Category Archives: Eastside

Cityhood for East L.A.

Posted on by
12

The community of East Los Angeles is once again pushing forward an initiative to incorporate itself as a city, and if successful, it will be the 89th city in the county. This past Independence Day marked the launch of a drive to get the required 9,000 signatures to get the official process of incorporation. If you’d like to sign the petition, you can visit this website.

For more information on East L.A.’s push for incorporation, visit its official website. You can also check out the official pages at Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, and Flickr.

ELA DJ Panel #2 Wed. 7/16 @ 6:30 pm

Posted on by
4

(Everybody knows a DJ. Everyone has danced to a DJ at some time. This is part of our culture. Come and participate in this.

ELA DJ PM panels #2

Part of the “Featuring the Lightz and Soundz of…” Exhibition @ g727

These discussions revolve around the concept of exploring and archiving DJ culture from ELA. The panels are designed to capture testimonies from leaders of the DJ movement from the present, past and future so their history can be included in future discussions of the west coast and global dance scene and Chicano cultural production.

(pics and audio of the first panel http://sicklyseason.com/dialogo/g727/g727dj.htm)

Here are the details.

Panel 2 Wednesday, July 16

Innovators of Style and Programming
An intimate conversation with Frank Del Rio, Richard Vission and other DJs TBC who helped shape the art of mixing and programming. Via their DJ booths, radio shows and productions these DJs refined the art of DJing.
Hosted by Gerard Meraz

Wednesday, July 16th Doors open at 6:30pm
Panel starts 7pm sharp

@ g727
727 South Spring Street
LA, CA 90014
213 627 9563

www.g727.org

Neighborhood Beautification

Posted on by
31

Going down the street of my neighborhood is a daily routine. I skate/walk up and down everyday whether I’m coming/going to work or I’m on another of my misbegotten adventures in L.A. Everyday I see the same cars and houses and everything is pretty routine and bland.

Needless to say I was surprised the other day when I say two talented graffiti artist taking up their spray cans to paint something across the street from where I live. The bright colors and beautiful koi fish swimming on the wall seem out of place, but they are welcomed over tagging any day.

Continue reading →

Beer Oasis in Boyle Heights

Posted on by
25

I was cruising along Soto earlier today, crossing my fingers that the Chavo-mobile wouldn’t panic at the slight incline coming up ahead and throw me off yet again, when all of a sudden I see the sign above. The Tequila Warehouse was interesting enough but the smaller type that reads “Over 450 Beers In Stock” was the clincher. Could it really be? In Boyle Heights? Alto burrito, vamos a ver! I tied Rucio to a post and went inside…

Continue reading →

In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Dollar—The Archdiocese Sells the Self Help Graphics & Art Building to Developers

Posted on by
13

It was like a bad B-movie with the powerful, evil conglomerate evicting the struggling protagonists—for a profit. Once a PR tool used by the Los Angeles Archdiocese to portray themselves as benevolent benefactors to Self Help Graphics & Art’s internationally acclaimed Chicano/a art center—the unmasked and crumbling religious foundation appears to no longer have a need for Self Graphics. Without warning, in a clandestine underhanded maneuver, the Archdiocese has sold the Self Help Graphics building to the odious developers who have been circling in on the east side.

Since the closure of Self Help Graphics by the then Board of Directors (June 7, 2005), Self Help Graphics has begun to rise, aided by artists, volunteers, community members and the spirit of founder Sister Karen Boccalero. Maintaining the small integral staff, getting back in the black, restoring the building to a safe functional level, protecting the art collection, reconnecting with artists, continuing the tradition of artistic center with community based cultural celebration, has been the focus of a group of diligent Self Help Graphics volunteers. It has been the visual, performance, written, crafts, culinary and musical artistic communities, as well as individual community supporters that have sustained Self Help Graphics these past years—without public funding, without grants, and without the local politicians’ help.

Over the last few years the Board of Self Help Graphics had met with the Archdiocese, the nuns from Sister Karen’s order and their representatives to strategize on a comfortable plan to transfer ownership of the building to Self Help Graphics, Inc. More like a ping-pong game—with Self Help Graphics as the ball—these entities each claimed to have no power to reach any decision with respect to the building—urging Self Help Graphic reps to ask one of the other entities—but not them. At the same time, they vehemently assured Self Help Graphics that the occupancy of the building would continue as always—there was no need to feel nervous about the relationship, if anything were to change or the building were to be up for sale, Self Help Graphics would be notified first.

Then suddenly last week–(predicted by many disillusioned community members) the call came, “The building has been sold and escrow closed—you have until December 31 to be out.” Shock, injustice, betrayal, wounded, angry and incredulous are not strong enough words to express what one feels, because you wanted to have hope in the process of the spirit, in truth, in common decency, in the respect for Sister Karen’s idealism.

As a volunteer at Self Help Graphics during the Sister Karen years, the Tomas Benitez years and post 6/7/05, I have seen the various seasons of change. Witnessing Sister Karen’s commitment to Self Help Graphics, a dedication with pressures and worries that cut her life short—I find it hard to believe that she did not make any provisions regarding the continuation of Self Help Graphics, after she was gone. Self Help Graphics was her life and her passion. Could she have also entered into a verbal agreement with her not-so Christian family—that also conveniently got forgotten? Half files, incomplete documents, select meeting minutes, empty drawers left by the pre-6/7/05 Board of Directors—also tell a story.

I don’t believe in hell, but I do believe in the dark forces that work feverously to destroy anything good. Those that work to create beauty, goodness and righteousness in the world must work doubly hard to wipe out the injustices that have taken place and at the same time take a step forward into a better humanity.

A public press conference is scheduled to take place at Self Help Graphics & Art on Friday, July 11, 2008 at 10am. Members of the Self Help Graphics Board of Directors will be present to answer questions about the future of our beloved and historical art center.

For those that are not able to attend the press conference, please know that your input and thoughts are direly needed. For updates on upcoming actions, please keep checking on the Self Help Graphics website at www.selfhelpgraphics.com

Following up on neglected memorial site

Posted on by
3

I visited council member Jose Huizars Boyle Heights office to talk about the memorial site and other issues around the neighborhood. Celina Mancia, a field deputy for the council member informed me that the site has been brought to their attention and they are taking the needed steps to clean up the site. She didn’t go into details when I asked her what those steps are. It’s the nature of the beast that they have to go through procedures and steps to make something happen and it’s understandable that the process will take sometime. However, the process can be sped up the more people call in or visit the office to ask about the site and what’s being done about it. If you read the post and want to do something like I do, call the Boyle Heights office or pay them a visit and inquire about the site.

Continue reading →

El mariachi suena de nuevo

Posted on by
1

I saw this bit of news over at Curbed L.A. and I had to post it here.

It seems that the streets around la Plaza del Mariachi (First & Boyle) have reopened, thereby allowing for greater traffic in the small streets and mariachis to return to a state of quasi-normalcy. In early March, mariachis moved to side streets because of construction at Mariachi Plaza for the Metro Gold Line. The plaza itself itself is still under construction, but at least the streets are open and the mariachis can now be reached more easily. The plaza itself should reopen by November, when the festival in honor of Santa Cecilia, patron saint of musicians, takes place (one or two weekends before Thanksgiving weekend).

In another bit of mariachi news…

Next Friday, July 11th, Mariachi Los Camperos de Nati Cano is holding a free concert with Son de Madera, one of the leading voices of son jarocho (http://www.myspace.com/sondemadera), as part of the Grand Performances series at California Plaza, at the center of Downtown Los Angeles. For more details, click here.

Image of Mariachi Plaza street sign taken from Francisco Cendejas‘ photostream.

Neglected hispanic vietnam veterans memorial site

Posted on by
4

It’s been there for as long as I can remember right on the corner of Brooklyn (Cesar Chavez) and Soto. I notice it every time I pass by it and shortly reflect on its decrepit conditions. However today being the Fourth of July I couldn’t help noticing some irony.

 

On a day when the families are celebrating by going to the beach or having a bbq, it’s easy to forget those who came before us. Passing by it so often, I’ve gotten use to it being the way it is, but one days like today I realize that I walked passed it with a blind eye for the last time. This post may be the first step into one day getting this memorial site up to the standards and condition it needs to be in. The more people that know about it the better. 

Continue reading →

All your schools are belong to Villaraigosa

Posted on by
4

Not all of them, but some, yes.

This past Tuesday, July 1st, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and his Partnership for L.A. Schools took control of ten LAUSD schools: Ritter Elementary and Markham Middle School in Watts, 99th St. Elementary, Figueroa Elementary, Gompers Middle, and Santee Educational Complex in South L.A., and Sunrise Elementary, Hollenbeck Middle, Stevenson Middle, and Roosevelt High in Boyle Heights.

This Partnership is a result of his failed attempt at taking control of a larger number of LAUSD schools via Assembly Bill 1381, which was eventually ruled unconstitutional. These schools are under the Partnership’s control for the next five years, and if this Partnership shows results, it will most likely be instituted in a wider basis. Continue reading →

This Is Wacked—Take the Farm Back! South Central Farmers Continue to Dream in Green

Posted on by
8

This morning the South Central Farmers held a press conference and informational picket downtown at Los Angeles City Hall to object to the building of an industrial warehouse.  Most disturbing is that the City Planning Department has announced plans to allow this warehouse to be built where the South Central Farm once flourished.   Even more worrisome is that a required standard guideline for an Environmental Impact Report has not even been made for this warehouse project.  Farm representatives and area residents believe that a warehouse of this nature will create more pollution in the area, watershed damage, traffic congestion, poor air quality, increase health hazards, and contribute further to greenhouse emissions.

I was born and grew up in San Diego, then moved to Los Angeles in my early 20’s.   It was quite a shock visiting a friend in Maywood one night and witnessing the factory lights illuminating the skies as if it were daytime!   Later, I found out that there is never darkness in Maywood and that the immigrant families that comprise the majority of residents there live with it.   Isn’t darkness deprivation some sort of heinous torture tactic?

About two years ago I bought a home in Boyle Heights.  The first time I smelled the pollution emitted from the slaughter houses in Vernon, I thought something had died and was decaying in my yard.  I looked everywhere, even under the house for the cause of that odor.  It took me two months to figure out what that repugnant permeating smell was.

Maywood and Vernon are blocks from where the South Central Farm once stood.  Isn’t there enough pollution and stagnant space there already?  We don’t have to accept the special interest groups and their politicians dumping on our neighborhoods while they boost their personal careers and fill their pockets.  Such city planning would not be acceptable in Malibu or Beverly Hills—we don’t have to accept it either.

Please check in on the South Central Farmers’ website for up coming actions on working together to restore our communities into healthier environments.    www.southcentralfarmers.com