Chavez Ravine: An Unfinished Story
Chavez Ravine: An Unfinished Story was founded in 2015 by Palo Verde resident Carol Jacques and historian of race and urban history, Dr. Priscilla Leiva. Carol grew up on Paducah Street before she lost her beloved community at the age of eight. This early encounter with injustice influenced her work as a lifelong activist, warrior for social justice and public servant for the County of Los Angeles. After many decades, she appeared in Jordan Mechner’s award-winning documentary, Chavez Ravine: A Los Angeles Story and began to research her painful memories and community’s history. She and Jordan Mechner agreed his research and outtakes should be publicly available and she began to search for a partner to make this promise a reality. When she met Dr. Leiva, a natural partnership emerged. As an historian of Los Angeles, racial formation and sport, Priscilla had conducted research on the contested landscape where Dodger Stadium now sits. Since her time in graduate school, she participated and led a number of projects aimed at telling Latinx history in museums and other public spaces. These experiences showed her first-hand the power of collaboration with community members. At their first meeting in 2015, Carol and Priscilla decided to partner and establish Chavez Ravine: An Unfinished Story. Shortly after, they began to collaborate with Los Desterrados, the cultural historical association of displaced residents from the three communities that has successfully preserved the memory of their communities for nearly 50 years. Then in 2018, they created a partnership with Loyola Marymount University’s William H. Hannon Library. Since then, a team consisting of community members, academics and library professionals have worked together to launch a community-curated archival collection that honors the history of the three resilient neighborhoods.
