The Brief

The Getty unveiled this past week the final product of an eight-year effort to digitize a massive, centuries-old encyclopedia of central Mexican indigenous culture. That process has already started changing lives.

Written about 50 years after the Spanish invaded and defeated the Aztec army, the document’s title when finished was: "Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva España" or "General History of the Things of New Spain."

It ended up in a royal library in Italy, which led to the name it’s now known by: the Florentine Codex.

“It really blew my mind,” said Maria Velasco, remembering the 2018 undergraduate class at California State University, Northridge in which she learned about the Codex.

“I [had] never seen any [indigenous] manuscripts and the Florentine Codex was the first manuscript or codex that I had seen,” she said.

She grew up in Los Angeles, but her family is Zapotec, an indigenous community in the Mexican state of Oaxaca.

A career inspiration

As graduation day neared, Velasco set out to start a career working in a museum in some capacity. She started reading the Nahuatl (the language of the Mexica, as the Aztecs are now more commonly called) in the Codex. As she studied the indigenous scribes and painters who created the Codex, she found herself on a different path.

Maria Velasco, a California State University Los Angeles student.

(

Ashley Balderrama

/

LAist

)

Maria Velasco shows a picture of herself as a child in traditional indigenous attire.

(

Ashley Balderrama

/

LAist

)

“It helped me to navigate then to the Zapotec language because then I was able to translate and transcribe some [Zapotec] words that were written… centuries [ago],” she said.

Velasco became a researcher in that class and began working on TICHA, a project that finds and digitizes colonial-era documents from the Zapotec region of Oaxaca. The idea is to make these documents available for translation and interpretation in order to learn about the lives of Zapotec people centuries ago and find commonalities with modern-day people.

Those efforts led to what she’s doing now: working on her master's degree in anthropology at California State University, Los Angeles and teaching a class this semester on Zapotec language and culture.

“I think [the digital Codex is] going to be really great for... Latinx and Zapotec people and people at large to see it… they’re going to relate to it,” she said.

Until last week, there was no one place online that made available the entire Florentine Codex, transcriptions of the hard to read handwriting, and annotation of the illustrations.

A digital history

Last week, the Getty, the Los Angeles-based art institution with a multi-billion-dollar endowment, unveiled the results of a years-long effort to create a digital portal to make every page of the Codex’s writing and images accessible to anyone with an internet connection.

“The conservation and dissemination of documentary heritage is functional to greater understanding and dialogue between peoples, to promote peace, human rights, and dignity,” said Francesca Gallori, director of the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana in Florence, the Renaissance-era institution that owns the Codex and is now run by the Italian government.

A Franciscan priest, Bernardino de Sahagún, led the Codex’s creation, ultimately to convert indigenous people to Christianity, but also as a way to document a culture he saw being transformed in the decades after the Spanish claimed the land for their country.

Scholars believe 22 people of indigenous descent wrote and painted the Codex. These people were known as tlacuilos, or scribes.

During the five hour-plus unveiling of the Digital Florentine Codex, researchers, the digitizing team, as well as scholars, and indigenous language and culture experts from Mexico described previous digitized versions of the Codex, translations of the texts, and reproductions of the images.

“The Digital Florentine Codex stands on the shoulders of these great scholars. To complement these already published versions, we invited scholars to provide new translations,” said Kim Richter, senior research specialist at the Getty Research Institute.

A chapter on feather work

(

Courtesy the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence, and by permission of MiBACT

)

Disguised Mexica merchants in Tzinacantlan acquiring quetzal feathers in Book 9 of the Florentine Codex, 1577

(

Courtesy of the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence, and by permission of MiBACT

)

Heroic Tlatelolcan warrior, Tzilcatzin, throwing stones at the invading Spaniards in Book 12 of the Florentine Codex, 1577

(

Courtesy of the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence, and by permission of MiBACT

)

Hummingbirds (huitzitzilin) in Book 11 of the Florentine Codex, 1577

(

Courtesy of the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence, and by permission of MiBACT

)

Water creatures in Book 11 of the Florentine Codex (“On Earthly Things”), 1577

(

Courtesy of the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence, and by permission of MiBACT

)

The new translations, along with recordings of the text and searchable tagging of content, are meant to bring the 16th century Mexica culture within reach of the modern person.

Modern day tlacuilos

The Codex is inspiring a new generation of Latino people.

“As a first generation student, [the Codex] exposed me to entirely new ways of learning, research and even careers,” said recent UCLA masters graduate Roxanne Valle. She took part in the unveiling to talk about her research into how handwriting in the Codex revealed how many tlacuilos worked on it.

Roxanne Valle, a UCLA student in a masters program for Latin American Studies.

(

Ashley Balderrama

/

LAist

)

Like Maria Velasco, Valle learned about the Codex as an undergrad several years ago. Until learning about the Codex, Valle was planning an academic career studying some aspect of Latinas in sports.

She grew up in Azusa and her parents were born and raised in Mexico.

Valle’s experience researching the Codex led her to see it as a foundational document in Mexican history that’s not well known to people of Mexican heritage. She wants to change that in order to “extend these experiences to people I know, many who are also people of color and children of parents who came to the U.S. years ago, like my parents, and whether or not they had the privilege to attend college or not."

A promise of connection

The Codex has been generating buzz since the Getty showed two of its three volumes at its museums in 2010 and 2018, and began digitizing efforts in 2015.

The unveiling doesn’t mean the work is done.

“You still need a bridge, you still need to encourage people because this information is clearly being rotated in this kind of academic circle, but now we need to bring it to the communities themselves,” said Xóchitl Flores-Marcial, a professor of Chicana/o Studies at CSU Northridge.

That bridge is taking the information online and turning it into lesson plans for various grades and learning levels, and for the indigenous people for whom the Codex is a deep cultural document. Creating that learning material is time intensive and expensive, she said, and points to the Getty as the institution that needs to follow up to ensure the connections between the 16th century content and our modern day lives happens.

The Getty says it’s on it.

“With UCLA’s Latin American Institute, we co-organized a workshop in 2020 for local teachers that helped them develop curricula based on these historical sources,” Getty spokesperson Alexandria Sivak said in an email.

It’s also developing recommendations for how to use the Codex in classrooms, and offering workshops for teachers and professors.

Coming up in that effort: two of the main people involved in the digitizing effort, Kim Richter and Senior Project Manager Alicia Maria Houtrouw, are set to talk about the digital Codex at the College Art Association’s conference next February in Chicago.

Learn more about the digitization project

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced several significant rule changes for the 99th Oscars, including AI protections for actors and writers as well as expanded eligibility for international films.

In a statement to NPR, the Academy on Saturday said the changes are in response to listening to the global filmmaking community and addressing barriers to entry in its eligibility process.

The Academy added that its rules and eligibility standards have always evolved alongside technologies such as sound, color, and CGI, and that AI is no different. Awards rules and guidelines are reviewed and refined each year.

A blow for Tilly Norwood 

Among the most noteworthy changes, the Academy now explicitly states that only roles, "demonstrably performed by humans with their consent" are eligible for Acting awards. In other words, AI creations like the much-hyped Tilly Norwood cannot hope to win a Best Actress Oscar anytime soon.

Particle6, the production company behind Norwood, did not immediately respond to NPR's request for comment on Saturday about its creations' ban from consideration. In March, Norwood commented, "Can't wait to go to the Oscars!" in an Instagram post announcing its newly released music video.

The Academy also requires screenplays to be "human-authored" and said it reserved the right to investigate the use of generative AI in any submission.

Meanwhile, qualifying flesh-and-blood human actors can now be nominated for multiple performances in the same category if those performances get enough votes to land in the top five. So, someone like Anne Hathaway, who has five major movies scheduled for release in 2026, could now theoretically sweep the nominations – though that outcome seems extremely unlikely.

"If an actor has an extremely prolific year, might we even see someone swallow up three of the five nominations?," wrote Deadline's awards columnist and chief film critic Pete Hammond about the changes. "Probably won't happen, but it's now possible."

Under previous rules, an actor could only receive one nomination per category. If they had two high-ranking performances in Best Actor, for example, only the one with the most votes would move forward.

International films prioritizes filmmakers over countries

While international films can still be the official selection of their countries, now they can qualify by winning the top prize at a major international festival such as the Palme d'Or at Cannes, the Golden Lion at Venice, or the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize at Sundance.

Historically, countries "owned" the nomination, and only one film per country was allowed. The new rules allow multiple films from the same country to compete if they are critically acclaimed, and it shifts the honor from a geopolitical entity to the filmmakers themselves.

Largely positive response

The changes have prompted a largely positive reaction from the film community on social media, such as on the popular The Shade Room entertainment and celebrity-focused Instagram feed, where commenters widely praised the "human-only" move to protect creative jobs.

The Academy's Awards Committee oversees the rules in tandem with branch executive committees, the International Feature Film Executive Committee and the Scientific and Technical Awards Executive Committee.

The rules are scheduled to go into effect next year, covering films released in 2026.

Copyright 2026 NPR

Los Angeles changes fast, and oftentimes that means some of the architectural relics of our shared past get swept up and paved over in all the "progress." (RIP Garden of Allah.)

But there are still places where you can find ruins that tell a tale, like a long-forgotten speakeasy reputedly for old Hollywood near La Crescenta.

The ruins are still there 

On a recent afternoon, author and local historian Mike Lawler led me just beyond the boundary of Crescenta Valley Park. Joggers like me might have seen an old, towering stone arch shrouded by bushes there — and wondered what lies beyond.

Turns out there was once a place called the Verdugo Lodge back there and Lawler has spent years excavating its history.

A car speeds away from the lodge onto New York Avenue. The stone archway that still stands can be seen in the background.

(

Kadletz Family Archives)

)

“It was a very high-end speakeasy for a time,” Lawler, who also helps run the Historical Society of the Crescenta Valley, said. “An amazing thing. And all the ruins are still here, just like this arch.”

Lawler said we don’t know exactly when the lodge was built, but we do have some of the picture starting in the late 1920s. The place was set up kind of like a timeshare where people bought 10 x 10 foot ‘tent lots’ that gave them access to on-site amenities. There was a golf course, stables, trout stream, a swimming pool — and a lodge with gambling and alcohol.

“The Crescenta Valley in the teens and '20s was a hotbed of moonshine, prostitution, all that stuff," Lawler said. "It was a quiet little community. But in all these canyons up here, stuff was going on. Illegal stuff!”

We don’t have a full guest list, but Lawler said it’s likely at least a few Hollywood types had gone up to the lodge to circumvent Prohibition era laws.

In some ways, it was kind of like the original glamping. Lawler said patrons probably weren’t doing much sleeping, though.

“They might have been unconscious!” he said with a chuckle.

Lawler led me to a road that swooped around a meadow. We passed by a massive swimming pool nestled into the hillside.

Once known as the “Crystal Pool,” it’s now empty and fenced off, with pitch black locker rooms below.

The exterior of the locker rooms for the old Crystal Pool.

(

Robert Garrova / LAist

)

We continued our journey up the hill and eventually arrived at a cascading stone stairway.

And at the top, the big show: overgrown with orange monkey flowers and goliath agaves lies the foundation of the old Verdugo Lodge, with lofty stone fireplaces the only guardians keeping the surrounding oak trees at bay.

Lawler takes out a floorplan that one of the former owners drew up for him.

“This is what it was laid out like on the inside. So a dancehall, and band stand on that side... And then upstairs was the gambling,” Lawler said.

Lawler had in hand a copy of a Los Angeles Times article from 1933 he found. The headline reads: “Revelers Flee in Lodge Raid.”

“The police that raided it were here at 3 o'clock in the morning. And there were still 500 people here. And they said it was the classiest joint they had ever raided... Anyway, people were diving out of windows and everything,” Lawler explained.

In a ruin like this, covered with moss and overgrowth, the imagination can run wild, too.

The archway that still stands outside of what's now known as Mountain Oaks.

(

Robert Garrova / LAist

)

Lawler pointed out a questionable door jam below the old dancefloor that’s been cemented over.

“That is a door. So what is behind there? So there’s a room in there that got walled in for some reason,” he said.

What we do know is that, sometime after the raid, the tawdry Verdugo Lodge and the surrounding land were purchased and then renamed Mountain Oaks by the Kadletzes — an entrepreneurial family who had run everything from a Turkish bath to a mini golf course. Over the next few decades, the family would rent the place out to local groups for recreational retreats.

The future of Mountain Oaks 

After they sold it in the ‘60s, Lawler said Mountain Oaks faced a “nightmare” of development threats. Over the years, some of the subdivided "tent lots" had been combined and sold off, Lawler said. A dozen private homes now stand on these pieces of land, next to the ruins of the Verdugo Lodge.

A map showing the Mountain Oaks public property acquired by The Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA).

(

Courtesy MRCA

)

Last year, with help from the City of Glendale, a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grant among other funding sources, the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA) put up $6.1 million to acquire 33-acres of the land — not including the private lots where the homes stand — so the public can continue to roam the meadow and ruins.

Paul Edelman, MRCA's director of natural resources and planning, said his group will continue to manage the land, doing things like brush clearance, trash pickup and sign maintenance. And he said there are no current plans to remove the ruins or make any major changes to the property.

“If somebody comes up with a grand idea where they can find some funding for us to do something to enhance it, we’re always open to it,” Edelman said.

The purchase was good news for local preservationist Joanna Linkchorst.

“I grew up directly up the hill. But I always saw the sign that said ‘private property’ and didn’t really think about it until several years ago when I finally asked Mike. And he said, ‘Oh yeah, we got a resort speakeasy down the street,’” Linkchorst said standing among the oaks and overgrowth.

Linkchorst, who founded the group Friends of Rockhaven to preserve another nearby historic site, said it’s been amazing to see all of the decaying structures that were still hiding out at Mountain Oaks.

“There’s almost like these little ghosts in your head as you imagine what it was like when there was a beautiful wood floor and there was a second floor that people came jumping out of,” Linkchorst said.

Now, let’s check in to the Overlook Hotel.

That’s the fictional place Stanley Kubrick brought to life in his 1980 film The Shining, loosely based on Stephen King’s novel of the same name.

A local architect who hails from South Pasadena meticulously crafted a 3D model of the iconic space so Shining fans everywhere never have to check out.

‘I just couldn’t stop’ 

At his day job, architect Anthony Chieh mainly works on residential and boutique commercial spaces. But over the course of five months, he spent his nights meticulously recreating a virtual replica of the Overlook Hotel from the film that first scared him when he was 12.

Of course he started with the deeply haunted Room 237. That’s where Jack Torrance, played by Jack Nicholson, has a terrifying encounter with a ghostly woman.

Chieh's 3D rendering of Room 237

(

Anthony Chieh

)

“But once I started, I just couldn’t stop,” Chieh told LAist.

“I ended up modeling the Colorado Lounge, and then after that I was thinking maybe I should make the lobby and then arriving to the Gold Room, and then Grady’s bathroom.”

“It’s like a rabbit hole,” he said.

Users who download Chieh’s free 3D model can fly through all of those spaces, immersed in atmospheric sounds and music from the film.

“It’s interesting to dive into these kind of fictional environments and try to make sense of it,” Chieh said. “And the hope is people will get a different perspective once they’re in there.”

Kubrick’s take on the Overlook was famously inspired by real hotels like the Timberline Lodge in Oregon and the Ahwahnee in Yosemite. But the interiors you see in the film were created on sound stages in England.

“Real architecture, physical buildings, are built for people to live. And for movies, these are more meant to express the emotional aspect of things. It’s a psychological construct,” Chieh said.

In a recently published video essay on YouTube, Chieh dives deep into those psychological constructs and how, as he puts it, “Kubrick designed the Overlook Hotel not as a backdrop, but as the film's true villain.”

How spaces scare 

Chieh said during the monthslong process he was reminded of the power of architecture and design in the real world too – whether it’s an uncomfortably repetitive carpet design or a claustrophobic hallway.

“A physical construct can affect your emotion,” Chieh said.

“You can use it in a way to make people feel comfortable and you can also use it in a way to create fear.”

Chieh's 3D rendering of the Torrance's apartment in 'The Shining'

(

Anthony Chieh

)

What’s next for this architect moonlighting as a 3D modeler?

Chieh says he’s thinking about giving the spaceship from “2001: A Space Odyssey" the virtual treatment next. Or maybe turning to a local non-fictional space, like the Stahl House.

That is, of course, if he can ever escape the Overlook.