secured.

The deception will only be fueled when the final sale number appears like an apparition. Sources say the grounds were sold for $700,000–– a price tag many will feel was an attainable purchase price.

Speaking with Molina after the conference, she remarked how the County could have ear marked $250,000 from a cultural supporting discretionary fund, was already offered to be matched by several sources. Solid fundraising could have gone beyond the $700,000 final purchase price.

“If we were told and became part of the dialogue, a solution could have been found.,” added Molina.

While the Los Angeles Archdiocese are no longer accountable for the building, to the East Los Angeles cultural community, they are still accountable for the arts program that has been a springboard for Southern California Latino artists––some whose works are currently exhibited in national art museums.

That same community is now demanding a confession from the Los Angeles Archdiocese.

Previous: LAEastside

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Photos by Ed Fuentes/ VFaL

The north end of Hollenbeck Park became the Boyle Heights Bowl as revelers sat grassy slopes to watch fireworks July 5th. The sounds bounced off the rows of Victorian-era homes, post World War II apartment buildings, and the sound wall next to the freeway ramp–– causing ducks to scatter out of the water into the crowd of people sitting on blankets along the rim of the lake.

Before the fireworks, food booths from local vendors and non-profits made a perimeter around the north lawn, leaving room for those to watch the concerts that scheduled mariachis (Roosevelt High School Mariachi Olympico), funk (Backtraxx), swing (Chico Big Band) and salsa (Angel Lebron y Su Sabor Latino) from 4pm. Around 9pm, CD14’s José Huizar lead a countdown to the fireworks show.

Last year’s inaugural celebration was held at Evergreen Park and outgrew the location in the first year, according to Huizar,  whose office organized the event.  While this year’s crowd was larger, there was a still a very local feel to the day. “The biggest sponsor was Shakey’s Pizza,” said the councilman, who earlier from the stage told the crowd he remember anticipating fireworks each year while growing up as a child in Boyle Heights, and wanted to bring them back to the neighborhood.

The 17 minute display was solid and will be well documented, as many took out cell phone cameras to document light reflecting off the lake and towering Mexican Fan Palm trees appear out the dark and smoke in silhouette. Still, the taped music the fireworks show was set to was generic. With all the music from, and about, East L.A. and Boyle Heights, using some would have made the finale to the day even more local.

It’s worth a survey to see what six songs could be edited into 20 minutes that would reflect the neighborhood.

The shared protests of the Sandow Birk mural that will not be installed at the new Hollenbeck Station, as LA Eastside noted. Now according to Eastside Group Publications (EGP), both residents and LAPD’s Hollenbeck Division want to know why the Department of Cultural Affairs chose Birk, and why the community was excluded from the selection process of qualified artists.

“Typically the process does not involves members of the community,” said Felicia Filer, Public Arts Director for the Department of Cultural Affairs, at a community meeting held last week.

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Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina stood by a model for Grand Ave Civic Park that was on display at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, and was pointing out ways green space brings life into a city.

When asked how this compares to upcoming Grand Opening for the East L.A. Civic Center, the serious look turned bright.  Molina went on to talk about the Civic Center that will be introduced to the general public in a “Community Celebration”  that will also see the unveiling of the future Dionicio Morales Transit Plaza. The plaza will be the second to last stop on the Gold Line Extension.

“It’s also abouy the health of East Los Angeles” she said, referring education and health panels in the afternoon.

Then 5pm concert called “Under the Stars” that will feature Tierra and Lil Willie G will lead into a fireworks finale.

If you take a look for yourself this Saturday,  you will see how colors, pathways and the open space of the East Los Angeles Civic Center (and the already opened adjoining park and library)  shows how govermente buildings can be designed to reflect an embedded constituency. Instead of forcing an image of authority––like a security guard who wears a too shiny a badge––the informal layout welcomes the very  public it serves. Reds, golds, blues, and greens unite the buildings, public art and landscaping.

It’s a rainbow at the end of the gold.

The East L.A. Civic Center Grand Opening will be held Saturday, May 10th, 2008 (9am till 10pm)  The concert starts at 5pm. For more information: Celebrate 150 Years of East L.A. LAT writes “A rediscovering of East L.A.’s core“

Photos: EF

The County drawing the line in the sidewalk against taco trucks is on behalf of groups like Whittier Boulevard Merchants Association, East L.A. Chamber of Commerce and local merchants claiming the trucks lack of overhead is unfair competition. Yet, taco truck vendors have become an East L.A. cultural icon, and in some cases social centers, with cheap eats have had people rally behind them.

It’s become a quality of life vs quality of lunch issue. A cause from both sides of the sidewalk.

The saviors of carne asada at saveourtacotrucks, as noted here on L.A. Eastside and by the LA Times April 16, have been blogging the movement to prevent a movement of trucks that will be enforced by the Sheriffs under a new ordinance by the County.

The issue has reached the east-east-eastside in a NYTimes article that gives a solid overview that led to Thursday’s eat-ins at taco trucks in and around the County land known as East Los Angeles.

However, the headline reads “In Taco Truck Battle, Mild Angelenos Turn Hot” and opens with “Los Angeles, loath to rally cohesively around a local cause, has joined hands around tortillas.”

Well, not quite, Ms. New York Times embedded-in-Los Angeles scribe.

For Eastsiders to be considered “mild” when it comes to causes is a cheap angle, a 99 cent copy led, and just too a long of a reach. The Eastsider is not the mythical mellow Angeleno having brunch patio side with the Sunday Times of any city.

There is a distinct Eastside tradition of standing up for something ever since the freeways sliced through town, causing pockets of neighborhoods to float next to each other like Titanic survivors on life rafts.

Since then, no cause has been left behind.

Three things that come to mind right away: How the Gold Line Extension went through a labourious process of community approvals before deciding on the current route currently under construction. Then there was the local auditorium that was burned down by arson and concerts were held, including one by Los Lobos, to raise funds to rebuild it. And you may have heard of a massive anti-war march back in the 70s that took out one of your own, a journalist who was recently honored on a US Postage stamp.

Be assured, this side of town doesn’t loath for a cause. It thrives.