The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino will host George J. Sanchez, Professor of American Studies and Ethnicity at USC, on Wednesday, May 19, as he discusses his book on the Boyle Heights neighborhood in Los Angeles with four USC doctoral students.
“Boyle Heights: How a Los Angeles Neighborhood Became the Future of American Democracy” is an in-depth history of Boyle Heights showcasing the potent experiences of its residents, from early contact between Spanish colonizers and native Californians to the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, the hunt for hidden Communists among the Jewish population, and negotiating citizenship and belonging among Latino migrants and Mexican American residents.
“Through each period and every struggle, the residents of Boyle Heights have maintained remarkable solidarity across racial and ethnic lines, acting as a unified polyglot community even as their tribulations have become more explicitly racial in nature,” University of California Press writes in a description of the book. “Boyle Heights is immigrant America embodied, and it can serve as the true beacon on a hill toward which the country can strive in a time when racial solidarity and civic resistance have never been in greater need.”
Professor Sanchez will be joined by doctoral students Julia Brown-Bernstein (History), and Rachel Klein, Cassandra Flores-Montano and Kathy Pulupa (American Studies and Ethnicity).
The program, from 12 to 1 p.m. is presented by The Huntington and the USC Institute on California and the West (ICW).
It is free to attend but participants must make a reservation through www.huntington.org/events/boyle-heights.
For more information, call (626) 405-2100.
