Academy Awards Workers - 2010
I often think back when a PR person at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles gave me a CD of 900 historical images. The images were of menus, silverware, signs, and photos of workers and hotel construction. In all the photos I did not see one African American or Latino. Around the same time I saw a TV show where kids went to California mining companies and found few Chinese Americans in the photos.
I was once told by an owner of a stock photo ageny that " No one gives a shit about what some people in East LA are doing."
This morning when I saw the construction of bleachers on Hollywood Blvd for the Academy Awards I was not surprised to hear them all speaking Spanish and breaking their backs.
If we don't document our lives nobody will.
Freeway Building Materials
Alejandro Acevedo, owner of Freeway Building Materials in Boyle Heights, with one of the thousands of vintage doors he has in his store. Story and more photo at The Eastsider LA.
Juan Posada's Norteño Musicians
Juan Posada has been adding new photos to his website. There are some really cool pics of Norteño musicians that he added recently.
Happy Birthday
Alberto Barrera 1923 -
2008
El Nuevo Porvenir Market - circa 1946
Thanks to Los Angeles photographer Gil Ortiz for this vintage photo of his father Willie Ortiz (right) and Gil's grandfather Gilberto Trevino. The photo was taken at El Nuevo Porvenir Market on Figueroa and Alpine in Los Angeles around 1946.
Juan Posada's Loncheros
Early this year after attending an Acociacion de Loncheros community meeting, Juan Posada started photographing food trucks in Los Angeles. CaliforniaTacoTrucks.com has a good interview with Posada.
Juan Pacheco's Hijos de Cuauhtémoc en El Valle de Aztlan
A few years back Juan Pacheco taught a photo class at the Dolores Mission in Los Angeles' Eastside. The students were day workers who spent their nights at the mission.
Juan photographed some of the men and printed the portraits on postcard paper and mailed them in envelopes to the families in Mexico and Central America. Some of the postcards were mailed back with family comments.
Here is Juan's Artist Statement about this series:
Hijos de Cuauhtémoc en El Valle de Aztlan
A Manifesto March 11, 2009
On these proud faces we can trace the lineage of our
collective past. Each one of these men, who are
invisible to most of us as we go about our daily
life, serve as a constant reminder that we, if we are
not Native Americans, arrived on these shores from
another place.
Our community, both women and men, demand that we be
given the recognition we deserve. And that our
contributions become part of the progressive dialog
presently taking place in the United States.
We ask that our human rights be respected, de ser
humano, and that we be allowed to freely participate
in the struggle for survival, as law abiding
citizens, within a free society.
Los Angeles Times Street Scenes
At 4:30 am the bakers at El Gallo Bakery in East Los Angeles start baking fresh bread. It has been nearly a year since the Los Angeles Times Street Scenes were shot. Five Latino shooters, 4 photographers and one editor, shot 5 of the 14 neighborhoods.
I shot Avenida Cesar Chavez in East Los Angeles
Carlos Chavez shot Lankershim Blvd in North Hollywood
Genaro Molina shot the Boardwalk in Venice
Michael Robinson-Chavez shot Broadway in Downtown Los Angeles
Karen Tapia shot the Orange Plaza in Orange
May Day 2006 & 2007
Los Angeles May Day marches in 2006 and 2007 brought large peaceful crowds to demand better treatment of undocumented immigrant workers and an end to raids and deportations.
Police estimated a midday downtown LA march to City Hall on May 1, 2006 at 250,000. More than 400,000 marched four miles down Wilshire Boulevard later in the day. Organizers estimated that the crowds were nearly one million. On May 1, 2007 100,000 demonstrators marched up Broadway to a mass rally at Los Angeles City Hall.
Marches - March 25, 2006
More than 500,000 people marched in Los Angeles on March 25, 2006 to protest federal legislation that would crack down on undocumented immigrants, penalize those who help them and build a security wall along the U.S.' southern border.
J Emilio Flores photographed the march.
J. Emilio Flores' Caravana De La Libertad 2003
In September of 2003 J. Emilio Flores rode the Immigrant Workers' Freedom Ride with some of the 18 buses that traveled from several US cities including Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Miami. Nearly 900 workers and their supporters arrived the nation's capital.
Inspired by the freedom riders of the 1960s the immigrant riders used their bus tour to gain support for legalization of undocumented workers, better working conditions and reforms to hasten the reunification of families.
Cesar Chavez Day - March 31st
The Los Angeles Unified School District finally declared Cesar Chavez Day a school holiday.
This photo is from the UCLA Digital Archives - Changing Times: Los Angeles In Photographs 1920 - 1990. Most of the photos carry a Creative Commons designation.