After decades of struggle, the indigenous Mayan communities saw their desire to have a space in the city of Los Angeles that honors their legacy and contributions come true.
Councilwoman Eunisses Hernández hosted a community celebration in which they unveiled the entrances and exits to the Maya Corridor in the heart of the Westlake neighborhood.
“The Mayan Corridor has remained in the MacArthur Park neighborhood where we have an amalgamation of many indigenous communities, and one of the largest is the Mayan,” said Councilwoman Hernández.
He stated that it is very likely that it will be the first corridor dedicated to the Mayan community on the West Coast and in California.
“It’s important to us, because we want to recognize its importance in the social fabric and culture of the city of Los Angeles,” he said.
What will people find in the Mayan Corridor?
“They will find an entrance and an exit, which means the corridor is 0.8 miles, where we will plant special trees.”
He added that they will have special lighting fixtures that will be made of gold to connect with the Mayan community.
“You will find hybrid glyphs (signs of Mayan writing) engraved and painted in the streets. So everywhere you look, from the lights to the trees to the streets, everything will be uplifting the Mayan community and culture.
The Mayan Corridor has been established on 6th Street between Carondelet Street and Columbia Avenue.
The opening took place in the middle of a festival of food, music and the sale of crafts; and was the result of a community participation process with a Community Advisory Council and an expert in Mayan epigraphy (study of ancient inscriptions).
Some of the elements that the Corridor will contain are:
- Two monuments to mark the entrances at Park View Street and Columbia Avenue
- Five decorative pedestrian crossings that highlight Mayan culture
- 14 educational signs
- 14 custom bus stop lights in eight bus zones
- 40 trees
The Mayan Corridor is a tribute to the Mayan community of Los Angeles and offers a culturally vibrant space that reflects indigenous traditions and history.
This project represents years of collaboration between city departments, the Community Advisory Board and local leaders to bring this vision to life.
Sara Mijares, president of the Mundo Maya Foundation, said that the Maya Corridor is a beautiful project that has been in the works for 20 years and is not new.
“The first conversation we had with Councilor Gil Cedillo; and it took many years. For seven years, we held Mayan World Day at MacArthur Park to recognize the Mayan immigrant community of Guatemala and the Mayans of Yucatan.”
He said that although the Yucatecan Mayans are not many, they are a very representative group in Los Angeles.
“The importance of the corridor lies in the fact that it shows the richness of the Mayan culture, but also the great contribution of all the braceros who came and left their town in Yucatan, and whose first language is Mayan.”
He added that in recent decades, the migration of Guatemalans, Hondurans, Salvadorans and Belizeans joined them, and a fusion was created in this area of Los Angeles.
“The greatest debt the city of Los Angeles owes is to the native indigenous community. So this Mayan Corridor is a way to recognize migrant communities.”
So he said it’s going to be wonderful for indigenous communities to have a space like Chinatown in Los Angeles.
“When they come, they will enter the heart of the migrant Mayan world.”
Mario Ordoñez, a Mayan from Muna, Yucatán, said that the Mayan Corridor is something incredible for immigrants of Mayan origin like him, because they are so far from their homeland.
“This shows that the Yucatan Mayans are present with their culture and history in Los Angeles, and that by emigrating we continue to contribute.”
Migares estimated that there are 1.5 million Mayans in Los Angeles, with Guatemalan Mayans representing the largest number.
“I arrived in 1989, and there was a large settlement of Yucatecans, and we are still here. MacArthur Park was my park, where we could walk at any time; and we would like to see him healthy again so that children and young people can come and play.”
He revealed that as part of the Mayan Corridor they are going to incorporate a court in MacArthur Park for the Mayan ball game.
“This is the beginning of the Mayan Corridor, more is coming. This corner is from Yucatán, and the other from Guatemala. We Mayans come from a culture and a legacy that created zero, and without them, we would not have this cell phone or the economy and astrology.”
He added that the Mayan Corridor is a very large project led by organizations such as La Casa de la Cultura Maya, Maya Visión and Mundo Maya Foundation.