4 research outputs found
Remembrance and Resurrection: Ry Cooder's Chavez Ravine
This article explores Los Angeles guitarist Ry Cooderâs project to excavate and resurrect through music the lost community of ChĂĄvez Ravine, the vibrant MexicanâAmerican neighbourhood bulldozed in 1958 to make way for the construction of the Dodger baseball stadium. The article draws critical parallels with Marcel Proust, of whom Hannah Segal writes: âOn realizing the destruction of a whole world that had been his he decides to write, to sacrifice himself to the reâcreation of the dying and the dead. By virtue of his art he can give his objects an eternal life in his workâ. Proustâs medium is the written word; Cooderâs is the dance music of the Pachucos, the corridos of the Ravineâs local heroes and the laments of the residents driven away by the bulldozers. Through this music, Cooderâs aim is to ensure that the name âChĂĄvez Ravineâ and âall the images that had been living in itâ (Proust) will not remain eclipsed by the corporate power and selfâcongratulation of the Los Angeles Dodgers