"It's a shame what they did to those people who lived there."

If I haven't said it already, but I am a Dodger fan. Yet, sometimes I have to wonder about what was once underneath Dodger Stadium. Chavez Ravine was at one point a poor, mostly Latino neighborhood. Both my parents were raised in the area just downhill from the stadium in an area that, to this day, I have difficult time describing to someone. It’s nestled between Elysian Valley and Echo Park, but I always remember it being called its barrio name--"Frogtown." Some people get, some just get more confused.

Raising my father is this neighborhood, my grandmother remembers Chavez Ravine quite well. I always remember she would say, "It's a shame what they did to those people who lived there."

Some have forgotten what the city destroyed to build Dodger Stadium. However, some are making sure it’s never forgotten. In an article in the L.A. Times, Vincent Valdez documented the event in his artwork, but not on canvas. Try a '53 Chevy lowrider ice-cream truck.

Los Angeles Times
A M B Y on Flickr
Dept. Special of Collections/UCLA Library