In the 1920s, Boyle Heights was a multi-racial and multi-cultural community. Photo courtesy of Pinterest        By Shirlee Smith The Rhinehart story is taken from 1988 writings by Richard and Melvin and given to Bernice Pickett Smiley. When the Rhinehart family moved; just to the next block on the same street, two of the older boys, along with a couple of cousins, acted as official movers—no need for a truck. They simply pushed their family piano down Boulder Street to their new dwelling. This action may not be a common occurrence these days, but it wasn’t out of the ordinary for folks back in Boyle Heights, because our families frequently moved just a stone’s throw away from where we’d been living. Or in the case of the Rhineharts; just a piano push away. The family patriarch, Laurie H. Rhinehart, was born in Hickory, North Carolina, in 1902 and joined the Navy during World War I. In 1920, while stationed in San Pedro, California, he met and married Fran...

By Gil Cedillo One Saturday morning in late August 50 years ago, I finished my household chores early and slipped out of the house to meet some friends. We were going to the Chicano Moratorium Against the Vietnam War. I was 16 years old, and this would be my first protest march. As it turned out, those were my first steps in a long march toward a more just world. I played quarterback on Roosevelt High’s Rough Riders football team, which at the time was my main goal in life. That day I marched with Mario Chacón and some other friends my parents called greñudos –longhairs. An estimated 30,000 marchers made the Moratorium the largest political protest in Los Angeles history. The Moratorium was a turning point for legions of young community activists. Marchers included political leaders Esteban Torres and Gloria Molina, attorneys Antonia Hernandez and Samuel Paz, photographer Luis Garza, and educator Maria Elena Yepes. My greñudo friend Mario and I wound up being roommates...

  Iglesia de Dios de la Profecia, where a police officer was caught beating a suspect on April 27th. Photo by J.N. Arias . By Jeremy Arias I t was a hot afternoon. All week the humidity had driven me out of the house and into the shade offered by the fig tree out front. It was much cooler outside, and aside from the usual squirrel foraging for food from a perch above my shoulder or the occasional blare of a car alarm, there weren’t many distractions. I was reading from one of my textbooks when I heard a man screaming. Although it was the only voice being raised so loudly, I figured my neighbors had gotten into an argument. I tried to focus on my reading again but was compelled to look toward the east where the yelling appeared to come from. “ Get inside! Get inside!” shouted another angry voice, as if yelling at a dog. I grabbed my camera and rushed out to the sidewalk. I saw a man facing the gate in front of the duplex next door to a neighborhood church....

Lys Pérez and José Alejandro Hernández in Let it Go, Esa by Mónica Pérez. Photo: Lorena Ortega. By Abel M. Salas Now in its eighth consecutive year and armed with an all-new slate of original, one-act stage works written, produced and directed exclusively by women, Chicanas, Cholas, y Chisme —the riotous homegrown theatrical hit—returns to Boyle Heights in its funniest, edgiest and most moving configuration yet. Opening this weekend at Casa 0101 Theater, the now annual ensemble production was conceived originally by playwright and community cultural arts advocate Josefina López, the prolific writer who founded Casa and serves as its artistic director. Developed under her guidance and introduced with a modest production during 2012 in a converted row-style storefront location one block west of the current Casa 0101 address where López’ unique vision for a Boyle Heights theater and arts district was initially incubated and nurtured,  Chicanas, Cholas, y Chisme was, s...

Rufino Romero (l.) as Luís J. Rodríguez or “Chin” with Haylee Sánchez as  “Camila” in the new stage adaptation of Always Running by author Luís Rodríguez and director Hector Rodriguez at Casa 0101 Theater. Photo by Ed Krieger Review by Abel M. Salas Based on the best-selling book by Luís J. Rodríguez, the Casa 0101 world-premiere of Always Running is a subtle tour de force. Directed by Hector Rodríguez (no relation to the renowned poet, novelist, youth advocate and founder of Tia Chucha Press), the production benefits from a surprisingly effective adaption of the classic memoir, a theatrical adaptation developed collaboratively by the director and the author himself. A Carl Sandburg Literary Award winner that garnered early praise as a New York Times “Notable Book,” Always Running was originally published in 1993. The searing, achingly honest and often brutally personal account of the author’s struggle to overcome the soul-scarring wounds imprinted on his psyche as the p...

From Staff Reports For well over two decades, Angels Walk LA has focused its efforts on preserving and commemorating the important history and special character of L.A.’s diverse and culturally rich neighborhoods. And for the next two months, historic and modern-day Boyle Heights will be at the center of the unique work and ground-breaking contributions to historical preservation that Angels Walk offers greater Los Angeles as it develops a self-guided historical walking tour with support and input from the Boyle Heights Historical Society (BHHS), lifelong neighborhood residents and community stakeholders. Journalist and Chicano art historian Abel Salas, a founding editor at Brooklyn & Boyle as well as a 22-year resident of L.A.’s East Side, has also signed on to assist with the research and writing part of the project. “Angels Walk Boyle Heights,” comprised of 15, all-weather, outdoor informational stanchions and a companion guidebook, will highlight and celebrate the people...

Charter academy founder Rubén Alonzo (r.) tables at Mariachi Plaza to pitch the school to parents. Photo courtesy Exelencia Academy  By Richard Vásquez One place you never hear the term Chicano is on Spanish-language media in Los Angeles.  Because Los Angeles was ground zero for the historic Chicano movement, it strikes me as rather odd that this should be the case.  We have four over the air, twenty-four hour a day, Spanish-language television broadcast stations and dozens of radio stations, with corresponding digital bandwidth covering the Los Angeles Metropolitan region, a market indicator zone generously mapped to include as Ventura, Los Angeles, Orange and most of Riverside and San Bernardino Counties. A powerful demographic aggregate, it is synonymous with the definition of “Hispanic media” in the U.S. and the number one Hispanic market in the nation, comprising nearly 12 million Latinos. In terms of scale, the L.A. Metro Area is home to over one-fifth of th...