CREDIT: Justin Turner Instagram
On the last Sunday of each month during the season, the Los Angeles Dodgers host a “Viva Los Dodgers” celebration prior to the game. In the two hours before game time families enjoy live music (including Mariachi bands), food, a car show, and sometimes can score autographs of their favorite players.
The Dodgers organization has had a complicated relationship with the city’s Mexican-American community; Dodger Stadium is located at Chavez Ravine, which was once “among the largest, most important Mexican communities in the Southwest.” In the 1950s, though, the City of Los Angeles forced Chavez Ravine’s residents to relocate to public housing projects then under construction, paying them at most half of what their property was worth. While the neighborhoods weren’t decimated for the purpose of building Dodger Stadium, many of those whose families were displaced vowed to never support the team.