This urban planner is leading tours behind Chicano-shaped spaces in East LA

In a busy place like Los Angeles, sometimes it’s easy to drive or stroll right past important art and design.

That’s why for years now, urban planner James Rojas has led tours of L.A.’s Eastside, pointing out the murals, landmarks and architecture formed by Chicano and Latino culture.

“I think the stories of these spaces are really critical,” Rojas, who grew up in Boyle Heights, told LAist. “You want to create the awareness for people that, ‘Hey, these spaces aren’t just neutral. They have stories behind them.’”

The story of one building

Take, for example, the Pan American Bank building in Wellington Heights, which the L.A. Conservancy notes is the oldest Latinx-owned bank in California.

Founded by Romana Acosta Bañuelos in 1964, it served as a place where Mexicans and Mexican Americans could get financial services without discrimination.

Even though Acosta Bañuelos was born in Arizona, according to the New York Times, in the 1930s, “she and her mother and stepfather were deported to Mexico as part of an anti-immigrant backlash.” She would return about 10 years later at the age of 18.

The Pan American Bank building.

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InSapphoWeTrust via Wikimedia Commons

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A self-made entrepreneur, Acosta Bañuelos’s homemade tortilla business grew into a multi-million dollar food company. A Republican, she went on to serve as U.S. treasurer under President Richard Nixon.

Mexican artist José Reyes Meza’s five-panel ceramic tile mural, commissioned to celebrate the opening of the Pan American Bank, has adorned the front of the building since 1966. Called “Our Past, Our Present, and Our Future,” the L.A. Conservancy points out that it’s “one of the oldest existing murals in East Los Angeles,” and helped get the Chicano mural movement in the area going.

The Pan American Bank was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2017.

But you might have missed all that if you weren’t on one of Rojas’s tours.

“When you know the stories behind it, you can understand the community in deeper ways, richer ways,” Rojas said.

A timely tour

He said that’s particularly timely now, when immigrants are under attack from several angles, including ICE sweeps across the region.

“I think it’s really important to have the tour now, because you know, we’re not going to be intimidated by ICE,” Rojas said. “[We’re going to show] the contributions, the history of the community,” he added.

To learn more about the Pan American Bank and its mural — as well as several other landmarks shaped by Chicano and Latino Culture — you can tag along for one of Rojas’s tours this Saturday, Oct. 11.

Chicano Urban Design tour of LA's Eastside with James Rojas

Saturday, Oct. 11
10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Meet at Mariachi Plaza
1831 1st St. Los Angeles
More info here.

NOTE: The event page says sold out, but since it’s an open air walking tour, Rojas says all who show up will more than likely be accommodated.