Latinos in Echo park Yulissa Gonzalez

“Latinos in Echo Park” highlights the Latino Community that resides in the neighborhood of Echo Park. Growing up here felt like home, different from the rest of L.A. The place I grew up knowing I played a part in my community. Where my favorite bakeries and local markets were. However, returning to my old neighborhood no longer felt homely, but more like an intrusion. Echo Park has endured a drastic process of gentrification and has transformed significantly since I last visited. “Latinos in Echo Park” highlights the resilient Angelinos who are proudly taking up space here today.

Our art, our culture, our street vendors, our community.

Echo Park, Los Angeles

The corner of Echo Park Ave and Sunset Blvd. Hard-working Street Vendors selling plants for Mother's Day.

Sweet Fresh Fruits. An Angelino is hard at work selling Fruta a few streets away from Dodger Stadium.

My Local Farmers Market. Latinos run the Echo Park Farmer’s Market. They turn seeds into rows and rows of produce and nurture the crops to become abundant fruits and vegetables for the community to obtain.

The Sunflower admiring the Lady. She is shining with resilience, and empowerment as she walks past me. The sunflowers almost seem to point at her as she passes them by. I wonder what her story is. How similar we might be.

"Home of the Vendors” highlights the current displacement towards the people of color that reside in Echo Park. It illustrates L.A street vendors repurposing the gate initially placed to evict unhoused people from Echo Park and utilizing it to display their merchandise. This photograph represents the Latino community’s perseverance and constant adaptation to the rapidly changing, commercial area around us.

A Home on Temple Street. Coming across this street made me recollect memories of my childhood. My home was in a similar, beat-up building, with a similar barred-up window, tagged trash bins, and familiar plastic toy cars.

Buried Under the Blue. The Los Angeles Dodgers play a key role in our Latino Community. In the 1950s Dodger Stadium was first the neighborhood to many Mexican-Americans, Chavez Ravine. An underdeveloped area surrounded by hills and mountains, secluded from the rest of Los Angeles. The city of Los Angeles wished to demolish Chavez Ravine to build residential houses instead. As families were selling their houses, in 1958 L.A would give the area to the owner of the Dodgers. Soon after, the families of Chavez Ravine were forcefully removed from their homes by the LAPD. My family and I recently visited a Dodger Game, and guilt remained with me the whole night. I stared at the field, wondering where the Chavez Ravine elementary school might be located, and all the families who had to rebuild their lives all over again.

About Me

Yulissa Gonzalez is a 17-year-old, Mexican-American artist. Her home has always been the city of Los Angeles, where she was born and raised, and where her dreams aspired. She loves to read and garden and commutes around L.A on her bicycle or skateboard! Yulissa loves creating art and has embraced her artwork as her loudest voice. A voice for herself and for her community, to change the obstructive ideologies that have been instilled into communities of color. Yulissa expresses her creativity through a variety of art mediums such as painting, digital art, screen-printing, sculpting, and most recently, photography. She is determined to enhance her artistic skills at every opportunity she finds. Her work has been highlighted by many professional artists in Los Angeles like graphic designers at Nike, stills curators at Netflix, and animators from the Discovery Channel!

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Yulissa Gonzalez

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