Ni de Aquí, Ni de Allá

Ni de Aquí, Ni de Allá was designed by the California Migration Museum, a new museum that tells stories of migration through place-based experiences and exhibits. This immersive audio walk in downtown Los Angeles uncovers the origins of Olvera Street and La Placita, exploring the hidden history of Mexican-American Los Angeles in the 1930s.

On February 26 1931, La Placita was the site of one the first public immigration raids in the United States. The La Placita raid marked the beginning of a coercive campaign to force the city’s Mexican and Mexican American population out. Over the next decade more than a million people of Mexican ancestry were sent across the southern border.

Today there are few visible markers of this dark history. Ni de Aqui, Ni de Alla, California Migration Museum’s new self-guided tour, invites visitors to take a walk through La Placita and down bustling Olvera Street, revealing how beneath the histories we choose to remember, there are often stories we've been encourage to forget.

Narrated by Mexican-American immigrant and activist Karla Estrada, Ni de Aqui, Ni de Alla combines music, oral history and archival research alongside augmented reality scenes, dramatic reenactments and personal artifacts to create an immersive, multi-sensory walk through the past and into the present. Karla weaves together the many characters of Olvera Street — “mother” of Olvera Street Christine Sterling, David Siqueiros’ America Tropical mural, Casa California business owners Norma and Val Garcia, the 1931 La Placita Raid — with her own family’s immigration narrative.

Ni de Aqui, Ni de Alla is a free, self-guided audio and augmented reality experience available to download through the CalMigration App. The tour is 60 minutes, and is best experienced in-person as a walking tour that begins at La Placita, El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historic Monument in downtown Los Angeles. However for those unable to visit the location in-person, a 360 video version is also available. This tour was made possible with a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.