Week 3 Readings

8/14/2019 Week 3 Readings

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AMERICAN ALBUM

1lO88Dl:W lU .Vrsitors examine the nine-story-tall face ofCrazy HOfSe at Thunderhead Mountain,The sculptor' , family has genera lly wonplaudill from the state's Nauve American

groups for the ir work. Lat er this month. theZiolkowsk is will open a Nauve AmericanEducation and Cultural Center, a facilitywa lled wilh gra nit e blast fragments, Thecenter will belIlarfed by Indians, hosUng localstudenlll and dtsp laying works by Nati veAmerican ar tists.- On a rec en t day when Casimir Ziolkowskiblas ted more rock fragmenlS on the mounta in, a busload or visiting Indian studentsfrom the Canadian prov ince or Manitoba weresoawed by the face of Crazy Horse that lJleybroke Into an impromptu tribal cha nt of praiseon th e lodge 's observ ation deck.The detonations proceeded, as lhey alwayshave onTh underhead MounU- in, with work man like precision. Aft er sec uring explosivecords in rock furr ows well beMath CrazyHorse 's cnggy face, Casimir Ziolkowski re otrea ted to a proteet.ve cage atop the moun - ,Ialn."Firei ll the hole!" he shout ed,

Thunderhead Mountain rumbled, ilS elifFsdusty with falling rocks, one claycloser lo itstransforma tion into a moun ted Indian war rio


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LAND AND SPIRITUALITY ANDTHE DESCANSOS

byAmnlia Af('lIr-Bmi/oJ

Territorialization. annexation, forcedmigration. reservations, coloniza tion and relocation have character ized the history and ancestryof Mexicans in the"United States. Such a historyhas forged a resiliency marked in a landscape ofcherished sites. In this sense the relationshipbetween faith . land and self determination hasalso been one of spirit. land and self representation . It is within these connections of nature andhistory that a politicizing spirituality establishesits ( l I ~ n r t J tk [ IU IUrYJo in the words of ZamudioTaylor.

From a lugnr, a place outside ofWes tern tradition, and th roughcritical negativity, a reconstructionof a qualitatively different relationship to nature can be posited andac ted upon . The ceremony ofmemory recognizes in our epirituality and tradition a'reconciliationwith nature and the somatic. Wehave been thrown into conditionswe have not made and are obligedfrom necessity and reality to evercome constraints and pai n,'Wi thin thi s framework the Chicano issues

ofland and culture stand as vital points in theconstruction of identity. Often the issues ofidentily prevalent in the contemporary art discourse

have described cultural specificity as otherness.Thi s otherness has been presented th rough thecritique of the body and political relations. buton ly recently through land and spirituality.Memory and history inspire a sp iritual identityforged in struggle against domination. Fo r theMexican descended Ch icano this domination isevidenced in the ongoing relationship with theU.S. border and a sub jectivity med iated by th isrupture .

Ironically, the appropriation of "Borders"in the poetmcdem debate has been used to erasediffe rence and socio-geographic rea lity.Terminology which arose from real s itua tions andsocial issues at the U.S.lMexico border and inother parts of Latinamerica has been dccontextualieed and applied to a variety of criticalintellectual enterprises with little acknowledge- ,ment of the drastic cultural emergencies takingplace in the Americas. In reclaiming the discourse of a very real phenomenon of borden ,geographies a nd cultural displacements we canbegin to clarify the issues of our complex identities. The understand ing of place or /ugnras acr itical aspect of cultural self description is foundational. Anchoring ourselves in a gee-spatialcontext allows us to see the relat ions betweenplace and name, history and identity.LAND AND HISTORY

In the context of history and identity, landserves as an organizing agent for ar tistic culturalp roduction. It is pa rt of a comp lex se t of designations tha t are at the same lime a geographicrea lity. a bisto-pcl iticel experience, a sp iritualfounda tion and a familiar s ignpost.


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l it a proround sense the lu c.:lliity . . . . .remodern day Chi cano or Mexican American arisesfrom 1I10se Mexicans who remained north of theborder aft er the 1848 annexation in whichMexico ceded 51.2 pe rcent or its ter ritory to theUn ited States. Because of the annexation, peopleof Mexican descent entered the United States asa conquered peo ple and were defined as an "ethnic g roup". ' Yet the ancestral legacy ofhomeplace and landright is founded in a MesoAmerican world. For Mexican descended peoplethi s continent has been a-true site of beginning inan Amer-Indian world.t1 Ch icanos have suffered a long history of

\ separation and displacement that has broughtwith it both a connection with Mexico and asense of homeland in the United States. Thus.lan d acts as a subject and text con tinuallyreclaimed through the imagination . In an atte mptto ret rieve a lost pa st many Chicano artists andactivists renewed the concepts of the N ahuatlspiritual worldview still held by many indigenou speoples across the Americas. This cosmology ishued on the belief that we live as visitors uponthe land. Th is attitude toward time and landi through temporal and spatial ideas was bestdescribed in philosophic writings of the Nahuatlworld.

I, Nezahualcoyoll ask th isquestion:Is it true that one lives with rootson eartb?Not to remain on earth forever 'only a sho rt while

the U.S. annexation of North ern Mexico and tileexploitat ion of the Guadalupe Hidalgo Treaty of1848. To underst and the human impa ct of theannexation it is significant to rea lize tltat theTreaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. executed onFebruary 2, 1848, Mexico ceded to the Uni tedStates one-half of the terri tory which it possessed. This enormous land included California,Arizona, New Mexico and also approved the earlier a nnexation of Texas. Th e Mexican nat ionalsof the annexed territory had one year to return toMexico or become part of the U.S. With fewexceptions the internally colonized remainedunde r a treaty that promised the safeguarding oftheir cultural autonomy. that is, they were giventhe r ight to retain their language, religion andculture. While initial figur es indicate only a pop-ulation of 100,000 or more, the impacthislorically and culturally was immeasurable.These inequities of land and property resulted infalse and arbitrary boundaries. borders anddemarcations that cruelly divided families andcommunities.

While the annexation divided the land iteleo left those Mexicans encapsulated and internally colonized defenseless against alreadyescalating violence, especially in Texas. Despitethe Guadalupe Hidalgo treaty the protection ofMexicans in the U.S. was largely ignored by the ,government. Abuse of rights. land los s and d iscrimination was pa rt of the everyday life o fMexicans in their new country. Attempts byMexican consulates in the U.S. to assis t theremaining Mexicans were only slightly effectiveand in many areas Chicanos or Mexicans beginto ba nd toge ther to defend and resist these ccndi-

EVt It tS l e d i t ks :Even if it is made of tJlldu[ feeehera it is tornNot to be on earth forever; onlyfo r a short wh ile

The construction of land relations is basedon a process of nam ing or distinsu ishing landthat on e occupies. For the Chicano who springsfrom a Mexican meetiaaje, land continues to bemarked with an overlapping linsuistic map . partEnglish. pa rt Spanish. pa rt Nahuatl . The colonizers brought with them a geographic memory !that they imposed on Mexico through acts of pes- :session and nomination. The transposing ofSpanish topographic language of place namesonto a Mexican terrain occurred through a seriesof,renaming processes. The land was markedwith the map of another language as the invaderstook possession of nora and fauna. Despite the1821 independence from Spain the Mexicanmemory of the first place/name had been forevermarked by the recasting of Spain's reali ty withinIhe new world.

The 1848 annexation in turn set adrift aSpanish language mapping that survives today inthe American Southwest . Spanish city and statenames stand as a melancholy reminder of tbiscomplex past. For Chi canos and Mex icans in theSouthwest there is a con tinual tension betweenthe shadow of an ea rlier central presence andtheir contemporary marginalization in a homeland. This mapping and remapping adds to thedisguised issues of history and identity embeddedin the western land scape for Mexicans.

But for Chicanos th e most lasting aspectof their relation to land hal been the aftermath of. '.

tions.The Mexican Independence Movement

and Mexican Revol l1t ion remain profound histor ical influences in Ch icano a.rlistic vision. Asfoundations for concepts of "u:.Jliznje or mixedrace identity of Indian and Spanish descent. thesetwo events provided both an imagined andremembered past. Many Chicanos can tracetheir families presence in the United States fromthe 1848 annexation or the 1910 revolu tion. Ineach instance land was reconfigu red and newborders provoked family tales of resistance whichmark the historic power of these origins.

The critical Chicano reclamation wasbased in part on models of cultural advocacyfrom the 1910 revolut ion which attempted landreform and established a positive meetieeje andsocial reform.

The issue of the border remains from1848until present time one of the most formativerealities for Chicano/Mexicans. As a discourseemployed currently by cult ural critics an d ar t historians to refer to a variety of subjects. it is forthe Chicano ar tistic vision a ve ry real eccial condition. In his paper "This is not a Border ", ChonNoriega relates a family narrative of political andmultiple experiences.

It is an old familyjoke tha t theNoriegas nevercrossed the border.it crossed them. setding some eishtymiles to the southbetween El Pasoand J uare z..S


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In this way the history of Chicano. asinternal colonials has created a complex set ofgeographic and political boundarieswhich cannot be easily subsumed under te rms like"immigrant ." Thi s continuing struggle for landrights and economic survival was no more evident than in the forced repat riation O f Mexicansand Mexican Amer icans by the U.S. government.During the Depression of the 1930's a half mil.lion Mexicans in tile U.S. (t he majority wereMexican-Ameri cans) were sent back to Mexico.Once again the Un ited States treatment ofMexican-Americans was one of displacemen t.

Migration and displacement we re a recurren t pauem for Mexicans and Ch icanosrelegated to lower paying jobs in agricultu re.Following the crops these migran t workersancho red their reality in a geographic memory.Th eir social relations were dictated by crops. har-vesting, intermarriage. ( I " I , r z and camp life.Even those a generation beyond the camps recallthose ru ral traces. Th e exploitation of Mexicanlaborers was a characteristic patt ern in U.S.agr ibusiness. The attempts at union organizingfor improved conditions was an ongoing struggleresorting in the profound Hltt!ga or strike movement of Cesa r Chavez and the UnitedFarmwc rkers in the 1960's.CH ICANO AZTLAN

The dramatic pull of land as a symbol forboth the resistance to an occupied reality and thespiritual vision of a homeland have been two ofthe strongest organizing concepts of meaningamong Chicanos. Aztlan has become a geopclitica l signpost for both of these concept s:

. \reclamation projectin literature. thearts, scholarshipsand everyday culture and in itscurrent sense.Aztlan now refers tothose places whereCh icano cultu reIlcuriehes.'

This symbolic term. Aztlan, reflected theimportance of a cultural reclamation upon whicha Chi cano idenlity could be founded. Despite aMexican history layered by conquests and mu liutresistances..... Aztlan now refers to "a complexgeopolitical space", according to Noriega.

Th is colonial appropriation of land intensified the already historic memories of invasionand loss and marked the Chi cano psyche with anabiding needJor a place of their own making anda point of origin in that Southwestern territory.. Aztlan was mytholog;zed beyond its or iginalMeso-American meaning into th is territorialpoint of rebirth. Du ring the most act ive days ofthe Ch icano Mo vement such figures u ReiesLopez T ijerina and his Federal Alliance of LandGrants attempted to reclaim their Spanish landgrants in New Mexico. T ~ s efforts, howeverfailed. are indicative of the social reali ty of landreclamation.

Homeland. return, decoloniz.ation - however impossible as a social goal - remained animaginary sile of meaning. Aztlan as an imaginedspace ca rried with it the ca ll to uni ly. ThisChicano memory of a fragmented geographystructures the call to self that drives much of the

Th e earliest Chicano idcntily was born ofa resistance to the debilitating, racist and limitedvalues of the dominant culture. Chicanosaffirmed a mUlu,rje culture based on a complexsys tem of ancestry. ter ritory and mythologyfounded in the continent. Th e term Aztlan ,derived from the Nahuatl. Aztitlan (meaningplace of the herons), was inter preted by Chicanosas the lands 10 the north. Th us the Ch icano viewgrew to mean Mexico's northern empire or theSo uthwest. Film scholar Chon A. Noriegadescribes the concept of the Aztlan as the mythical homeland of the Aztecs and the reclaimednationhood of Chicanos in the 1960's:

By I%5 , d iversesocia l protests in theSouthwest had coalesced into anati onal civil rightsmovemen t known asthe ChicanoMovement . Aztlan now considered ilsfundamental ideo.logical construct orliving myth -provided an alternativegeography for theseefforts to reclaim.reform. or redefinesocial space - land ,government,schools. and theurban barrio. Aztlanalso helped set inmotion a cultural

Chicano artistic vision. In this sense land ccntinued to act as a sanctuary of treasured memorieswith particular sites operating as resting places ofmeaning and histor ic experience. Even whenofficial histories have erased the popular remembrance of helonging the landscape succeeds inrestoring to us the power of our presence.TIERRA INCOGN ITA

Land, place. space. terrain; geography,topography. landscape, are all references to the"l iu ra i"elljllila " of contemporary Chicano life.Often the frame of the past is memorializedth rough the present. The spirit of the landremains as a topography of our history. Storiesare told . relived in a presen t day where songs ofthe c f i d haunt the urban setting. M""lntTaJand c trt'OJ, desert and ""palare remembered andsymbolized as icons of the other Mexico.Pueblos and tIJt,/"iaJ in New Mexico are part ofth e record of the old ways. The cottonwoodtrees. the Rio Grande. and Chaco y o live asnature 's witnesses to history. Th ey are the visiblepresence of a spiritual landscape fore ver tied 10cul tu ral beliefs. In California the alder trees, theriver beds. the spacious valleys of Baja Califasare the traces of another way of life in the backd rop of a mode rn LosAngeles.

It is often in our experiences with na turethat we seek a context for identity through memory. For many tr. ditional peoples the homelandis marked by where ou r dead are bu ried. Thenthe topography is naturally demarcated with ourlived experience. Land is the site of ceremonies.the abundance of agricuhure and feasting. theplace of popu lar spectacle and the site of loss.


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Nature sta n('s as a witness to histories of slruS.glc, bealing the silellt memory of the bones ofourancestors.

Although an ea rly generat ion of Mexican!Ch icanos x e n c e s a more ru ral life on r,u,clm."and in colomnJ throughout the Western Uni tedStates, the more current generation experiencescuhural life in a largely urban setting. Yet therural tra ces Ilave penetrared the reality of urbanlife th rough tales and music. The continuousflow of immigrants brings the associations, refer.ences, and customs of Mexico's rural wo rld toencampments in the hear t of the metropolis. Onany given day in the centers of Los Angeles. SanDiego, Chicago and even New York, one ca n seethe displaced campesino living in a suspendedrurality, hybridized and polarized within thedominating technologies of th e city. But the !Mr.no., of ou r cities are truly the contemporary sitesof our complex ident ities. Here between free .ways and industrial warehouses, displaced byurban renewal and exiled by economics. largeMexican communities continue thei r day to day .lives. [J" rr itJ,r filledwith Spanish speaking bust.neeses and the vibrant cultural activities are alsotouched by the alienation and poverty of city life.Many of these historic "tlly-iDol are the earliestlandmarks of Mexican culture in the UnitedStates. predating the annexation. Here the carreplaces the horse a nd charm, have long agogiven way to C ~ f t an d p n , t J a re now distantmemories as the lowriding cruise is the socialpastime. Communities struggle wid. the violenceof gang warfare as y oung men die for a false andtemporary sense of dignity amidst a dehuman iz.ing exclusion .

and 2 children. largely from the laboring:c1ass .. 't y f Mexico 's Nor thwestern frontier, 111emaJon o . . . . Ipediticn's racial compos ition demy stifics l iea i h colonial image that is still propagated

in film and literature . Of tile 23 founders: 8 wer eI dians 10 were of African descent (2 beingb ~ c ~ 8 being mulatto), I was Filipino, .Jwasmestizo (Spanish and Ind ian ) , 1was of Indianand mulatto descent , I was of Span ish d s ~ n born in Mexico and I was of black . a n ~ I n ~ l a ndescent. Th eir racial complexity is . t ~ ofthe dynam ic racial mixtu res or mulu.lIje so ~ n grel to the destiny of Los Angeles. E ~ s ~ e d, Se ber 4 1781 this small pueblo orlgmal.n ptem LaIy named "rn Pueblo de Nuestra S e n ~ r a dCIAnplcs" remained a small pueblo amidst amajority of Ind ians. The first mayoro f LosAngeles was J ose Vanegas, an Indian fromO The Mexican census of 1793 docu-rango . h .ments only 32 European S p a n i a ~ in t e?tlre

, t of whom were Franciscan mlsslonar-egion mos . .iee according to Rios-Bustamante In""hls"Illustrated History of Los Angeles. Althoughthe European myth of Spanish e c ~ n d e hasbeen cultivated to describe Aha Cehforniaefounding families, it is largely erroneous.The 1848 Annexation ID d tbe p ~ b J Q .

During the brutal and racist occupanon ofU.S. Captain Archibald Gillespi, ~ e r b u l Varelaand Leonardo Cola and 300 MeXican men rose, ) ' 6 under the "PronunciamjeDto Contraup. In 0"'1 1Loa Norte Americanos decl anng themse vesloyal to Mexico. Los Angeles was reca.ptured at .the Battle of Rio Chino. Fighting c n ~ n t , lMeJricanos were outnumbered and an armistice

TI-IECASEOF LOS ANGELESThese urban l"gnIY,1 Je nl'turdo are most

apparent in the metropolis of los Angeles. Th elongstand ing history of Los Angeles as a Mexicancity is pa rt of both its myth and its reality.Fueled by masses of Chicano. Mexicano andLatino workers. the Los Angeles structures ofbusiness and enterta inment are Supported by thissilent and unempowered presence. Yet the invisi.Me sites of this cultural community can be tracedback to the late J700's .

From the foundere of El ~ Nue.lra Senora La ReID' de Lo, I dePo rciuncula. to the Chic.n o Movement. to the1992 Uprising the submap of Los Angeles is acultural chron icle of Latinos. Th ese events arcsituated in memorial sites that are at once collee ,rive, public and personal. To name thesesights/sites is 10 describe a spiritual and cuhurallandscape that i. the resting place of the dead .Here in unmarked territory are the places ofstruggle and catastrophic loss. In these restingplaces, or DesCIDSOI'. the hidden and un eJrcavat .ed terrain of Los Angeles is one of geography,economics. rac ism and social apartheid. Like theroad side signs of tragic events they remind U8 ofthe familiar but unstated histories of the Mexicanand Latino presence in Los Angeles.SITESThe Foyndinc of Lol Ancel"

In 1781 t the time of the founding of LosAngeles. the inhabitants we re Gabrielino


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finan cial supports. The Alianza HispanoAmericano was aimed at the growing middleclass, while groups like EI Club Anahauc servedmore as a social club for cultural and charitableactivities. La Sociedad Moctczuma, La SocjedadMUlualjsta Mexj eana - all brought an emphasison Mexican nationalism and Mexican holidays,with parades, dances and politi cal rallies. Fromthe early 1900's to the 1920's. musical groups andtheater and dance companies sought to preservecultural ties to Mexico while increasing theirpresence in the U. S.The Mexican Removal Project and New Barrios

Sonoretown, near the central plaza . wasthe originalbnrrit' for Mexicans. The governmentbulldozed it to make way for commercial buildings. Mexicans were forced into the eastside. andthe historic Chicano enclavesof Belvedere (LaMaravilla). Doyle Heights. and Lincoln Parkwere born . Prior to WorldWar I housing discrimination through the use of restrictivemortgage contractswas prevalent. Th is housingpattern was accompanied by discrimination inlabor hiring. and Chicanos were relegated to lowpaying agricultural and heavy industry jobs. Themyth of Mexicanos as a transient labor forceallowed their exploitation in housing and workconditions.Repatriation or Deportation

The massive Mexican deportation projectduring the Great Depression was known asRepatriation. Nationally. some 500,000Mexicansand Chicanos were forced to return to Mexico.Los Anseleslocal government officials helped

immigration authorities to ship 100.000 Mexicansback to M ~ x i c by train. Many raids took placeat the Placita a popular Mexican meeting place.Amajority of those were U:S. citizens and thedeportations disrupted the sense of place as wellas Ih.c potential politi cal power of the community.Ironically, after much hardship and in someinstance considerable time most deporteesreturned to the U.S.The Zoot Suit Riols. In the 1940's the most blatant racist pracMtrees were commonplace. including racialsegregation in movie theaters and repression ofthe Spanish language in public schooling. Thisdomination took obvious forms such as wageinequities and housing discrimination, but it alsotook more subtle forms. Access to cultural andrecreational institutions such as the HollywoodBowl, the Los Angeles County Museum ofNatural History, perks and public libraries wasrestricted. both by distance and by institutionalattitudes toward Mexicans. In this set tingChicano Youth simply had few outlets for theirown cultural expressions. The striking zoot suitdress of Mexican youth in the 1940's became amagnet for Marine personnel on wartime leave.In the hysteria of patriotism the long simmeringracism toward Mexicans erupted in beatings andst ripping of zootsuited youth. Amidst this theSleepy Lagoon murder case became a revelationof Mexi can bai ting as II youth were convicted ofa murder in a climate of discrimination and sensationalism. They were acquitted after eweyearsimprisonment on false charges.

li ousioK Discrimination ami Wilshire UQuleYJWlThe continuation of housing discr imina

tion was experienced by Mexicans attempting tomove into Anglo dominated areas. My parentswere among the thousands of Mexi cans facingincidences of prejudice. They were forced out ofa rental by an Anglo neighborhood petiti onwhilethey were trying to move on the other side of theinvisible dividing line. Wilshire Boulevard.Lawrence and Marina Mesa, like countless othernewlyweds. were denied fai r housing simplybecause of their ethnicity.Chavcz Ravine

The 1949 Housing Act promoted massiveurban renewal programs at the expense of displacing Mexicans under the guise ofredeveloping blighted areas . By the 1950's theMexican population had reached 272,000 of LosAngeles' 1,970,368 inhabitants. ye t this communiMty had little protection from a history ofrelocation. The historic barrio of Chavez ravinewas the site of bulldozing as land designated for .public housing was developed for the DodgerStadium. Mex ican communities with little political representation were vulnerable to freewayproject s and commercial development as theybecame further and further marginalized in tilelandscape of a city they once founded.Th e Blowouts, the Chicano Moratorium and theDeath of Ruben Salazar

The Chicano Movement wh ich began inthe late 1960's had brought to Mexican descended people a new sense of identity as Chicanos.Political organizing in support of a wide variety

of issues including farm workers rights. bilingualeducation. land and water rights. Tiley were par tof a complex undertaking of awakening ccnscioueneae and developing political act ion . In1968 thousands of Chicano students walked outof their classrooms in five L.A. high schools inprotest of discrimination and inferior educationalconditions. Th ese Blowouts. as they were called.ignited other aspects of resentmen t and by 1970Ch icanos were galvanized by the intensity ofissues facing the community. These activitiesresulted in the Chicano Moratorium. The SilverDollar Cafe was the scene of the shooting of journalist Ruben Salazar during the massive anti-wardemonstration by Chicanos known as theChicano Moratorium.Immicratjon and Goyernment Policies

From the demonstrations in 1977 againstthe Carter Immigration Plan to M.A.L.D.E.F.'sdefense against the SimpsonMRodino Law of 1986Chicanos have battled for themselves and otherLatinos to protect the rights of the immigrant.Despite the long embedded underclass of immigrants that provides domestic help, childcare,restaurant service. janitorial. hospital and otherinstitutional support th roughout the infrastructure of Los Angeles, times of scarcity fuelgrowing anti-immigration fever, especially asLatinos reach numerical majority in the region.The sites of these invisibl e services are par t of theurban terrain.

These are only some of the memorialLupees that describe the burial of sentiment.spirit, and passion that is recalled through thelJe.Jcm",ev. In the construction of a group life

.'.


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th ese places of resiliency demarcate by th eir histcr ical ex istence the meaning an d cohesiveness ofa culture . Th e landscape of Latinos in th is regionis a (re)c1aiming of place and a (re)membering ofthe sp iritual. Th is vision of history and gcogri phy is a testing of ou r own remembrances .through the soc ial imagination.'Amalia Mesa-Bains is an installation ar t ist, criticand scho lar. Sh e has se rved as Commisicner ofArt for the City of San Francisco. She received aMacArthur fellowship in 1992. III Zamudio-Taylor. Victor.


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ethnic. or intelTKi.ll, r weare not I k n abol.!t that fearfulthingcalled WI , whichKeminsIY is oneof the driving fOf(M in racism. We'res"eakins of something muchmoreIntimatethan that; that Isrespect.understanding. .and r.hanse.Inmanyrespects, piltrimonial values and Intnethnic intimacy constitutethe Nllieground Inwhich wewillworitout the twent:,"firstcentury: and Inthis luge-sc

its som l. political nd historial context. How do these issues ofpower culturaldemocracy, . nd self-definltionpertain to exhibitions,..udiences. .n d resources?Our Institutions are ensconced in coRCq)ts ofhistory based, as I stated earlier. ina coklnialage. Anthropology. psychology, and archa.eoJosyoriJinated in those times. The first typologies. whichmeasured the dislance betwten ptopWs 10 determine thrir intdlectu.! capacities.included terms likeplrkprmic. dtolnic, and melmdtdic. Those were the be-glnninp of psychology. Suchcoloni.l-age tools h.w set the st.ge for thehistorical understanding withwhich the pa.radigmsof art hLstory hawbeen placed.iwasowrjowd to hear Irene Winter refer to jamesOUford, bec.useOUfords ~ iswry slp illant ln helping us tounderstand whywe findOIJlSdws in confusionand disorder 0Yft" the .rts and culture of people ofc:oIor. I can't rem to them as il minority, beeeusenumtrlcally they'renot. Icould I'ROTt .ccuratetv c.n them . dlstlncllTUljoritv, or mulliracill communities. We are t. lking prim.rily ..bout Issues of 1 1 1 ~ Tosomedegree, race isalso a euphemismof thecolonialage. one that w.as designed 10 divide resources fromIInsuisticgroups. Nonetheless. wedeal with these notions ofrace. a.nd it IsOifford and others lib himwho compel us 10 quesucn theseorigin.1paradigms.Whm O ltfOltalb a.boutthe wa.y In whkh coUectinS tw grown out ofco\onial-age ICquisltions. he emphulzes how this chaoticcoUectinl resulted inan order burd on a kind ofWesternsublKlivity. From this earlydale thecultural expressions of the nonWestern worldwere reordered I ndmisapprehended .tI9 ...M ALI ... waU .-.."INS

I don't haw to Slymucha.bout the exhibition Hisprl llic Art ill lht UnitrdSf.," : !/.irtyConttmponrry Pttillttrs . lId Sculptors, as I'm sure many of youart familiar with the controVtrsy surrounding it.Thatwasan instancewhere tosomedegree the cUrlItorill perspectivesstartrd with mditlonalapproaches to exhibitions.rather than an understa.nding of the resources oftheLatino c o m m u n i t ~ When It .llk ilbout resocrces,I am refming tothoseaspeets tha.t are within the wocldview of the dlvene cultures we are beg;nning 10 serw and respond to - thrir patrimony. v.llues .lInd sense of anInteff! lhnk or inteTTXial intimacy As psychologist I have to think first ofthe resourceof culturalmemory.b.use it i s memocy th.t allowsus to assert our smse of c o n n n u i t against allodds. Culturalmemory allowsspiritual and familial practices to bemaintained. often through oral lradinons. Milny of thewomng-class people: of colorh.ve not . Iwa.ys hadto a fom'l.1 eduation; )"ttl t. ming is pasHd fromgtntnUon to gerwrationin otherw. ys. It Is iromthat cultural memory that muchof the workofcontemporary artists of color springs.

Resources: HistoricalResponsibilityThe historicalresponsibilitythatis an element in those rtSOUTCl!:S Isa responsibillty forboth the past .n d the prtStnt. one th.t must be shared byculturalle.dtrs. HIstorical ruponsibility tnvoIvts thekind ofhistory thatcriticW lter Benjllminspeaks of: '"Only th.t historian will haw the gift off.nning thespark of hope in the put who is firmly convinced that ew:nthedud wiUnot be sale from the entmy ifhe wins: ! This quote has to dowith theconcept oforigin .n d the redemption of the put.Whatwe se\!: IntheMric;:an American, LaUno, and cert. inly AsianAmerican "nd Native America.n communities isa movingback10000rd themtlTlOl')' of origin. The AfricanKholarship of peopleUb Dr BenYusefandDr Asa HilUa.rd. who question the relationship ofKehmt. or bidEgypt, to the Greco-Roman world.ofbookssuch .as Martin BerNIl's BI tAtlltn' . and ew:n such works asCornelWes!'s PropIItticFrdgmtll,s-all a.rebeginning toquestion the Eurocentric myth oforigin.Itwas wilt!an awarenessof historical rnponsibility that books likeGeorge'ames's 5tolmLtp:y (19,.,,)and C h . ~ l I o r WilU.mss llIt Deslrvctio"of 11ftBud: CiviliZll'ion (1914)W'tre written, years before they were acces..sible ex-9 1 AMAU " M UA- IAINS


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cept in the mostc landestine ways. The deeenterteg oi the humanitiesrelies, 10some deg ree. 1'101 jusl on cultural memory passed through.corn-munities. but on the historical responsibilily of scholars, critics, artl.sts. andinstitutionalleaders who see themselves in this transitional generauonasready and able tomove inlo another sys tem oi knowledge and thousht.

Resources: Community PracticesCommunitv practices are also part of the resources of the community. Suchpractices h v g reatly influenced the development of e s t ~ e ~ i o ~ F ~ instance, the preponderance of the ceremonial and the s p l ~ l parnorlar commun ities is an aspec t of the cotlective his tory of .sp irituality, and spectacle. O ther practices reflect d n l and U ttve processes of exchange and learning. the relationsh ip between tradlbcnand innovation. and the layering of expe rience that creates new measures ofmeaning.At the core of many of the aes thetic representations tha t are a part of thecontemporary school is ancestral legacy. In Tht ~ " ~ ~ Show: FrlIm:;1.:sofIdtntity in tht 19805. concepts of historical responslbihty and ances

. f " ._. Ances tTil l lega.-v allows us tolegacy are reflected 10 many 0 tile art rxs. :1consi'de r more tha n one view of the upcoming i n c e n t ~ n . l a l . For ~ n . of us the ancestrall egacv surrounding the quincenten nlal rs not a f ivehundred-veer p h e n o n not a tabula rasa. or a fertile ground whereculture w dropped. The ancestral legacy of wh ich we spe ak- a s l n d of thirty centuries even in Mesoamerica, which is only one pa rt of thiscontinent-is a verv, verv long one. It certainly outmarks a ha lf a century.If we are 10understand ancestrall egacy, we have 10 look at the f n n inwhich we find it in our own institutions. The quincentenary celebration.which emphasizes h istorical and cultu ral Euro-SP.a n ish develo.p.ments, hasto be questioned not only by those with in. the native . , : " m U O l ! l e S , but alsobv the larger institutions that will determine the exhlb,tlons, the outreach,and the activities related to tha t very market. For our native brother.s and

. , ._, f odde hardlv somethmg tha iststers. the qu incentenOIat 15 a mar....ng 0 gen , .should be called a celebration. Nonetheless, it is one aspect of ancestrallegacy.

9 2 TIl 11 "1. MUlTICU lT UII" I.l SM

Audiences: Aesthetic ' !An extension of ancestral legacy is reflected in family values and a worldview, even in the cul tural styles of the audience. These issues a re ra relyaddressed in major ins titutions. I've pa rticipa ted in several outreach pa nelsin Califomia and in


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Co'llnunic;l,lion stvle is olnotheruu tholl must be c s i e in oludiencecleYelopmm t. The ~ m m u n i a . t i o n styln of uti n A m m c ~ n s . Arricll,nAmmans. and Asian Anwrians. just to name three, ere very dlsllner.Comel Wes t aUs the Afrian Americiln style OOkinetic orality" or theft'lO'Im\mt of the bodywith i l g in iI Yftyspecific Willy. Innova tion inI i n g u l ~ retlectslinAfrian u\Cestrywithin Afdan American speech ,The Iinsuistic tladltlons ot Africiln American speech havesurvived thetlelMndous intluences of mass media and education. African based, thelanguage is one with its own niles for plurals, possessives, tenses. wordendingsmd coUoqulalisms.That don not mean that s landard Englishshould not be leamed, but we'have to recognlze that our children cometo us language-rich.. If we U not capableof interactingwith them,understanding them, ~ n c 1 communiCi1tins with tMm, it isour problem.not thein .We: should brinS to the issueof audience,then. a pater understanding ofcommunicationstyle and cultural style. One aspectof c u l t u ~ 1 style Ihat wehavebegun toklok. atis the wayin which people intetaeteven in someIhinS&$ simpleas eleswe, the actof ending something. I often givetheloUowing p l Shortfr after I married my husband. who by the W i l ~ isAtrialn American, we weregoing to my mother's house fordinner. I saidto him. -Now look, when we leave. puU thecar out slowly and keep thewindowsdown: Hesaid. "Issomething goingto happen?" And I answered, -No. lhey just li}r.e to Siy goodbye forilwhile!"My husband soonlearned that closure in a community that vollues re .1tionshlps Isnol alwilysda lrable. All the nuancesand manlfes'ations of the highly prized communication is around extendinSthe relationship. not around theend product.In such I. valuesystem. closure milyorten be inconflictwith the .4.mericanprefermce for dosure. Attitudestowardsdosuremusl be taken into accountwhen gf'fttinsand cIosinS wilha n audlenceWehave much to ~ a about the ways in which communicationand eu l-

. tural style affeet copition. apprehension. and learning. aU of which areIntertwined. Culture is a window on theworld. , nd our processes of recelvin" dlstrlbutina. and processlnslnformation must pass through Ihiltwindow. The dqree 10 which weWesterners don't understand this relatesdlf1!(:tlyto the degru to whichwe hilve nol been successful In our metnstream institutions. even those that deal specifially with education.96 TH E a . ,u MULTlcu u u aAU SM

In IRo1nv wavs,we are still stnJssllng with the notion oi quality or su ndards. As I ' said berore. quality is a euphemism I1U rhe familiar. It is afAmilvoi Artists and Idu s towhich many havegrown qutte ICCUslomed:but are Anewextended family Weare new artisls, with new Ideas th..tyouhilve not had asmuchecperiencewith.The question is not simplyone of crileriaor standards: thesea n beamended or expanded. Wehilw only tolooki1t the history of scientific resu rch In this countly 10 understand that ' nythlngan be i1djuSled toencompass those things that wechoose to prize, Ascurators in this tlansitional time our work. is partly10 milke ourselvesfamiliarwith the newAmerican canon.In manvwavs. whA we've cometo undetstand about exhibitions is that it ,Isn.'t s forus to set into the museums; man!' of us haw befl\ in. Access is not the only issue. Interpretation is thenew forefront. Sometimeswry simple thingsWte the translationsof the signagea.n &fleet the u ~ r -standins of the art. One o amplehas to do with the exhibitionHis,.ulIc Artht lite Unittd St.,es: ThirtyConttmponrry Plilttm.rId Sal/pIon. Induded wasCesar Martina's pa1nMSof a large man with a tattooof the V'lgin deGuadalupe andlatttlos 01asood woman and iI bad woman on his shouJden. The painting is called El hombrr If'It ,1tW mvjtm (TheManWhoUkesWomen). The title wasmnslited as 11KWOrIIlImur. but thatis not what itmeansl This is I. min who lowswomen. miln to whomwomen are socenm l thAt he marks his bodv with them. The profOll nd meaning ofthiswor1c.1s redUC1l d, Umlted. t i f l e d and misappropriAled when . simpleIhing like a translation cannot be done with understanding, knowledge,and respect.Wflve also been into mllWUmsWMrt the sheer placement of our workMlr klbbiesor bathroom.s. In rotundas or smaU rooms-has indicated theinferiorvalue t institution illtKhes to thework. So a.tteSS Is not lheonly Issue.EUUbitions have to be fonnulilled with expertise. and that ku 10 beshared. Powet'- the ability to self-de6ne in , wrf uponwhich we can aetmust entad shared dedsJon-ma!dn& Ieadmtdp. empowuntmt. scholarship. and curatorial opertise be tween the diversecommunities andmainstream institutions.q8 n n REAL MULTICULTURALISM

O n c int ime lind SpICe, physiclliity l g olnd communicationi1 ffm the w.y people enter our institutions, the ,....v thf" a recewed inour institutions. i1nd the wa!'in which they learn ourinstitutions. Howwe l'Kf:iv t diversecommunitiesend howwe Ieilm from thtm olre elementswehaveIilrgely ip ored because wehave come tothink or audience as aproblem.not asa resource.

ExhibitionsMyelIperience with exhibitions Is both as an anist and ' cur,llor. l ergan 1 z ~ a showcalledumnony0{Mtmory, which has been touring theUnited States. I did thiltshow to put theceremonialworkofChicano/LatinoInd C


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Ou r p rinciple in th is maner should be absolutely siml'le. In the f i place we should insi st tha t i( the immigr ;)nl who comes here in gOlfaith, becomes an American and assimilates him self 10 us he shillltreated en an exac t eq uality wilh everyo ne else, (or it is a n out ragediscrim inate aga ins t any such man because o f creed or b irthp lace Iorigin .I]ut this is predicated upon the man 's becom ing in very f;:ad an Amand nothing bUI an Ameri can . If he tr ie s to keep segregated with nhis ow n origin a nd separated from the rest uf America, then he lsn

V ~ a, - I v u C u J ~ ~ ~ ! k o ~ p V v, au a.ur /?1 A-.4-'ln tl 1 ~ 7 0 - "7/d d. nd 10 Iacc the e normously rewa rding lask of adilpting ou r art is tic, 1 Chicano Art :Itellcctua l, a nd scholarly practices, and ou r mu seums themselves, to the Text a n d Context10001and vast ly heterogen eous wo rld we inhabit.

T':lO ~ l l l ~ I ' : - ~ l l l U l ~ h t >( t ' u r ) \\'IIIul1 H t ol l"-'lIpll' ,II p,lCl iculolf IllII~ n l / l 1 III ' , 1 1 S l o n " I . l j " ' In Ihe United S l.lICS. the ll)OOs was such

pc n.od of Illtrospccllon , a n.. lysis. OInJ act ion. Blacks. Chicanos Nati ve~ c r ~ c i I O S ~ otlll'r disl'nfranchise-d groups constituted Ihcm:c1vcs ash'SIOrlcal b J c c l s and struggled for selfdelcrminillion and rad ically de.centered views of


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Mike DavisLAWas Just The Beginning

Urban Revolt in the United States,A Thousand Points of Ught

Mike Davis is the author of PrUoner. of 1MAlfteriaul Drum and City of QUlZrtz:r.anJatinr the Future in LA.. He presentlyteaches at theSouthern California Instituteof Atchitecture.

C MikeDavis, 1992 0 TheNation, 1992

Sections of this pamphlet are revised versionsof articles that originally appeared. in1M Nation; "Urban America Sees Its Future:In LA., Burning All IDusions,'"n.eNation, 1June 92; "Blacks are Dealt Out: RacialCaldron ln LasVegas: Th< NAt""',6July92

Thispamphlet is printed entirelyon add-free recycled. paper.

Publish


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Pairlphld 12 PaapbIet9Helen Clldicott Michael EmeryCompuaicmate Society HowMr. ....Got In .w.Ledvre: BouJd.....co PalDpb1et Sa:ieI Futaa

ADPampbletlan S1.5Oppd.IMMEDIASTUNDERGROUNDSEIZING lH E MEDIA

OPENMAGAZINEPAMPHLIIT SERIESMAlNomcrP.O.Box27.16WeoIfieId. New)mey0'1091USA.Telel9Olll_AMSTERDAM"EU!tOPE

7 2 .... 4Hollord3

One week later,.Mac:Atthur Park entered a s ta te ofsiege. A special-vir:Tap" hodine invites peop4e II) infonnon naghbcmJ or ' ~ t a n e e I suspected of looting EliteL.A.P.D.Metro Squad unilS, . upponed. by the N.tionalGuard.. swept thtoush the tI!neInI!nIS in seuch of stolengoods..whileBorder Patrol:nwn &om.. faraway 15 Tca sprowl the streetL Frantic parents IeUdl. formissinI kids,like mentaDy retarded 14-yeat-old ZuJy stracLa" who isbeiiritd to have been. deponed toMexico.M-nwtWe. thousands of M/ffUlJ4ora , many oI lhempMhetic .cannpn e:aptund in the d\arred ruins the dayafter the Jootipg, languiIh in County Jail, unable to meetat.wdly high bails. One man, caupt with a packet ofsun80wa :seedsand two c:u1ons of milk. is being hdd enS15,(XX) bail; hundreds of othen face felony indictmentsand poeaible two-year prison tenns. ProsecutorsdeII'Iandthitty-day jail SEntences for cwfew violalOrl. despite thefaet that many of those ..re eithu homeless street peopleor Sp&nish-speaken who were unaware of the curfew.n.e- are the "weai. that George Bush says we Inut tpull from thesoil of our cities before it an be KJWn withthe regenerating seeds of enterprise zones and taxblabixpr iv .. .apitaLThere. rising apprehmsion tNt the 'lbre community will becomE a scapegoaL An ugly, x a I - ~natmsm. has been growing like crabtra- in SouthernCalifomia sinat thestartof the .e .Cl". A lync:hmobofOmngeCo


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,lickml, .we neverwilL""AJthou8h Imam AziZ and the Nation of. IsLamhaverorided the fcnD&1 auspc. foe psc:emaltinS,. the rea1wd s tNt have ..tied the red and blue ra p IlJSdher into -black thI:n(.. at e D Simi V.. , . .Wilhin a few boutsofM fiDt aaackon white motorists,. whichstadIlld in EJshtl'ray (83rd Stzeet) c.nptet Crip t:e:nitory n - r Florencelnd Nonnandie. the insatiab'"war between the C:rips and1&oods,. fueled by a thouund neighborhood vendettas.. t doodlooo>oboy>. was'put an hold' Loo

-. d .....odjap. .. . bunting of 0 . ptobably 615into the same Hegelian niche with the bUf$litlgof theBubble Ecmamy: not the "end of histoty" at theseac:aatof Malibu but the beginning 01-an ominous dialedil= onthe rim of the Pacifie.It was a haUuc:inatian in the &mpiKe to that thewhet'l 01 theworldeconomycoWdbe _ lnde6ni"'Y by a Himalaya01U.s. . . . . .deficitsmd a 6ditiaul )'8\-This-.I aisis of .....Japon-e.-._perity tpheft,- however, threatens to b'anI1IIte du s cantradid:ionl into intemhnk conflict on both the nationalond IocaIIoftI.CullWa11ydistinct . . . . . . . . . . . .__etbnic'mtrq:meneuts and the like--riskbeins 11 m as thepersan.a1 repraentatiV8 of the invisible hand that haslaoBi laca1 coaununities of ecDnClIiI'Uc: autonomy. In thec:ase of t.e:. Angeles. it wu tragicaUy the nei.ghborhacxt-. tiquo


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dent said,. "for' uncritically buying- into the white nUdcUecaws.ttitude toWUd. bUcband its faith in bpolice."The foe. multicultural rea:aciliaticn in 1.05Ange l.. depend much leu. OR w i knight PeterUebe .cAh ', emnmitteeofaxponte rebuiJderfthan upon gmera1 economic nxovery in Southem Calilomia.Mthe 1M AllIe/a Bu iMS Jo." u' COIl\P1ained (after noting tha t LA. had loet 100000 manufacturing jobsover thep" " _ ye bunUn8 0I 1levor1yHills by tl>eand Bloods,. and f r-.d 0 f t I ' the ectra :8 of house. . , . . tl>eyhad looI;ahIy ............, tl>eLa_man

W.. the now an ineePdiarist?Althoup their fu nwere hyaterically magni6td. tentacles of disorder didpmetn l t l l such sane:twn5of white life as the BeverlyCm_ and Westwood.VlDap, aswell as theMehaIe andFmfu MootaJamtinIlY, tl>e L.A.P.D.'."thin blue line,. which.had protllcB i than in 1965,. wasnow tittle moretNn . defunetmetaphor, the last010UefGates'sbad jobs.

LA . IGNITES LAS VEGASLu Vegas's frenzied Me'D'lorial Day weekend waswmdlng down with tl>e promiae 01 a b;g atonIL Spring

lightning danced in the dark douds abow 0Ladest0nPookand tl>e Valley01_M raine_0I .un.doUus intermittently tplattered the sidewalb outside,weary' IeUen counted a q1lUtll!:t..billkm doDars inho8day. ~ u e . . tt . Mo;a"o 5O)XX) homebound. . . . . . . . . . . . . ._"" ' ' - buInper" baDlpa", &omiTaoplhDeulfedlrc pIOjootile in JAY face. I reK the label out Iow1: -Modelm,ll u............ sa.nCnNde.

-We were just holYtng a piaUc. a zoddamn peaoefuIpimic, - David repeated. SeYeral kid taredhard ,unblink.ing, in my dirw:tkJn,. Someone lobbedan emptyColt 45botde into the Then a tall fisure: .in aCeoIgetown . -1Shirt gnbbsi my ann. -You'd better1pUt. man.U youwant an interview, come Nc:k tomottoW . I'll tIdl you anythinl you wa n t 10 Jcnaw about t..e:.tfue__ . - . J- l Ewn tl>e_ how>ing unIta in c.ncn Park have a 6dyambimcethatbelies1hei:rPJ.at, .I met upwith 0 ..who is 20, nearthe ruilwofNudeus

9

:J'la--the cIe _ tl>e paID ""dorwd offtrIOSt of W .t t. . Vegas and drew weapons IX!. anyonewho approached their barricades. Hunciredl 01youngpeople, manwhlle. had "'S'O"I"'d ..... tl>e Ganan Pall:pro;eets.. ",here the localKir\pmm Gangwas hoatins animpto. ..p tu.petty foethevuiou&Crtpmel Blood. . whohad tl>e__ day-oJ'l'U"nlly... ._ bynew. from LA .- to stop fighting . Acmrdlng to D.,


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UnioaP.cific tnw into W .t Lu Vegas, a wastelandwitbDutp .wd -et... ut i l i_ or fin: pR*Ction. 1lwI, bythe_ . . . . . . lAnokY. "" ' """ _ .Bupy . . . . ..,pxlioob in 1947,.. .egaticn in 1M Veps-..Wtual-Iy-'-_" " " "__ IMb_ ..--ta in, like Lena Home and s.mm,. Dlris Jr bu t theycould not wed:. deUft or bu ..., stay a hotel.l i f t in a whilll!neigbbomoodCIt&010 a white daool.M aU.white p:>Iice ~ witha national reputation for brutality,enIon:ed the cdor line in a lDWn thatA,fril:an-AJl'Iericans began to caD MiMioippi Waf. Whenin 1944blackG.l.s guardingt * tby BoWdet Dun tried. 10d ....bp t _ out01-..-., . . . .and euino&, theyWeft attad:ed by pollee. In the fullBedged riot that erupted, one toldin' was killed. A quar.-a:n.twy later, in October1969 heavy-handed policetactics. together with disg\m OYerCU\tinuing jobdiscrimination, again ignited a riot. Two people died andeovemoc Paul Laxaltcalledin theNal:ioMJGuard t o_ Ioff the Westside. .FOtneatly a y u r dterward, ClarkCoW>ty'. >ehoob, only p"rtiaUy " ,_ t ed , . . . . . """""by battles betweatwhite and blade students.WhUe r.osm was buiIdins in the prmUer' city of thesaver Sta-. thole with power could ignore its usIY featureI, but now raciIl turmoilw. ta.rniIbing its iInaJeThe majo< " " " ' " .... thoU """'I'ticit ...... .- . JytoiJlWd a conseftt dec:ree in 1m luaranteei1\l openaaplo)"menL In the MIDe year the N....ada leplature.Ions......yod fair houains law. Cluk CountytchociI roDowed a ye.r lata widt an . ,..'alb, Khmiethat cwetlode white resistanceto busin&- After thirty,..rs 01wanderin& in the blackLa Vepns1Ioou8l" they a>uId .. . oquaIityahood.Uke 10 much. else in thedeItert. du. has tumed out 10bea aw l minge.Akhoush tokm integD:tion the naIe..the majorityol blatb are Iocbd out ol LasVegas'. boomeconomy. In teeent r-n.. .. the teM ol the Sunbelt h..aUpped into recession. Clark County'. populationh... - at warp opeod (1))00. - ' - I I ! '" ' ....).and Nevada, the ma.t mrtuNte . tate 1ft the nation,,1CCOrdina' to thI! k:IClllA.F.L-C.LO hal ,..,..uy li d injob . , . I ion (8 " " " " . annually _ 1!187 and 1990).&np&oyment on theStrip hal --.i with the a:1... t11iC_ 01mop-hoooIa Woe ohe 4,OOlkoocn10 be followed by the S,.ooo..room M-C-M Crand" thein the wwld while the . . . . .Ded SoaIh Nenda"" '_ R _ h a oedoxed _0 I 1 t i g h - __ milituy--_ ....But anJy. handfuJ 01bIadt _ haft found thoUn y into affluent nnr-growth subufbI; li b WmcbeAera d e-n Valley. Doapne the _t y_yoor-dd . . . . . , .

b1lcb remain Yudy undeI'-repraenled. in. the~ I " , , _ j o b o a n d __ . . ...u in the new .aenc:eJ*b. Although ll'IinDritifmab tiplD . . . . . . . . 01Nonda.labor "" '" (2S " " " " ' " in CIaxk

12

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..;I ,.; "-'Li:.

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County). they hold anJy I< " " " " . ol puhlk-" '< i'"and Covemor RobertMWer recently acknowledged thebankruptcy o f t he sta te' . affirmative action effo rts .Concurrmtly, the growth in the metropolitan area',Latino populatiCln--frorn S78 in 1960 to 82,.9(U in 1990and a huge inBux ol job.. whites from nearby _ _have ~ crimped traditional blKk employment inthelow-wage serviceindUIIrieL

Not 5UIprisingJy, blKkLu Vegans of all daueswocryabout creeping "Miamiution.. with their commUl\ity,dospileimpnsiwpclilia1 gaU-o. """"""'s . . . . oociaJIyand eccnooUca1ly periphenJ. Fat 100many Ntive IOnSlike D... the recent boom. has been an embittering . prilcJn..en ' dilemma, offer ing equally futureless choicesbetween meni.1l t.bor and the wdeiground ec:onomy. Asin Los Angeles, the shortfall between the spectacleofpn>f1igale """"" 'ption and the ...uty 01ghetu> life haabeen made up by street gangs and ro::kcocaine.The limCrip set,. transplanted from Watts. tookroot in CArsonPark.in 19?8-79; aac:k hit thestreets of West LasVegas in1984,shoitly aitet its anin I in South Central L.A. Nowan estimated Crip and Bloods (together with 3.000Latino and Asian gang members) are locked in grimtwilight ItiUggJe with police a '- ' dozen blocks hom theUberatrMu.um andCaesar', Pa1ac:e.

LTNCHI_, 900 STTUOw l Kendrick is a aa:agy. anguLuSoutherner witha Pw-line beud w loob li b he might haw .-pped

out ol aCiril W a r ~ AWteDil cirillibertisactiYiIt. he J .drd theV'uginia A.C.LU. fer man,. ,...,before mavin&: to Lu Vegas to run the orpniut ion 'sNevada chaptI!r Hemakes no bones about which ana ismorally farthest below the Mason-Dixon line: -PoliceAbu. heft wane than. anywhere in the contemponIyurban South.. In an avengemonth I get InOre axnplaintsaboutpoliceIlliscmduct in Lu Vega thanI. .eved altogether during tweIve)W1'S in IUdunond. The lituationisJuot_-

AoxmIIn& toKendrickand """"


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Loui5iana, but Georgiana is g r a ~ Mi._ippL Shegrew up with twde btodoersand s i *n on a hardsaabhie tenantann a Highway 61 &om the ViCksburgCivilWar Her peoplewere poorbut resoura:fu1and. Ielf-suffirient. "'Debe I w.s .. . J knew how to '*"'" weD leW . 1CDUId ch:lp cottew\" harni!-. a mule,. evmaWcemocmhine.We wore homeInade cn.es and wm t-'lthough she speaks proudly o f be r mother and(......utiful. """"g !adios"). Ge11

p.D\., .. the policesuddenly began10wittdraw fnxn theneighborhood, tM inflamed crowdresumed . ttad:s onpusin.s whites. The: L.A..P.D. made no effort to wamun suspecting motorists of the dangerous situation atNonNndieand Florence. and. at 6 Clw1nell3'shavering twiiWCOptI!l began brow;lo astinS liYe ronnge of the....ting of Reg;naIdo...n,.

Although the Lo. A . , d ~ . TiJJU. knew from thebeg:imingabout the earlier roughing-up of the TaleS, thestolyw no t n : p o r ~ until 15May (In an.tm.iring pieceabou t the rank-.nd-6le CI:JI of the 71th Street DiviIion),ud was depictedwithout c:laaal caulJ8d:ior. to lhean.clcson Dennyand others. YetGeorgiana and IM&t of hernei&hb


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"""'J"hing. . luosclw>pd Co< the . . . . . . . The benign"'honorrancho"' has nolved into a giant prisat with9,(1X1inmatea.1hoehomed inllO Militiel designed fat . . than6.000.Only .. handful of sentenced. inmAteI stillenjoyBilcaih&%'aoutdooclife,mCll!It of the popula&n it daUltrOpboblaIly ~ d a y ..ike donnJtories. FotmedyWayside rai8edalfalfa. now itsmain product is hate.During the l as t , . r hundreds of inmate& havebeenseriously injured. in virtually constant racial wu fare .Althoughmostof the twenty.five major zneieeshave broken out . .. . result of an intractable power s trugg lebetween Blacks and Latinos (since 1989 the new majority,atW.yside). there baYealso beenbrutal clashes heM .. .whites and Blacb. Indeed" it can be ugued that the t.A.Rebellion actually began at Wayside, where,. within minutes of the original announcement of the King case veedict,. Blackinmates were fighting whites. The whites, intum. retaliated. in late Julywhen thirty Blackinmateswereambushedand sIuhedwith jaiJ-made ahmka.

Although racial vioience is now epideJnic throughoutWayside's five winJS, the mO$tsuttained conftict hasoccurred in the high-security facility where DamianWilliamI, AnIlOnine Miller and HenryWatsm are i:mpriscoed ooget!oeo" with " " " " h........ other Blackand lAtInoyouth dwged with mUJder Bitler intrla_ compLain thatthe Sherlfft take grim deUght in fanning the Samet ofracialhatnd. One Crip, o.e., who abno8t had hit eU ' cutoff in the latest clash with while pttsonen.. tokl me thatguards had ignored Black prowsts about shank knivesbeingmade andCI:lIlCeU!d by whitepriaocera:1henwhenthe Blacb were ambushed. the guards ftIuIed 10 interveneuntil thewhites had finished their hancUwork.Ceotgianasays that Damian has 10 far .void8i beingsucked into the maelstrom of the hate factory. "H e. . . . . . . . proud and gmeIIy _ .. thoush we had toget . .court order to ensu:re that he would be fed regularlyand allowed to bathe. And of cnune he misees 1pOttL" Iasked Georgiana what she talb about with Damim duringher tegu.Iar visits to Wayside.we talk .boutMissiIsippi,. and fam.i}y memorioo. ""I"'ci'IIy",y whodied loot lleoanbe>cat ap 100 She was Damian', favorile. He really lovedthat old lady. A Iiny..............,lout loot ..... Inch.......ehewON long oldrlashiclned. drn6ea and wu C Q n ~ltantly singing. She'd go from room to room in theaJweaoppen' ahac:b putting the kids to sleep with aprII)"IeI and. tClIIg. I canhIw her sweet voicealways."Ceorpana Nniles and. softly singe few emphaticJineI.: 11ba11 I IhIJ1 no t be mc:wed. just l ike t i f t- .ding by thewaw, I ohal1no tbe.. . . .cL.

! .

I {-II .I ., .' ... .I)-'!

NOWAVAILABLE:MANNINGMARABLEPAMPHLET""BLACK AMERICA

MULTICULTURAL DEMOCRACtIN THE: AGE: OFCURE:NCE: THOMAS,

DAVID DUKE, AND THE: LA UPRISING5...If we listen carefully

to young African Americans in the streets, thisgeneration is I:eWng usmol'\'! than just its dissatis-faction with the King vt'rdict. The violence wasnot directly generated by reactions to courtroom.dec:isiorlS.What our youngpeoplepainfully realize ia dull the enlire "system"- tbe govem.mentand its poUtidans, the courts and the police, thec:orporaticns and theJnedia--hM,writtentheInoif.They '"""S""" that BuohNd vUtuaIIyno lIDho


19/30


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"

The carefulty manicu red lawns of Los Angeles's westside sprout forests ofominous lIule signs warning: 'Armed Responsel' Even richer neighborhoodsIn the canyons and hrllstdes Isolate themselves behind wallsguarded by gun-toting private police and state-of-the-art electronic survelllance. Down

. town, a publicly-subsidized 'urban renaissance' has raised the nation'slargest corporate citadel, segregated from the poor neighborhoods aroundIt by a monumental architectural glaciS In Hollywood, celebrity architectFrank Gehry, renowned for his 'humanism', apotheoslzes the siege look Ina library designed to resemble a forelgn.leglon fort. In the Westlake districtand the San Fernando Valley the lo s Angele. Pollee barr icade st reets andseal off poor neighborhoods as part of their 'war on dnlgs '. In Watts.developer Alexander Haagen demonstrates his strategy for recolonizingInner-cny retailmarkets : a panoptlcan shopping mall surrounded by nekedmetal fences and a substatfon of the LAPD In a centra l surveillance towe r.Finallyon the horizon of the next mlllennlum, en ex-chrefofpolice crusadesfor an ann-crime 'giant eye' - a gec-syncbrcncus law enforcement satellite- while othe r cops discreetly tend versions of 'Garden Plot' , a hoary hut sttllviable 1960s plan for a law-and-order armageddo n.

Welcome to post-liberal Los Angeles, where the defense of luxuryl f ~ t y l e s Is translat ed Into a proliferation of new repressions In space andmovement. undergirded by the ubiquitous 'armed response' . Thisobsessionwith physical secur ity systems, and. collaterally, with the architecturalpolicing of social boundaries, hasbecome a zeitgeist of urban restructu ring,a master narrative In the emerging built environment of the 1990s. Yetcontemporary urban theory, whether deballng the role of elect ronictechnologies In precipitating 'pou mcdem space', or discussing thedispersion of urban functions across poly-centered metropolitan 'galaxies',hasbeen stnmgely silent about the militarization of citylife so grimlyvisibleat the st reet level. Hollywood's pop apocalypses and pulp science Ilcuonhave been more realistic. and politically perceptive, In representing theprogrammed hardening of the urha n surface In the wake of the socialpolarlzallons of the Reagan era. Images of carcen l Inner cities (EsCDpe

l from New Yor., Runninn Man), high-tech police death squads (8faJe Runner).,. sentient bUildings (Die Hard), urban bantustans (They l ~ Vietnam-like

street wan (Colors) , and so on, only extrapolate from actually existingtrends.

225

ronlnESS L.A.Bl lllkt r JlilI

F O R T R e s s L .A .I TY OF ~ U R T 24

Such dystoplan visions grasp the extent to which today's pharaonicscales of resldenttal and commerclal security supplant residual hopes forurban reform and social Integration. The dire predictions of RichardNlxoo' s 1969 National Commission on Ihe Causes anri l 'revenncn ofViolence have been tragically fulllllcd: we live In 'fortress cities' hrutallydivided between 'fornged cells' of amuent so


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C I TY 0" Q U ... RTZ

violence of the city, ceaselessly throw up spectres of crlmlnal und erclassesand psycho tic stalke rs. Sensationalized accounts of killer you th gangs highon crack and shrllly racist evocations of marauding Willie Honor a fomentthe moral panics th at reinforce and Justify urban apartheid .

Moreover, the neomllltary syntu of contemporary architectureInslnuatu violence and conjures Imaginary dangers. In many Instances thesemiotics of so-called 'defensible spac e' are just about as subtle as aswaggeri ng white cop. Today's upscale, pseudo-public space s - sumptuarymalls, office centers, cu lture acropolises, and so on - are futl of Invisiblesigns warning ofl'the undeicless 'Othe r' . Although architectural critics areusually oblivious to how the built environment cont ribute . to . egregatl on,par iah group. - whether poor la t ino families, young Black men, or elderlyhornelen white fema le. - read the meaning Immediately.

T H E DESTR UC T IO N OF PUB L IC S P ACE

The universal and Ineluctable cons eque nce of thiscrusade to secure the cityIsthe destruct ion of acceu l.ble publicspace. The contemporary opprobriumattached to the term 'street person' Is In Itself a harrowing Index of thedevaluation of public p To reduce contact with untouchables, urbanredevelopment hu convened once " Ital pedestrian atreets Into tramcsewe rs and trans formed public parks Into temporary receptacles for thehomeless and wre tched. . The American city. as many cri tic. haverecognized. Isbeing sy.tematlcally turned Inside out - or , rather, outside In.The valorlzed spaces of the new meg" 'tru ctures and super.malls areconcent rated In the cen ter , street frontage Is denuded, public ac tlYlty Issorted Into strlctly func tional compartments, and circulation Is InternalizedIn ccmdore under the gaie of private pollee,"

The prlvatlzatlon of the architectural public realm, moreover , IIshadowed by parallel rettructurlngs of elect ronic space, as heavily policed,pey-accese 'Information orders' , elite data-bases and subscription cableservices appropr iate parts the Invisible agora . Both processes, of course,mirror the deregulation of the economy and the recession of non-markerent itlements. The decline of urban liberalism has been accompan ied by thedeath o what might be called the 'Olmsredlan vision' of pubUc space,

" O RT Re : S S L . .... 227Frederick Law 0 1 dmsre , It will be recalled, was North America '.Hauumann, as well as the Falh er of Ce n tra l Park In th k fManh It ' 'C ' e wa e 0I: an s ommune' of 186), the great Draft Riot , he conce ived ubllclandscapes and parksas soc ial safely-valyes,m;l;naclasses and h l c l Incommon (bourgeois) recreation s and enJoyments. As Manfredo Tafurl hushown In his well-known study of Rockefeller Center, the same prinCiple.nlmated Ihe conSlructlon of the canonical urban spaces of the La Guardl.. .Roosevelt era .IIf T h reform ist vision of public spa ce - as the emolllem of class strugglenot t e bedrock of the American pois -Is now as obsolete as Keynealen

nostrums of full employment . In regard to the 'mixing' of classes,c o n t e m p r a r y urban America Is more like Victorian England than Wal tWhitman s or La Guardia's New York In LosA 1d . nge ea, c nce-upc n-e-um e aeml 'paradlse of free beaches, luxu rious park s, and ' 'crUising strl s'geeutnely democratic space Is all but exunct. The Oz. llke arc hlpela : o WestSide pleasure domes - a conllnuum of tony " grna s, arts centers andg: u rmet sl rlps -I s reciprocally dependent upo n the social Imprisonment oft e thlrdwor ld service pro letariat who live In Increasingly re resnveghettoes and barrios. In a city of several million yearning Immigrant; publlamenities are rad ically shrinking, parks are becoming derelict and beache:more segregated, IIbrarle. and playgrounds are closing youthC If d ' , ongregat onso or Inary kinds are banned, and the " reet. are becoming more desclarand dangerous . e

Unsurprtslngly, IS In other Amerlcan cltles, municipal policy has takenIts lead from the security o fTe nslye and the mlddle-c1us demand forI n e a e spatial and social Insulation . De facto disinvestment In tradit ionalpu Ic space and recreation has suppon ed th e sh, . f n 1

It 0 sea resource . tocorporltedenned red eVelopment priorit ies A pilant Itthl I II . c y government - Ins case ronlca y professing to represent a bl-ractal coalition of hbe Iwhites and Blacks _ hIlS II b ed raco a oret In the messlve privatization of ubUc:pace and the .subsldlzallon of new. racist enclaves (benignly d c l ~ e d asurban villages ). Yet most cu rrent, giddy l s u s l l o n of the 'POstmodern'

I c n In los Angeles neglect entirelythese overbearing aspec ts of counter.ur l z a t l o ~ , and coun ter.lnsurgency. A tri umph al glon _ 'u rbanrenaissance , city of the future ', and so on _ Is laid over the bruta llzaUonof Inner .cUy neighborhoods and the Increasing Soulh Afrlcanlzallon of

TH E F OR B ID D EN C IT Y

The Iirst militarist of space In Los Angeles was General Otis of the nm es.Declarlng himsel f at war with labo r, he Infused his surroundings with anunrelentingly bellicose air:

L.,,,.O A I AE tf tf I. . ... .largC'st postwa r urb an deSigns In North America. Site assemblage andclea ring on a vast scale , with l it tle mobilized opposition, have resur rectedlan$l values, upon which big developers and off-shore capftal (Inc reasingly. Japan ese) have planted a series of bl ll ion-dcller, block-square megastructu res:Crocker Center, the Bonaventure Hotel and Shopping Mall, theWorld Trade Cente r , the Broadway Plaza, Arco Cen ter , CltiCorp Plaza,California Plaza, and so on . With historical landscapes erased, with mega. tru ctures and superblocks as primary components, and wtth anIncreasingly dense and self-contafned circulation system, the new Anandald ist rict Is best conceived as a single, demonically selfre ferentlal hyper.struc ture , a Mleslan skyscape raised to dementla .LIke slmllar megalomaniac complexe s, tethered to fragmented anddesolated Downtowns (for Instance, the Renaissance Center In Detroit , thePeacht ree and Omnl Centers In Atlanta, and so on), Bunker Hili and theFigueroa corrldor have provoked I. storm of liberal objections against theirabuse of scale and composition, thei r denigration of st ree t land scape, andthe ir connscatlon of so much of the vital life aetMty of the center, nowsequestered within subterranean concourses or prteatteedmalls. Sam HallKaplan, the crus ty urban critic of the TImes, h. . been Indefatigable Indenouncing the anti -pedestrian bias of the new corporale citadel, with Itsfascist obllteratlon of st reet frontage. In his vtew the superimposition of'hennetlcally sealed fortr esses' and air-dropped 'pieces of subu rbia ' has'dammed the rivers of life' Downtown,I

Yet Kaplan's l'lgorous defense of pedeunen democracy remainsgrounded In hackneyed liberal complaints abou t 'bland design' and 'elitistplannin g pract ices' . LIke most architectural c ritics , he ralls against theoversights of urban design without recognIzing the dimension of foresight,of explicit repressive Intenti on, which has Its roots In lo s Angeles's ancient

' . history of class and race warfare. Indeed, whe n Downtown's new 'GoldCoast ' Is viewed en bloc from the standpOint of Its Interactions with othersoc ial n u s and landscapes In the cent ral city, the 'fort ress effect' emerges,not as an Inadvertent failure of design, but as deliberate soclo-spatlalstrategy.

The goals of this strategy may besummarized a s adoub le represncn : toraze 1.11 association with Downtown's past an'd to preven t any art iculationwith the non-Anglo urbanity of Its future. Everywhere on the perimeter of

cr r v OF UU" 'RT4:20

Its spatial relations. Even IS the walls have come down In Eastern Europe, :'th ey are being erected all over lo s Angeles. .

The observations that follow take as their thesis the existence of this {new class war (sometimes a continuation of the race war of the I96Os) at tthe level of the built environment. Allhough this Is not a comprehensive !account , which would require a thorough ana lysis of economic and politicaldynamics, these Images and Instances are meant to convince the reader that ':lIrban form Is Indeed follOWing a repressive function In the politicalfurrowsoh he Reagan -Bush era. Los Angeles, In Its usual preflgoreuve mode , offersan especia lly disquieting cata logue of the emergent liaison s be tweenarch itect ure and the American police state.

A great . menacing bronze eagle was the TImes's c rown; a small, .functlonalcanno n was Installed on the hood of Otis'. touring car to Intimidateonlookers. Not surpris ingly, this overwrought display of aggrenlonproduced a e o n In kind . On I Octobe r 1910 the heavilyforufled nm t sheadquarters - citadel of the open shop on the West Coast - was destroyed .In a catastrophic tlIploslon blamed on union saboteurs.

Eighty years later, the spIrit of General Otis has returned to subtlypervade lo s Angeles's new 'postmodern' Downtown: the eme rging PadflcRim nnanclal complex which cascades, In rows of skyscrapers, from BunkerHili sout hward I.long the Figueroa corridor. Redeveloped with public tuIncrements under the aegll of the powerful and largely unaccountableCommunity Redevelopment Agency, the Downtown project Is one of the

,He caned hll home InLosA l e the BtvoulC. Anolher houle was known astheOutpost. The TImfJ . ;. . known as the Fortress. Th e mIT of the paper was thePhalanx. The TImfJ buildingItsclfwas more fonre" than newsp.ilper pl.ilnt, therewere turrell, battleme nts, tentry boxes. Inside he stored firt )' rifles.


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231I ! : 9 L . ....

the framework of gentrlllcaHon or recolonlzatlon.1 Although a few whiteco llan venture Into the Grand Central M a r k ~ - a popu lar empor ium oftropical produce and fresh roods - la tlno .hoppe n or Saturday s t o l ~ r nevercircula te In the Guccl precincts abcve Hili S r The Ott&5 lonal appearanceor a destitute street nomad In Broadw",y Plm or in front or the Museum ofContemporary Art sets off a quiet panic; video cameras tum on their mountsand security guard. adjUst their belli .

. Photographs of the old Down town In lit prime show mixed crowds ofAnglo, Black and latino pedestrians of dlfTerent age. and c 1 a s ~ Thecontemporary Downtown ' renaissance' Is designed to make suc h heterogeneity virtually Impossible. It Is Intended not Just to 'k lll the stre et' asKlplan ~ t l but to 'kill the c rowd' , to eliminate that democratic admi xtureon the pavements and In the parks that Olmsted believed was America'santidote to Europel n c1,u polarization. The Downtown bjpersrructure _like some Buckmlruter Fuller postHolocaust rantasy - Is programmed toensur e a seamleu continuum of mlddl e-.elau work, consumption andrecreeuce . without unwonted exposu re to Dow ntown 's working-classst reet environmen ts.' Indeed the toUlltarlan semiotics or ramparts andbau lements, reflecnve glass and elevated pedways, rebukes any affinity o rsympat hy betwee n different architectural or human o rders. As In Otis'sfortress nmeJ bu ilding. th is Is the archlsemlotlet of class war .

le s t this seem too ext reme, consider Urban uJnd magazine's rece ntdesc ription of the pront-drl'len fo rmula that across the United State. haslin ke d toge the r clustered development, social homogeneity, and a secu re'Downtown Image':

1I0WTO OVERCOME fEA" OF CPJME IN OOWNTOWNS( realt aOf'nJt. Compact,Multi functionalCOTtArta.Adowntowncln be dengnedanddeveloped 10 make visitors fte l th. t II- or a . Ignlncanr ponlon of It - Is t t r a c t l v ~Ind the type of place thar 'respectable people' likethernsel'1e'lend to frequent. . . .Acore downtown Irea th.l\t Is compl ct, denselydeveloped I nd mulllfunctlonal willconcenfrate people, giving them more Icllvltlu . , . . The Icllvttle. oITe red In thl.core ne l will derermlne what 'type' of people will be strolling II I sidewalks;loell ing offices and housing (or middle. Ind upper-Income te. ldent. In or nel r thecore Irel cl n assure I high percentage cr 'respec table' , I, w" bldlng pedenrlan.Such In . t n c t l v ~ r e d e ~ l o ~ e d core . rel would .110 be lu ge: enough to . fTect thedowntown'. over.lIlmage. I) I

C I T Y OF QUARTZ I30

redevelopment lhb strategy tah l the form of a brun i arcbttecnnal edge orglacis that dennes the new Downtown 1$ a citadel vlsi -vls the test of thecentral city. Los Angeles Is unu sua l amo ngst major urban renewal centers .In presf! t'Ylng. however negligently. most of lis circa 1900-30 Beaux Arts ;commercia l co re. At Immense public cos t, the corpora te headquarters and "financia l district WI S shined from the old Broadway-Sprlng corridor sixblocks west 10 the greenfield sue created by destroying the Bunker Hili ' .residential neighborhood. To emphasize the 'security' of the new .Downtown, virtually all the tndUlonal pedestrian links to the old center,Including the famous Angels ' Flight funicular rail road. we re removed.

The logic of Ihls entire operation Is e v ~ a l J n g In et he r ci ties developersmight have auempted to articulate the new skjscepe and rhe old, exploiting (the latter's extraordinary Inventory of theaters and historic bUildings to .create a gentrtned hlstory- a gad lght district, Faneuil Market o r Ghlnrdelll :Square - as a suppo rt to mlddl e-.elass residential colonization . But Los .Angeles's redevelope rs viewed property values In the old Broadway core uIrreversibly eroded by the aru 's 'Iery centrality to publi c transport, and :especially by Its heavy use by Black and Mexican poor. In the w ~ k e of theWaUSRebellion, and the pe rceived Black threat to c rucial nodes of whi tepower (spelled out In lurid detail In the McCone Commission Report).resegregated spatial secur ity became the paramount concern. ' The Lo.Angeles Pollee Department abetted the mght of business from Broadway tothe foruned redoubts oreunker Hili by spreading scare literatur e typifying .. ,Black teenagers as dangerous gang members.As a result, redevelopment maulvely reproduced spatial apan held. The .moat of the Ha rbor Preeweyand the a d e d paltsadesof Bunker Hilicut off .the new financial core from the poor Immigrant neighborhoods that surround ;.II on every side. Along the base of California Plaza, Hili Street became a local :Berlin Wall separenng the publicly subsidized luxury of Bunker Hili from theIIfeworld of Broadway,' now reclaimed by la t ino Immigrants as their primary ".shopping and entertalnmen t street. Because politically connected specub tcnare now redeveloping the northern end of the Broadway co rridor (sometimes ;known as ' Bunker Hili Ell!'), the CRA Is promising to restore pedest rten linkages to the Hill in the 199Os, Including the Angels' flight Incline railroad. Thll, .of course, only r a m a t l z ~ the current bias against accessibility - that Is to say, '.against ony spatial Interaction berween old and new. poor and rich, except In

233r O R T RI !SB L.A .

' housing , official policy has transformed Skid Row Into probably the mostdangerous ten square blocks In the wor ld - ruled by a grisly succession of; 'Slu hers'. 'N ight Stalkers ' and mo re ordinary predarees. " Every night onSkid Row IsFrtday the t 3th, and, unsurp rlslngly, manyo ft he homeless leekto escape the 'Nickle' durtng the night at . 11 COSU, searching safe r niches In' other pan s of Down town. The city In turn tightens the noose with Incre asedpolice harassment and Ingenious ~ s l g n deter rents.

One o f the most common, bu t mlnd ,numblng, o f these deterren ts Isthekapld T ransit District 's new barrelshaped bus be nch that ofTers I minimal .urfl ce for uncomfortable utung. while making l n uu erly Impossible.Such 'bumproof' benches are being Widely Introduced on the pe riphery of Skid Row. Anoth er Invention. worthy of the Grand GUignol, Is the aggressive deployment of outdoor spr inklers . Several years ago the city; opened a 'Skid Row Park' along lower FlAh Street, on a co rner of Hell. To ensure tha t the park was not used for sleep ing - that Is to say, to guaranteethat It was mainly utilized for d rug dealing and preetnuuon - the cityInstalled an elaborate overhead spr inkle r syl lem programmed to drenchumus pecttng sleepers at random times dur ing the night . The system was

Immediately cop ie d by some local huslnessmen In orde r to d rive the homeless away from adjacent public sidewalks. Meanwhile restaura nts and markets have responded to the homeless by building ornate enclosures to protect th eir refuse. Although no one In los Angeles has yet proposedadding cyanide to the garbage, as happened In Phoenix a few years back, one popular seafood restaurant has spe nt S12,000 to built the ultimate bag-lady.proof trash c.ge: made of three-quarte r Inch stee l rod with alloy locks andvicious outturned splkee to safeguard priceless molder ing Rshheads and

: u ele F en ch rrles.Public toilets. however . are the real Eeetem Front of the Downtown

war on the poo r. lo s Angeles, as a mane r of dellbera te policy , has feweraallable public lavatories than any major Nort h Ameri ca n ci ty. On theedvlce of the LAPD (who actually sit on the deSign board of at leut onemajor Downtown redevelopment prolect).u the Community Redevelop'ment bu lldozed the remaining publi c toilet In Skid Row. Agency

plann ers then agonized for months o v whet her to Include a ' free.tandlng, publ ic to ilet' In their deSign for South Park . As CRA Chairman Jim Woodlater admitted . the dec ision not to Include the toilet was a 'polley decision

C IT Y OF Q U ... R T Z

SADISTIC S TR E ET E N V IR O N M EN TS

232

Th is conscious ' hu denlng' of the city surface ag. lnst the poo r Is especially .brazen In the Manlchaean treatment of Downtown microcosm. In his famous stu dy of the 'social life o f small urban spaces '. William Whyte maketthe po int th at the qUlllty of any urban environment can bemeasured, nrst :of all, by wheth er there are convenient, comfortable places for pede strllnt ,to sit.II This maxim has been warmly taken to heart by designers of thehlgh-eo tpon te precincts or Bunker Hili and the emerging ' urban l l I a orSouth Park. As part o f the city's polley o f subsidizJngwhite-collar s l e t l colonization In Downtown, It hu spent , or plans to spend, ten . of millions ..of dollars of diverted tax revenue on t n 'so ft' environments In these :areas. Planners en'lls\on an opulent complex or squ ltes . fountalnkw orldclass public art , exotic shubbery, and avanrgarde street furniture along I :Hope Street pedest rIan co rrido r, In the p ropaganda of official boosters, nothing Is taken u a bette r Index of Downtown's ' I v ~ a h l l l t than the Idyllof office workers and upscale tour ists lounglng or napping In th e terraced "'garden. of Cillfo rnla' Plua, th e 'Span ish Steps' or Grand Hope Park.

In stark co ntrast, II few blocks away, the city Is engaged In a merc llell ). troggle to make public facilities and spaces as 'un.llveable' as possible forthe homeless and the poo r.The persistence of thousandso r street people onthe fringes of Bunker Hili and the Civic Center sours the Image o f designer :Downtown living and betrays the laboriously constructed illu sion of aDowntown ' renaissance '. City Hall then retaliates with III ow n variant or .

r . Ulow-lntenalty wan are .Although c ity lead ers periodicallye ssay schemes fo r removing Ind lgenll

en moue _ deporting them to a poor farm on (he edge o f the desert,conn ning them In ca!nps in the moun tains, or, memorably. Intern ing themon a derelict ferry at the Harbo r - such 'flnal soluttons' have been blockedby co uncllmemben fearful of the displacement of the homeless Into theirdlstrlcII, Instead the city, s f - n s l u adopt ing the Idiom of urban coldwar, promote. the 'contai nment ' (official term)o f the homeless In Skid Rowalong Fifth Street east of the Broadway, systematically transforming theneighborhood Into an outdoo r poorhouse. But this conll inment st rategybreeds Itsown vicious circle o rcontradiction. By condensing the mass of thedesperate and helpless together In such a small space , and denyi ng adequate


23/30

23 3" O R T AE 8 tt L .A .

housing, c lllctal policy h illS transformed Skid Row Into probably the mostdangerous ten square blocks In the world - ruled by a grisly succession of'Slashers' , 'N ight Stalkers' and more ordinary predators." Every night onSkid Row Is Friday the 13th , and, unsurprlslngly, many of the homeless seek to etcape the 'Nickle' du ring the night at all costs, searching safe r niches InotherparIS of Downtown. The city In turn tightens the noose with Increasedpolice harassment and Ingenious design deterr ents.

: One oft he mostcommon , but mlnd.numblng, of these deterr ents Is the l Transit District's new barrehh aped bus bench that ( f ~ r s a minimal, surface for uncomfortable slUing, while making sleeping u r Impossible. Such 'bumproof' benches are being widely Intr oduced on the periphery ofSkid Row. Anothe r Invention, worthy of the Grand GUignol, I. theaggresSive deplejmem of outdoor sprinklers . Several y r ago the city opened a 'Skld Row Park' ,l ong lower Firth Street, on a comer H I To ensure that the park was not used for sleeping - th , t I. to say, to a a that It was mainly utilized for dr ug dealing and prostitut ion - the city

: Insul led an elabor ate overhead sprinkler system programmed to drenchunsuspect ing sleepers at random tlmes during the night. The system was\ Immediately cop ied by some local buslnusmen In order to drive the homeless away from adjacent public sidewalk. Meanwhile re.t aurant. and

a have responded to the homeless by building ornate enclosures toprotect their refuse. Although no one In lo s Angeles hilS yet proposed

, a d l n g c y a l to the garbage, as happened In Phoen ix . fewyean back, one.: popu lar seafood restaurant has spent S12,000 to bu ilt the ultimate bag-ladyproof trash cage: made of three-quarter Inch steel rod with alloy locks andvicious cuuumed spikes to safeguard priceless d l n nJhheads ands t a l ~ french fries.

Public tollet s, however, are the real Eastern fron t of rhe Downtownwar on the poor. Los g ~ l e as a matt er of deliberate policy, has fewerav.l lable public lavator ies than any major North ~ r l c a city. On theadvice of the LAPD (who actually sit on the design board of at least onemajor Downtown redevetopmem p c t l the Community Redevelop.

,; ment A ~ bulldozed the remaining public toilet In Skid Row. Agencyplanners then agonized for months over whether to Include a ' free.standlngpublic toilet' In their g for South Park . As CRA Chairman Jim Woodlater admlued , the decision not to Include the tolle t was a 'polky decision

CI T Y OF O u ... .. T Z .

SADISTIC S TRE ET eNVIRo NM E N T S

232

This conscious 'hardenrng' of the cny surface against the poor Is especialy :brazen In the Manlchaean treatment of Downtown microcosms. In his .famous study of the 'social life of small urban spaces', William Whyte make.the point tha t the quality of any urban environment can be measured , nntof an, bywhether there are convenient, comfortable places for e s t r lto sit. II This maxim hal been warmly taken to hear! by designers of Ihe "high-ccrpc rate predr i t U of Bunker 1-1111 and the emerging 'urban l 1 of ;."South Park. As part of the city's polley of subsidizing white-collar resident ial .colonlzatlon In Downtown. It has spent , or plans 10 spend. tens of millionsof dollars of dlverted tax revenue on enticing. 'so fl' environments In theseareas. Planners envision an opulent complex of q r s fountains,' woddclass public art, excdc shubbery, and a i a d nr eer furnitu re along aHope Street pedesu ian corridor. In the propaganda of official boosters,nothing Is reken asa bette r Index of Downtown's 'liveability' th an the Idyll ';of office wo rkers and upscale tou rists lou nging or napping In the terracedgardens of l Plua , the 'Spanlsh Steps' or Grand 1lope Park.

In star k contrast, a few blocks away, the city Is engaged In a mercllesestruggle to make public facilities and spaces as ' unllveable' as pcsslble forthe homeless and the poo r. The perstsreece of thousands of street people 6nthe fringes of Bunker Hili and the CIvic Center sours the l l of designerDowntown liVing and betrays the laboriOusly constructed illusion of .:Downtown ' l City Hall then retaliates with Its own variant of ;.low-rmensny wufare. lJ

Although city leaders periodically essay schemes for removing Indigen t.t n mont _ deporting them to a poor farm on the edge of the desert,co nnning them In camps In the mountains, or, memorahly, Inte rning themon a dere lict ferry at the Harbor - such ' Ilna! solutions' have been blockedby cou ncllmembers 'fearful of the displacement of the homeless Into theirdistr icts. Instead the city, self.consclously adopting the Idiom of urban coldwar, promote. the 'cOntainment' (official term) oft he homeless In Skid Rowalong Flnh Street eall of the Broadway , systematically transforming theneighborhood Into an outdoo r poo rhouse. But th is conta inment strategybreeds Its own vicious circle of contradiction. By condensing the mass of thedesperat e and helpless together In such a sml ll space, and den ying adequ.te

235

'BUMPRooF' BUS BENCHHil l Stru t, Downtown

FOHT nES s L .A .I T Y O F OUA f ' t T Z234

and not ill design decision'. The e RA Downtown prefers (he solution of'l!ull5l.publlc restrooms' - meaning totlets III t : l u r I l U , art galleries andoffice bUildings-w hich can be rnnde avallahle to tourtsts and office workerswlrlle helng denied to vagrants and other unsultables: ' The toiletless noman'.land east 00 11 11 Street In Downtown Is also barren of outside watersources for drinking or washing. A common and tr oubling Sight these daysare the homeless men - many of them yOllng Salvaclorean refugees washIng In and even drhiklng from the sewer crouent which flows down theconcrete channel of tile l.os Angeles River on the eastern e ~ g e ofDowntown.Where the Itineraries of Down town powerbrekers unavoidablyIntersect with the h a l t of the homeless or the working poor, as In the :preV iously mentioned zone of genulncatlon along the northern Broadwaycorridor, ~ x t n r d n a r y design precautions are being taken to ensure thephYSical separation of the different humanities. For tnsrance. the CRA 1brought In the I.os Angeles Police to design 'H hour, stare-of-the-artsecurlty ' for the two new parking struc tures that serve the I.os Angelel 'limn ami Ronald Reagan State Office buildings. In contrast 10 the meanstreets o u t s l , h parking stru ctures contain beillutlfully landscaped lawnsor 'm lcroparks', and In one case, a food court and a historical exhibit. 'Moreover, both u l l ~ e are designed as 'con ndence-bcudrng' circula tionsystems _ mlnlature p of prlvilltlzatlon - which allow white-collar ..workers to w1\ lk from car to office, or from car to bouuqne. with minimum ;exposure to the publtcs trcet. lbe Broadway Spring Cente r, III particular,which links the Ronalli Reagan Building to the proposed 'G nnd ~ r \Square' at Third and Broadway, has been warmly pratsed by architectural :criticsfor adding greenery and art (a banal bas relief) to parking. It also adds 1.a hoge dose of menace - armed guards , locked gatel , and security m a ;_ to scare away the homeless and poor.

The cold waron the streets of Downtown Is ever escalat ing. The police, '.lcbbted by Downtown merchants and developers, have broken up every ;Atempt by the homeless and their allies to c reate safe havens or seU '.organized encampments. 'jusucevnle'. founded by homeless activist Ted :11ayes,was roughly dispersed; when Its Inhabitants attempted to Ilnd refuge .at Venice Beach, they were arrested at the behest ohhe local councllperson [(a renowned environmentalist) and sent back to the Inferno of Skid Row. :

j.j


24/30

FR A N K O E H R Y AS D I R T Y t t A R R Y

The city's OIY ., brief experiment with IcgJllzcd campIng _ a grudgingresponse to it series of exposure deaths In the cold winte r of 198 716 _ wasended abruptly afte r only four months [0 make way fo r cons tr uctio n of atrans it repa ir yard . Current policy seems to Involve a perverse play upon7..ola', famous Irony abou t the 'equal rlghls' of the rich and the poor to sleepout TOngh. As the head of th e ci ty plan ning commission explnlncd theofficlal llllC to Incredulous report ers, It Is no l againsl the law10 sleep on thestreet pe t se. 'only to erect any sort of protective shelter', To enforce thisprescription against ~ r condos ', the lAr D periodically w ~ theNickle, conflscatlng shelte rs and other possessions, lind arresting resisters.Such c n l c a repression has r c the majority of the homeless lnto urb anbedouins. They arc vlslble &1 over Downtown, pusllll1g a few parbencpossessions In purloined shopping ca rts, alway! fugitive and In motion,pressed between the official policy of containment

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