
Boyle Heights
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A Latina Lesbian couple who were legendary in the artist community in which I worked wanted to talk with me about how I was to do my project:
“You are crazy! A White Boy like you walking alone in that part of town…
OK so I know I’m not going to be able
to talk you out of this so this is what
I want you to do…”
“In my walk across this portion of Los Angeles I began to learn one of the most important lessons in my street photography experiences: Don’t let the reputation of a place fool you. Places that are labeled dangerous are often mislabeled or misunderstood. Let a place tell you its own story and let the people there demonstrate the character of their neighborhood.”
— Me
Advice from some badass women for this Guerro Loco (Crazy White Boy) on his journey across LA
“The graffiti will tell you if it’s safe”
I had already been walking many miles across LA. But I started in Downtown and walked West into neighborhoods I knew. I had not really explored this part of town before and I admit, I was nervous. You hear a lot of crap about these areas growing up in the region and some of it is probably true but most is not but how do you know which is which?
Before I began my walks into Boyle Heights and East LA, a Latina Lesbian couple, who were much respected in the artist community where I had my studio, gave me a crash course in street smarts.. One was born in Mexico and lived in Santa Ana for decades, the other was born in SoCal and grew up on streets very similar to those I was about to walk through. They were genuinely concerned that my naive suburban ass was gonna find itself in some real trouble if I was not careful. Their advice has stuck with me for every street photo trip I’ve taken ever since.
The conversation went something like this:
Susanna: “Listen. I love that you are doing this but you gotta understand that people are gonna be suspicious of you. White guys don’t walk through their neighborhood with a camera. They are gonna think you are a cop or La Migra or something. Be prepared. People are gonna turn away from you or they are gonna ask you what you are doing. You gotta earn their trust.”
Sylvia: “You need to pay attention to graffiti when you see it. It’s like reading the tea leaves of the hood. It’s a language, a code. It’s gonna tell you everything about where you are.”
“If you see graffiti that has been crossed out, you are on a border of two gangs and you need to be careful. Don’t be out there at night if you see that.”
Susanna: “Don’t be out there in the day either!”
Sylvia: “The other thing is you are gonna see lots of paintings of the Virgin of Guadalupe. You know who she is right?”
Me: “Yes. She is the Patron Saint of Mexico.”
Susanna: “Hey look at you!”
“So that means you are in a Mexican area. If you see tagging on one of those, especially across her face, get the fuck out of there because that’s inter-racial gang shit and you do not wanna be anywhere near that.”
Sylvia: “Yeah, like that could be anything. Mexicans will NEVER tag the Virgin. They just won’t. They will tag everything but they will never tag the church or the Virgin. They have too much respect for her and for what she represents.”
Susanna: “Yeah but if you see tagging on the Virgin that could be Salvadorian on Mexican or Black on Mexican or Asian on Mexican or White on Mexican. You need to leave if you see that.”
“I know we both have red hair (One of the ladies had flaming red hair while mine is a bit more blonde) but I grew up with these guys. You don’t want to mess with them. They know you ain’t from there and they might think you are there to start something. You see tagging like that, leave.”
“Just because you see everything in Spanish doesn’t mean there are no issues. Salvadorian gangs and Mexican gangs have a lot of issues with each other and Salvadorians will tag the Virgin of Guadalupe cuz she is a Mexican saint not a Salvadorian saint.”
Sylvia: “They will do it to disrespect the Mexicans and pick a fight.”
Susanna: “So if you see the Virgin’s face tagged you get the Hell outta there.”
My friends scared the crap out of me but they were right, it wasn’t going to stop me from moving forward with my project.
As I approached Boyle Heights from the LA River, one of the first photos I took was the one at the top of this page (also pictured below this text). If you look closely there is tagging and counter-tagging on this famous mural of Mexican and Mexican-American identity - but there is no tagging on the faces of Zapata or Cesar Chavez. Immediately I read this tagging as a sign that gangs in this neighborhood were likely all of Mexican blood and as a result it was safe to proceed.
I also thought it was ironic that someone posted a poster saying “What would Farrakhan say?” a reference to Louis Farrakhan from the Nation of Islam, but also a reference to someone with a real sophisticated sense of humor. Was this a racial clash of cultures like my friends had warned me about? Or, was it a sign that this neighborhood was far more nuanced and layered and diverse than any one stereotype could fathom? (continued below)
Graffiti and the Murals
An example of reading graffiti can be found on this mural. The mural which depicts Aztec-inspired imagery was defaced but in a “respectful” way - culturally respectful, but still disrespectful to the artist and to the community. None of the faces of people, gods or animals were covered by the tagging. Had any of those items been defaced / covered over with the tagging, it would have had a much more disrespectful tone to the community and may have been viewed as anti-Mexican.
This mural depicting an indigenous mother nursing her baby and a man playing a guitar is positioned in front of Catholic Charities offices in Boyle Heights. Note the faint tagging in the bottom center of the mural. Again, this is a sign of “respectful” tagging. Personally I find this wrong on many levels but the tagger’s motivation is more of a “I was here” promotion than an act of total disrespect.
Religious murals, especially those depicting Jesus, Mary, and the Virgin of Guadalupe, are rarely tagged. When they are, it is usually by an outsider of a different ethnic background who is specifically wanting to insult the community.

Cesar Chavez - Namesake of an Avenue
“Preservation of one's own culture does not require contempt or disrespect for other cultures.” - Cesar Chavez
Cesar Chavez was born in 1927 in Yuma, Arizona and became a labor and civil rights leader and activist who worked to reform the working conditions for farm workers across America. He practiced aggressive non violence as a tactic to drive change.
His family lost their farm during the Great Depression and were forced to become migrant workers in California to survive. It was in California that he was exposed to the injustices and harsh working conditions on the farms.
Chavez was also a deeply spiritual man and leaned on his faith to help guide him in his struggle to improve the lives of the people in his community and beyond.
Chavez served in the United States Navy in the Western Pacific zone during World War II.
He died in 1993 and was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994 by President Clinton.
He is considered one of the most important Mexican-American / Chicanx leaders of all time and his image appears in numerous murals in the Los Angeles neighborhoods that are home to the second largest population of Mexican descent in the world.
For more information on the life and legacy of Cesar Chavez, please visit the Cesar Chavez Foundation.

Reflections on This Stretch of the Journey
What I found was that Boyle Heights was very similar to Santa Ana where I lived and still live. It was also similar to most other parts of suburban LA in that aside from a few spots in the core of the community, there were not a lot of people walking on the sidewalks and I was often alone.
Even with all of this said, I never had a problem in this neighborhood and I actually found it to be really interesting to explore and some of my favorite photos from this project came from Boyle Heights and East LA.
After I finished this project, an elderly friend and long-time Southern California resident asked me if I had spotted the old synagogue on Cesar Chavez. I didn’t know what he was talking about. He proceeded to tell me that long before the area was known as a largely Mexican-American neighborhood, it was home to LA’s first large Jewish community. Then, when the Westside started to open up in the 20’s and 30’s, most of the Jews left for greener pastures and Boyle Heights slowly transitioned into what it is today: a neighborhood of transitions yet with deep roots into modern Chicano / Mexican-American identity.
Back then, Av. Cesar Chavez was called Brooklyn Avenue. I bumped into some guys in East LA that still referred to Cesar Chavez as Brooklyn Ave. These guys were all longtime Latino residents of the area. They thought it was cool that someone from the outside was taking the time to really get to know their neighborhood. I chatted with them for a good 15 minutes before turning my attention back to the sidewalk in front of me. It was encounters like this one, eating at local restaurants and spending hours and hours walking for miles that helped me to step outside my comfort zone.
In my walk across this portion of Los Angeles I began to learn one of the most important lessons in my street photography experiences: Don’t let the reputation of a place fool you. Places that are labeled dangerous are often mislabeled or misunderstood. Let a place tell you its own story and let the people there demonstrate the character of their neighborhood. The second you allow a stereotype or a label to speak for a place, you’ve surrendered your mind to a factory of ‘isms’ that will never set you free.
My walk across Boyle Heights and East LA were my favorite of my entire journey across Los Angeles for this very transformation of my own mind that took place while I was there.






























