Lively Festival Pays Tribute to ‘Undocumented’

It was a sweltering midafternoon in MacArthur Park. The crack dealers were laying low, the gangbangers were chillin’, the false-document salesmen were on siesta and the flesh-peddlers were awaiting the return of darkness.

But, around the park’s elegant bandstand, the place was hopping on Saturday with poetry, music, theater, dance and art, transforming a portion of L.A.’s grand but battered midtown oasis into a celebratory venue for the creative energies of a young, restless Los Angeles.

“We can’t chase the crack dealers out, but we’re trying to bring in some more positive vibes, so people know that youth is not just about crime and violence,” said Joy Anderson, a 21-year-old dancer who was among the coordinators of Saturday’s daylong festival.

Organizers dubbed the event “Undocumented ‘96”--a pointed title paying tribute to the largely immigrant populations of the adjoining Westlake and Pico-Union neighborhoods, throbbing heartland of the Central American diaspora to Southern California. But the title also connotes an antipathy toward the labels that have been slapped on many of the youthful participants.

“People call today’s youth ‘Generation X’ or the ‘Lost Generation,’ ” said Carmelo Alvarez, a member of the MacArthur Park Foundation, the nonprofit arts group that staged the festival with city help. “But [youths] mostly reject the notion of human beings being labeled and documented; they reject borders, divisions and separatism.”

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Certainly, the music defied categorization, incorporating reggae, rock, rap, hip-hop and sundry other forms, often in combination.

Alvarez, a cafe owner and longtime neighborhood resident, recalls a time when families came to the park without fear of running into drug deals or gang battles. The families still come, and MacArthur Park remains one of L.A.’s most picturesque sites, its trees, lawns and lake providing a soothing escape just west of downtown. But over the years the park has become a magnet for transients, gang marauders, prostitutes and crack addicts.

Dispelling negative stereotypes about today’s youth was a central goal. Organizers derided crime and drugs, urging listeners to seek more spiritual and natural pleasures, mixing a sense of New Age cool and 1960s activism.

A generation ago the park was a countercultural bastion and the inspiration for a famous ballad, “MacArthur Park,” that soared in the charts in 1968 in the version sung by Irish actor Richard Harris.

“It’s important that we have events like this to show our work to the community,” said Marisol Torres, an Chicana actress who was part of a skit that examined the relationships between Mexican Americans, new immigrants and other residents at an East Los Angeles apartment complex.

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In preparation for Saturday’s festival, 150 young volunteers swooped down on the park last week to pick up the trash, using a barge to scoop up debris from the lake.

While the event was not overtly political, themes of social interest punctuated the performances. Rappers, poets and singers touched on topics such as welfare, immigration, police-community relations and race. That was perhaps not unusual for a space that has long been a political platform. The Mexican consulate, just across Sixth Street, is a frequent site of protests against the Mexican government.

Tables set up at the site carried distinct political messages, urging participants to oppose the California ballot initiative on affirmative action and celebrate the rebellion in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas. An anarchists’ table offered free pamphlets on topics from Bolshevism to the Spanish Civil War to the struggle of the U.S. labor movement.

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Graffiti artists were among those demonstrating their technique on canvas mounts. Reviled for defacing public spaces, the graffiti stylists said such exhibitions gave them a chance to show that their work need not break the law.

“Our art doesn’t have to be done only on buildings or on the streets,” said one artist, Daniel Lopez, 17, a Belmont High School senior.

Lopez and Heng Leng, 17, from North Hollywood, collaborated on a work called “Angels,” after the City of Angels.

“This shows that not just anybody can do this kind of work,” said Leng, obviously proud of his creation. “It’s not just scribble.”