1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910782008603321

Autore

Estrada William D

Titolo

The Los Angeles Plaza [[electronic resource] ] : sacred and contested space / / William David Estrada ; foreword by Devra Weber

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Austin, : University of Texas Press, 2008

ISBN

0-292-79462-2

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (376 p.)

Disciplina

979.4/94

Soggetti

Public spaces - California - Los Angeles - History

Sacred space - California - Los Angeles - History

Memory - Social aspects - California - Los Angeles - History

Community life - California - Los Angeles - History

Human ecology - California - Los Angeles - History

Los Angeles Plaza (Los Angeles, Calif.) History

Los Angeles (Calif.) History

Los Angeles (Calif.) Social life and customs

Los Angeles (Calif.) Ethnic relations

Los Angeles (Calif.) Buildings, structures, etc

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 311-327) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Foreword -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Cultural and Historical Origins -- 2. The Rise and Decline of the Mexican Plaza -- 3. From Ciudad to City -- 4. Homelands Remembered -- 5. Revolution and Public Space -- 6. Reforming Culture and Community -- 7. Parades, Murals, and Bulldozers -- 8. Politics and Preservation -- 9. The Persistence of Memory -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

City plazas worldwide are centers of cultural expression and artistic display. They are settings for everyday urban life where daily interactions, economic exchanges, and informal conversations occur, thereby creating a socially meaningful place at the core of a city. At the heart of historic Los Angeles, the Plaza represents a quintessential public space where real and imagined narratives overlap and provide as



many questions as answers about the development of the city and what it means to be an Angeleno. The author, a social and cultural historian who specializes in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Los Angeles, is well suited to explore the complex history and modern-day relevance of the Los Angeles Plaza. From its indigenous and colonial origins to the present day, Estrada explores the subject from an interdisciplinary and multiethnic perspective, delving into the pages of local newspapers, diaries and letters, and the personal memories of former and present Plaza residents, in order to examine the spatial and social dimensions of the Plaza over an extended period of time. The author contributes to the growing historiography of Los Angeles by providing a groundbreaking analysis of the original core of the city that covers a long span of time, space, and social relations. He examines the impact of change on the lives of ordinary people in a specific place, and how this change reflects the larger story of the city.