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From Native-Americans to the Mission era, from the birth of Arroyo Culture to the Chicano Art Movement, Highland Park has always been a nexus of ideas, build or imagined. Come explore Los Angeles; first bohemian neighborhood with Departures.

From the Tongva people called the Hahamog'na, to years later the Spaniards, we explore the shifts of power over land in Los Angeles leading to the land divisions, or ranchos, that create Highland Park.

The efforts of Charles Lummis, William Lee Judson and Clyde Browne combined with those inspired by life “on the arroyo,” such as plein air painter Franz Bischoff and block print maker Frances Gearhart, came together to pioneer one of the first artistic and cultural movements to come out of Los Angeles.

When the Arroyo Seco Parkway was finished in 1940, it was a cause for celebration in Los Angeles. But the arrival of one of the nation’s first freeways would have unexpected consequences for Highland Park and its residents.

In the 1950s, Mexican immigrants and descendants began owning, renting and claiming Highland Park as home. This was the pre-civil rights era, where school segregation and manifestations began articulating a vocabulary of resistance and pride within the Latino and Mexican communities of L.A.

For many, the late 1960s through the early 1970s was the high-water mark of both community and social justice organizing in East Los Angeles. But the period immediately following would witness the emergence of novel responses to the most pressing questions of the era, particularly in the form of arts organizations and collectives aimed at bringing politically-minded public art to the larger community.

The failed promises of the civil-rights era coupled with the economic disparities of the 1980s created a dual deterioration in Highland Park seen both in the built and the social environment. The concept of the inner city created a disenfranchised youth that found alternative ways of organizing and engaging with their “turf.”

As we settle into the new millennium, the Highland Park post-urban landscape is embracing all the twists, turns and contradictions that history has presented to the neighborhood.

New Stories

Land of Sunshine | LA Letters

Growing Up in the L.A. Underground

by Mike Sonksen

May 18, 2012 4:10 PM

21st Century Los Angeles shares the same energy and passion that fueled the Harlem Renaissance, the Beat Generation, the Black Arts movement, and the birth of Punk Rock.

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Land of Sunshine | Murals

'People of the Corn' Mural Rises Up at Downtown L.A. School

by Ed Fuentes

May 18, 2012 1:01 PM

A new mural by SPARC was unveiled at Miguel Contreras Learning Complex in the west edge of downtown Los Angeles.

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Land of Sunshine | Neighborhood Notes

A Guide to Museums of the Arroyo Day

by Yosuke Kitazawa

May 18, 2012 12:00 PM

Here's a guide to this Sunday's Museums of the Arroyo Day.

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Land of Sunshine | Green Justice

Manhattan Waterfront Greenway and Hope for L.A.

by Robert Garcia

May 17, 2012 4:30 PM

Can Los Angeles do as well as New York City in creating a park experience that serves every neighborhood in the city?

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Food | The Nosh

10 L.A. Restaurants and Trucks with Double Entendre Names

by Rebecca Pardess

May 17, 2012 11:52 AM

Are these 10 L.A. restaurant names supposed to be offensive? Or is your mind just dirty?

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Food | The Nosh

L.A.'s Best Salads

by Rick Paulas

May 17, 2012 11:20 AM

We're celebrating National Salad Month by loading up on some of the more exotic salad fare in L.A.

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Land of Sunshine | Arrival Stories

Yuval Sharon: L.A.'s Culture Brought and Kept Him Here

by Jeremy Rosenberg

May 17, 2012 10:00 AM

"It was the discovery of both an incredibly innovative and progressive cultural life, as well as a fantastically enthusiastic attitude to the arts, that first made me consider making L.A. a home."

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