Ni de Aquí, Ni de Allá
Mexican Repatriation in the 1930s

Migrant Footsteps Audio Walk: Downtown Los Angeles


 

Sometimes the history we choose to remember hides a history we’re supposed to forget.

Take a walk through La Placita and down bustling Olvera Street, “a Mexican Street of Yesterday in a City of Today,” and uncover the story of millions of Mexican Americans who were coerced into leaving Los Angeles in the 1930s and how this still resonates today.

  • To get started, download the CalMigration App and this tour, grab your headphones, and meet us in Downtown Los Angeles. This tour begins at the bandshell in El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument Park.

  • Not local to Los Angeles? Explore our interactive 360 video to experience this tour from anywhere in the world.

  • For the best experience, fully charge your phone or tablet, bring headphones, and download the tour on wifi in advance.

    Augmented reality scenes appear throughout the tour. When prompted by the narrator, activate the scene by selecting the [Start AR] button on your screen.

    RESTROOMS

    • Restrooms are available inside the Avila Adobe, inside the brick underpass to the right as you walk up Olvera Street, and in Union Station.

    TIMING & ACCESS

    • The audio portion of this tour runs approximately 1 hour. The distance traveled is approximately 0.7 miles, and is mostly flat (total descent 35ft). There are up to 10 steps up or down to enter landmarks.

    • The tour can be taken at any time, but it is best taken Tuesday-Sunday between 11am and 3pm when the America Tropical Interpretive center is open.

    • Consider allowing an additional 30 minutes to 2 hours to explore suggested stops and landmarks along the way.

    • Audio transcripts and a virtual 360 video of this tour with closed captions are available.

    • This tour was created in February 2024. While we make an effort to keep things current, you are walking through a living neighborhood and sometimes things change. Be curious, and embrace the unexpected.

  • Learn more about the history of Mexican American Los Angeles and the repatriations of the 1930s through our learning guide.

This tour is part of Migrant Footsteps, a series of free immersive audio walks developed by the California Migration Museum that break through the traditional museum walls to tell the living stories of immigration, one neighborhood at a time.

360° Video Experience

Explore bustling Olvera Street virtually with us! Visually immersive archival scenes, animated captions and soundscapes help tell the the stories of Mexican American Los Angeles and the repatriations of the 1930s.

Get the App

Download the CalMigration app, select your tour and get started.

Don’t forget to fully charge your phone or tablet, and consider downloading the tour on wi-fi in advance.

Explore More Stories

  • SF Japantown: Returning to the "Harlem of the West"

    45 MIN / BEGINS AT STUART HALL HIGH SCHOOL, 1715 OCTAVIA STREET

    It’s 1945, and Japanese American families, who have just endured 3 years of incarceration as “enemy aliens,” are returning to San Francisco. In their absence, the neighborhood has transformed into the “Harlem of the West.” Can this new place feel like home again?

  • SF Castro: At Home in the Castro?

    55 MIN / BEGINS AT TWIN PEAKS TAVERN, 401 CASTRO STREET

    In the 1950s, Eureka Valley was a sleepy Irish Catholic enclave. Then an era of gay migration transformed this neighborhood into a queer homeland: a place with a global queer identity.

  • SF Chinatown: Look Up

    65 MIN / BEGINS OPPOSITE OLD CHINESE TELEPHONE EXCHANGE AT 754 WASHINGTON STREET

    When a disaster destroys Chinatown in 1906, San Francisco elites see an opportunity to erase a hated neighborhood for good. But its residents have other ideas. This is the story of how one Chinese-American businessman helped reinvent the idea of “Chinatown” to save his community.

  • SF Mission: Coffee Country

    55 MIN / BEGINS AT 25TH STREET AND BALMY ALLEY

    Go behind the cup and trace a century-long coffee trade between San Francisco and El Salvador that brought tens of thousands of refugees to the Mission in the 1980s, sparking the Sanctuary City Movement.