Raúl Macías maintains a close relationship with the Los Angeles River. Not only because he fought for soccer fields for the children to be built on his adjacent land. Also because it has instilled in the minors the love and care for the largest tributary that crosses the city.
“For more than 10 years, several organizations joined to make us listen and fight for these courts to be created soccer in the Los Angeles River State Park ”, says Macías, founder of the Anahuak Youth Sports Association, an organization that for 26 years coaches soccer to children from 4 to 18 years.
Macias says he and other leaders were tempted with hundreds of thousands of dollars so that they would abandon their project of the fields and sports spaces.
“They offered us a proposal to break the coalition. They gave us $ 200, 000 and the sponsorship of a soft drink company. ”
But they did not give in and they succeeded in the Los Angeles River State Park, from 247 acres and along the Los Angeles River in the Glassell Park neighborhood, soccer fields will be built.
“We got a sports entertainment space from 40 acres for the community. ”
In total, four soccer fields were built in which the children train three days a week and play on Saturday.
“These courts are something we always dream of.”
And due to this fight for sports spaces, they became involved in caring for the Los Angeles river.
“Years ago, people did not know that it was a river, they thought it was a canal. We began to educate them and they became interested in its hidden beauty for so many years and that is how they have been able to enjoy it. times a year, invited by organizations like Heal the Bay.
“When collecting the garbage, the kids marvel at the frogs and ducks they find.”
Macías says the only thing that worries him is that the surroundings of the Los Angeles River State Park are about to become a gentrification area. “There are many housing projects near the River that are not for our people, and we hope for help.”
Cecy Domínguez: growing old by the river
The dream of Cecy Domínguez, who has lived most of her life, just steps from the Los Angeles River in the Elysian Park area, is to grow old walking on her path.
“I moved to live there when I got married. My husband Reymundo Domínguez probably lived in that house since the beginning of 1600 ”.
At first when she went to live in Elysian Park, being a young girl from East Los Angeles, he didn’t like the River. “When my two children were born and began to grow up, I asked them not to go near the River. It made me very dangerous. Now when they are grown up, they tell me that they took her there all day on their bicycles and returned home alone just for dinner. ”
Her children continue to live in the same riverside community. “My son lives on the same street, a few steps from the River, my daughter three blocks and my grandson one.”
Over the years, his perspective of the Los Angeles River changed. “I realized the great advantage of living near the River, being able to ride a bicycle and admire all its beauty. My husband Reymundo, who was a cyclist, grew up here, watching the birds like the hawks that arrive. ”
So the more knew more fell in love with the place. “I realized that I lived in this city and that I had a beautiful river within my reach. I never dreamed in my life that it would become a place where everyone could walk. ”
And then he began to get involved in improving the road to make it accessible to bicycles and pedestrians . “We had a lot of problems because the path for the public service providers along the river was very narrow. There was a lot of controversy about what had to be done and how. ”
The bike path leaves very little room for pedestrians, but Domínguez said we live in an area where you have to share. “Cyclists and pedestrians must be careful.”
In addition, Domínguez is an active promoter of the activities that take place in the river of Los Angels “They always ask me for help to invite and attract children and adults to the free educational workshops that are held. Last month we had one to learn how to fish and release the fish. We have had workshops on frogs and how to canoe on the river. ”
This Los Angeles river neighbor says she can still see her husband Reymundo on his bike pedaling along the Los Angeles trail. the brook. “He loved the river and since he died of pulmonary fibrosis, my dream is that we have cleaner air and that the noise of the MetroLink train that passes very close to our houses is reduced because it is not healthy.”
If there is something he longs for, it is to spend his old age walking along the river that he ended up loving. “When I am an old lady, I would like to wake up, go to the river and sit and watch and listen to the beautiful sounds.”
Robert Montalvo: polluted waters
Since 15 years, Robert Montalvo, is going to walk to the Los Angeles river in the South Gate area of the city, even when he does not feel safe due to the proliferation of homeless people and garbage.
“It is a bit scary because some use drugs, but many of them also do not receive the care they need for their mental health problems.”
Montalvo is dedicated to sales, but at the same time he is commissioner of parks and recreation of the city of South Gate.
“I was involved in the project of an urban garden in a new park along the Los Angeles river and freeway 710 ”
The project will be installed in a recreation area of 30 acres on the east bank of the LA River, but In addition to having fruit trees, picnic areas and paths for cyclists and pedestrians, it aims to conserve rainwater.
More than the homeless, Montalvo acknowledged that he is concerned about water quality that runs in the river because it is very polluted. “It is not really part of the river but of a canal, but there comes all the water from the pharmaceutical companies. If people touch or stick this contamination to their skin, they can really get sick, acquire cancer, reproductive problems and disabilities from birth because there is no barrier that prevents it. ”
He confesses that he would like the river to be a better place for Latinos to have a space to exercise in southeast Los Angeles, but first they need to address safety issues. “This is county land and the Sheriff’s Department should take over.”
However, his biggest concern is the issue of water contamination because it occurs on the Los River strip. Angeles to the southeast of the county, where the Latino communities are.
“We have to address the contamination by our children and the elderly because we cannot put them at risk with contaminated water; and we must inform people because this is not something they realize. ”
A river for all
Miguel Luna emigrated from Colombia with his mother when he was 8 years old at the end of the decade of the 70. In the last two decades he has worked on different master plan projects in the city of Los Angeles, most recently on the Lower River Revitalization Plan between Vernon and Long Beach.
“My job is to do community outreach to include different voices and non-governmental groups in meetings and activities.” He has played a decisive role in the organization of the SELA Arts Festival along the Los Angeles River in the city of South Gate.
Specifies that it seeks that people approach the river not only to educate them about the tributary that crosses the city but also to enjoy it. “We started asking them to tell us about their experiences with the rivers where they come from, and we asked them what they would like to see in the Los Angeles River.”
Luna is president of the Urban Semillas organization that focuses on engaging and empowering community.
“The river has always been part of my life. In one way or another, we all live near the Los Angeles River. This is how we have to think about it and look for ways to relate to this linear body of water. ”
Every day runs along the river, 1.5 miles, between Newell and Fletcher streets.
Through the work of Urban Semillas, he says that more people have learned and are caring about the river. “We have achieved improvements around the river and its environment because it is important that the people who live around it can continue there.”
Her dream is to have a river in which she can continue walking and that her children enjoy. “I want a river for everyone.”