Interview with George Sanchez: The promise and history of 'Boyle Heights'

Scholar George Sanchez joined UC Press Executive Editor Niels Hooper to discuss his new book, "Boyle Heights: How a Los Angeles Neighborhood Became the Future of American Democracy."

Boyle Heights is an in-depth history of the Los Angeles neighborhood, 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, negotiating citizenship and belonging among Latino migrants and Mexican American residents, and beyond. 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. 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.

George J. Sánchez is the author of the award-winning book Becoming Mexican American and is Professor of American Studies and Ethnicity and History at the University of Southern California. He is the 2020–2021 President of the Organization for American Historians.

[ronsanchez]

As a child attending Lorena St.elementary school in the mid 50s, I never considered how multi
racial the student body was. I now realize that it was the American ideal of "E PLURIBUS UNIM".
Every morning in class, we faced the flag of the United States of America 🇺🇸, put our hands over our hearts, and recited the Pledge of Allegiance which made us all
understand that together, we were all a part of the fabric of a great nation.

[vannamarie]

In the article "Opening the Humanities to New Fields and New Voices", George Sanchez writes... "Most individuals in this working class community of immigrants have never been inside a museum building, largely because those buildings are located far away from the barrio in spots intended to attract white upper and middle class audiences to location they find safe and appealing." Wow, very insulting to the immigrants you claim to help through humanities. As if many immigrants stay away from museums because of their location and the white people. What an ignorant thing to say, but hey that is George Sanchez's opinion and his perception of reality.