Boyle Heights History Studios and Tours

LOS ANGELES - Joe Luna, a father and local comedian who went by the stage name "Joe El Cholo," has died just days after he started documenting his battle with C...OVID-19 on social media, his family announced. According to his Instagram page, he grew up in East Los Angeles and Fontana. Luna shared his experience with coronavirus symptoms on Instagram after his girlfriend and children tested positive for the virus. "I’m going to show you guys my journey through my good and bad times because it’s all about showing my people out there, if you think that COVID is a joke, If you think this won’t be you...then trust me; it hits everybody differently," said Luna in an Instagram post. The 38-year-old comedian performed at clubs such as The Ice House in Pasadena and The Improv Theatre in Hollywood. He was admitted to Victor Valley Global Medical Center after his condition worsened. Luna passed away at the hospital on Nov. 23, just two days after he began sharing his story. Joe Elcholo Was also one of our favorite performers at Boyle Heights Comedy Nights at Boyle Heights History Studios and Tours. RIP carnal!

Sunday, Dec 6, join SHIN DC: Sephardic Heritage INternational DC and Congregation Or VeShalom with Rebecca Galanti for our pre-Hanukkah baking hangout on Zoom: ...Learn to make biscochos, a Hanukkah culinary tradition, in original and other cool shapes; or see how well you have passed on the craft to the next generation. Register (free) at the link http://shindc.org/shinsbn/hanukkah2020/ See more

THANK YOU to everyone who has given towards my birthday workboot fund! You guys have literally brought tears to my eyes. And so at the end of this rant of gratitude I'll reveal what we are going to get for new workboots. :) Every year my family and friends are generous enough to get me clothes and stuff I need to get me through the winter season; mostly getting me stuff to keep my chest warm so I don't catch pneumonia again, after once catching pneumonia 7 years in a row, in ...Continue reading

It is with heavy hearts that we announce the passing of our carnal Joseph Luna, a.k.a. Joe Elcholo; of blessed memory. Que descanse en paz, may you rest in peace. He had struggled with his health and yet he overcame it all to make us laugh with his stand-up comedy; he is now free and we will all remain inspired by his strength of character and his warm spirit.

*THIS WEEK IN HISTORY ... the Chinese Massacre October 24, 1871: A riot erupts, resulting in the murder of 19 Chinese residents by a mob of 500 Angelenos on Ca...lle de los Negros, near the Plaza. Fifteen of the victims are hanged and three are shot. Another victim subsequently dies of a wound to the head. The riot begins when a well-liked Anglo, Robert Thompson, attempts to intervene between two members of rival Chinese companies (tongs) is killed. A police officer, Jesus Bilderaine, is also shot in the shoulder. Among those hanged are two teenagers who had just arrived in Los Angeles. At least $10,000 in gold is stolen from Chinese residents and businesses. Many Chinese people are taken to jail for safety. Many flee the city. Learn more ... http://lahistoryarchive.socalstudio.org/resour/LD_Timeline/ *This post was incorrectly published earlier this year.

Back by popular demand with a new date in November!

You asked for more dates for Boyle Heights: Most Haunted (Fall), so we added a special WEEKDAY tour during the Halloween and Dia de los Muertos season. This WEDNESDAY tour is filling-up quickly so do sign-up today. This is the last additional tour date we will be added for this tour during the fall season. Tickets are selling fast quickly so do sign-up before it once again fill-up. You can scan the conveniently placed QR code to go directly to our ticket sales page on Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/boyle-heights-most-haunted-fal

#RIP Coach Al Padilla of the Roosevelt High School Rough Riders

You asked for more dates for this special tour. Join us on the WEDNESDAY right before Halloween and Día de los Muertos for a weekday offering of this most notorious tour, Boyle Heights: Most Haunted (Fall)! Tickets are selling fast quickly so do sign-up before it once again fill-up. You can scan the conveniently placed QR code to go directly to our ticket sales page on Eventbrite.

The burned out remains of the 115-year-old Deutsche (German) Hospital. The building was currently in escrow for the developer East Los Angeles Community Corporation. After the previous owners and developers failed to get support to demolish the building and build a KIPP Charter School in its place, the building had been neglected and unguarded, leaving it exposed to become a demolition by neglect of a historic building that was eligible for historic preservation. It is been s...et on fire about half a dozen times in the past two years. Flames ultimately rose through the roof of the building the other night in the worst of the fires, to date, and now for the first time we can see the sky when looking in through the round burnt-out skylight window in front of this charming old hospital. Considering what was accomplished in saving the historic Santa Fe Coastline Hospital, a.k.a. the Linda Vista Hospital as low income housing for senior citizens, it is a total shame that they have not attempted to likewise historically preserve and repurpose this building.

Barrio Boychik (Shmuel Gonzales), founder of Boyle Heights History Studios and Tours. Always ready to represent his community. Thank you for the mask donations, friends and supporters. I love them! And also thank you to our guests for always wearing your masks to protect disabled and immune compromised people such as myself. Thank you for literally saving my life and lives of other disabled people of our neighborhood by faithfully following universal precautions and wearing a mask in public.

Barrio Boychik was gifted some new locally sourced masks from his friends, which celebrate the history of our barrio of Boyle Heights, East Los Angeles!

Barrio Boychik went to see the erection of the first arches of the New Sixth Street Viaduct in Boyle Heights, East Los Angeles. Just steps away from his hangout, the first of the sets of arches to stretch from east to west over the entire length of the bridge. Many people have been asking me what's going on with the bridge. Now that after four years we finally see something recognizable as a bridge we will be returning to the site with video updates.

Boyle Heights: Most Haunted (Fall): New WEEKDAY tour date opened up just in time for Halloween and Día de Los Muertos, on Wednesday, October 28, 2020 at 6pm. It will again fill-up in record time so don't hesitate to sign-up today! Scan the QR code to go directly to our ticket sales page on Eventtbrite. With masks and social distancing we can have a great time together exploring the haunted history of East Los Angeles.

New WEEKDAY tour date opened up just in time for Halloween and Día de Los Muertos... It will again fill-up in record time so don't hesitate to sign-up today.

Five years ago when someone went to work for the Jewish Federation they asked if there were any Jewish people in Boyle Heights to reach out to, they were interrupted mid-sentence with strong insistence that in the neighborhood in which 75,000 Jewish people had come through in the first half of the 20th century and was the largest Jewish community west of the Mississippi that there were no Jewish people remaining in that barrio community today. It was sad, but not just becaus...e the Jewish Federations discounted the presence of Jewish people in a ghetto community today. It was sad that they clearly didn't have any imagination that in a community almost entirely made up of Latino brown people, that some of those brown people were actually Jewish. Lia came out to several of our Havdalah events for concluding Shabbat and joining the vibrant cultural nightlife in Boyle Heights, East Los Angeles. And we began to challenge the assumed and perceived racial boundaries of Jewish Los Angeles. I wish I could say that the Federation came to their senses and decided to make a genuine engagement for the community and support our work. Lia asked the Federation if they would sponsor our Havdalah events in Boyle Heights and they declined, stating that they believed it was "too dangerous" to hold events at night in East Los Angeles. When we created the Boyle Heights Chavurah - the grassroots Jewish fellowship of East Los Angeles, and when we founded Boyle Heights History Studios and Tours - our museum and cultural center, where we hold our Shabbat and High Holy Day events - we did it not just without the help of the Federation, but in spite of the Federation and the so-called Jewish establishment on the Westside and in the Valley who despite their self-praise regarding their relationship to Boyle Heights have no active vision for our community that they are willing to pursue. Moral of the story is the Federation didn't then and still doesn't have a grasp about Jewish life in Boyle Heights because they just don't really bother to show-up with the will to actually engage the community. So many Jewish institutions are so weird about wanting to engage "Lost Jews" of color in Africa, India or the jungles of the Amazon... but these same groups have no vision for reaching out to the Jewish people of color in the inner-city communities of their own metropolitan area, in nearby communities where most Jewish people had previously lived. In these older communities we have Jews who aren't Lost Jews... we are just the left behind and forgotten, neglected Jews of color of the historic Jewish inner-city communities of America. If the establishment is so blind as to ignore Jews of color in our historic inner-city Jewish communities, how much less do you think they are interested in the non-Jewish people of color that they can't even begin to relate to in this community? My vital work here is to redraw the perceived boundaries of Jewish Los Angeles.