the west. >> to watch the rest of this program visit our website, booktv.org. search for megan kate nelson for the title of her book the three cornered war using the search box at the top of the page. >> evening everyone. my name is gilbert martin and i am from vroman's bookstore and i'd like to thank everyone for joining us tonight. for a virtual event with eric nusbaum in conversation with janice llamoca presenting his book stealing home: los angeles, the doctors and the light in between. we're excited our bookstore can continue to bring authors and their works to our community during this uncertain time.

we will be hosting more virtual events in the future and learn about them on our website as well as our social media. our next event is this tuesday, april 28 at 5 pm with leanne dolan in conversation with susan woods who will be presenting his book so regular updates, upcoming events, feel free to subscribe to our newsletter and you can do that by going to vromansbookstore.com. if you'd like to submit a question use the ask a question buttonat the bottom of the screen right over there . i do see a question on the list that you'd like, that you'd like our interviewer to ask and for us to answer, you can click the like button on that question and we will try to answer as many questions as time will allow and if you're interested in supporting our bookstore by purchasing a copy, click on the purchase button. directly below the viewer screen, the link willredirect you to our website where you can continue .

we are also selling audiobooks and e-books through libra for those interested. with that let me introduce you to our interviewer and author. janice llamoca is an award-winning journalist and producer and he are usa and she began her career as an entertainment digital curator and shifted her focus to audio sharing narratives about communities of color. during her time as radio producer she has taught history, language access and culture with compelling voices. her work has been featured in the new york times, npr's hopes which, and more. our author tonight is eric nusbaum, a former sports editor advice and in addition his work on sports, history and culture has appeared in espn magazine, sports

illustrated, outside, the daily beast, dead spin and the best american sports writing anthology. eric was born and raised in la and has spentmany hours both attending games at dodgers stadium and sitting in traffic to reach those games as many of us have . he is here tonight to present eric's book stealing home so i'd like to now turn it over to them . and of course, we get to the q and asession later so i will let you enjoy this . thank you so much. >> quite an entrance. okay eric. >> hey janice, how's it going? you are muted. hold on. i can hear you. >> technical difficulties on my side but i want to say congratulations on the book .

how's that going? >> it's a good feeling. i remember when the first box came to the door and opening it up and seeing the actual book in hardcover. it was surreal. it still kind of is. >>. [inaudible] so i don't know what the intro is about, a quick intro about you but i wanted to give more about your career and life and how it all came together to have you write this book. >> this book was in my head before i even had a career. i was a high school student and a man named frank wilkinson who was one of the central figures in the book spoke to my us history class at culver high and he told the story of his life and he was an official with los angeles who was kind of dramatically blacklisted in

1952 for his secret membership in the communist party. the reason that he was out of outed as a communist is he was trying to develop a public housing project in the land where dodgers stadium now sits. and his story kind of began with this phrase dodgers stadium does not exist and i was a kid who loved baseball and that was shocking to me. it always stopped me the power of that story and as i grew up and became a journalist and a writer, i never really let go. and i think on some level i've wanted to kind of add my contribution to the story of dodgers stadium and the communities that preceded it that whole time. >> when you heard that phrase , dodgers stadium does not exist , that's one thing to note but what did it actually

feellike ? when you got there. >> let me give you a brief rundown and if you read the book i won't try to plug it but if you read the book you'll see that he was a true believer in public housing and his belief was dodgers stadium should not exist because dodgers stadiumshould be the site of something called the legion park heights which would bethis grand public housing project . he didn't get into the community too much and as i learned more about them , i came to have a 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 and that there's a lot of drama andins and outs of how that happened but that's what happened . >> we had a conversation

earlier and talked about diving into this topic and it seems it's something where you brought it justice and there's a sense for you not to just make it into an article but made into a book, what was the decision to affect that for you ? >> part of it was i don't think i could have fit everything into an article . i really wanted to tell the story as completely as i could . within the reasons, within reason and within a single volume . i wanted to kind of unspool fred as long as the work would be and when you're writing a magazine article, even along magazine article, a feature cover story article, really far of a certain length and a certain kind of focus, usually on one or two subjects and if you

get beyond that it gets confusing and doesn't do the subject justice and the subject of this book really needed kind of a longer telling on the page but also more time and more researchto be told right . and as a journalist, you only have so much time to get to your next story and hit your deadline and i couldn't have sent in enough work as a reporter and researcher to turn this into a magazine story. >> going from there and hearing how you made this reference, in the book there's a lot of history whether it's about mexico, the us in general and you talk about other historical tension between mexico and the us . but you also talked about people in different chapters,

different people involved in the story but you specifically focus on key objectives and frank wilkinson. how did that decision, for you? >> when i first started i didn't quite have that specific focus. i had a broader idea and vision for the book probably but on one level as a storyteller, you have the best way to tell a story is through people's lives, these individuals and something about those two lives in particular really stuck out to me. she was just a really remarkable person who lived a life that in many ways was pretty normal. she was a mother and a grandmother, she worked hard and took care of her family. she was an immigrant also ends up kind of rubbing up against these big historical forces that kind of fling her

life around and there's something about her that kind of resoluteness that caused her to resist those forces in a way thatother people didn't . and not cause a couldn't or didn't want to or whatever it was. there was something different about her personality that drew me in .when you hear about the story of dodgers stadium you see theimages family getting evicted from their house . and i was curious what was it about this family and their journey that led them to be violently evicted by sheriff's deputies where that didn't happen to most of their neighbors? and it was frank. so frank was really the inspirationfor this book in many ways. he was a person who took the story in my head . he wasalso just a fascinating character . he lived a life that felt like something out of a

movie. he was bit by a coyote as a child and traveled to europe in the 30s. he went from being a conservative methodist in beverly hills to being a radical communist. he had multiple kind of second acts in his career. he ended up, after the book is over he goes to jail, federal prison to protest the american activities committee. frank, he was a handful and also he was somebody whose ambition and career were similar, i don't know if they were thrown into kind of chaos by forces beyond his control and i was curious about that. >> david has gone through it anddenied it . they all have lives in a way, parallel lives.

from arizona to california. there's still a part. but also doing things that you gave away in the book when you take their lives. and learning what another person in another year. and there's intersection that happened. what do you see those lives come together during your research. >> i knew early on that the book was going to center on this sort of inflection point where their lives meet and that was going to be 1949 or 50 when the housing authority is evicting people which is where were going tolive . the legion park heights, i knew that was going to be of the place where they met and i knew that their lives were going to go in different directions after that . so a lot of the work of the book was first of all, getting their timeline down

to where they were and what they were doing and what the focus was on and then being alan singh how to tell the stories in a way that you cared enough to visit both of them with the understanding that they would be eventually have this sort of tragic meeting again. >> i think it's fascinating learning about the history and seeing lives. >> the chapter in these books, i also saw the stories in the thoughtful way that you do, digitally for centuries to reach out to family members and build that portrait of them. and the people and the situations. >> is not so difficult that it was impossible some

members of her family wanted to speak about her and some people want to speak about her and some of them didn't. i don't think i reached out to every single person. i know i didn't because there's too many. and it's a testament to her that she was a memorable person who kind of left an impression on those who knew her. just her grandchildren, some who were gracious enough to meet their needs. my background is more a reporter than it is a historian doing that stuff is probably more natural than going to an archive for me but it's still, i'm an outsider. and ron and her family were really mistreated by reporters in the 50s when this was allhappening . so i think if there is this trust, i was justified. >> and when you were speaking to the family members. on the other communities, did you sense that that came back

as telling their stories or even specifically in that era? i did not legacy of being self throughout their generation. >> i think so, even to people who have a more forgive and forget attitude there still paying. if you your home and your family loses its own, that's painful. so for some people it's really visceral and decade later, there's 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 mistreated by government and by business and then sort of having toget on with your life . of without the community that you build that you love is really, it's a heavy experience and i've never experienced itmyself . i can't speak to the

specificity of their pain, but when you go through somethinglike that it doesn't just go away . >> also, also great-grandchildren, >> so for that, pulling generations andfeeling how impactful it was in your life . >> there is great-grandchildren that have gone on, man wells for outdoing activism over it. as a group called end of the blues that rendered displacement and activism and i mean, they feel it to the inherited trauma i think is the phrase. that's the one that i heard you it's not, these type of events whether it's dodger stadiumfor a public housing project or anything else , they have a lingering effects on communities.

>>. >> while he was doing the research for this book you thought you were writing, i have no idea the revelation to you. >> i was struck repeatedly by how common this is going to be bad but i felt like i criticize the media earlier and i'm a member of the media but i was struck by how sort of transparently one-sided and kind of propagandist the "l.a. times" was in the 50s and a lot of the newspapers. the families are notorious, they were notorious for using the paper as a kind of politicalcudgel . but like reading the actual articles and seeing how sensationalist and blatantly untrue a lot of the stuff that they published was just advanced the political agenda of the owners. it was something that left an impression forsure .

>> definitely, especially being a member of the media. >> i grow up with the "l.a. times" and i love the paper. the "l.a. times" right now is amazing but reading about the times in the 50s and reading those articles was mind blowing. >> there are, in the writing ofthis book . >> it was a new experience. >> it's one thing about this book that i love was getting this chance to speak with people about their lives and getting the trust of some of these to sell the stories, that's a great thing and it's a sacred thing and it's hard to overstate. responsibility and i feel when somebody sits down with me so my favorite memories from running the book are probably sitting in somebody's dining room or kitchen with just hearing them tell their stories. a few of the people i interviewed have passed away area and i started writing the book and that's heavy as

well. a guy named camilo regarding in the book, and it's fascinating to get to see us, but i'm also grateful that i got the time and i got the chance to tella little bit of their story .>> one reason, it's a historical book and usually there are images that are historical in the spaces in the book and you have suspicions, you want to talk about that? >> the illustrations are by a guy named adam and their incredible i feel like i should take the book down i'm going to hold something over it to show you. >> so i thought about doing photos in the book. but one thing about getting photos in a book, is that you have to get the rights to put them and so some of those are

restricted and others you have to pay for those as an author out-of-pocket . and i thought if i'm going to be paying for photos using the book, i really wanted something that was going to be special and different and give an impression and maybe create moreemotional residence for the reader . . so i asked adam if he would kind of draw the book for me a littlebit . and he did and it came out great. he's really excited about that. i think seeing the pictures and my kids like the pictures in this book it makes it feel tangible tothem . >> i think for me, giving this preface to let you know, we talk at the beginning just kind of how everything came together. there's something that stuck out to me a lot. i'm going to talk aboutreal quick . . you follow dodger stadium and of course all these things obtain from these people and

how has that experience, how have experience from the end of the making of this book, how has it helped with that struggle. i've changed anything for you . >> i think itself. it's become, that struggle is sort of the question of the book. and i kind of came to believe that the struggle with that kind of question that i love the dodgers and not as much as like i care so much about bayview but as an institution and a part of my life and i love the city of la and i wanted to explore that a little bit and i think if you love something it's okay to be critical ofit . it's not even okay, it's good to do that. it's good to say i love isnot right .

you can do that with the city living, la has a lot of problems and i don't think anybody who lives there would tell you otherwise and if you're a fan of the dodgers it's okay to say this iswrong and this wasn't right .and with this book it's much more about the city of la and this county and the region and us history and 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 is kind of extended from being dodgers stadium to being i guess los angeles. >> that's something you have to do and i feel like you write about los angeles in a beautiful way but also how this happens to venues that were affected by this. >> thank you.

>> to bring everything to the present, what can the dodgers do inyour opinion as a journalist ? what can they do to reconcile what happened? >> what i would say is the dodgers are not like the guilty party in this book. this is not a bookcriticizing the dodgers . it's critical of the dodgers, yes really it's about a failure of government more than anything else. and i think the dodgers and the city of la and the county government, state government, federalgovernment, there should be an acknowledgment of what happened and that it waswrong . that would be a basic first step . but i'm not a member of those communities. i'm not somebody who was evicted by an domain to build a public housing project only to see my house , baseball stadium . so it's not for me to say what they should do but i

think just saying something would be a good start. >> and i think that i know there are, there has been a small attempt at this but. >> 20 years ago in the year 2000 when the dodgers were owned by fox they had a small private ceremony at a church in 10 canyon and they extended a little olive branch to some community members, but it was very much a one-time deal and now, the dodgers don't talk about this . it's not really on the agenda for theteam . for whatever reason. >> and in the investigation of this book you had done, were you able to go to places or things that are no longer there? >> it's interesting because you go up to legion park where you go to the hills around dodger stadium and some of the roads are still

there. it's a little streets are still there but they're not the same. the construction of dodger stadium really changed the landscape geographically of what that area was going to look like so i went to a few times, there's all the desperados picnic people who live in the community will go every july and have a picnic at legion park . and talk to some of the elders there and you say where was the one so.the truth is that they can give you a generally where things were but the hills are not the same. the dodgers moved hundreds and thousands of tons of dirt to rebuild the stadium. there's no access roads, freeway entrances and it's just a very different looking place in a different feeling place that was then. >> there are veterans who would say, as you were then , if you note that they stayed around the area in los angeles or have a completely left?

>> when you look at la a lot of people moved to lincoln heights or loyal heights or just nearby areas. i think some people even glottal canyon, just really other parts of la, long beach. it wasn't like we were spanish in the country but they kind of got ignored back into the city where everybody else was. and it wasn't the same. i think everybody would say that yes.they went back to whatever neighborhood it was and we didn't know our neighbors and we didn't have the same sense of unity we had before and i think using that sense of community and in that sense of pride was one of the big losses. in addition to just the physical loss of the homes. >> the loss of community, starting over with children, and parents. i think it's something that was a big loss in the history and be able to go back home

was not for everyone. >> the community was mostly evicted and kind of by 52 and 53, the housing project was crashed. so it was almost empty and it sat empty for a long time except for a few families who stay . people like kids, high schoolers would come back on friday night to hang out in their oldneighborhoods . could you imagine doing that? it's such a strangefeeling but that's what it would like . >> i don't know what you want from the book. >> i hope they are entertained and enjoyable personal and that they come away with some slightly maybe deeper understanding of this story and in la's history and this sense of how people and

institutions around us interact and how kind of power works in cities and that was sort of a revelation for me when i was writing it for sure see how things that seem distant and really become deeply intimate, basically. >> you talk about this before , how the story specifically even though it's a space, more than 50 years ago is still present but it's still happening. all other communities, it's only all this is going on. >> absolutely and it's going on in la right now you different but there's still communities being affected by the construction of sports stadiums . there's still displacement, still gentrification. it's not a totally old story area. >>.

>> i was here the whole time, don't worry. so were going to transition to our q&a session. without ask some of the questions then janice, feel free to ask any follow-ups you see might be interesting. being as you're just talking about the continued effects of things like this with inglewood and planned areas that are affected by these kind of construction things. that's actually one of the top of the questions we have here is you see larry, this is from rolando cruz. and he's asked, do you see similarities with gentrification in los angeles now and the displacement of fulton the chavez regime. >> i don't think it's the same. that was a very specific set of circumstancesthat led to that displacement . but i think if you look at

the underlying dynamic where you have powerful people deciding what should happen to the land of less powerful people and wealthy people deciding what should happen to the land ofpoor people , that's very much happening. it's what's happening in england. it just depends how you look at it but my question is yes . >>. >> ..

he said the fbi in the '80s for his file, and that's we found out he had been tailed. he actually didn't know until you already an older man that he had an fbi agent for his entire life. >> something to find out, that's pretty tough. the next highest vote question is from cheryl franco. she asks, since the book has been released have you heard anything from the dodger organization about this? >> no. nothing at all. there's no baseball right now, too, so who knows, the doctors might be too distracted to comment on the book but no, i haven't heard anything from the dodgers.

>> -- get one of the owners to pop on? [laughing] >> there's a couple here's your answered during the course of this, talking about the emotions of the people you interviewed. you talk about that and definitely still feeling the echoes of what has happened as a a family over the generations. andrew asked come when the dodgers came to los angeles almost immediately -- became the spanish voice of the dodgers. was the scene as a representation for the hispanic community in the early years or was that overshadowed? >> that cut off after -- picked up again with joined the team. >> there was just did it

overshadow? >> so one thing about the dodgers is, i don't think like they came to town with the impression with the intention of just making mad every mexican-american person in l.a. that was not their goal. their goal was to be actually like an inclusive franchise, and one of the ideals that o'malley talk about when he built the stadium is he worth it to be affordable which it was. picky wanted to be placed when felt comfortable coming to games because that wasn't always the case at other major league parks. he wanted to reach diverse audiences. he brought in naismith and starting in 59, the broadcast

team in spanish. people listened. i don't know how many, i don't have the ratings, but how many have been employed since from the dodgers still calling the game. to the fernando question, i think there's always of this theory that everybody in east et delhi hated the dodgers until fernando valenzuela came. i'm not sure that's totally true. i can imagine that there were no hispanic dodger fans of these before 1981. i think fernando increased the dodgers visibility in latin america a lot, and in the community in l.a. and also amongst black fans come everybody. fernando valenzuela was a phenomenon that truly was, he was universal and his appeal went beyond any one group.

>> and you also write in your book about the kind of -- i did know much about the history of baseball or how it was growing in their still, -- [inaudible] of someone who is in mexico and in los angeles could still be a baseball fan and find your team in los angeles. >> especially in northern mexico. baseball remains extremely popular, and it was biker all throughout mexico, too. even though we say it's the american sport, the national pastime, a skull has a long history obviously in other countries, cuba and japan and mexico and the dominican republic. the only professional baseball being played right now is in taiwan and korea. >> i'm covering some of the

things you've already talked about, but did you -- sorry. did you interview anyone from the o'malley family for comments or information on this book? >> i chose really fortunate that the o'malley family allowed access to walters papers and is filed from when he was moving to l.a. and kind of planning the stadium. peter o'malley kind of granted me that and -- i'm thankful to them for that because i wasn't really aware of what they visionary walter o'malley was in terms of how we conceive baseball as a spectator sport. we think doubt about baseball stadiums have all these different entertainment things in them, and dodger stadium might seem old in the context, but he was the first person to really see baseball as a family-friendly experience.

he consulted with walt disney about how to build an ideal fan experience at dodger stadium. that's the kind of level he was thinking on. and getting to dive into his notes and index cards where he wrote that ideas was just so great. it was really helpful in assembling the last part of the book and also as a baseball fan and a person who loves dodger stadium kind of a thrill to see where it came from. >> that's pretty amazing. we only have time for a few more questions. do you see any linkages between the destruction between chavez regime and bunker hill? >> sure. i mean, there's historical ones, like -- sorry, i'm going to get kind of nerdy.

there's terrorists -- theorists, a a general project which was creating a centralized downtown that was more corporate friendly and less worried about people, like bunker hill was neighborhood in downtown that got ready to make way for building pretty much. so the same forces at play. and even if you think about public housing, one of the reasons that they want to put public housing in the communities was because they're going to need, find something to do for people who lived and bunker hill. that was part of the conversation. the questions of housing and

corporate development and where poor people got to live in l.a. at this time were really up in the air, and whether or not you were a quote-unquote progressive or you were a quote-unquote conservative business leader who wanted private development, you would probably talk about displaced people and kind of rebuilding the city physically to your own vision of what it should be. to dodger stadium, that's what happened. that's still would've happened. >> tommy stanton asked come to illustrate the link between transcendentalism and baseball in the book. with the history of -- pulse club philosophical reach?

>> i don't know if it is actual philosophical roots. i will say though that plenty of ancient mystical groups found meaning in numbers, and they felt they were doing that in numerology in a different way. >> two more questions. amy warner said, as a culver city teacher i am proud your graduate of sea chs. what elementary school did you attend and did you learn spanish at -- [inaudible] then i moved to l marino.

that answers both questions. thanks for being here. cool. >> lets let's see, one last que, a pretty hard-hitting one. after the dodger dog what is your favorite all-time concession item at dodger student. >> was my favorite, not like a good answer, i had to make. one is the chocolate malt. the malts are the best at dodger stadium. they have come in out of style depending on ownership, and also i'm like a sucker for the carl junior at dodger stadium which also isn't there anymore. sitting there and eating those coral juniors is great. also one year they had king tacos and that was great, too. >> ten, i hope that answers your

question. that's all the time we have for the q&a part. janice, alternate back over to you if you have any final thoughts. >> actually i have one last question. when you writing this book, i know you talk a lot about -- can talk about how he came to i guess focus in on the community but -- [inaudible] >> so there were three come unity is that collectively called chavez regime. -- ravine. the biggest community of the three, the most developed, it looks the most like a normal alley neighborhood probably, but they were all three unique places and vibrant places. there's a really famous

quote-unquote book called chavez ravine 1949. the book is called shop is ravine but if you want to get a look at what thou loma looked like, that would be a way to do it. cover photo on my book, i think a point directly, that was also from there. there were three communities. i hope somebody else writes a bishop -- maybe i will, i don't know but they all deserve to have their story told. [inaudible] >> you can see a video of the family getting evicted, unfortunately. >> that's and testing. janice and eric, i just want to thank you so, so very much for doing this and for being a part

of our virtual event. it was fantastic. >> thank you for having us. this is been great. >> thank you, eric. thank you. >> i appreciate that. thanks for reading and for chatting. thanks, everybody who came to watch, too. >> definitely, yes. thank you to everyone who attended. we did have, just so you know, there was a couple of questions about you reading excerpts from the book that was late and again to do that. >> next time. >> so that's a wrap up on our presentation for "stealing home" by eric nussbaum. thank you, everybody. we appreciate your support renaissance and with your interest in the book make sure you click on the "stealing home"

button right there and that will take you to our website where you can purchase it and get it sent over. we also have a bunch of different ways to order things on our website. for regular updates on events you can make sure to follow us at crowd castor and that we you know all the future you virtual event so we happening. the book will be -- this will be available to watch afterwards on c-span and if you want any parts to relive. again, thank you, guys so much, and on behalf of vroman's bookstore had a wonderful evening and we appreciate it. >> booktv continues now on c-span2, television for serious readers. >> good evening, everyone, and welcome to books and