The Curse of Aurora Vargas, Part I

Panoramic view of the community of Chavez Ravine, circa 1952. Photo by Leonard Nadel

Chavez Ravine was once known as the "poor man's Shangri La".  Since the early 1900's, a community of mostly Mexican-American families enjoyed an idyllic small town life in the center of Los Angeles.

Chavez Ravine, 1949; photo by Don Normack

The ravine is a shallow valley that sits atop a hill less than a mile from city hall.  Set in the base of the valley, the community was surrounded by open hills that shielded from view the city sprawl far below.  Residents who found work in the city would climb the hill at day's end to find a country setting like the Mexican villages that had once been their home. 

Chavez Ravine was a self-contained village in many ways.  Many families grew their own food and the schools and churches were operated by the locals.  Evenings were spent with friends and neighbors gathered by campfires to talk, laugh and sing. Families living in the valley buried the umbilical chord of new borns in the soil - a tradition from some parts of Mexico that was intended to attach their children to their village and to the earth. 

Sheriff deputies evict Abrana Arechiga while she holds
her grandson. Her daughter, Victoria Angustain,
looks on; Image from Charles E. Young Research
Library, U.C. Los Angeles

In 1950, the 1,000 families living in Chavez Ravine received letters from the Los Angeles City Housing Authority.  The purpose of the letter was to inform all owners and tenants that they would need to find somewhere else to live.  Chavez Ravine had been selected for redevelopment and would serve as the site for a housing project.  Elysian Park Heights would be designed by Richard Neutra and provide living quarters for 13,000 people.  

Property owners were told to sell and make room for the development that when completed would include 2 dozen13-story buildings and 160 2-story "bunkers". 

What took place after the letters were received by residents was described by Frank Wilkinson, the Assistant Director of the Housing Authority as follows:

"It's the tragedy of my life, absolutely.  I was responsible for uprooting I don't know how many hundreds of people from their own little valley and having the whole thing destroyed."

Aurora Vargas being forced from  her
home by Los Angeles County Sheriffs:
photo by Hugh Arnott

Many families refused to leave and were finally forced out when the Sheriff's Department arrived accompanied by bull dozers.  The news photos of a widow and mother named Aurora Vargas being hauled down the front stairs of her home in 1959 by 4 armed deputies became imbeded in people's memories.  She was sentenced to a month in jail and fined $500.  My mother, whose name was also Aurora, grew up speaking Spanish, and living next door to Chavez Ravine.  She had friends who were forced from their homes. and although she was not religious, I was raised to believe that the dodgers were the AntiChrist. As for the homes, they were either destroyed, auctioned off, or set afire by the fire department in training exercises.  

Image from lameekly tumblr

Some families, including that of Aurora Vargas, remained on their property camping out after their house had been razed.  Universal Studios purchased a house being auctioned off for a dollar and later used it as the home of Atticus Finch in the film To Kill a Mockingbird.

After 10 years of heavyweight finagling, the project for which evicted residents were to have first pick, was never built.  Most received little or no compensation for their property.  Adding insult to injury, the city fathers in stead, literally gave the land to Walter O'Malley, owner of the Dodgers.  Regarding the gift to O'Malley, Frank Wilkinson of the Housing Authority had this to say:

"We'd spent millions of dollars getting ready for it, and the Dodgers picked it up for just a fraction of that.  It was just a tragedy for the people, and from the city it was the most hypocritical thing that could happen."

The powers that be were rubbed the wrong way by Frank's views and he was investigated by the House Un-American Activities Committee during its search for commie sympathizers.  Before it was over, he was fired, fined and sentenced to a year in jail.

The Dodgers and the Los Angeles City officials continue to do everything possible to erase the memory of Aurora Vargas.  In 2008, the City Council took the trouble to formally drop "Chavez Ravine" by designating the stadium area as "Dodgertown". 

The Dodger deal wasn't consummated until the passing of a public referendum.  The image of Aurora Vargas must have weighed on voter's minds as "Yes on baseball" won by a slim 3% despite claims that no public money would be used to build the stadium.  A more accurate phasing would have been "no additional public money".  The city coffers had given millions to cover legal fees, demolition, removal, grading and access roads to bring Chavez Ravine to move-in condition.

Image from lameekly.tumblr.com

The O'Malley family, and Walter in particular, have undeservedly ridden a wave of favorable press and popular opinion because Jackie Robinson once played for the Dodgers.  Truth be told, Branch Rickey was solely responsible for hiring Robinson.  Walter O'Malley was too focused on gaining control of the team and the eventual banishment of his hated rival Rickey.  Once accomplished, O'Malley forbade the mention of Rickey's name and fined any employee who did so.  While O'Malley was running the organization he referred to Robinson as "Rickey's prima donna".  Robinson was not a happy member of the organization, complained to the press about management and announced his retirement in a magazine at the somewhat early age of 37. 

O'Malley first toyed with the idea of threatening to move the Dodgers west purely to gain some leverage in his struggle to win a new stadium in Brooklyn.  The Dodgers played at Ebbets Field which was drawing full crowds of 32,000 and O'Malley wanted more seats.  It's humorous that O'Malley is credited by some for his visionary contribution to the westward expansion of baseball.  His motive was his own pocketbook not the future of baseball.  No one has ever done more to damage baseball's future than O'Malley.  His notorious penny pinching was responsible for the failure of salary negotiations with Andy Messersmith in 1975.  This led to the establishment of free agency from which baseball and its $14 beer may never recover.

Reshaped Chavez Ravine May 25, 1960; image from
Los Angeles Examiner Collection, USC Libraries.

The O'Malley family won the battle for Chavez Ravine but in so doing, eliminated millions of Mexican-Americans as fans.  Mexican-Americans were noticeably absent for nearly 20 years after Dodger Stadium opened until a Mexican pitcher named Fernando Valenzuela arrived in1981.  Walter O'Malley had passed away but his son Peter was now in charge and he may have sensed that the curse of Aurora Vargas had run its course.  Fernando hadn't even been born when Aurora Vargas was evicted and jailed. 

Image from lataco.com

Every game Fernando pitched was sold out as "Fernandomania" swept Los Angeles.  In his first full season, Fernando enjoyed the greatest beginning of any pitcher in the history of baseball.  The Dodgers chose to capitalize on the phenomenon and in their zeal to fill the stadium, burned him out prematurely.  They had him average over 270 innings from 1982-1986.  This was an indefensible act of sheer greed and unconscionable mismanagement of a great talent.  In the last 15 years (2000-2014), no major league pitcher has ever been asked by any team to come remotely close to such a number.  Not in a single year, let alone 5 years running.  After 1986, Fernando's arm was gone and he never had a winning record in his remaining 4 seasons with the Dodgers. 

The Dodgers have changed owners several times since the days of Fernandomania.  In most of those years, preseason polls had the Dodgers as a shoe-in to make, or even win the World Series.  Surprisingly, the team took 20 years before it could win a single playoff game; and hasn't even come close to making the World Series since 1988.  In recent years, the latest owners in total desperation began consistently outspending every other team in baseball in an unsuccessful attempt to buy their way into the World Series.  Is there any doubt the curse of Aurora Vargas is alive and well?   

Fernando Valenzuela's home town - Etchohuaquila,
Sonora, Mexico; image from google maps

I figure the curse cut the Dodgers some slack while Fernando was with the team.  However, once the Dodgers dropped him, the full vendetta was reinstated.  Isn't it obvious that the curse would want the best for Fernando?  After all, he grew up in Sonora, Mexico in a small village, just like Chavez Ravine.