The Pocho Research Society's Field Guide to Erased and Invisible Histories - Softcover

Loza, Sandra De La

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0895511460 ISBN 13: 9780895511461

Publisher: UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center Press, 2011

Synopsis

Visual and performance artist Sandra de la Loza presents a wry commentary on the Chicano history of Los Angeles in this field guide to Downtown and East Los Angeles. Using the format of the photographic essay, she documents the exploits of the Pocho Research Society, an organization dedicated to commemorating sites in Los Angeles that are of importance to the Chicano community but that have been erased by urban development or neglect. Through the unauthorized acts of commemoration, the Pocho Research Society calls our attention to their absence from official narratives.

The field guide also offers playful tours of the murals at Estrada Courts and the Fort No Moore Secret Museum, founded by the Pocho Research Society to preserve the history of the Fort Moore Pioneer Memorial (a history that includes accounts of the Lizard People, who lived in catacombs far beneath the monument).

By drawing attention to these invisible monuments and lost histories, de la Loza asks her readers to consider the broader question of what constitutes a community's history.

About this title

Review:

"Ms. De la Loza's book is nicely done . . . There is a touch of anarchy to the whole thing, since those who go about by night sticking their own plaques above the official L.A. bronze do tend to be secretive."―Mary Tise, RALPH, October 2011

About this edition

• Publisher: UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center Press
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0895511460
• ISBN 13: 9780895511461
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 90