Burning the Wagon: Upending Settler Narratives

["Pioneer Parade in El Monte during the 1930s” Courtesy of El Monte Historical Museum]

Pre-Reading Activity:

Read Mayerne Barker’s “End of The Santa Fe Trail: El Monte Preserves Past in City Museum,” Los Angeles Times, September 30, 1973.

As you read, try to answer the following questions:

  • What is the museum’s main focus? What people or events does it focus on?
  • Historians always work within a time period. Historians have to select a starting and end date. Based on this article are you able to detect when the history of El Monte begins according to the museum? When does it end?
  • Based on this article who or what is missing in El Monte’s museum?
  • Note any emotional or intellectual responses to the article. How does it make you feel as a resident of El Monte or South El Monte?

Group Discussion: Form a group of 4. Each person will have 1 minute to share their thoughts. During that minute, everyone else will listen. You can answer one of the questions or read an excerpt that you found particularly interesting. After the minute is up, another student will speak for 1 minute. Your teacher will keep track of time. That student, and all the following students, will have to say something completely different. So listen carefully.

Read “Introduction: Finding Silenced Histories, Lost Intersections, and Radical Possibilities in Greater El Monte”

[Note for teachers: In a brief lecture before or after reading the introduction, it could be helpful to unpack the term historiography and the historical process as outlined by Michel-Rolph Trouillot. For historiography about the West and California, I recommend Ramón Gutierrez, “Contested Eden: California Before the Gold Rush” California History (Summer-Fall, 1997), pp 1-11 and Stephen Aron, “Convergence, California, and the Newest Western History,” California History 2009, Vol. 86. No 4, pp 4-13, 79-81]

As you read, underline any words that you don’t understand. Look for words that might be common or used by historians, but not common to non-historians. We will unpack them together in class, so don’t worry if you don’t understand them. Instead, as you read look for answer to the following questions:

  • According to the introduction, when did El Monte’s official history get written? Who wrote it? Why?
  • What role did the museum play in creating El Monte’s official narrative?
  • What exactly is El Monte’s official narrative? When does it begin? When does it end? Who does it focus on?
  • Who does El Monte’s official narrative exclude?
  • Why did the authors write this book?

[SEMAP's mural, "She Brought Her People with Her" documents El Monte's radical history and brings Adelita and Chicanx murals back to the Valley Mall. Painted by Fernando Delgadillo, Fernando Corona, and more than a dozen volunters.]

Assignment:

East of East: The Making of Greater El Monte was, and is, a collaborative process. It not only has many authors, but included the community in creating the archive as well as finding new and creative ways to showcase El Monte and South El Monte’s rich and radical multi-ethnic past.
As such, this assignment is an invitation to contribute to South El Monte Arts Posse’s East of East project.

There are two options here:

  • Using what you learned about the how history is written, about El Monte’s official narrative, and El Monte/SEM history as outlined in East of East, you are invited to analyze and criticize the 1930s poem “To Our Pioneers.” You can use both your personal experience as well as what you’ve learned in the classroom—both as we know are often connected. Click here for the poem and click here for the assignment. Your instructor will provide all the materials you need. Lastly, some of the responses will be used in LA Public Library’s upcoming exhibit, Something in Common.
  • El Monte’s official city logo aptly captures El Monte’s official narrative: it center the wagon and “pioneers.” Flip through the table of contents in East of East: The Making of Greater El Monte and reflect on your own experiences growing up in El Monte. In a one-page letter addressed to “fellow Monte residents,” articulate an argument for changing the city’s logo. In the first paragraph clearly state your intentions. In the second paragraph provide evidence to back up your claim. In the last paragraph propose images, words, or phrases that you would wish to see incorporated in a new city logo. Optional: include a sketch. 
Burning the Wagon: Upending Settler Narratives