Good evening, everyone. My name is gilbert. Im from vromans bookstore and i would just like to thank everyone for joining us tonight. For our Virtual Event eric nusbaum in conversation with janice, presenting his book stealing home los angeles, the dodgers, and the lives caught in between. We are very excited and grateful our bookstore can continue to bring authors in the works to our community during this uncertain time. Well be posting more Virtual Events in the future and you can learn about them on a website as will our social media our next event is this coming tuesday april 28 at 5 p. M. Leeann dolman in conversation with susan brooks who will be presenting her book, the sweeney sisters. For updates on Upcoming Events feel free to subscribe to our newsletter. You can do that by going to vromans bookstore. Com. Decedents Virtual Event will in with the q a so if you like to submit a question, please use the ask a question button at the bottom of the screen right over there. If you question on the list you like or asked and our authors to answer, you can click the like button on the question i will try to answer many questions as time will allow. Also if you interest in supporting our bookstore by purchase a copy of the knights book you can click on the purchase button that says purchase, directly below the viewer screen. The link will be sent to our website where you can continue your checkout process. Were selling ebooks also. With that let introduce you to interview and author, Janice Llamoca is an awardwinning journalist and producer at npr mckinney usa. She began her career as an entertainment digital and over the past five years janice has shifted her focus to audio sharing nares about communities of color. During her time shows dunst was about history, Language Access and culture and humanize her stories with compelling voices. Her work is featured in the near times, nprs code switch, and more. Our author tonight is eric nusbaum, he is a former sport editor advice and his work on sports, history and culture has appeared in espn magazine, sports illustrated, outside, the daily beast, that spent in the best American Sports writing anthology. Eric was born and raised in l. A. He has spent many hours of attending games at Dodger Stadium in city traffic to each of those games as many of us have. They are here tonight to present eric spoke stealing home so i would like to turn over to them, and before we get to the q a section that come to let please enjoy this. Thank you so much. Thank you. Hey, janice. How is it going . [inaudible] you are muted. Hold on. Now i can hear you. Talk about just want to say congratulations on the book. I cant imagine how it feels its a really good feeling. I member when the first knock came to the door and just opening up and sing like the actual book in hardcover. It was surreal. [inaudible] i know there are some quick intros about you but but i reay want to hear more about your career and life and how it all came together are you to write this book. Sure. I knew this book was in my head before even had a career. I was High School Student and a man named frank whos one of the central characters in the book spoke to my u. S. History class at Clover High School and he told the story of his life, and he was housing official with the city of los angeles who was kind of dramatically blacklisted in 1952 for his secret membership in the communist party. The reason that he was outed as a common is this because he trying to develop a Public Housing project in the land where Dodger Stadium now sits. His story began with the straits Dodger Stadium should not exist. I was a kid who loved baseball and that was shocking to me and it that story, and as a group and became a journalist and a writer, i never really let it go and i think on some level i wanted to add my contribution to the story of Dodger Stadium and the communities that preceded it that whole time. When you heard that phrase, Dodger Stadium should not exist, i mean, thats one thing to know but people may not realize the history behind [inaudible] he gave us a very brief run done. You read the book, you will see that he was very true believer in Public Housing. His belief was at Dodger Stadium should not exist because Dodger Stadium should be the site of something called is very grand Public Housing project. He didnt get into the community too much, and as i learn more about them, i came to have much deeper understanding of kind of the real tragedy in the story, which is that families lost their homes and ultimately saw their land sold by the government to a private businessman. Theres a lot of drama in how that happened but kind of thats how it happened. We had a a conversation earr and we talked about how this is your first book and really exciting topic. [inaudible] i guess the decision to not just make it into an article to make into book, what was the decision for you . Part of it was i dont think i could have fit everything into an article. I really wanted to tell the story as completely as i could, you know, within reason and within a single volume. If you go beyond that then it starts to get confusing and doesnt do the subjects justice. I knew the subject of this book really needed kind of a they needed a longer telling on the page, but also needed more time and more research to be told right and as a journalist you only have so much time to get to your next story and deadline and i doesnt have done enough work as a reporter and a researcher to turn this into a magazine story. And going from there and in the book, theres a lot of history, whether its history about baseball in los angeles, mexico, and also talk a lot about the historical tension between the u. S. And mexico and you talk about people and give them chapters. One of the people that are involved in the bigger story, but you specifically kind of focus in Frank Wilkinson. How did you focus in on their stories . You know, when i first started, i didnt have quite that specific a focus. I had a broader kind of idea and envision for the book probably, but you know, on one level as a story teller, you have the best way to tell a story is through peoples lives, through individuals, and something about those two lives in particular really stuck out to me. And was just a remarkable person who lived their life at, you know, in many ways was pretty normal, a mother and grandmother and worked hard and took care of her family. She was an immigrant. But she also ends up kind of rubbing up against these big historical forces that kind of swings her life around and theres something about her, this kind of resoluteness that caused her to resist those forces in a way that other people didnt and not, you know, because they couldnt or didnt want to or whatever it was, there was Something Different about her personality that drew me in and when you hear about the story of the stadium, and you often see the images of the family getting evicted from their house and i was curious what was it about this family and their journally that led them to be violently evicted by the sheriffs deputies and didnt happen to their neighbors and frank. Frank was the inspiration for this book in many ways, hes the person who put the story in my head. He was also just a fascinating character. He lived a life that felt like something out of a movie. You know, he was bit by a coyote as a child and went from being a conservative methodist in Beverly Hills to being a communist. And he had acts to his career. He goes to jail, the federal prison to protest the house and americans Activity Committee and frank just, he he was a handful and also, he was somebody whose kind of many a ambition and career were similar, and thrown into chaos by forces beyond his control and i was curious about that. In the book going through it, and devouring it, and they were almost parallel in a way, not exactly, but from arizona to california, but still you take their lives one year and another person in another year and actually clash until that moment what did you see it come together during your research . I knew early on that the book was going to kind of center on this sort of Inflection Point where their lives meet and that was going to be in 194950 when the Housing Authority is evicting people from where she lived to the park heights. I knew that was going to be the place where they met and i knew their lives were going to kind of go in Different Directions after that. So a lot of the work of the book was, first of all, kind of getting their timelines down. Seeing where they were and what they were doing and what to focus on and balancing how to tell the stories in a way that you cared enough to stick with both of them with the understanding that they would eventually have the sort of tragic meeting, i guess. And i think its, you know, kind of history and having seen what weve seen in the l. A. Times, chapters of the book, but i havent seen the story really pop to life the way you do so a lot of research with a lot of family members kind of fills that portrait. The people and reaching out to them and i mean, it was not so difficult in that it was impossible. You know, some members of her family wanted to speak about her and some people who lived in the Community Want today speak about her and some didnt. I dont think i didnt reach out to every single person. I know i didnt because theres some and its a testament to her that she was a memorable person who kind of left an impression on those who knew her, including her grandchildren, some of whom were gracious enough to speak with me. You know, my background is more as a reporter than it is as a historian. So doing that stuff is probably more natural than going to an archive for me. Still, im an outside. She and her family were really mistreated by reporters in the 50s when this was all happening so i think if there was distrust, he think it was pretty justified. And when you with the family members and members of the community, did you sense that that kind of came back theyre telling the story or even if they didnt specifically in that era, kind of throughout their generation . Yeah, i think so. I think people who have a more forgive and forget attitude. Theres still pain. I think if you lose your home or your family loses its home, its painful. For some people, its really, really viceral and decades later theyre still really hurt over it. There was not a lot of amends made by anybody for what happened in these communities and the experience of being sort of of mistreated by government and by business and then sort of having to get on with your life, you know, without the community that you built and that you love is really its a heavy experience. Ive never experienced it myself so i cant speak to the specificity of their pain, but theres people, you know, when you go through Something Like that, it doesnt just go away. And also, you spoke with grandchildren, also her greatgrandchildren, i assume. Yes. And generation to generation how impactful it was in their lives. Theres greatgrandchildren out doing activism at a group buried under the blue, that does kind of renter and displacement activism and they, i mean, they feel it. You know, the inherited trauma, i think is the phrase that i heard. Its not you know, these kinds of events whether its Dodger Stadium or a Housing Project or anything else, they have lingering effects on communities. Something while doing the research for this book you thought you knew, but then, no, i had no idea, that that was a complete revelation to you . I was struck repeatedly by how, i feel like i kind of criticized the media earlier and im a member of the media, but i was struck by how sort of transparently onesided and kind of propagandaist the l. A. Times was in the 1950s and other newspapers. And the family was notorious for using the paper as a kind of political cudgel, but like reading the actual articles and seeing how sensationalist and blatantly untrue a lot of the stuff they published was, really just to advance the political agenda of the owners was that something that left an impression for sure. The and its definitely, the media i grew up with the l. A. Times and i love the paper. I think that the l. A. Times definitely right now is amazing, but reading about the l. A. Times of the 50s was and reading for articles was mindblowing. Any experience you had while writing of this book . An interesting experience. One thing about this book that i really loved was getting a chance to just speak with people about their lives and getting the trust of somebody to tell their story. I think thats the thing and its hard to overstate the responsibility i feel when somebody sits down with me. So, my favorite memories from writing the book are probably, you know, sitting in somebodys dining room or kitchen with them and just hearing them tell their stories. You know, a few of the people ive interviewed have passed away since i started writing the book and thats heavy as well. You know . A guy named xhcamillo in the bok a and its sad they didnt see the book, but im grateful for their time and that i could write their story. In the book, usually there are images, right, that are kind of historical images in the book and i realize that you have illustrations. Do you want to talk a little about that . Yes, the illustrations a by a guy named adam, a friend of mine and theyre incredible. I feel i should take the book down, but im going to show you. Illustrations i thought about doing photos in the book, but one thing about getting photos in a book and that you have to get the rights to put them. Since some of those photos were trickier than others and you also have to pay for those as an author out of pocket. I thought if im paying for photos to use in the book, i really wanted something that was going to be special and different and sort of give an impression and maybe kind of create more emotional resonance for the reader. So, i asked adam if he would kind of, you know, draw the book for me a little bit and he did. And it came out great. Hes really excited about that. I think seeing the pictures and also my kids like the pictures in the book and it makes it feel accessible to them. And i think a kind of really kind of let me know and you talk about this in the beginning how everything came togeth together. Theres one thing that stuck out to me a lot, really quick, that stadium as a dodger fan theyd eventually know how has that experience, how has the experience beginning to end with making the book, helped that struggle . Has it changed anything for you . Yeah, i think its helped. I think it becomes, now, that struggle is sort of like the question of the book, right . And i kind of came to believe that its good to struggle with that kind of question, that, you know, i love the dodgers and not as much as like i care so much about like what trades they make, although i do. But as an institution and a part of my life and i love the city of l. A. And i wanted to explore that a little bit and i think that if you love something, its okay to be critical of it and its okay not even okay, its good to do that. Good to say, you know what . I love this, but its not right. You can do that with your religion, with your family, or the city you live in. I love l. A. , but they have a lot of problems, if youre a fan of a team or an institution like the dodgers, its okay to say this is wrong and this wasnt right. And you know, with this book, its really much more about the city of l. A. And the county and kind of the region and the u. S. History than it is about a baseball team, but i think that question of whether you can love a place and have problems with it at the same time kind of expanded from just being dodgers stadium to being, you know, i guess los angeles. Yeah something we have to do, right . And i feel like you write about los angeles in a very beautiful way, but also, you happened with the city government, that were affected by this. Thank you. And up to the present. What can dodgers do, in your opinion, as a journalist, what could they do for what happened . So what i would say is that this the dodgers are not like the guilty party in in book. This is not a book criticizing the dodgers, like its critical of the dodgers a bit, but really, its kind of like a failure of government more than anything else. And i think the dodgers and the city of l. A. And the county government and state government, federal government, i think there should be an acknowledgment of what happened and that it was wrong. Thats that would be a very basic first step. But im not a member of those communities. Im not somebody who was evicted from Eminent Domain to build a Public Housing project only to see my house become a baseball stadium. So its not for me to say what they should do, but i think just saying something would be a really good start. And i think that like i know that theres a small attempt at this, but anything official. I think 20 years ago, when the dodgers were owned by fox, this he had a small ceremony at a church in the canyon and extended a literal olive branch to some community members, but it was very much like a onetime deal and you know, now the dodgers dont really talk about this. Its not really on the agenda for the team for whatever reason. And in the making of this book, i asked you that you had were you able to write about places no longer there . Yeah, its interesting because you know, you go up to the legion park or the hills around Dodger Stadium and some of the roads are there and the streets are still there. Theyre not the same. The construction of Dodger Stadium changed the landscape geographically what the area was going to look like. So i went to theres something called a and people who visit the communities in july and go and have a picnic and you talk to the elders this, where was soandso. The truth is they can give you generally where things were,