why a people's guide to los angeles?

A People’s Guide to LA is an attempt to map sites of racial and class struggle in Los Angeles’ history and landscape. Looking at the history of California, and especially Los Angeles, it is clear that race has been one of the central forces shaping the development of the region. From the arrival of Spanish missionaries, to the development of Chinatown, to the beating of Rodney King, race is one of the key factors that have influenced the region’s economy, landscape, and history. While there have been some efforts to memorialize the history of various communities of color, as seen in the Dunbar Hotel, Olvera Street, and Little Tokyo, these sites emphasize the contributions and historical experience of particular groups. While we think this is invaluable, we also think there is a need to emphasize struggle, because when you think about, that’s what race is really all about.

Whenever such matters are contemplated, you can be sure that people will resist efforts to marginalize them. Sometimes they fight out of self-interest and because their dignity is being assaulted, other times they resist out of solidarity or because they realize that they are responsible for their sisters and brothers. We felt that this dimension of Los Angeles’s landscape and history was missing.

While A People’s Guide to LA is essentially about racial struggle, it is also about landscape and place. As we’ve suggested, race is always a contested process – one that is expressed in the landscape. While books are one way to learn about a place’s history, you can also learn a great deal by going outside, studying the landscape, and asking questions. To a large extent, the city itself is a written record of racial history - you just have to know how and where to look. Unfortunately, in a place like Los Angeles, historically significant sites get bulldozed on a daily basis. While we applaud the efforts of various groups to preserve the region’s history, we also take issue with which history is represented. For instance, the Bradbury Building (which is wonderful, by the way) is mentioned in almost all tour guides, but what do we know about la gente who actually labored to construct the building?

Putting together a project of this sort required that we address a number of tough political issues. One of the hardest ones was whether and how to include white people in the Guide. On the one hand, we realize that white people are an essential part of Los Angeles’s racial narrative, whether as anti-racist activists, as overt racists, or more commonly, as well-intentioned folks insistent on maintaining white privilege. Yet, it was also clear that the vast majority of Los Angeles tour guides and narratives (to say nothing of movies) focus on whites. Thus, we ultimately decided that the People’s Guide should focus primarily on the history and struggle of communities of color. But it’s important to remember that who is white/nonwhite shifts over time. For that reason you will find references to Jews and other “not quite white groups” in the Guide. We realize that in no way does the People’s Guide offer a complete history of events or even cover all the relevant groups – rather we have attempted to take a first stab at developing an alternative historical geography – one that we hope others will build upon.

Originally, A People’s Guide was intended to be a book. But when no publishers were interested, we were forced to take a different tack. First we produced a poster of the Guide, which is available for sale from the Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research in Los Angeles. Second, we decided to produce a website. In retrospective, we realize that the web was perhaps the most appropriate media choice all long. Besides allowing more people access to the Guide, the online format also enables dialogue and a level of interactivity not possible in an only print format. For instance, in addition to visiting the various sites and taking the tours, we hope that you will use the forum to let us and other users know what you thought about the various places, how they made you feel, or to contribute additional information. Likewise, the forum provides an opportunity for folks to contribute their own ideas and resources for additional sites. We will review your suggestions periodically and hope to include some of them in the Guide. We can’t promise that we will incorporate all suggestions – beside being in keeping with the themes of A People’s Guide, we need to pay attention to issues of geographic, ethnic, and social diversity. Nonetheless, we know that there thousands of potential sites that would make a great fit and that there is no way we could ever cover them all ourselves. Thus, this interactive dimension really allows A People’s Guide to be a project of and by the people as we attempt to rewrite the history and geography of Los Angeles. We hope you enjoy A People’s Guide to LA and that it encourages you to begin developing your own alternative mappings of Los Angeles – or wherever it is that you live.

Credit
A lot of folks gave of their time, talents, and hearts to help make A People’s Guide to LA a reality. The actual idea for the Guide came from my friend, Tony Osumi, a teacher with LA Unified School District and a great artist. I did most of the initial research, but this project would never have materialized without the historical knowledge and research and design skills of Sharon Sekhon whose commitment to this project is unparalleled. Special thanks to USC’s Institute for Multimedia Learning which provided a summer fellowship to develop the website and hooked us up with a team of designers and technical experts, including Priscilla Ovalle, Sharon Sekhon, and Alex Tarr. Mike Jones with the assistance of Chris Kampmeier and Nicole Padilla, produced the audio tours. Dan Hosang contributed research, the timeline, and resource guide. Laura Barraclough assisted with the map, while Alex Tarr completed it. Our photographers include Laura Barraclough, Robert Drwila, Roberto Morales, Lorena Muñoz, Steven Murashige, Sharon Sekhon, and myself.

--Laura Pulido