Michael Sedano
Last month (link), La Bloga-Tuesday shared my sentimental foto essay on what I call Lupe of Happy Valley. In that December 13 column, I daydreamed about revisiting Lupe of Happy Valley, to check on her health.
Last day of 2022, I trekked to Cinco Puntos to buy masa. I detoured on the route back to Pasadena to drive to Happy Valley at the boundary of El Sereno with Lincoln Heights.
I got there a week too late.
Scroll slowly down the page, view the mural and its companions in 1971, then Lupe in altered garments in 2013 and again in 2019.
The final pair of fotos depict the march of progress. By looks of the property, this happened only in the past few weeks. Real estate developers razed Lupe from sight.
When the work's complete, a new family will be able to stand atop their retaining wall and stare down at some random photographer making his absolute final visit to the site of Lupe of Happy Valley.
Pero sabes que? When the new structure is built and occupied by a happy generation setting down their own roots here in Happy Valley, there's gonna be a big beautiful wall in their front yard.
Maybe Lupe of Happy Valley will rise again?
1971
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| Alfredo Lascano 2019   |
1 comment:
It is a beautiful location, with or without Lupe. Thanks for following the progress. It's something like photo anthropology, showing us a changing neighborhood, and possibly, a changing culture as upper class non-raza buy up prime lots and properties. Reminds me of the under-rated Los Lobos song, "Will the Wolf Survive", a prescient message to raza.
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