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Dissertation Information for William David Estrada

NAME:
- William David Estrada

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- History

SCHOOL:
- University of California, Los Angeles (USA) (2003)

ADVISORS:
- Juan Gomez-Quinones

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- Thomas S. Hines
- Edward W. Soja

MPACT Status: Fully Complete

Title: Sacred and contested space: The Los Angeles Plaza

Abstract: Many have said that Los Angeles is a city in search of a history. Clearly, however, Los Angeles does have an historic center comprised of the old Plaza and its surrounding landscape, which today is known as El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument. More than any other place in the city, the Plaza's spatial significance provides a unique prism through which visitors can examine the multi-layered, multi-ethnic history of Los Angeles.

At this time, scholars gradually are increasing their writings about Los Angeles. This dissertation probes the city's dialectical nature, as well as the long, complex history of the Plaza as a microcosm of the larger changes in the city. Included herein are three separate, yet interrelated factors: How the Plaza's social and cultural history reflects two distinct concepts of place (i.e., Mexican and Anglo-American) and the aspects of the Mexican city that remain; the Plaza's diverse spatial history, especially as a public arena where disparate ethnic groups and social classes mesh in a highly structured way, segmented by space and time, yet intermingling and interacting on the same site; and the interaction between officially sanctioned public historical narratives, historical imagery and the private ways that ideas about the past are communicated among families, friends and groups marginalized from the center of civic authority. This interaction between contesting cultural and historical narratives are central to this analysis when the cognitive transformations that occur when the Plaza is designated "historic," are followed.

Finally, this study is being conducted as Los Angeles questions itself as the quintessential world-city. Hopefully, some reflection on the city's long retreat from its own history contributes to the understanding of ethnic self-perception of place which, in turn, encourages a redefinition of the historic center and a more challenging civic identity.

MPACT Scores for William David Estrada

A = 0
C = 0
A+C = 0
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2008-08-12 14:36:06

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Students under William David Estrada

ADVISEES:
- None

COMMITTEESHIPS:
- None