Monuments and Minorities

Cultural, historical and artistic monuments should reflect the diversity of a place and its people. People of color and women have been vital to the creation of Los Angeles throughout the history of the City and the area. Yet with almost 900 official cultural and historical monuments in the City of Los Angeles, only about 76 relate to people of color, women, and Native American tribes. Images of 60 of those diverse monuments are shown in The City Project’s Monuments and Minorities set on flickr. There is more information on our website.

Things are not getting any better as Los Angeles gets increasingly diverse — only about 16 out of 199 monuments since 2000 relate to people of color or women.

Manzanar is a best practice example of a monument that honors diversity, democracy, and freedom.

In contrast, community members, activists and advocates have identified over 100 links along the Heritage Parkscape to serve as a “family album” for diverse communities from the Great Wall of Los Angeles to the Rio de Los Angeles State Park, the Los Angeles State Historic Park, and El Pueblo de Los Angeles.

The City Project is working with UCLA Prof. Judy Baca and SPARC (Social and Public Art Resource Center) to create pilot projects for the Heritage Parkscape along the Los Angeles River, to restore and extend the Great Wall of Los Angeles, and to restore Los Angeles as the mural capital of the world with the support of the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA). The City Project is also working to change the ordinance on cultural, historical, and artistic monuments to ensure that monuments reflect the diversity of Los Angeles.

(The study of diverse monuments is based on a review of several sources. There were 700 landmarks as of 2000, which are described in the book Landmark L.A.published by the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department in 2002. Another 199 landmarks have been added as of January 2008. The latter landmarks are described in lists by the City Planning Department, newsletters of the Office of Historic Resources, and other sources.)

Learn more about Monuments, Diversity, and Democracy.

Visit the Heritage Parkscape online and on flickr.