Loving Los Angeles

IT IS very important to know the history and background of the place in which we call “home” because without that deeper history there lacks any legitimate stance to belong to or own Los Angeles. Time and time again we see “I love L.A.” T-shirts and stickers that can be argued as either fashion statements or forms of personal statements but if we take a deeper look into the phrase can someone truly love a land without deeper knowledge of how it was discovered, divided and ultimately flourished? After recently viewing videos of a barren downtown covered with dirt roads, the production of a popular transit system in the 1940’s, the desegregated locations for various ethnicities, the Chavez Ravine land conspiracy, the Watts Riots in the 1960’s, the contribution from the Chandler family, the romanticized construction of Olvera St. and much more, a Los Angeles migrant like myself can only begin to appreciate the land and city for what it truly was and now is. Once you learn about how and why a place like the Dodgers Stadium was built, your association to it becomes completely altered and your experience in Los Angeles becomes heightened to a more enlightened level. After speaking with a close friend- a diehard Dodger’s fan who reps an L.A. sticker on her car- about the families who were relocated from Chavez Ravine for what later became the famous Dodgers Stadium, she was shocked and seemed somewhat disturbed because her perception of this place that she had been to year after year was altered. Although she may have claimed to have loved Los Angeles and the Dodgers before I filled her in on the story I can only hope that knowing a little bit of that history helped her understand her love for them even more. Exposing ourselves to Los Angeles’ history can only help create more passion, love and respect for those who helped build such a multifaceted and diverse city filled with art, culture, music, film, fashion, sports, journalism, education and much more.
-- Jayme Dolan