Few of those who go to play soccer, basketball or tennis at Los Angeles River State Park (River of Los Angeles State Park), know that a community group made up of Latinos was behind this green lung in the neighborhood of Glassell Park.
“This was a vacant lot contaminated with toxic waste and other pollutants, on one side of the Los Angeles River, which had previously been Taylor Yard, a railway workshop. Here they wanted to build wineries, as was already being done along the entire river bank,” says Raúl Macías, founder and president of the Anahuak Club.
The Anahuak Club was created in the 90s to train Latin children in soccer and organize them to play on teams.
The idea was to keep children away from gangs and drugs through the practice of soccer, since many lived in places plagued by gangs where shootings abounded.
Children from neighborhoods such as El Sereno, Cypress, Glassell Park and even from the surroundings of MacArthur Park and south central Los Angeles joined Club Anahuak.
“When we realized that they launched the project to create wineries, we saw the opportunity to fight for this space. Part of the Anahuak Club’s mission is to involve families in decision-making not only on the issue of the Los Angeles River but also on what has to do with the construction of real estate developments.”
Raúl, who in his youth was a soccer player in Mexico, remembers that they fought because a green and recreational space should be built on that land that is now the Los Angeles River State Park.
“They responded that we already had a park in Cypress Park and another in Glassell Park. We made protests and sent letters to politicians like Antonio Villaraigosa who helped us, but we had the support of the Sierra Club and an environmental lawyer from Sacramento came, and we filed a lawsuit demanding the construction of a park.”
They then faced opposition from anti-immigrant residents of Mount Washington and those who live in the mountains.
“They claimed that the park was going to attract a large number of undocumented immigrants who would leave a lot of trash.”
After much fighting, Raúl says they won the lawsuit, and managed to have what is now the Los Angeles River State Park between the State Department of Parks and Recreation and the Municipality built.
“At first they wanted Club Anahuak to do it but we didn’t have the capacity. What we did achieve was that four soccer fields, two tennis courts, four basketball courts, two baseball fields and an indigenous Tarascan ball field were created. A half-mile trail was also made so people could take walks.”
Instead of grass on the fields, they decided to put synthetic grass to save water and maintenance.
Before starting the project they had to remove all the contamination.
“About five feet of dirt was removed,” says Raúl.
Since then, the children of the Anahuak Club, in addition to going to practice soccer, participate twice a year in a general cleanup at the Los Angeles River State Park.
Just last Earth Day they took on the task of weeding the park and planting shrubs, many of them with medicinal properties.
When he remembers the feat that the Anahuak Club achieved with the support of environmental groups and lawyers to turn a space that had been for industrial use into a park, he says that it was about raising our voice for the Los Angeles River, but also demonstrate that the Latino community has power.
“In addition to playing soccer, we teach children and their parents that we have to be in constant communication with elected officials. We are the engine of this economy, and although we are all very busy working, we have to raise our voice even a little.”
Los Angeles River State Park not only allows children to play soccer and other sports but keeps them away from crime.
“Here in this area of Glassell Park the most dangerous gangs were formed: The Avenues, Theyes Globbers. It was always a fight, and a super hot area, full of drugs, prostitution, shootings in broad daylight.”
When the park opened to the public around 2005, he says the first thing that went down was juvenile crime.
“The shootings are over. Nowadays, one comes to the park and appreciates the typical flora of this area, it is also a meeting place for more than 150 species of birds of many varieties,” says Raúl while accompanying The opinion on a hike through Los Angeles River State Park.
In the park there are also coyotes, foxes, raccoons, desert rabbits, squirrels. There are also small lizards and the occasional frog that appears from time to time; and people may encounter vipers and snakes.
Proud of what he has achieved, Raúl remembers that the river is 52 miles long. “The Tongvas (native tribe) lived here. Los Angeles was born here. Here civilization began. “You can’t stop all the green development that is being created next to the river.”
He ends by saying that for almost two decades, the community has had a space for physical and mental activities.
“Here is a sacred place to manifest energy. It is our little lung; and even those who opposed it because they said it was going to be filled with undocumented immigrants come to enjoy it.”
Los Angeles River State Park is located along the Los Angeles River north of downtown Los Angeles in the Glassell Park neighborhood.
It is currently managed in partnership with the City of Los Angeles Department of Parks and Recreation.
The power of community organizations
Jon Christensen, professor of Institute of the Environment and Sustainability from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) says that along the river there are small to large projects that are in different stages of development from initial planning to implementation.
“Los Angeles River State Park was created in the early 2000s, and this summer we will begin a major renovation of the soccer fields.”
He points out that community organizations like Club Anahuak are really important because they have been working with children and parents in the community for many years.
“He was crucial in advocating for the creation of the Los Angeles River State Historic Park and other parks, and has been absolutely essential to the revitalization of the river.”
He adds that organizations like the Anahuak Club are very effective because they have the trust of the community, residents and families.
So Christensen says it’s ideal for community groups to work with nonprofits like The Nature Conservancywhich has the technical expertise on how to plan a project and raise money, obtain permits and work with an agency like the city of Los Angeles Department of Parks and Recreation or California State Parks that owns the property.
“We recently did a study on successful park renovation and construction in underserved communities in Los Angeles; and we found that that linking model is really effective.”
So he says community organizations need to find partners to work with to advocate for what their communities want and come up with proposals that can fund those projects and advocate right now for more funding for parks.
“The special funds the city has had are being extinguished. “That’s why we need another measure of funding in the city of Los Angeles, and community organizations can help get those funds.”
He concludes by saying that the most important thing about these projects like the Los Angeles River State Park is that they benefit in terms of more spaces, soccer programs for children, environmental education, and a cleaner environment near the river.
He says that almost every year, one or two students who come to his class tell him that they used to play soccer at Los Angeles River State Park and now they are at UCLA, doing great things.
A blessing
For architect Sergio Aguirre, who took his children Sergio and Alejandro, even his daughter Araceli, to play soccer at Los Angeles River State Park, this space has been a blessing.
“Before this park, we went to play around; and in some parks like Cypress they turned on the sprinklers to make us leave; The state also told us that there were no funds to build this park, but they did have funds to open golf and polo fields in Malibu and Palos Verdes,” says Sergio, who was also a soccer coach and joined the fight for the creation of the Park. Los Angeles River State.
He acknowledges that he saved many children from crime. “Football changed their lives.”
And remember that there was a family with the last name León, in which all its members sold drugs.
“We went to get one of the children from that family to come play soccer; We tried to help him so that when he grew up he would not get into that world because sports help a lot.”
Today, Sergio’s three children are already adults. “Alex, who is director of health at Occidental College, is a psychologist and has his own soccer team; and he was a soccer champion at the University of California at Riverside. “Both Alex and Araceli taught soccer to children at Silver Lake Park,” he says.
Sergio says that it will be 30 years since the opening of the Los Angeles River State Park; and among his memories, he brings to mind those of some boys who have graduated from university.
“I remember a guy who played soccer at the Anahuak Club in Los Angeles River State Park who graduated from UC Riverside, and he didn’t have many friends to invite, because he said they were dead or in jail. He thanked us by telling us that thanks to sport, he was alive and free.”