La Nachita

by J Michael Walker, 2004 Sumi ink on vinyl paper, 85” high x 60” wide

There was no need for a Mexican barrio in Los Angeles when only Mexicans, native peoples and a handful of foreigners lived here.  However, after the United States wrested ownership of California from Mexico, increasing numbers of Yankees streamed in, creating an ascendant culture wishing to distance itself from the resident masses, who were pushed aside, and north of the Plaza, to an area that became known as Sonoratown.

When Sonoratown was mentioned in the newspapers, it was almost exclusively sensational reportage of a knife fight or murder - which was then dismissed, for being confined to “only” Mexicans and Indians.  The sense conveyed was of Sonoratown as a den of criminals and lowlifes: missing was any indication that Sonoratown chiefly comprised families striving to survive, culturally and economically intact, against great odds.

In this context, annual celebrations of Mexican Independence Day, on September 16th, took on great importance, both as external statements of cultural endurance and as community-wide celebrations of a shared heritage

I uncovered a studio photograph of the daughter of the president of the chief Mexican benevolent society, la Sociedad Patriótica de Juarez, dressed for the celebration's pageantry, to remind Angelenos that El Pueblo remained - as it remains today - profoundly, intrinsically Mexican.