In 1986, Mexican photographer Graciela Iturbide arrived in Boyle Heights to create a portrait of its community for the magazine, A Day in the Life of America, at a time when the famed East Los Angeles neighborhood was dealing with the rise of gang violence, drug addiction, and police brutality. She returned in 2018 and 2019 to photograph the community once again, reconnecting with the survivors to create the newly published book, White Fence.
The book takes its title from the legendary street gang of the same name, which has been active in Boyle Heights since 1900. Unlike those who hold to the mythic white picket fences of the American Dream, those who claimed this set had no illusions about the deadly nature of territorial disputes on colonized land that had once belonged to the ancestors of the Chicano residents of East LA.
By the time Graciela Iturbide arrived in Boyle Heights, Police Chief Daryl Gates transformed the Los Angeles Police Department into a paramilitary force that used extreme, aggressive, and even unconstitutional tactics against Black and Brown neighborhoods. Local and national media acted as a mouthpiece for the state, vilifying communities torn apart by both police brutality and gang violence.
Graciela Iturbide, then in her mid-40s, recognized Boyle Heights as family fighting to survive, crafting tender portraits of love, joy, and resistance that stand in stark contrast to other images of the time. But it is her recent photographs that reveal the inner truth of the work as the babies of the 1980s have become parents today. It is a beautiful reminder that endurance, as the White Fences have known for over a century, is rooted in a profound connection between the people and the land.
Graciela Iturbide: White Fence is published by RM and available for $70.
