Those Found and Met at the Birthplace of Los Angeles, Olvera Street

Print Photo Book, Exhibited February 2022 online at UCLA Undergraduate Show

Two years after moving to LA, I revisited Olvera Street in 2021 to explore the roots of a city that had been nurturing me. “Olvera ST Preserving the Past to Enlighten the Future,” I read from a mural behind Casa California, a store on Olvera Street, as I contemplated what I had written during my first visit in 2019: hopeful.

Known today as a Mexican marketplace, the site marks where Mexican settlers established the earliest part of Downtown LA on Gabrielino-Tongva land. In 1930, preservationist Christine Sterling led a campaign that revived the neglected street into a vibrant market.

The project showcases this enduring legacy through portraits of multigenerational merchants, stories from first-time visitors, photographs of artifacts and scenes from the site’s Día de los Muertos celebrations. The book also reflects on how Olvera Street holds the city’s layered history by preserving architecture, community and atmosphere from the past, as well as the way historical sites like this kindle hope as it sustains heritage and fosters exchange.