Chavez Ravine, unvarnished

It’s nice to see that The Times deems the Mark Taper Forum’s upcoming production of Culture Clash’s “Chavez Ravine” worthy of special mention (“Where You Should Be in 2003,” Jan. 2). However, as a longtime fan of Culture Clash and the L.A. Dodgers, I feel I should point out that the article perpetuates a falsehood that the play aims to correct.

The Mexican American community that lived in Chavez Ravine during the first half of the 20th century was not displaced by Dodger Stadium. The people of Chavez Ravine were relocated eight years before ground was broken for the stadium, to make way for a planned public housing project. Then the housing project became the major issue in a nasty mayoral campaign.

As one of his first mayoral actions, Norris Poulson, who opposed public housing, killed the Chavez Ravine project, but by that time all but a few families had sold their houses and left the ravine, either voluntarily or as a result of the city’s eminent domain proceedings. “Chavez Ravine” aims to tell this story in all its complexity.

John Glore

Los Angeles

John Glore is the dramaturge at the Mark Taper Forum