Chavez Ravine

Cheech Marin narrates filmmaker Jordan Mechner's Chavez Ravine, chronicling the betrayal of the titular Mexican-American enclave—a small, closely-knit community huddled on a hill overlooking downtown Los Angeles—that was razed in the 1950s and ultimately became the home of Dodger Stadium. In an eerie foreshadowing of today's “eminent domain” debate about the use of private property for the public good, the 300 families living in Chavez Ravine were evicted to make way for a highly touted, low-income housing project, but opportunistic real-estate lobbyists painted developer Frank Wilkinson as a Communist and persuaded the city to sell the land to Dodgers' owner Walter O'Malley. Backed by a score from Ry Cooder and Lalo Guerrero, this revelation of a shameful episode in Los Angeles history is illustrated with the hauntingly evocative pictures of acclaimed photographer Don Normark, who spent nearly a year capturing the charming village and its inhabitants on film in 1949. One of YALSA's 2006 list of selected VHS/DVD titles, this is recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (E. Hulse)