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• 1 2015-10-20T12:56:50-07:00 Scene II: Wealth vs. Location 8 plain 2015-12-15T13:46:28-08:00

  This scene’s setting is downtown Los Angeles beginning in the 1860s. The scene opens with Eva and Pablo trying to find work. Because Eva and Pablo have very little money, they are forced to live in a very undesirable area of town; they must live right next to the river.

  Land directly near the river was cheap because of the frequent and unpredictable floods that occurred, and thus it eventually turned into a "slum".

  “Before long, the river became known as a place of bad smells and bad people, a place where, Anglos expected and insisted, crooks, Mexicans, Indians, and Chinese congregated… Prostitutes loitered down near the river; boys smoked cigarettes and gambles in the deep underbrush at the river’s banks” (Deverell, pg 108).

  
  In this scene Pablo and Eva, along with many other low-income riverbank residents, will attempt to start a family and put down permanent roots.

  This proved to be very difficult because of the irregular flooding and destruction that ensued from the river. Additionally, the river was seen as a dumping ground for pollution and sewage; “As late as the late 1880s, citizens suggested that the best sewer plans for the expanding city must consider utilizing the convenient, almost intestinal, Los Angeles River… [A LA resident suggested in a letter to the Los Angeles Times] that the river was ‘the natural and proper outlet for the sewage of Los Angeles city’... Downstream residents ought to have little complaint with what the river brought their way, nor could they expect the city to build “a new river of brick” in order to control the river’s outflow”(Deverell, pg 107). This viewpoint was very common; wealthy white Los Angeles residents did see a point in helping to protect the immigrants and “lower class” residents from the flooding of the river, and instead believed it to be an appropriate to dispose of sewage.

   

  Pablo found work in Los Angeles as a railroad worker. This work was very similar to what he had done on both the missions and the ranchos (unskilled, manual labor), but still he hoped to have a job that would have more opportunity to improve his standard of living. "He makes, if he's fortunate, between two and three dollars a day" (Deverell, pg 39).

  Eva was a semi-skilled worker; back in Mexico she had learned to sew and weave baskets. But, in America, there was little opportunity for migrant women to work in factories and still tend to their children. Additionally, a viewpoint that was frequently represented in the newspapers of the time was that women should not work. An article published, in the LA Times in 1900, stated that “for the sake of unborn children it is usually better that a mother should not be taxes and mentally or physically by the relentless and imperious requirements of a wage-earning vocation.” (Married Women and Wage-Earning, LA Times). This mindset made it difficult for Eva to find a job, but eventually she got a job as a maid for a very wealthy family in a fancy area of town.

   

  The climax of the scene happens when Eva and Pablo’s tiny home becomes flooded by a winter storm. "The waters of the river that day carried away the Southern Pacific Railroad Bridge, flooded a considerable part of the city, rendered fifty families homeless and caused the death of three persons." (Los Angeles Times, 1901).

  Though nobody from Pablo and Eva’s family suffer injury or death because of this flood, many of their neighbors and friends do. This storm causes so much destruction that the communities that lived near the LA River sought government help. Pablo is one of the leading figures of this movement; he requests that that City of Los Angeles either address the problems of the flooding river (by building a concrete channel to replace the degraded riverbanks) or by providing compensation to the people living in the flood zones. Pablo’s request sparks outrage throughout the wealthier neighborhoods of the city who do not want to see their tax money dedicated to helping the immigrant and native populations. As J.J. Warner writes in an 1882 article for the LA Times “The city is not a charitable or eleemosynary corporation not one of the insurance of life or property… If a man builds his house, invests his labor and money within the city, where it is exposed to destruction by a flood, the city is under no obligation… to reimburse that man for his loss if the flood comes and destroys his property" (J.J. Warner, Los Angeles River).

   

  This scene ends with Pablo and Eva searching for somewhere else to live and work. They recognize that they can no longer live in the flood zone and begin the long process of finding a new home and new jobs…