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Jeanelle Cruz
English 100
#3637
November 20, 2014

Chavez Ravine Battle

Chavez Ravines history relates to the novel The Madonnas of Echo Park by Brando
Skyhorse because just as many of the characters in the novel were evicted from Chavez Ravine,
many of the residents actually living in Chavez Ravine in the 1950s were evicted from their own
homes to construct the Dodger Stadium. Chavez Ravine consisted out of three neighborhoods
Palo Verde, La Loma, and Bishop. These neighborhoods were once home to many generations of
low-income Mexican-American families. In the 1950s residents in Chavez Ravine were evicted
to create a housing project that never happened. Instead of creating cheaper apartments and
houses for low-income families, the famous Dodger Stadium was built.
The Dodgers stadium today sits over 178 acres of land, a land that used to be the home of
over 1,000 families. Many people are not aware that before the bleachers and the huge amount of
flat land that makes up the Dodger Stadium, was once the land that belonged to many families
who had worked hard to improve their community. Churches, schools, farms; these were few of
the things that made up the united community of Chavez Ravine. I loved it there, I loved it
because we used to run up and down the hills, we used to know every little trail around the
neighborhood. I dont think anybody would have liked to move out of their neighborhood if they
had lived there for so long, and everyone they knew were considered as family (Anchado 2:17).
The homes, churches, and schools were not the only things that were destructed. The connection

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between families and friends were destructed as well when the city forced everyone to evacuate
and look for somewhere else to live.
Chavez Ravines residents were forced to leave their homes back in the 1950s when The
housing project act of 1949 was passed, and Chavez Ravine along with other communities were
chosen for the housing project act. This Project was meant to help many low-income families
have affordable homes and better neighborhoods. Located just a mile from downtown Los
Angeles, and with only 40 percent of its roughly 300 acres occupied, Chavez Ravine appeared to
the city's well-intentioned public housing advocates to be an ideal site (Masters 1). Chavez
Ravine was practically vacant and the city believed this was a perfect place to do the project
since they were not going to displace as many people. They told families that the housing project
was going to be built in their location for low-income families, but they were able to move back
and have priority when the housing project was finished. The city housing authority bought the
homes of many families, but instead of giving the amount of money their houses were worth they
paid them very little. As a child, Elias remembers a man coming to his front door and offering
his father $9,600 for his home. The senior Elias took the offer, his son remembers, only to
discover that prices for homes in other neighborhoods were around double that. (Brownfield).
According to Brownfield newspaper article Hanes father had no idea what a house was really
worth, and unfortunately when he accepted the offered and tried buying a house he noticed he
had been scammed.
Some of the residents accepted the money like Hanes father, but others resisted. Many
Mexican American women living in Chavez Ravine identify themselves as patriotic wives and
daughters of veterans who were permitted to keep their homes. They had worked hard,
purchased property and sent their men to war despite the discrimination that they faced at home.

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If the Government could take their homes, the symbol of American belonging, it threatened the
foundation upon which their patriotism was based, and suggested that the United States had
failed to live up to its promise. (Lopez 2) These women had all the rights to keep their homes
according to the United States, but their rights werent acknowledge and they were forced to
leave their homes as well. After a couple years support for the government-hosing project
collapsed and the neighborhood became vacant. Chavez Ravine was eventually sold to O'Malley
so he could move the Brooklyn Dodgers from New York to Los Angeles. The promise that was
made to many of the residents that lived in Chavez Ravine was never made. They never got the
chance to move back to their neighborhood. Instead of building houses and homes that were
supposed to be affordable for low-income people they decided to give the land to the Dodgers.
Having the Dodger Stadium be built instead of the housing project was a hypocrite move.
They only focused in the amount of money and benefits they were obtaining building the
stadium in Chavez Ravine, but they didnt focus on the amount of people who were loosing their
homes, their property. For Walter OMalleys champions, the name Chavez Ravine should
henceforth contain nothing but the Dodger Stadium and the mud upon which it was built (Lopez
4). This phrase shows how little concern they had on the families that used to live underneath the
Dodgers Stadium. While the Dodgers benefited themselves building their stadium in Chavez
Ravine, the families that lived there struggled to rebuild their lives in other places.
Knowing about the history of Chavez Ravine is a reminder of how the Dodgers Stadium
became to be what it is today. Without these families giving up their childhood, their homes,
their neighborhoods the Dodger Stadium would have never been built where it is built right now.
Remembering Chavez Ravine is a way of recognizing the families that battled to keep their
homes. A reminder that there was once supposed to be a neighborhood underneath the Dodgers.

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Work Citied

Becerra, Hector. "Decades Later, Bitter Memories of Chavez Ravine." Los Angeles Times: 0. Apr
05 2012. Web. 25 Nov. 2014.
Brownfield, Paul. "TELEVISION & RADIO; TELEVISION REVIEW; 'Chavez Ravine' Too
Familiar, Too Sad; A PBS Documentary Forces a Look at the People Who Lost their
Neighborhood to Dodger Stadium." Los Angeles Times: 0. Jun 07 2005. ProQuest. Web.
26 Nov. 2014.
Hines, Thomas S. "Field of Dreams; HISTORY; The Battle of Chavez Ravine." Los Angeles
Times 20 Apr. 1997. Tribune Publishing Company LLC. Web. 18 Nov. 2014
Lopez, Ronald W. "Community Resistance and Conditional Patriotism in Cold War Los
Angeles: The Battle for Chavez Ravine." Latino Studies 7 (2009): 457-79. Web. 16 Nov.
2014.
Masters, Nathan. "Chavez Ravine: Community to Controversial Real Estate." KCET. N.p., 13
Sept. 2012.
National Brown Berets "CHAVEZ RAVINE." YouTube. N.p., 12 Jan. 2013. Web. 25 Nov.
2014.