To Vin Scully, KTTV and the Whole Dodger Organization: I want to let you know at the start that I am a very big fan of the Dodgers and Vin Scully, but how dare any of you call Chavez Ravine a wasteland or a dump. Every time anyone talks about Chavez Ravine before the Dodgers came along they seem to forget that many families made their homes there! No one wants to acknowledge the fact that people lived there. Maybe it wasn't Beverly Hills, but it was home to a lot of people, my family included. Doesn't anyone want to acknowledge us because we are Mexicans? Or is it because we were told that our homes would be destroyed to make room for low rent housing?
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Great photos of Chavez Ravine before the houses were bulldozed to create a baseball stadium for the LA Dodgers. The area was referred to in the book as a "poor man's paradise". The black and white photos were taken in 1949 and are largely portraits of the residents. They are reminscient of Dorothea Lange's depression era photos, although these residents are not impoverished, but living well on modest incomes. The people lived in time and place far removed from today. Normark has done a fantastic job of capturing the flavor of the community and the personalities of the residents.
The text is composed largely of interviews of former residents. Their stories are touching and help to the reader to imagine this former community close to downtown Los Angeles. The introduction describes the author's involvement with Chavez Ravine and its people. It also explains what happened through corrupt politics, including the McCarthy era anti-communism hatred, to destroy the beautiful neighborhoods. If you enjoy this book as much as I did, I highly recommend Ry Cooder's CD entitled Chavez Ravine.
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