TALES FROM THE TREES
Professor José Orozco in the History Department developed a course module that explores the history of Chavez Ravine's Mexican communities and their displacement for Dodger Stadium construction in 1950s Los Angeles through historical accounts, oral histories, and documentaries. Students study both the community's removal through eminent domain and the vibrant Mexican baseball leagues of East LA that predated the Dodgers' arrival, including a visit to the Whittier College Baseball Reliquary's extensive collection. After this historical foundation, students listen to episodes of the podcast "Everything is Alive," which features humorous yet philosophical interviews with inanimate objects, then conduct research to create their own podcast episode telling a historically informed, alternative narrative of either Chavez Ravine or East LA baseball from the perspective of an inanimate object or animal.
“Tales from the Trees” imagines the family story of an acorn woodpecker, Juana Peck, who lives in LA’s Elysian Park.