Gladys Garcia
Professor Jaurretche
Eng Comp 3
1 November 2015
The Chavez Ravine To most people, Dodger Stadium is nothing but that: a stadium. It has become a landmark in Los Angeles, having been the home of the Los Angeles Dodgers since 1962. Dodger fans that fill up the 56,000 seats at the stadium have no idea that the home of their beloved team was once an area that was home to generations and generations of Mexicans, an area called Chavez Ravine. A once thriving Latino community, it housed residents in three main neighborhoods - Palo Verde, La Loma, and Bishop. Despite people living in harmony amongst each other, Chavez Ravine was eventually turned into something that was supposed to serve a public purpose, but received much opposition.…show more content… The letters said, “To the families of Chavez Ravine areas, This letter is to inform you that a public housing development will be built on this location for families of low income. The attached map shows the property that is going to be used. The house you are living in is included...You will be visited by representatives of the Housing Authority who will...inspect your house in order to estimate its value. It will be several months...before your property is purchased. Later you will have the first chance to move back into the new Elysian Park Heights development” (Normark 18). One can imagine the devastation of the families that lived in the area, being kicked out of the only home that they knew. Frank Wilkinson, then Assistant Director of the Los Angeles Housing Authority, attempted to convince the skeptical residents of Chavez Ravine into believing that the transformation of their community was a good thing, something that he truly envisioned. If he believed one thing, it was “slums out -- decent housing in” (Goldberg). At this point, Wilkinson had teamed up with two of the most powerful institutions in the community: the Catholic Church and the Communist Party. He went door to door, reassuring the families that they would have the first opportunity to reside in Elysian Park Heights, the new and improved housing that was to be built (Goldberg). The people of Chavez Ravine had to begin plans of selling their homes, sometimes even selling them for “insubstantial or no compensation for their homes and property” (The History of Chavez Ravine). Those residents that refused to vacate their homes were soon labeled “squatters”. A few months later, the city council approved a $110 million plan for ten thousand housing units to be
