The Great Wall of Los Angeles by Judy Baca and SPARC (Social and Public Art Resource Center) commemorate Chavez Ravine and the division of the barrios with freeways. Chavez Ravine was a bucolic Latino community through the 1950s, until the City of Los Angeles forcibly evicted the residents with promises of affordable housing. Mrs. Aurora Archega, whose family had resided in Chavez Ravine for 36 years, refused to leave her home, and was carried out by the police, with all of her belongings, on May 9, 1959, in a scene captured in this classic photograph. She was then jailed for 30 days. The City authorized the sale of Chavez Ravine to the Dodgers for a stadium 50 years ago on October 7, 1957. The Dodgers drowned Chavez Ravine in a sea of asphalt to build Dodger Stadium and a parking lot for 50,000 cars and not a single place for children to play. The Dodgers promised to spend $500,000 on a recreation facility in the area but have never done so. Los Desterrados, the people who lost their homes and way of life at Chavez Ravine, still meet regularly to commemorate the community there. Culture Clash revived the forgotten history of Chavez Ravine in their play of that name, and Ry Cooder in his CD. Read the L.A. Times coverage of the 50th anniversary. The Great Wall of Los Angeles by Judy Baca © and SPARC.