TBD

Plaza de la Raza mural

Thank you firefighters!

ArroyoFest along the 110 Freeway

Wisteria vine at the Huntington Library (April 2023).

The Self Help Graphics poster for Día de los Muertos (1982), created by artist Armando Norte.

I can never resist anything related to Fernando Valenzuela. Here’s the Fernando Valenzuela display as seen at Dodger Stadium on October 3, 2022. Making a note that according to one of the images, Valenzuela’s first appearance in the Los Angeles community took place on May 16, 1981 at City Terrace Park in East LA.

A miniature In-N-Out as seen as the Christmas Tree Lane Model Railroad Society.

I can’t stop looking at this 1931 photo of my grandmother on a picnic with friends somewhere in easy driving distance of Waukegan. She had only been married to my grandfather (taking the photo) less than a year. There are several in this series and I marvel how light she feels in these photos -- her easy laughter and big smiles. Recently, I thumbed through her letters to find her food stories (in my blog here: https://victoriabernal.me/2020/11/29/for-thanksgiving-a-look-at-my-grandmas-1930s-culinary-history/) so I’m also very curious as to what is on their picnic table.

So much has changed in 2020 that I’m grateful to continue my tradition of viewing the beautiful Self Help Graphics’ altars at Grand Park.

As archivist Jayne Ptolemy explained, “this was a way to look for all the ways women contributed to history in these kind of more mundane elements of their lives and to just pause and see how all of this enters into the documentary record.”

Happy Friday! Sure wish I was here at this 1933 beer garden (in Los Angeles). Photo from USC Libraries:  http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15799coll170/id/59174/rec/59

A little pandemic day-dreaming...wondering what a trip to the Isle of Pleasure would be like...? This map by H. J. Lawrence (in 1931) is from the Atlas Obscura article about maps: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/fantastical-maps-to-escape-into

Happy World Book Day (display from @vromansbookstore in 2018)

One of my favorite altars at Grand Park’s Dia De Los Muertos event.