About

“How would someone from the 1960’s react to photos of modern day America?”

BEN, a high school photographer in civil rights era Los Angeles, struggles with being part of the social justice movements around him. He would rather focus on his photography. That is until a magic camera reveals to him the bigger picture he needed to take part in the largest student demonstrations in U.S. history, the 1968 East LA walkouts.

History

“It Happened One Day in East LA” is an American story set during the civil rights era. An estimated 10-20 thousand LA students exercised their freedom of speech and assembly rights to speak out about inequalities in their schools, in what are now referred to as the East LA walkouts (or blowouts).

The exterior scene of the film is shot at the historic Los Cinco Puntos Restaurant in Boyle Heights. Established in 1967, the restaurant has remained owned and operated by the Sotelo family. Los Cinco Puntos was the starting point of the first ever Chicano Moratorium march in 1969. There are memorials honoring Mexican-American veterans of World War II, the Korean war, and the Vietnam war just outside the restaurant. In 1994 the stretch of road in front of the restaurant was renamed to “Cesar E Chavez Ave” from “Sunset Blvd”. Additionally, the cult classic film, Blood In Blood Out, was filmed in and around the restaurant.

Learn more:

East LA Walkouts – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_L.A._walkouts

Raul Morin Memorial Square – http://www.raulmorin.com/morin_memorial_square.html

Los Cinco Puntos History – https://www.laconservancy.org/locations/los-cinco-puntos

Los Cinco Punos Restaurant – https://los5puntos.com/

Cesar Chavez Avenue – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cesar_Chavez_Avenue