Chavez Ravine was once home to thousands of Mexican Americans. A new digital archive tells their story

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Set us as preferred Every summer at the Elysian Park Recreation Center, outside what is now Dodger Stadium, families gather to preserve the memory of the working-class individuals who once lived there — Mexican Americans who were forcibly evicted by the city under eminent domain in the 1950s.Last Saturday morning, dozens of families set up their canopies for the annual Chavez Ravine community picnic, bringing photo albums and other cherished keepsakes to display table side.Among each other, they shared oral histories or firsthand accounts of the demolished neighborhoods of Palo Verde, La Loma and Bishop that once encompassed the nearby canyon.“We had a good life there.

We grew our own vegetables.We had chickens and pigs.

Believe it or not, it was just a very pure, simple, innocent way of life,” said Cahuilla Margaret Cabrera Red Elk, a former Chavez Ravine resident who traveled from Colorado for the gathering.The joyous event is a tradition spanning over half a century.It’s hosted by Los Desterrados, or “the uprooted,” a group made up of former Chavez Ravine residents.While city plans for the area were initially intended for a public housing project, the land was eventually repurposed for Dodger Stadium, leading to the forceful eviction of a few remaining residents — and the infamous photograph of Aurora Vargas being carried out by Los Angeles County sheriffs in 1959.“My dad’s claim to fame was that his umbilical cord was buried on third base, so whenever somebody hit a triple or home run, he’d get a pain in his stomach,” said Eddie Santillan, the son of Lou Santillan, who started Los Desterrados as a way to unify the three neighborhoods.While there was no trace of scorn in the spirit of the event, there was one lingering question, as individuals proudly displayed picture frames and T-shirts of their d...