Cross a Landmark of a Rich L.A. Heritage
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* The cross at Cahuenga Pass, criticized in a March 27 letter to The Times, was erected at the site of the Pilgrimage Theater (now called the John Anson Ford Theater) some 60 years ago. The Pilgrimage was the site for Passion Play presentations.
In the 60 years that have passed since the cross first appeared, it has passed from being a symbol of Los Angeles’ turn of-the-century dominant Midwestern Protestant ethos and has become a cultural landmark, a link to our past--one of the few still remaining to us who respect the historical Los Angeles where it still hangs on.
Los Angeles was indeed founded and settled and repopulated throughout its history by a rich ethnic mix of peoples: Gabrieleno Indians, Spanish, Mexican, Chinese, Yankee, Japanese, Southern Black, Armenian, Korean . . . the list goes on. Many of those peoples left their mark.
It discomforts me to read that signposts left behind by all these different peoples, including white Anglo-Saxon Protestants, are subject to a potentially destructive, and certainly phobic, political correctness.
Los Angeles does indeed have a history. Let’s not seek to vilify and then obliterate it through an attempt to create villains where none exist.
SKIP BALABAN
North Hollywood
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