(NE)LA Stories: Interviews with Community Members of Los Angeles

Phase Three: Spring 2021

What is (NE)LA Stories?

 

(NE)LA Stories engages with community members who have lived and shaped the local cultural landscape of Los Angeles from the second half of the twentieth century and into the twenty-first, with a particular focus on the distinctive community of Northeast Los Angeles.

This project is a continuing portion of a sustained effort by the Institute for the Study of Los Angeles (ISLA); Oxy Arts; and Occidental Library, Special Collections and Archives to document this region's rich history through personal interviews of its inhabitants and cultural contributors.

For this third phase of the (NE)LA Stories project, our interviews were conducted in teams of two (over Zoom, of course!) by undergraduate students in two different courses taught in different academic disciplines:

‘’Professor Jan Lin’s “Urban Sociology” [SOC 270] and Jeremiah Axelrod’s “American Urban History” [UEP/History 205], which both took place during the Spring of 2021.

The oral histories collected here vividly illustrate continued engagement with Los Angeles leaders, activists, community members and artists. Indeed, this particular collection of Latinx artists’ interviews represents a particularly exciting and significant remembrance of the epochal moment several scholars refer to as “The Highland Park Chicano Arts Renaissance” of the 1970s and 1980s.

 

Interviews

April Banks

April Banks is an artist, educated as an architect. Her unconventional career has straddled conceptual art, social practice and exhibition design. Her trans-media practice sits between photography, installation, and collaborative experiments.

Recent projects time travel through historical archives and memories, questioning what we think we know of the past and how it informs our cultural positioning systems. Her social practice focuses on community engagement that seeks to amplify and preserve lesser known stories. In pursuit of joy, yet often enraged, her work usually begins with a question.

Her work has been exhibited in Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, Chicago, Minneapolis, Cleveland, Daytona Beach, New Hampshire, Maryland, New York, Switzerland, Colombia, Brazil, United Arab Emirates, Senegal and Ethiopia. In February 2021 she completed her first permanent public art sculpture “A Resurrection in Four Stanzas” in Santa Monica, CA.

  

Meadow Carder-Vindel

My name is Meadow Carder-Vindel aka Mama Meadow. My husband Eric, our child, and I are the primary caretakers of this garden. While living as “Back to the Landers” in Northern California during the sixties, my mother had a vision of a home on a hillside with mulberry and loquat trees in the front yard. When my parents moved back to Los Angeles, she and my father walked onto what is now known as GreenStone Farm & Sanctuary and saw the very home and trees of her vision. For almost fifty years, our family has care taken, lived with, and loved this Land and all of her occupants. We are a mixed ethnicity family with Indiginous, African, European, and Central American roots, using the ways of our ancestors to live, garden, and farm harmoniously. We both come from a long line of gardeners, farmers, horticulturists, chefs, and stewards of Mama Earth. When I became severely ill several years ago, I found my way back to better health by fully engaging in conversation and communion with our garden. Recognizing the intricate parallels between my own body and our Earth, as she healed, I healed and we knew it was time for me and Eric to take on the honor as primary stewards of this Land. It is our family's joy to open our gates to you

Celestina Castillo

Celestina Castillo is a UCLA graduate student working on her PHD. Her family has lived in Los Angeles (Highland Park) for four generations. Ms. Castillo has worked with a wide range of community-based organizations focused on education, community and workforce development, advocacy, and organizing throughout Los Angeles. She directed the Center for Community Based Learning (CCBL) at Occidental College for over a decade where she began working on building a historical photo archive for UAII in partnership with organizational staff and community members, as well as students and scholars. Celestina earned her BA in History at Pomona College, an MS in Urban Policy Analysis and Management at New School University in New York, and is currently in a Ph.D. program in Gender Studies at UCLA. Celestina is Tohono O'odham and Chicana/Mexican-American.

  

Shannon Daut

Shannon leads Cultural Affairs for the City of Santa Monica, where she works to integrate the arts into all aspects of life in the community. She recently conceptualized and led the implementation of two significant projects: Belmar History + Art, a Civic Commemoration Project, and Art of Recovery, which supports artistic efforts that address recovery needs. She was previously the Executive Director of the Alaska State Council on the Arts and Deputy Director of the Western States Arts Federation (WESTAF). Daut has served on the boards of the National Performance Network and WESTAF. She received her bachelor's degree in Communication Arts/Film from UW-Madison and her graduate degree in Communication/Rhetoric from UC-Denver.


Danny Diaz

Daniel Diaz is the Director of UCLA History-Geography Project and a former high school history teacher, as well as the former director of Project Deviate, Inc., a non-profit he founded to support foster youth in the San Gabriel Valley. As Director of the UCLA History-Geography Project, Daniel provides professional development opportunities, workshops, and institutes for K-12 history-social science and ethnic studies teachers that emphasize local history and are guided by social justice and cultural responsiveness. Daniel’s research interests include the impact of local history on student engagement, the K16 continuum, and how to best support history teachers new to ethnic studies.

  

Erik Daniel Garcia

Erik Garcia runs NELA TV documenting 80's-90's (mostly Latino) cultures. PLACEHOLDER TEXT PLACEHOLDER TEXT PLACEHOLDER TEXT PLACEHOLDER TEXT PLACEHOLDER TEXT PLACEHOLDER TEXT PLACEHOLDER TEXT PLACEHOLDER TEXT PLACEHOLDER TEXT PLACEHOLDER TEXT PLACEHOLDER TEXT PLACEHOLDER TEXT PLACEHOLDER TEXT PLACEHOLDER TEXT

  

Dan Kellgreen

Dan Kellgreen is a family man, United States Navy Veteran, head member of the American Legion, Scoutmaster for the Scouts BSA, union carpenter and welder. Dan has decades of experience in construction work that has spanned throughout Los Angeles proper and L.A. County to include Bakersfield, Palmdale, Riverside and Orange County. A few notable construction projects that Dan has been a part of are Disneyland, Dreamworks Studios, UCLA, Universal City Walk, and SoFi Stadium. In addition, he has worked with federal organizations such as the United States Forest Service and non-profit organizations like the TreePeople to conduct trail restoration and tree planting in the Los Angeles Forest. Overall, Dan’s residential and occupational experience in Los Angeles offers valuable insight into the city’s urban dynamics. More importantly, Dan’s community work and youth mentorship has left a lasting impact on present and future generations of Angelenos.

  

Anita-Marie Martinez

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Richard Mora

Dr. Mora, who has taught at Occidental College since 2006, received the The Linda and Tod Whilte Teaching Prize in 2014 and the Donald Loftsgordon Memorial Award for Outstanding Teacher in 2017.  His current research projects focus on masculinities, education, youth cultures, and juvenile justice. He served on the Editorial Board of Gender & Society and is currently servicing as an Advisory Editor for Sociological Perspectives.


Susan Moss

Artist and author Susan Moss has works held by 540 collectors, including five museums. Her books Keep Your Breasts!, Survive Cancer, and The Accident Stager are sold world-wide. PLACEHOLDER TEXT PLACEHOLDER TEXTPLACEHOLDER TEXTPLACEHOLDER TEXT PLACEHOLDER TEXTPLACEHOLDER TEXT PLACEHOLDER TEXT PLACEHOLDER TEXT PLACEHOLDER TEXT

  

Marjaam Oskoui

I am a cultural hybrid, mutation and assimilation became the story of my life. I was raised in Iran and Germany and then living the longest time in Los Angeles. I have finished my studies at calarts in 1999 with an MFA, after that I started a digital agency Oskoui+ Oskoui, Inc., I taught new media arts in Munich at the Akamemie der Bildenden Künste and now starting a culture club in dtla. I believe in dreaming and making my visions true. I work in my sleep

 

  

Natalie Patterson

Natalie Patterson can best be identified as a Teaching Artist, she uses her dynamic range of expertise to masterfully make tangible abstract concepts. Natalie has the unique ability to bridge one’s personal experiences with the larger cultural occurrences using art, performance and custom workshops. Over the last 18 years, Natalie has crafted time-tested approaches to fostering cultures of growth, curiosity, compassion, and integrity. As a poet and educator, she has worked extensively in non-profit, higher education and with major brands like Sephora, Uproxx, The United Way, Summit, Darling Magazine, Adidas Women, TASTEMADE and SoulPancake. Natalie speaks her mind, from inspiration to social justice she is equally inspired. Natalie is known for her integrity, passion, social activism and her ability to work with people of all ages, genders, races and cultures by showing up fully and inviting folks to remember that who they are is enough.

  

Debra Scacco

Debra Scacco is an artist and curator based in Highland Park, Los Angeles. In 2019 her collaborative work, Compass Rose, inaugurated Oxy Arts. This was a homecoming of sorts as her studio was located at 4755 York Blvd until Occidental purchased the entire city block bar one unit. (NE)LA Stories was co-founded as part of this inaugural event. 

  

Eliot and Jain Sekuler

Eliot Sekuler: Eliot Sekuler worked as a merchant marine and kicked around hippie crash pads in New York and San Francisco before falling into a career as a trade magazine reporter covering the music industry. Later, he served as a publicist for recording artists and celebrities and headed the PR department for the Universal Studios Hollywood theme park as the company’s vice president, public relations.Active in community affairs, he helped organize Northeast L.A.’s Arroyo Seco Neighborhood Council and served, for a time, as that body’s vice president. He served as president of the Mount Washington Association and as a founding president of the Lummis Days Community Foundation.Now retired, he lives Oregon’s central coast.  He paints,  travels in India and serves as communications chairman of the Lincoln County, Oregon Democratic Party. 

 

Jain Sekuler: Jain Sekuler worked a variety of theater tech jobs after majoring in Theatre Arts at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.  Her favorites were the openings of the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre and the Kennedy Center in DC, and two seasons at the Santa Fe Opera.  After moving to Los Angeles, she shifted from theatre to film and television production.  In 2006, along with her husband, Eliot, she founded Lummis Days, an annual nonprofit, multi-cultural, multi-disciplinary arts festival held in Northeast Los Angeles. She served as a producer for the festival and on the board for 14 years and was treasurer for 4 years. Drawn to the cool summers of the Oregon Coast, Jain, her husband and dogs sought refuge from L.A.’s heat in Gleneden Beach and split their time between Oregon and Southern California since her retirement in 2012, becoming permanent Oregon residents in January of 2020.  A strong believer in community involvement, she was delighted to discover the nonprofit Siletz Bay Music Festival in her new home where she is able to offer her experience and service as a producer and board member

  

Paula Svonkin

Paula Svonkin (1939-2022) was a loving mother and grandmother, a hard working business owner and community leader, and a lover of the arts. She spent her life encouraging and supporting young people and a wide array of cultural, artistic, and children’s organizations. Born in Los Angeles, California, Paula raised four children while working on behalf of a variety of organizations, including a number of Southern California synagogues, in support of young people, culture, justice, and the arts. She taught her children, Bob, Craig, Scott, and Jeanine, as well as her many grandchildren and young friends, the importance of literature, theatre, art, education, family, tradition, hospitality, kindness, and humor.

  

Sergio Teran

Sergio Teran (b.1974, Los Angeles) graduated with a BFA from Art Center College of Design and an MA in Studio Art from New York University. He lives and works in Los Angeles where he is also an Associate Professor of Art at Cerritos College.
Sergio Teran’s studio process filters divergent memories, real and imagined places and current events with cultural symbologies from everyday life and reassembles them into richly painted narrative tableaus. For the past 20 years, his paintings have investigated the particularities of a specific cultural identity, originating from intensely personal reflections that are elaborated through a struggle with process and material to elevate representations of a Mexican American experience.
Sergio’s work has been exhibited at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Southwest Museum of Art, and the Vincent Price Museum, who holds a piece in their permanent collection. Angels Gate Cultural Center, Avenue 50 Studio, and Nielsen Gallery (Boston), The University of Connecticut, and Taste like Chicken Art Space, in Brooklyn, NY. His work has been featured on KCET ArtBound (2017), The Los Angeles Times (2017), Joaquin Magazine (2016), and The Culture Trip (2015).

  

Eric Warren

Eric Warren is an Eagle Rock native and Occidental College alumnus. Prior to his influential work as President of the Eagle Rock Historical Society, Eric Warren worked as a theatre and film set designer for many years. Author of three volumes of Eagle Rock history, Eric Warren has dedicated his retirement to reconstructing and preserving the history of Eagle Rock. He was awarded Occidental College’s Alumni Seal award for service to the community in 2019 for his achievements in documenting and researching the history of Eagle Rock and North East Los Angeles

Chicano/a Artist Interviews

 

  

Barbara Carrasco

Barbara Carrasco is a Chicana artist, born in El Paso, Texas in 1955 and settling in West L.A. She was an active artist at the Public Art Center, helping various artists with their murals and paintings, as well as creating her own. Carrasco also engaged many young individuals in the community in Self Helps Graphics. Carrasco also curated many shows in Kathy Gallegos’ Avenue 50 Studio and other parts of California. At age 19, Carrasco attended UCLA arts major and became a member of the United Farm Workers founded by Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta. Carrasco’s famous mural, L.A. History: A Mexican Perspective is one of her works to recognize the indigeous cultures within the history of California. Barbara Carrasco had also started a series of portraits of inspiring female artists, with Huerta being the initial portrait. Carrasco is currently the Board Member of the Dolores Huerta Foundation.

  

Sonya Fe

In the 1970’s, Sonye Fe was an active part of the Chicano arts movement in Highland Park as the director of silkscreening at Mechicano on North Figueroa. Nowadays, her work largely entails murals and paintings, but she has a large collection of drawings and paintings as well. Fe's work reflects social and cultural issues with themes centering on child abuse/neglect and the woman place in society.

  

Dolores Guerrero-Cruz

Dolores Guerrero-Cruz is an artist who focuses on painting, printmaking, and craft artisanship to further her artistic creativity. Throughout her career, she was involved with the Centro de Arte Publico (Public Art Center) and Self-Help Graphics, where she assisted the founder Sister Karen with the Day of the Dead celebrations and fundraising. PLACEHOLDER TEXT PLACEHOLDER TEXT PLACEHOLDER TEXT PLACEHOLDER TEXT

  

Judithe Hernandez

Judithe Hernández first won acclaim as a muralist during the Los Angeles mural renaissance of the 1970s and as a member of the celebrated Chicano artist collective Los Four. Together with Carlos Almaraz she painted murals for Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers Union, as well as the Ramona Gardens Housing Projects in East Los Angeles where they painted a pair of the first feminist empowerment murals. Her career as a solo artist moved to the national level in 1983 with a solo exhibition at the Cayman Gallery in New York making her the first Chicana to extend her artistic reach beyond the West coast. Over her 50-year career, she has established a significant record of exhibition and acquisition of her work by major public institutions and private collections.

  

Leo Limon

Leo Limón is an adept artist, army veteran, and devoted father, whose work can be found across Los Angeles and in various museum and university archives. In the past, Leo has worked with Self-Help Graphics, MeChicano Art Center and the Centro de Arte Publico to increase visibility of Chicanáo  art and culture. Committed to the community, local history and his family, Leo’s work upholds his commitment to the aforementioned entities. Through his expansive knowledge base of various artistic mediums and styles, Leo’s work has been applied to newspapers, prints, serigraphs and murals. Lastly, his work has also assisted local entities like the Los Angeles Unified School District and national entities such as Veteran Affairs and the Smithsonian.

  

Frank Romero

Frank Romero was born July 11, 1941 in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. He was the oldest of three children in a middle class family, his parents were Delia Jurado and Edwardo (or Edward) Romero. Romero is of Spanish and Mexican heritage. Growing up they spoke English at home and Romero learned to speak Spanish later in life.

  

Joe Rodriguez

Joe Rodriguez is an artist originally from El Paso, Texas. After moving to the Los Angeles area in 1963, Rodriguez became involved in the Chicano arts scene in East LA, specifically with the Mechicano Art Center and the community at Ramona Gardens in Boyle Heights. Both as an artist and director of the Mechicano Art Center, Rodriguez strived to establish a sense of community and cultural pride through the Ramona Gardens mural program and other activities with community members, as well as fellow artists such as Carlos Almaraz, Sonya Fe, Judithe Hernandez, and many others.

 

  

John Valadez

John Valadez is a realist painter and muralist who has had work displayed in galleries across the US, Mexico, and Europe. Valadez came up on the Chicano art scene of the 1970s and 1980s and worked at several collectives such as Centro de Arte Publico in Highland Park. His work is often political or movement based and his styles are highly in line with photorealists.

  

Sybil Venegas

Sybil Venegas is a multi-talented professional artist, independent curator, professor, historian, and writer. She focuses primarily on Chicano/a studies, and is renowned for her work in the field. Originally from the Los Angeles area, Venegas became active in the Chicano/a art community while living in the Bay Area and then again when she eventually moved back to Los Angeles.

 

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