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After leaving LP200 a while back for personal reasons, I eventually discovered a new board had been established
trying to correct legal issues that had befallen the organization. Although the annual Walk to LA that occurs around
the labor day weekend celebrating Los Angeles's birthday and the original walk of the pobladores continued, LP200 had
not been participating in the other usual year-round events. It was in 2012 that I decided to attend the festivities
held at the plaza after the walkers compete the walk, and it was a pleasure meeting the group's new president Rose Ramirez
and secretary Jeri Garcia, as well as other distant cousins. Not only had these ladies been working so hard to get
the group back on its feet and in a proper legal status as a non-profit organization with the state of California, but
much of their efforts were also spent representing the interests of the descendants of ancestors whose graves had
meanwhile been disturbed at the plaza cemetery for the construction of a new museum. Many Native Indians were also very
concerned about the situation, and the entire process of the nearby reburial was closely guarded by Rose and Jeri while
their voices seemed to continually fall on the deaf ears of city officials.
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| It was great to be holding the old banner with past president Paul Guzman once again |
The experience of returning to the celebration event was so fun that I returned in 2013 to participate
once again in the walk which I had not done for several years. I was so excited that my son Anthony, now 11, joined
me and completed the walk for the very first time on his own without the luxury of having me push him the 9 miles in
a wheeled device! It was a great father-son experience as together we retraced our ancestor's footsteps from the mission to
the plaza. We actually made it within seconds for the usual fanfare walking across Alameda Street from Union Station
to the plaza with city officials and Native Indian representatives. The highlight of the event was at the plaza stage when
Councilman Tom LaBonge, "Mr. LA", invited Anthony up for a photo op as a pobladores descendent when Mayor Eric Garcettie
was receiving a certificate on behalf of the city's 232nd anniversary. I was the proudest dad in Los Angeles at that moment.
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| Anthony 'Walking In LA' 2013 |
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| The river means the end is near - the river is why the pobladores chose the location for el pueblo |
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| Walking across Alameda Street to the plaza as has been done since LA's bicentennial in 1981 |
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| Anthony the rock star! |
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| We also had the pleasure of meeting Rose's sister, the mayor pro tem of Oxnard, Carmen Ramirez |
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