Sixty years ago, on Sept. 9, 1965, Dodger great Sandy Koufax had his single most magical night as he became just the sixth pitcher in the modern era to throw a perfect game.
History made: On the warm Thursday night at Dodger Stadium, Koufax, wearing his No. 32 uniform, got right to work. He struck out two of the first three hitters, including future Hall of Famer Williams. In the second inning, he struck out Banks. He kept retiring batter after batter.
A perfect game: What makes a perfect game the rarest of no-hitters, is that it involves more than just giving up a hit. In a perfect game, no one can even reach base. There cannot be a walk or a fielding error. All 27 batters must be retired. Earlier this year, Koufax, now 89, told MLB's Sweeny Murti that "you start out every game to pitch a perfect game. You're not going to, and you know it. You just give up your goals grudgingly as you go. This one, I didn't have to give it up."
LOS ANGELES — For baseball aficionados, the name Sandy Koufax is almost mythical.
In the 1960s, Koufax put together what is generally considered the greatest span of five seasons for a pitcher in Major League history. And 60 years ago, Sept. 9, 1965, Koufax had his single most magical night as he became just the sixth pitcher in the modern era to throw a perfect game.
The stories about Koufax, who is now 89 years old, sometimes sound fictional.
"He had a beauty about that was hard to describe," recalled Wes Parker, who was the first baseman with Koufax's Los Angeles Dodgers team in 1965.
"If you've seen a ballet dancer. He had that kind of beauty of motion. Like a beautiful animal, like a racehorse, something like that," he said.
Sandy Koufax, pitcher of the Los Angeles Dodgers, holds up four baseballs in Los Angeles, Calif. on Sept. 10, 1965. It is the day after he pitched a perfect game for a 1-0 win against the Chicago Cubs, making him the first major leaguer to pitch four no-hit games.
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Harold P. Matosian
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And his accomplishments on the field backed up the accolades. In 1963, when he led the Dodgers to a four-game sweep in the World Series over the powerhouse New York Yankees featuring Mickey Mantle, Koufax had a regular season record of 25-5.
"I can see how he won 25," Yankee catcher Yogi Berra famously said during the '63 World Series. "What I don't understand is how he lost five."
With a blistering fastball and devastating curveball, Koufax was unmatched. He won three Cy Young awards in four years and led the National League in earned run average for five consecutive years. He also led the league in strikeouts four times, including 1965 when he fanned 382 batters, then a Major League record.
In the midst of his dominance, some players, including the great Willie Mays of the Dodgers' longtime and sometimes bitter rival, the San Francisco Giants, realized that Koufax was tipping his pitches. It didn't make any difference.
"I knew every pitch he was going to throw and still I couldn't hit him," Mays said on an ESPN documentary.
On the night of Koufax's perfect game in 1965 against the Chicago Cubs, the Dodgers were in a tight pennant race against Mays' Giants.
The Cubs' lineup that September evening featured three future Hall of Famers: Ernie Banks, Billy Williams and Ron Santo.
Sandy Koufax (32) of the Los Angeles Dodgers is rushed by teammates as he leaves the pitcher's mound at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, Calif. on Sept. 9, 1965.
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Harold P. Matosian
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Koufax had flirted with pitching greatness. In the three previous seasons, he threw three no-hitters. And there was an expectation that any time Koufax was on the mound, there was a chance for another no-hitter.
On the warm Thursday night at Dodger Stadium, Koufax, wearing his number 32 uniform, got right to work. He struck out two of the first three hitters, including future Hall of Famer Williams.
In the second inning, he struck out Banks.
When the third inning ended, and with Koufax's history of no-hitters, many of the 29,139 people inside the stadium were beginning to wonder — maybe — this might be another one of those nights.
The Dodgers took a 1-0 lead in the fifth, ironically with no hits. Los Angeles' left fielder walked, then went to second on a sacrifice bunt, stole third and scored when the catcher's throw to third went over the head of the third baseman.
"I didn't become aware that it was a perfect game until the seventh innings," Parker, the Dodgers first baseman, told NPR earlier this year.
"I remember in the bottom of the seventh inning, Jimmy Lefebvre, who was a rookie that year, and I were sitting next to each other on the bench. And he looked at me and I looked at him. And he said, 'are you nervous' and I said, 'yeah.' And I said, 'are you' and he said, 'yeah.' I said, 'do you want the ball to be hit to you' and he said, 'no.' And he said, 'do you want it hit to you' and I said, 'no.' We were so afraid we were going to screw up his perfect game."
In the seventh, the Dodgers got their only hit of the game, a double by Lou Johnson, which had no impact on the score.
But Koufax was still perfect. He kept retiring batter after batter. What makes a perfect game the rarest of no-hitters, is that it involves more than just giving up a hit. In a perfect game, no one can even reach base. There can not be a walk or a fielding error. All 27 batters must be retired.
The ninth inning is saved for posterity with a recording of the Dodgers' radio broadcast with the team's legendary broadcaster Vin Scully. The fact that you can relive the final inning with Scully's words is another reason this game has such a revered spot in baseball history.
On the MLB YouTube site a recording of the final inning, accompanied with photos, has been viewed nearly a quarter-million times since it was posted eight years ago.
"You can almost taste the pressure now. Koufax lifted his cap, ran his fingers through his black hair, then pulled the back cap down, fussing at the bill," said Scully on the Sept. 9, 1965 broadcast.
Mark Warschauer, a professor of education at the University of California at Irvine, was at the game as an 11-year-old with his father.
"Over the last two innings it was just explosive. And every single pitch and every single strike was just electric," he remembered.
The ninth inning began with the Cubs' Chris Krug coming to the plate. He lasted seven pitches.
"Sandy reading signs, into his windup, two-two pitch, fast ball got him swinging … he is two outs away from a perfect game."
The next batter was pinch-hitter Joe Amalfitano who, 60 years later, still has a crystal clear memory of the night.
"I was the 26th victim," the 91-year-old said two weeks ago from his home in Sedona, Ariz.
"He's got it going, he's really got it going."
Amalfitano, who struck out on three pitches, described the third strike as unhittable: "I couldn't hit with a telephone pole. I swung on and missed."
"The strike two pitch to Joe, swung on and missed strike three. He is one out away from the promised land," Scully said, the excitement building in his voice.
As Amalfitano walked back to the Cubs dugout, he passed by the next hitter, Harvey Kuenn.
"As I walked by, going to the dugout, Harvey says 'Joe, how's he throwing?' I said, 'Better be ready. He's getting it up there.' And Harvey says — and this is classic — 'wait for me. I'll be right back,'" Amalfitano recalled.
Kuenn was right.
"It is 9:46 p.m. Two and two to Harvey Kuenn, one strike away, Sandy into his windup. Here's the pitch. Swung on and missed. A perfect game."
Hall of Fame Los Angeles Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully, left, hugs pitcher Sandy Koufax during Vin Scully Appreciation Day on Sept. 23, 2016, in Los Angeles. Scully called Koufax's perfect game against the Cubs in 1965.
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Jae C. Hong
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Wes Parker remembered being glad it was over. "My feeling was more than happiness for Sandy. I felt relief that I didn't screw up his perfect game."
Joe Amalfitano says numerous times during the last 60 years, he and Koufax have spoken on the phone on Sept. 9. "We reminisce on the ninth. He is a wonderful guy, a high-class guy," he says.
We reached out to Sandy Koufax, and through a representative, he declined to speak. He rarely grants interviews, but he did to MLB's Sweeny Murti earlier this year. "You start out every game to pitch a perfect game," Koufax said, reflecting on the moment. "You're not going to, and you know it. You just give up your goals grudgingly as you go. This one, I didn't have to give it up."
Another part of Koufax's mythical career is that it ended on the very top.
The following year, at the age of 30, Koufax retired because of arthritis in his elbow.
No one ever saw him lose his athletic prowess. In his final season, Koufax had a record of 27-9 with an ERA of 1.73 and 317 strikeouts — all Major League bests in 1966.
Editor's Note: The official attendance at the game was 29,139 and included reporter Steve Futterman. "This remains the greatest sports event I have ever witnessed. I got a call from my friend Ben Franklin (yes, that was his name) around 5pm to see if I could go to the game," Futterman recalled. "My mother said yes. She was already making dinner. I took two or three greasy lamb chops (my favorite meal growing up) with lots of napkins into the Franklin family's station wagon, and we went to see my favorite baseball player make history."
Copyright 2025 NPR
Members of the Orange County Creek Team wait to speak to the Board of Supervisors about the county’s use of chemicals in flood channels.
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Jill Replogle
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Topline:
The Orange County Board of Supervisors has directed its public works department to look into alternatives to using chemicals and pesticides to control overgrowth in flood control channels.
Why this matters: The chemicals clear overgrowth of vegetation, which helps prevent channels from backing up during storms. But critics say it poisons waterways and washes out into the ocean. Supervisor Katrina Foley said she wants to find a better way: “I remain encouraged by the overwhelming public support in exploring nontoxic solutions for our waterways."
What's next: The board will revisit the issue — and the public works department's findings — at a later meeting.
Biking on river trails, going on picnics and surfing in the ocean are activities California residents cherish every summer. But headlines about the use of toxic chemicals in flood control channels around Orange County have created anxiety for those looking forward to their favorite activities this summer.
Dozens of environmental activists and Orange County residents packed the Orange County Board of Supervisors meeting this week to urge the county to halt the routine use of toxins they say poison waterways and wash out into the ocean.
But several supervisors said it wasn’t that simple. The chemical prevents overgrowth in flood control channels, and that overgrowth could lead to backups and flooding, affecting neighborhoods and businesses during heavy rains.
Controversy over the chemical use led to an announcement last month by Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley, declaring that chemical usage would be halted for the moment. The issue then came before the board this week for further discussion.
Supervisors decided to study the issue and revisit it in the months ahead, and directed the OC Public Works department to evaluate methods for clearing overgrowth of vegetation that crowd flood channels, and look for alternate methods of doing so.
Brent Linas, founder of the Orange County Creek Team, which has succeeded in bringing the environmental issue to the public’s attention through salty Instagram posts and other social media tactics, blasted what he described as the board’s inaction.
He feels that the board is “deeply dysfunctional” and plans on using the meeting as momentum to spread awareness about the chemicals' negative effects on the environment. “There’s palpable outrage in Orange County right now around this and we fully intend to tap into that,” Linas said.
Foley also plans to reintroduce public noticing requirements at the next meeting June 23. The notices would alert residents to the planned use of any pesticides and herbicides. “Orange County residents deserve transparency to help make informed decisions about where their families recreate,” Foley said in a statement released the after the meeting. “I remain encouraged by the overwhelming public support in exploring nontoxic solutions for our waterways.”
How to watchdog your local government
One of the best things you can do to hold officials accountable is pay attention. Your city council, board of supervisors, school board and more all hold public meetings that anybody can attend. These are times you can talk to your elected officials directly and hear about the policies they’re voting on that affect your community.
The Orange County Board of Supervisors meets on alternating Tuesdays at 9:30 a.m. at 400 W. Civic Center Drive, Santa Ana. You can check out the O.C. Board of Supervisors full calendar here.
Cato Hernández
is covering all things election for this primary, including the often hard-to-choose judges.
Published June 11, 2026 3:51 PM
Judge Robert Draper has lost his reelection bid.
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Courtesy the campaign
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Topline:
In a rare rebuke from voters, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Robert Draper, who’s facing several allegations of violating ethics rules, has lost his seat to deputy district attorney Tal Khan Valbuena. While a small margin of ballots are left to count, Valbuena has maintained a comfortable lead with more than 50% of the 1.7 million votes cast.
The background: This was a challenging race for voters because the California Commission on Judicial Performance, the state watchdog of judges, hasn’t yet reached a decision on the allegations against Draper — some of which he denied and others he admitted to in an interview with LAist. Draper was appointed by former Gov. Jerry Brown and has spent 15 years in Office No. 2, while Valbuena’s career has focused on mental health court.
What the candidates say: On Thursday, Draper conceded over text, telling LAist that serving as a judge has been “the greatest honor and joy” of his career and that he congratulates Valbuena. He said he’s going to try to make sure that what the commission “did to me will not be done to Tal or any of the wonderful young and older Judges now serving of whom I am very proud.”
In a statement to LAist, Valbuena said he’s “deeply humbled” by voters’ trust and thanked Draper for his service. He said he’ll bring his lived and professional experience to the bench, where he’ll work to earn more of the public’s trust.
What’s next: The vote still needs to be certified by the California Secretary of State, which happens on July 10. The California Commission on Judicial Performance members could come to a decision before then, including to possibly remove Draper or clear him of wrongdoing. In the meantime, Valbuena is expected to take office in January.
Keep up with LAist.
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A program dedicated to providing low-income California residents with extra money for fruits and vegetables is likely to go under this summer if additional funds are not allocated in this year’s state budget, according to concerned food justice advocates.
About the program: The CalFresh Fruit and Vegetable EBT Program provides CalFresh recipients with up to $60 a month of free produce each month, in addition to their benefits. In May alone, the program disbursed over $5 million and “served 95,520 California households,” said Grecia Marquez-Nieblas, senior manager at food policy nonprofit Fullwell, which has backed the program. The state budget is set to be finalized on June 15.
Why it matters: “Overwhelmingly, folks have been telling us that they want it to continue, that it’s made a really positive impact on them,” Marquez-Nieblas said. “Their diabetes is better managed; their high blood pressure is better managed.” The program’s end would come at a particularly stressful time for CalFresh recipients. This month, for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic began, California has begun enforcing new and expanded federal guidelines that require some CalFresh recipients to work 20 hours a week, or an average of 80 hours a month — with a stark reduction in food benefits for those who don’t.
The CalFresh Fruit and Vegetable EBT Program provides CalFresh recipients with up to $60 a month of free produce each month, in addition to their benefits. In May alone, the program disbursed over $5 million and “served 95,520 California households,” said Grecia Marquez-Nieblas, senior manager at food policy nonprofit Fullwell, which has backed the program.
“Overwhelmingly, folks have been telling us that they want it to continue, that it’s made a really positive impact on them,” Marquez-Nieblas said. “Their diabetes is better managed; their high blood pressure is better managed.”
Those people are now at risk of losing access to that support as funds whittle down. The state budget is set to be finalized on June 15, and “as far as we know, there is no continued funding that has been proposed,” Marquez-Nieblas said.
“When this program ends, we’ll have less money to spend, [at] a time when groceries are incredibly more expensive. Gas is more expensive. Everything is more expensive,” she said. “It’s just, unfortunately, a compounding effect. There’s lots of stuff that’s impacting the same people.”
The program is simple to use: When customers purchase food at participating markets, like Arteaga’s Food Center in San José, they just swipe their EBT (electronic benefit transfer) card.
For every purchase of fresh fruits and vegetables with that card, customers receive an instant rebate each month, applied to their card. The rebate money can be spent on any food or goods covered by CalFresh, like meat, eggs and dairy — it is not limited to fruits and vegetables.
Marquez-Nieblas explained that the pilot program has been implemented in three phases — the latest of which received a limited, one-time allocation of $36 million from the state budget. That seems like a large number, “until we realize that there are hundreds of thousands of individuals across the state using the program.”
“It’s been proven many times that CalFresh — and programs like this that support people having more money for food — are incredibly impactful for lifting children out of poverty, for supporting seniors with limited incomes, for anybody,” Marquez-Nieblas said. “Foundationally, these programs are good. They’re good for public health.”
Food policy advocates said they are hoping for $100 million for the program to continue to operate year-round. Instead, it was reappropriated around $4.8 million — the remaining funds from last year’s budget cycle, in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s “May Revise” proposal, according to H.D. Palmer, spokesperson for the California Department of Finance.
“The program will operate until funds are fully utilized,” Palmer said in an email to KQED.
The program’s end would come at a particularly stressful time for CalFresh recipients. This month, for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic began, California has begun enforcing new and expanded federal guidelines that require some CalFresh recipients to work 20 hours a week, or an average of 80 hours a month — with a stark reduction in food benefits for those who don’t.
“Not only does it add in the onerous work requirement — a lot of people who are already receiving CalFresh are working — but now they have this bureaucratic paperwork to provide,” said Kathy Saile, California director of national nonprofit No Kid Hungry. “There’s some real concern that people could lose benefits just because they couldn’t figure out the paperwork.”
H.R. 1’s impact, which also cuts food benefits for some refugees and asylum seekers, is apparent, according to federal data analyzed by the nonpartisan research group Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
The center estimated that nationwide, SNAP participation fell by almost 9% — more than 3.5 million people — between H.R.1’s start in July 2025 and February 2026.
Palmer said the state was taking proactive steps to maintain residents’ enrollment in the program.
“This includes leveraging existing data to determine possible exemptions from the new SNAP work requirements, implementing automation, and conducting client outreach,” he said.
He added that the latest budget revision has “a total of $38 million for the CalFood program — which funds food banks for the purchase, storage, and transportation of food grown and/or produced in California.”
In a time of rising bureaucratic barriers implemented by H.R. 1, Marquez-Nieblas said the CalFresh Fruit and Vegetable EBT Program is part of the state’s food safety net.
“This is not just about backfill,” she said. “It’s not just about responding to the impacts (of H.R. 1), which are incredibly awful. It’s also about setting ourselves up for success in the future, knowing we have to invest proactively.”
Marquez-Nieblas said CalFresh recipients should keep their eyes on the California Department of Social Services website for any possible updates and changes in the future.
Mariana Dale
explores and explains the forces that shape how and what kids learn from kindergarten to high school.
Published June 11, 2026 3:00 PM
Rising sophomores Leslie Martinez, Izzy Guzman and Khloe Carter were among the first students to take a one-semester ethnic studies class at Duarte High School. The street names are one of the few public reminders of what was once Rocktown.
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Photos by Mariana Dale, collage by Ross Brenneman
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Topline:
While implementation of California’s high school ethnic studies mandate has stalled, districts across the state are rolling out classes that encourage students to explore the lesser-told histories of their communities.
Why it matters: Duarte High School’s inaugural ethnic studies class focused on local history, students’ personal identity, Indigenous, Latino, Black and Asian American Pacific Islander history. “Ethnic studies is providing space to hear from communities and from points of view that are not traditionally covered in our history classes,” said Casey Ramirez, who teaches the class.
The backstory: California lawmakers passed a law in 2021 that required all schools to offer the course by the 2025-2026 school year, but has yet to provide the funding needed to enact the mandate. Duarte Unified, like many other districts, passed its own one-semester ethnic studies graduation requirement ahead of the expected state deadline.
Uncovering Rocktown: Freshmen at Duarte High School this year unearthed the history of a San Gabriel Valley community that was all-but-erased by commercial development and the construction of the 210 and 605 freeways. Newspaper headlines often focused on incidents of violence and segregation in the majority Black and Mexican American community of Rocktown, but when the students interviewed former residents, they heard a different story.
Read on ... to learn more about Rocktown and the future of ethnic studies.
While implementation of California’s high school ethnic studies mandate has stalled, districts across the state are rolling out classes that encourage students to explore the lesser-told histories of their communities.
Freshmen at Duarte High School this year unearthed the history of a San Gabriel Valley community that was all but erased by commercial development and the construction of the 210 and 605 freeways.
Newspaper headlines often focused on incidents of violence and segregation in the majority Black and Mexican American community of Rocktown, but when the students interviewed former residents, they heard a different story.
“It was a great community for us,” said Alfred Hernandez Zamora. “We just don't want to be forgotten.”
The study of Rocktown was a central theme in the school's first ethnic studies course.
“Ethnic studies is providing space to hear from communities and from points of view that are not traditionally covered in our history classes,” said Casey Ramirez, who teaches the class at Duarte High in addition to government, economics, world and U.S. history.
California legislators passed a law in 2021 that required all schools to offer the course by the 2025-26 school year, but have yet to provide the funding needed to enact the mandate. Duarte Unified, like many other districts, passed its own one-semester ethnic studies graduation requirement ahead of the expected state deadline.
Ethnic studies is providing space to hear from communities and from points of view that are not traditionally covered in our history classes.
— Casey Ramirez, teacher, Duarte High School
Duarte High School’s curriculum is the result of a collaboration between educators, research into the region’s history and the students’ own interests.
“I've only seen one part of Duarte, and that's the Duarte that I was raised in,” said Leslie Martinez, a rising sophomore. “There's a lot of things that Ms. Ramirez is teaching me, and that's making me more curious to dig deeper [into] my city and where I grew up.”
An opportunity to create an ‘engaging class’
California’s model ethnic studies curriculum describes the field as an “interdisciplinary study of race, ethnicity, and Indigeneity, with an emphasis on the experiences of people of color in the United States.” Districts could develop their course based on this framework or from scratch.
“It was our opportunity to create a really engaging class that really speaks to our student body,” said Luis Haro, Duarte High’s principal for the last eight years.
The majority of Duarte High School’s population is Latino, but there are also Filipino, Asian, white, Black and multiracial students. Most students qualify for free-and reduced price lunches, a proxy for being low-income in public schools.
“In my experience, our students don't know our history, and they don't really have a true understanding of their own identity,” Haro said.
Haro joined a committee of administrators and teachers, including Ramirez, that collaborated with the UCLA History-Geography Project to develop the new course.
UCLA staff guided Duarte educators through reams of local history research and helped the team develop goals for the class, including a student-led civics project.
“Getting to learn and feel like a college student again,” Ramirez said. “It really did make me excited to teach the class.”
They also developed units on students’ personal identity, Indigenous, Latino, Black and Asian American Pacific Islander history. The committee also met with parents and presented their work to the district’s board.
“[Ethnic studies] gave us a path to this project to see people in our community that aren't really talked about,” Ramirez said.
From the late 19th century through the 1970s, Black and Mexican American families settled in the “Davis Addition,” a subdivision of the land grant that became better known as Rocktown.
Ramirez first read about Rocktown in the research UCLA gathered for the curriculum development process, but couldn’t find much else about the community online.
She started downloading news articles from Newspapers.com and sharing them with the class. Many of the stories often focused on crime and violence in the community, from police raids on drinking and gambling establishments, to fires.
The articles also alluded to the segregation of the early 20th century.
A 1928 article from the Monrovia Daily News described the schedule for a new municipal pool. Mondays were “reserved for the use of colored people.”
“ Why are we not allowing people to do things simply because of the color of their skin or like their origin?” said Khloe Carter, a rising sophomore who took the ethnic studies class.
Carter said it felt important to her, as a person of color, to learn about people’s experiences with discrimination in the past.
“I'd say that has made me smarter and more aware of other people's struggles and what other people have to deal with and other people's cultures and other people's traditions,” Carter said.
A brief history of Rocktown
These events, researched by Ramirez and the ethnic studies class, give an insight into Rocktown.
1841: Mexican government grants nearly 7,000 acres of land to soldier Andrés Avelino Duarte.
1870s-1890s: The rancho is subdivided and sold.
1924: A Monrovia Daily News article describes Rocktown as a “scattered settlement of Mexican and negro homes.”
1957: City of Duarte incorporated.
1960s: Construction of the 210 and 605 freeways.
1970s: Duarte City Council discusses redeveloping Rocktown into an industrial park .
1976: First resident relocated to make way for business center development.
The first wave of Rocktown displacement preceded the construction of the 210 and 605 freeways in the 1960s. The last several dozen families were moved to make way for a business complex in the 1970s. Stories referred to the area as blighted and “depressed.”
“ We took it as our job to dig further, deeper, to find out if it was true or not,” Martinez said.
With Ramirez’s help — and several volunteers from the Facebook group Rocktown Oldies Club — the students started to schedule interviews with former residents. The school’s film class volunteered to record the conversations.
The students heard stories about everyday life that were absent from the news coverage of time — Sunday barbecues, roller skating, fishing, picnicking and swimming near the Santa Fe Dam.
Zamora, who was born in Rocktown in 1949, offered a first-person history that isn’t available elsewhere — down to the community’s name: “ You could not even dig a, a foot into the ground without running into rocks,” he said. “ You could throw water on the ground and a rock would grow, you know?”
Many of the residents raised goats, pigs, pigeons and chickens in their backyards. Zamora said a routine car repair could quickly become a community gathering with neighbors joining in to help.
“That made it … so great to live there, 'cause everybody was like family,” Zamora said. “Even people that weren't related to you, it was really close friendships there.”
A typical gathering of Alfred Hernandez Zamora's family in an undated photo from their Rocktown days. Everyone gathered for Sunday dinners at his grandmother's house.
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Courtesy Alfred Hernandez Zamora
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Zamora's relatives Rayno Hernandez and Christina Hernandez Padilla as kids riding their bikes through Rocktown.
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Courtesy Alfred Hernandez Zamora
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Zamora said Rocktown offered a reprieve from the discrimination against Black and Latino residents in other parts of the San Gabriel Valley at the time.
“We played ball together. We swam together. We ate together,” Zamora said. “Even though there was different cultures there, we still were able to get along with everybody.”
These interviews gave the students new perspectives to consider.
“ People make a lot of stereotypes and a lot of guesses … like, ‘Oh, this community can be so ghetto,’" Martinez said. “But honestly, like I think if you haven't been in the community, you can't really say anything.”
Remembering Rocktown
The Duarte Historical Museum hosted a pop-up exhibition of the students’ capstone project.
“I was very impressed with the job that they did, being able to get all this history and the information and the interviews with people,” said Liz Reilly, president of the Duarte Historical Society and Museum and former mayor. "I thought that was really fabulous.”
Reilly, who moved to Duarte in 1987, had heard of Rocktown, but knew little about the neighborhood.
Izzy Guzman, another student who took ethnic studies at Duarte High, said the account she heard from the three women she interviewed differed from these Rocktown headlines. "They've all seemed really nice and really genuine," Guzman said. "I just feel like people should understand, even if they don't know what Rocktown is, they should understand that, it was just a basic community, and that they should be treated with the same respect as everyone else."
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Mariana Dale
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LAist
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The exhibition included a map of Rocktown (still the subject of some debate) and dozens of historical photos, often provided by the people they interviewed.
“ I found it so amazing how much people showed up for our project and how much the community of Rocktown has shown up for our project,” Carter said.
Former residents, including Zamora, were among the dozens of people who attended the exhibition’s grand opening in mid-May.
“For them to recognize places that were forgotten, that meant a lot,” Zamora said. “ Nobody seems to remember it. I mean, except the people that lived there.”
Ethnic studies faces growing challenges
While the school’s principal, students and former Rocktown residents have embraced the ethnic studies class, Ramirez said she’s also heard criticism.
During Duarte High’s open house, Ramirez said a parent voiced her disagreement with the class and threatened to file a grievance even though her child had yet to enroll at the school.
“ I'm a parent, so I understand, especially if it's something that you're not familiar with and your kids are learning something different from what you learned, it can be scary,” Ramirez said. “My approach is never to impose my viewpoints. It's to provide alternative perspectives.”
Some lawmakers have also criticized school offerings that intersect with race and ethnicity.
In the last five years, 20 states have banned or restricted teaching critical race theory, an academic concept that race is a social construct and that racism is embedded in specific societal structures.
Teacher Casey Ramirez said teaching students to view history from multiple points of view and form their own opinions is a key feature of the ethnic studies class.
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Courtesy Oscar Ramirez
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California school districts from Los Alamitos to San Francisco have faced pushback over their ethnic studies curriculum despite passage of the state mandate.
Daniel Diaz, director of the UCLA History-Geography Project, said there was a flood of interest when the ethnic studies mandate was first passed, but now fewer districts are paying for related professional development.
“Which in turn then impacts what happens to our project and … who we're able to support in terms of staffing,” Diaz said.
In June, UCLA laid off one of the educators instrumental in helping Duarte develop its ethnic studies curriculum.
In a statement, John McDonald, director of media relations at the UCLA School of Education and Information Studies, said the History-Geography Project has laid off four staff members total after funded projects ended in the last year.
“UCLA Center X is committed to the work and actively seeking new funding for similar efforts,” McDonald said.
What that means for other districts looking for assistance with ethnic studies programs remains to be seen.
Ramirez said her UCLA collaborator was “phenomenal” and continued to support the project even after the contract with the district formally ended.
“ I don't think that this year and this project would've been what it was without having that support,” Ramirez said.
A business center now stands south of the 210 and west of the 605 where part of Rocktown once was. Some of the street names, including Evergreen and Flower, remain the same.
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Mariana Dale
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LAist
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The Rocktown Project’s future
Duarte High School will continue the ethnic studies class.
More former residents have already contacted Ramirez hoping to be interviewed by next year’s students. She also plans to publish the students’ work on a website and a future goal is to memorialize Rocktown with a physical marker in Duarte.
“You need to know whose land you're on and who was there,” said Sylvia Gonzales Youngblood, who was born in Duarte in 1967 and grew up visiting the home her maternal grandfather built in Rocktown.
She said when she was a student there wasn’t an opportunity to learn about her family’s Ohlone Mission Indian and Mexican heritage and she was discouraged from speaking Spanish.
“Now as I'm older, I realize just how much history and of ourselves we lose,” Youngblood said.
Carter, the rising sophomore, said after taking ethnic studies, she feels more connected to the city she moved to about a year ago.
“It's important that we know this side of history so a community like Rocktown doesn't get lost again,” Carter said. “Every voice should be heard, including Rocktown's.”
