Lupe and Pilar García

A la Loma family story
A new beginning; displacement; and heartbreak

On Sunday, I told the story of how the man on the cover of Don Normark's classic book, Chávez Ravine, 1949:  A Los Angeles Story, was positively identified by two of his daughters as Guadalupe García.  Today, I will tell you a little about Lupe's family and the relatively short time they lived in la Loma, one of the Chávez Ravine communities that was destroyed during the 1950s to make way, eventually, for the construction of Dodger Stadium.

It is a story of one family's new beginnings — first by a happy, new life in the Chávez Ravine community of la Loma, then followed by displacement and the heartbreak of eviction at the hands of their adopted city, Los Angeles.

Meet Guadalupe García and Pilar de León

Guadalupe García and Pilar de León [photo courtesy the García family]

This lovely photograph of Lupe García and Pilar de León is undated; but if there is any doubt about the identity of the man on the cover of Normark's book, compare this photo with the one in the blog Who is this man?.

Lupe García was born in 1913 in México, probably in Aguascalientes, although his birth record has not been located.  He is the son of Librado Garciá and his wife, Juanita.  Pilar de León was born in 1912 in Goliad County, Texas, the daughter of Juan de León and Carlota Bocanegra, who are from México.  In the 1930 US census of Texas, Lupe and Pilar are found living near each other in rural Edna, jackson County, Texas.

Lupe's parents, Librado and Juanita, immigrated to the United States in 1916, when Lupe was a small child.  They had been married 32 years in 1930, and their last child, David, was born in Texas in 1918.

On the other hand, Pilar de León's parents, Juan and Carlota, immigrated in 1887, when they were both very young, and so they must have married in Texas.  They were the parents of nine children, three girls and six boys, born between 1910 and 1928.   Pilar was their second child; she has an older sister, Luisa.

Lupe and Pilar married sometime between 1930 and 1935.  Over the next seven years, they had four children:  Mary Ann (1935), Guadalupe Gilberto (a boy, 1938), Madalena (known as Helen, 1940), and Librado D. (1942).

From Texas to Los Angeles

In 1945, Lupe and Pilar and their four children moved from Port Lavaca, Texas, to Los Angeles, settling temporarily with the de León family, Pilar's parents, Juan and Carlota, on Amador Street in Solano Canyon, sharing the house with three uncles who were recently returned from World War II, and others.  As Helen tells it, "I remember lots of people living there."

"I remember lots of people living there."  — Helen García

Shortly after their arrival, the García family moved to "... a small house behind the mission ...", according to Helen.  The mission she refers to is the San Conrado Church on Bouett Street in Solano Canyon.

"It was near the church."  — Mary Ann García

The family moves to la Loma

After living for a short time in the small, rented house behind the San Conrado Mission, Pilar located a two-story house on Spruce Street in la Loma, and the family moved once more.  The address of the house is not known with certainty, but it must have been in the 600 block.  The house was on the downhill side of Spruce Street and faced the street.  The lot went all the way to Phoenix Street and Helen says she remembers walking down the hill to attend Solano Avenue School.

"My mother had a friend, Mrs. Trujillo, who lived on Amador Street or Solano Avenue — I'm not sure — and it turned out that Mrs. Trujillo's daughter [Molly] married my uncle Elías.  Anyway, while that romance was going on, I got to know Mrs. Trujillo, and she would take me, once a week, downtown to the Mexican movies on Broadway."  — Helen García

Helen Garcia identifies her house

A view of la Loma from Solano Canyon, circa 1930

Helen García noticed this photograph from an earlier blog, A Tour of Chavez Ravine in Under 2 Minutes.  The García home on Spruce Street is the two-story, white house near the top, left-hand corner of the photograph — the house that is partially obscured by a tree.  This is the house she identified as the family home on Spruce Street in la Loma.

The García house on Spruce Street in la Loma

Shangri-la becomes not-so-pleasant

The García family lived on Spruce Street in la Loma for nearly five years.  Helen García remembers fruit trees growing below their house, especially loquat, apricot, and sapote, which was Helen's favorite.  She also remembers the sound of bells on the goats that were kept further up the street, and of her playing on the street in front of the house.

"It was a playground to me ... I was sad to let go of the house and move."  — Helen García

"We were very happy there."  — Mary Ann García

Then, one day in 1950 or 1951, a man came to the house to tell the family they had to move.  It was the start of what became the eventual eviction and destruction of the homes of nearly 1,100 families in the Chavez Ravine communities of la Loma, Palo Verde, and Bishop.  Helen, then ten years old, doesn't remember much about the visit that day; but Mary Ann, Helen's sister and nearly five years her senior, has a vivid memory of the man and that time.

"All of a sudden, this man came over and said we had to go — we had to leave.  He was Anglo, tall, thin; he had a mustache.  He spoke with a brusque voice so that we would be afraid of him.  He introduced himself, but I don't remember his name.  I got angry, to think that someone like that could take our home away ... He said, 'We have to take your home away, because the military wants to use it for some training.'  He offered us $1,000.  I said, 'No, we need more money than that', so he said, 'Well, then, $2,000'.  I was so upset I had to leave.  I knew if I didn't get out of there, I would do something, I was so mad.  I don't know what [my parents] eventually got for the house."  — Mary Ann García

The perception of sixteen-year-old Mary Ann García paints a disturbing picture.  She saw the tall, thin Anglo man with a mustache as a threatening figure who was trying to intimidate her parents into selling their home for very little money.  How much money they eventually received for their house is not known, but Mary Ann's memories reveal a determined and heavy-handed effort to get nearly 1,100 mostly-Hispanic families off their properties

What was the real purpose of the evictions?  Was there perhaps a racial component to the plan?

"Years later, that house stood for so long, and here they didn't even do anything with that property.  You could see the house from the freeway.  We would always look over and see the house.  For many years, I would see it there; then, all of a sudden, it was gone.  It was a tiny little house, but it was a nice house."  — Helen García

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An afterword

First-person accounts carry incredible power.  My thanks to sisters Mary Ann and Helen García for their memories and for their recorded accounts, and for their gracious permission to publish them here.

Update

Shortly after I published this blog about two hours ago, a dear friend of mine who lives in Solano Canyon sent me this photograph.  Compare it with the 1930s-era photograph, above.  More than 50 years after the evictions and the destruction have all been said and done, this is what la Loma looks like today — it's the same location as in the photographs, above.  And it's a shame.

la Loma from Solano Canyon, 2015