Chavez Ravine

by Culture Clash

The controversial history of Chavez Ravine, the immigrant community that once existed on the site that is now Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, is explored with humor, brutal honesty, and pulse-racing music by the nation's premier Chicano/Latino theatre troupe, Culture Clash. A L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance Culture Clash (Richard Montoya, Ric Salinas and Herbert Siguenza, with Zilah Mendoza).

Genres: Plays, Drama, Theatre, Audiobook

Audio CD

First published June 1, 2004

Reviews

[Kay · Rating 5 out of 5]

A perfect L.A. song.
Relatable slap-stick humor mixed and mashed into historic storytelling.
Performed in 2003, this play was clearly made for Dodger fans, amateur L.A. historians, and Chicanos who know, love and appreciate their deeply-rooted past as an undeniable piece of L.A.'s culture.
Most Dodger fans hate to acknowledge the injustice woven in the Dodgers' beginnings in L.A., even defending the decision for Dodger Stadium to be built in what is now Elysian Park (but formerly and affectionately remembered as the communities of La Loma, Bishop and Palo Verde). This play makes what happened very personal and opens your eyes to the motives of key players like Frank Wilkinson, Kenneth Hahn, Norris Poulson, the L.A. Times and even Vin Scully.
I highly recommend this hour-long audio book to all Dodger fans and L.A. history lovers alike.

[Zac Stojcevski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Would, if I could, give this ensemble festival 6 stars out of 5. The immigrant / poor nostalgia vibes with my own origin story and here it was presented in a way that the dialogue and cadence activated the whole suite of senses. The humour, pathos, love, tragedy and triumph over adversity was worthy of mariachi interludes. Cleverly, this was presented in a series of whacky interconnected sketchy vignettes interrupting the main theme - reminiscent in part to Saturday Night Live or Mad magazine whilst the headline story could very as the elements could be influenced. Viva Chavez Ravine!

[Jacqueline Samuel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Comedic tale about a not so comedic and true event that happened in a small shallow canyon in Califas in the 1950s. Mexican Americans were pushed into this unwanted land just outside of LA and created colonias LaLoma, Palo Verde and Bishop. Only to get pushed out of this land at the onset of LA's expansion. We now know the land as Dodger stadium.

[Madlyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok

[Relena_reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was difficult to tell some voices apart, but this was a fascinating portrait of a series of events that changed LA forever for the neighborhood of Chavez Ravine.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite the strong Latino humor, I have always found Culture Clash to be incredible accessible to a Midwest, white boy such as myself.

Their humor is strong ... I know I'm missing the more obvious Latino jokes, but that's okay ... and the material very intelligent.

This is a CD of one of their performances. From what I heard, I am presuming that they have taken some of the stories from a book (Chavez Ravine 1949, a Los Angeles Story, perhaps?)and adapted it in a way that only they can.

Despite that their performances include a great deal of visual humor, this lost nothing (perhaps well worked specifically for the CD?) by being audible only.

Highly recommended.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting performance piece. Ranging widely between elementary school humor, spiritality, slapstick, and deep rage. The highlights include The Dodger-Dog Girl, Vin Skully's unintentially racist praisng of Venazuela, The Ghosts of Second Base, and a McCarthy hearing. As an Angelino, I'm very surprised that I was not aware of this part of the city's history. My biggest critique though is that the the production never hits as deeply as it could, possibly because of the charactured nature of some aspects of the storytelling.