By Steve Simmons – Posted at 10:16 p.m., Dec. 11, 2022
Los Angeles’ Boyle Heights community has a special history. As a melting pot of numerous races and ethnicities—Native Americans, Mexicans, Blacks, Jews, and Asians—that actually got along; and as a breeding ground for civil and workers’ rights actions.
Playwright and activist Josefina López (Real Women Have Curves and many more) wants everyone to know the history and contributions of the place where she grew up and still lives.
To help people understand the enclave’s unique stories, the theatre company she founded 22 years ago, Casa 0101 is presenting Remembering Boyle Heights: Part 2. The production ends its run this weekend. (For details, see below.)
Finding The Hook
Remembering Boyle Heights: Part 2 is a collaborative theater piece by playwright López, director Corky Domínguez and the play’s ensemble cast, that takes off where its original, produced by Casa 0101 in 2018, ended with the aftermath of World War II.
“Our production is inspired by USC Professor of History and American Studies, Dr. George J. Sánchez, who wrote the book, Boyle Heights: How a Los Angeles Neighborhood Became the Future of American Democracy,” says López.
The play is set outdoors between Boyle Heights and East Los Angeles, at the base of a large pine tree “El Pino,” where the character of Professor Wong of the Ethnic Studies Department at East Los Angeles College is listening to his students’ thesis projects presentations.
The 12 actors “talk about, portray and jump into characters” who were part of monumental events in Boyle Heights history in 14 scenes, says López, some taken directly from Sánchez’s book. They range from the 1940s to present day, including the Zoot Suit Riots, East L.A. high school walkouts and the community’s activism and fights for justice.
Through A Female Lens
In choosing which of the myriad events and people of the neighborhood to highlight, López. decided to “look through the lens of women’s stories” to narrow the focus and spotlight histories that often go untold.
So audiences will learn about:
- “University of Southern California, Los Angeles County Medical Center & The Forced Sterilization” — Between 1968 and 1974, more than 200 women were sterilized at the LAC-USC Medical Center. Consent, if given, may have been uninformed, or made under duress, say the women and their advocates. The women, a large number who were primarily Spanish speakers, were sterilized after going to the hospital to give birth, some through emergency C-Sections. Some said they thought they were signing forms to approve the C-Sections or the use of painkillers — not to have their tubes tied. A moving part of the show has the women dressed in hospital gowns, reading statements from those who testified in the ensuing court case.
Tricia Cruz as Slick Chic-A Ramona and cast in the “Zoot Suit & The Pachuca” scene. Photo by Alan Arvizu - “Zoot Suit & The Pachuca”– From the perspective of the women who adopted the iconic male look and made it their own.
- “Murals & Women’s Empowerment”—Focusing on one of Dominguez’ favorite muralists Sand One, renowned for her Eastside works featuring cute dolls with huge eyes and lush dark lashes.
Leslie Montoya as Lil Diamond in the “Murals & Women’s Empowerment” scene. Photo by Alan Arvizu - “Mariachi Plaza & Lucha Reyes” – Highlighting the “Queen of Ranchera” and her music. “She’s a Mexican icon and was ahead of her time,” says López. She visited L.A. many times and her statue stands in Mariachi Plaza.
- “Mothers of East Los Angeles & Activism”—Community activists stopped a proposed state prison in the area as well as a hazardous waste facility.
Edie Pilar Monroy as Luz Colina in the “Paramount Ballroom & The Vex” sequence. Photo by Alan Arvizu - “Paramount Ballroom & The Vex” – The first integrated music venue in the area and a star of the underground punk rock scene in the ‘70s and ‘80s. The sequence showcases East L.A. punk pioneer Alicia “Alice” Armendariz, know as Alice Bag.
- Casa 0101 Theater — Tells how Lopez came to found the Boyle Heights artistic center and “my journey from Mexican to Hispanic to Mexican-American to Chicana.”
Inspiration and background
Talking with a friend’s Jewish acquaintance on a trip to Yale, Lopez learned that his grandparents were from Boyle Heights. “I didn’t know about the Jewish community or that so many people thought of Boyle Heights as their neighborhood,” says López.
She had wondered why so many entities “in a Hispanic community were named after white people, like Hollenbeck Park and more.” After watching director Ellie Kahn’s documentary Meet Me At Brooklyn and Soto (1996) about the old Jewish community–and other cultures like Italian and Japanese–that called Boyle Heights home, she realized she “and other Latino kids didn’t know the history. We were made to feel ashamed of living here. It was all about the drive-bys, and no one talked about the good.”
Sánchez, was one of the historians interviewed for the film. López met him at the Japanese American National Museum. “I told him I was starting a theater and gave him a flyer,” recalls López. “He said he knew who I was and put my flyer up in his exhibit. I was so touched and moved by that.”
“He was one of the people who inspired me to start collecting the histories–the Jewish American community leaves Boyle Heights and the Chicano story continues—and found the theater,” says López. “Over 22 years we’ve produced more than 220 plays and readings and continue to be an education center.”
López and Sánchez began a relationship corresponding and speaking on panels, she as activist, he as academic. When his Ph.D. students wrote dissertations on gentrification she read one of them and later, some of the early chapters of his book. “I didn’t know about the changes in the community, and this explained a lot of things.”
Her response to the displacement that comes as low-income families of color are priced out of their homes by upwardly-mobile young people looking to live somewhere trendy was Hipsteria, co-written with Oscar Arguello (2016). It’s the near-future tale of a Hispanic mother who loses her home to a pair of hipsters building a hotel for dogs. “I had heard a story about a woman cleaning up her East Hollywood neighborhood and won awards for kicking out gangs,” says López, “only to be thrown out of her own building.”
The company also produced Arguello’s Sideways Fences (2017) about a couple, 28-weeks pregnant, who find out their house is being torn down to make way for condos.
“The reason I did these pieces is because of gentrification,” says López. “This community is so neglected and underserved. To recognize its value, you can fight gentrifiers and become exhausted, or inspire people with stories. Developers have learned that they need to speak to the community and meet its needs. It’s about people having an awareness that there’s already something here. You can contribute to the canvas, put your color in there, but don’t whitewash it and make it disappear, Dr. Sanchez has said this is the first community that fought back.”
Moving Forward
Lopez is hoping to film and use these theatrical presentations for the online Boyle Heights Museum she and Dr. Sanchez founded. “We want to tell these stories from our point of view,” says López. “Chicano history is American history, and we want young people to learn and be proud of Boyle Heights.”
Casa 0101 Theater is at 2102 E. First St., (at Louis Street) across from the Hollenbeck Police Station in Boyle Heights. Final performances (77-minutes without intermission) are at 8 p.m., Friday and Saturday, Dec. 16 and 17 and 3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 18. Tickets are $30, $25 for students/seniors. For tickets and information, call 323-263-7684, email tickets@casa0101.org or visit www.casa01010.org.
Steve Simmons is an accomplished writer and editor who writes about a wide array of topics including entertainment. His successful experience at The Beverly Hills Courier and other publications set the stage for his blog. Contact Steve at steve.simmons0211@gmail.com or 626-788-6734.
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