The Asian American Tutorial Project (AATP) is a community-service tutoring project staffed by students from Occidental College, UCLA, USC, and CalState-LA.  On Saturday mornings for the last 25 years, AATP volunteers have been coming to Castelar Elementary School in Chinatown to help school students in reading, writing and arithmetic. During the 1999-2000 school year, AATP embarked on a project to enhance the children’s awareness of their own community and what role the LA River played in its influence on Chinatown life and history.  

            Many guest speakers were invited to talk about the intricate and multi-faceted aspects of how Chinatown was first formed, its growth in relation to the city of Los Angeles, and how the LA River was and always will be a vital component of Chinatown’s urban development.  Speakers included Professor Jan Lin of Occidental College, Eugene Moy from the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California, and members from both Friends of the LA River, and the Reclaiming the LA River Project directed by Professor Bob Gottlieb at Occidental College.  

            On February 26, the 4th, 5th and 6th graders in the program, nearly 75 of them, took a walking field trip from Castelar through the Chinatown area, and up to the LA River basin.  Most of them had never visited the River up close and even fewer were aware of the proposed developments for industrial warehouses in their very own neighborhood.  The students experienced first-hand how the LA River was a significant component in Chinatown’s physical and economical development.  As part of the mural project, Michael Au, an architect with DMJM Rottet, began to work with the students to design an art project reflecting their visions for the LA River in their community.  The students worked both individually and in teams as they laid down the first strokes of the brush onto the murals you are now seeing.  Bright colors of fields, trees and wildlife are often apparent in the three murals created by each of the 4th, 5th and 6th graders.  In the end, the students learned not only how Chinatown began as an agricultural landscape or the neighboring influence of Mexican-Americans, but also how the LA River was essential to the vitality of Chinatown’s culture and economy.  The Murals are a culmination of the students’ ideas, thoughts and aspirations on what they saw as a connection between their own community and the Los Angeles River.  

            Many thanks to Michael Au, Jan Lin, Melody Chiong, Amy Ly and all who helped in coordinating and sponsoring this miraculous art project.  And a special thanks to the Castelar Elementary School students for given us such insight into what our community could be like.  

            Art materials were funded through a grant to Occidental College for the Northeast Los Angeles Community Outreach Partnership Center, from the Office of University Partnerships of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.  We are exploring venues for exhibiting the murals in local museums and exhibition centers.