Documenting my pocket of Los Angeles
Happy New Year All! This is a bit late but here are some of my Los Angeles highlights from 2021. I may always be knee-deep in the past but it's still so easy to forget what happened just a few months ago. One disclaimer: Despite the optics of enjoying moments out and about, this year... Continue Reading →
As mentioned in a previous post, I helped Los Angeles Walks organize a series of four walks that navigated around Los Angeles' original border as it was in 1850. For the organization's Spring 2021 fundraiser, I created four short videos about our #LA4Corners series. Well, actually, these videos are more like audio slideshows, as I... Continue Reading →
Recently the Los Angeles Times published a fun story about the amazing 1939 battle between gambling ship owner Tony Cornero and future Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren. It's such a great story that could/should be a movie. I stumbled upon the story in eleven years ago and couldn't believe there wasn't more about it... Continue Reading →
Just by happenstance, I had two projects on the same topic — the series of walks dubbed #LA4Corners — culminate over these past two weeks. First a little backstory. Between 2019 and 2020, I helped organize a series of walks hosted by Los Angeles Walks that retracted the original four borders of Los Angeles. We... Continue Reading →
Lately I’ve been researching textiles as historical sources for women’s history. In this process, I came across the amazing quilts of mathematician Chawne Kimber. "Chawne Kimber is making some of the most powerful artworks today about race, language, women’s rights, and police brutality—all with a needle and thread," Maria Hlohowskyj (from womenarts.org). That sentence was... Continue Reading →
Through the support of Los Angeles Walks, I've been helping to organize a 4-walk series in which we're making our way around the original border of the City of Los Angeles. This past weekend, about 50 people joined the trek down the eastern border which I co-lead with the amazing urban planner James Rojas. For... Continue Reading →
Before I fully dive into the new year, I always reflect on the last one, listing accomplishments, milestones, challenges, disappointments, etc. While these reflections remain private, I did want to document here some of the historic and/or notable places I moved through this year. This is definitely not an exhaustive list but just a few... Continue Reading →
A nice surprise to see my photo pop up in a KPCC story: The story is here, and my original photo here.
Sharing this post I crafted for the Arboretum Library's Instagram: On March 10, 1841, poet Ina Coolbrith was born. In 1915, she was crowned California’s first poet laureate which is the same year Luther Burbank named his Crimson Eschscholtzia for her (this image comes from the @californiastatelibrary). Coolbrith praised the California Poppy with her 1893... Continue Reading →
On August 2, 1769, Gaspar de Portola's expedition camped alongside the LA River and named it in honor of the feast day "Our Lady of the Angels of Porciuncula." On this day, 245 years later, I stepped deep into the Los Angeles river for the first time, kayaking down the river in the Sepulveda Basin. While... Continue Reading →
Victoria Bernal 