Erased and Invisible History About Gentrification In and Around Echo Park

Got this note from the Pocho Research Society

The Pocho Research Society (PRS) has installed “unofficial” plaques in public spaces to commemorate formerly queer Latina/o bars in the Echo Park, Silverlake and the Downtown area on June , 2007. The group operates in a clandestine fashion.

Since the longevity of the plaques at the sites is unknown, visit the following locations ASAP in order to view before they are taken down.

Site Locations:
Le Barcito, currently the Cha Cha 2375 Glendale Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90039
Klub Fantasy at the Nayarit aka The Echo 1822 W Sunset Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90026
Club Fire at the Nayariit currently The Echo 1822 W Sunset Blvd, LA , CA90026
The Score 107 W. 4th St, Downtown Los Angeles, currently Bar 107

Echoes in the Echo is a series of public interventions that will explore History and memory in and around Echo Park. This phase of the project commemorates a few of many queer Latina/o spaces that were a ‘home’ to many for periods of up to a couple of decades and have since changed ownership and now cater to a new, straighter, younger and whiter clientele. This project takes place while the city, itself, is at a crossroads in its own history. Dramatic increases in real estate prices coupled with commercially driven development projects facilitated by elected officials are two of a multitude of forces that push many working class communities out of the city “core”. Waves of new ‘immigrants’ (albeit from the Midwest) have in the process displaced longstanding cultural spaces created over several decades. Within this massive “land grab” questions like ‘where do drag queens, closeted quebradita dancers and gay cholos go once they been pushed out?’ arise. How and who defines a space? Is a space defined by its present incarnations or does its past ruthlessly resurface like dust in unswept corners?