Our content recovers and preserves the often-overlooked Mexican American and Chicana/o history of Los Angeles’ West Side, focusing on the historic communities of Santa Monica, Venice, Culver City, and West Los (Sotel), a Mexican American neighborhood within the former City of Sawtelle. Together, these interconnected communities form Las Cuatro Esquinas—“The Four Corners.”

Through oral histories, family archives, historical records, and documentary storytelling, we explore the migration, kinship, labor, agriculture, businesses, culture, and working-class life that connected these communities. Our stories examine racial and housing discrimination, landownership, Japanese American incarceration, cross-cultural relationships, urban development, displacement, and resilience.

Las Cuatro Esquinas: West Side Chicano History preserves the stories of the families who helped shape the West Side and the broader Mexican American history of Southern California.