Fotos, Los Angeles

Mil palabras: Disney Hall (or, mile 4)

One of the things I read in the reviews of the 2010 LA Marathon was praise of the “stadium to the sea” course highlighting a landmark every mile. This year’s course differs slightly, but still begins at Dodger Stadium and ends a few blocks from the Santa Monica pier.

I like the “stadium to the sea” theme, mainly because it makes me think of LA having a subway or light rail that would traverse a similar route. I’m less excited about the landmarks, probably because I live here. I don’t think of places like the Troubador or the House of Blues as landmarks. They’re just places I go to see shows, like The Dears last week.

Now, Disney Hall? I consider it a landmark, probably because it’s designed by Frank Gehry, it’s cool to look at and it’s at the top of Bunker Hill with a few other cultural institutions. I don’t look forward to running up Bunker Hill, at all (but I’ve done hills, I’m prepared!).

Some of my favorite landmarks (Hollywood Bowl, UCLA, Griffith Observatory, LACMA and Museum Row) aren’t on the course, but I don’t mind since most of those are in the hills. It also bums me out that the course no longer crosses over the LA River in to the Eastside.

If you want to see where I’ll be spending Sunday morning, check out this neat video by the LA Times stitching together Google Maps street view images for most of the course. I’ve been through the VA Center near UCLA and the Dodger Stadium parking lot plenty of times. No surprises there.

What’s your favorite landmark on the course? What would you add?

Cine, Cultura, Historia

This day in Chicana herstory: Eva Longoria

March 15, 1975
I used to watch Desperate Housewives. I couldn’t stand Eva Longoria’s character, Gabrielle Solis, in early seasons, but she was one of the few Latinas on TV. So I kept watching. Then I read a profile on her in some magazine while getting a pedicure. She seemed kind of likable.

Longoria doesn’t shy away from her ethnicity, unlike other Latina actresses (cough, Jessica Alba, cough). She seems very committed to various philanthropic causes and charities, including Eva’s Heroes for children with developmental disabilities. Eva’s Heroes is quite personal as Longoria’s older sister has developmental disabilities. I don’t know if she’s really a great person, or if her publicists just make her look good.

Last week, I highlighted the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and mentioned that it was supposed to protect those who had been granted land before the Mexican American War. These people are the original Chicanos who can actually say, “we didn’t cross the borders, the borders crossed up.” Apparently, Longoria’s ancestors are one of those families. I knew they had been in Texas a long time, but they went way back.

In 2009, she enrolled in the Chicano Studies master’s program at CSUN. I remember this news spreading through Facebook. My friends in the program were ecstatic, especially the men who couldn’t wait to offer to be a study partner. I don’t think they’ve ever seen her. Maybe she’s taking the classes online.

Happy birthday, Eva.

Viajes

Santa Barbara anniversary trip

On the short hour and half drive up to Santa Barbara, Sean asked me why I’d chosen the coastal city to celebrate our one year anniversary. I shrugged, it just seemed better than another trip to Disneyland and California Adventures. “This way you can have a real California adventure,” I responded since he’s new to the state and doesn’t know much beyond LA.

SB is close enough for an affordable and quick weekend getaway. More importantly, it’s far enough to feel like I’m out of the city. I’ve been to SB several times, but I was usually stuck in daylong meetings or conferences at UCSB. I was in elementary school the last time I’d done sightseeing in SB.

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Cultura, Historia, Política

This day in Chicano history: Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo Ratified by US Senate

March 10, 1848:
While February 2nd is noted by some as the original birthday of the first Chicanos, March 10th is notable too. because the version of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ratified by the Senate was different than the one signed in Mexico a few weeks earlier.

Via the Library of Congress:

Other provisions stipulated the Texas border at the Rio Grande (Article V), protection for the property and civil rights of Mexican nationals living within the new border (Articles VIII and IX), U.S. promise to police its side of the border (Article XI), and compulsory arbitration of future disputes between the two countries (Article XXI). When the U.S. Senate ratified the treaty in March, it reduced Article IX and deleted Article X guaranteeing the protection of Mexican land grants. Following the Senate’s ratification of the treaty, U.S. troops left Mexico City.

This would be a significant part of the Chicano Movement in the 60s and 70s as people like <a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reies_Tijerina#Research”Reies Tijerina fought to have the original land grants recognized.

As mentioned above, the civil rights of the new Chicanos were also amended from the version signed on February 2nd.

Article VIII guaranteed that Mexicans who remained more than one year in the ceded lands would automatically become full-fledged American citizens (or they could declare their intention of remaining Mexican citizens); however, the Senate modified Article IX, changing the first paragraph and excluding the last two. Among the changes was that Mexican citizens would “be admitted at the proper time (to be judged of by the Congress of the United States)” instead of “admitted as soon as possible”, as negotiated between Trist and the Mexican delegation.
[Via Wikipedia]

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is still relevant today, especially as states like Arizona pass law after law targeting our community. As Dr. Cintli Rodriguez discusses, the provisions guarding the civil rights of Mexicans in the ceded territories may be useful for those who seek to challenge SB 1070 and proposed laws affecting citizenship rights for children of undocumented immigrants.

Cuentos, Fotos

Mil palabras: The mission

Did I dream it or did someone tell me the story? I can’t remember where the truth ends and the talk begins.
– from Caramelo by Sandra Cisneros (p. 20)

When I was a kid, my family went camping on some bluffs overlooking the beaches of Santa Barbara. I can’t remember the name of the campsite or how old I was. I do remember joining up with my tía Susana, her sisters and a couple other families. There were a lot of kids left unattended as our mom’s played la baraja.

On Sunday morning, while everyone was still asleep in their tents, my mom woke us up for Mass at the Santa Barbara Mission. I’m sure we grumbled about having to go to church while on vacation, but we went anyway.

There weren’t many people in Mass that Sunday, it was much emptier than our usual 8 a.m. service at St. John Vianney. I remember thinking it was cool and weird that I was inside one of the same missions we studied in 4th grade.

At least I think I remember this. I stopped by the mission briefly on a recent trip to SB. It didn’t look familiar, nor did I get the feeling I’d visited before. Perhaps my memory is distorted. I know we went camping in SB and went to Mass on Sunday, but maybe it wasn’t at the mission. Maybe I imagined that part.