**At the Downey Historical Society, volunteers pore over photos of residents of Downey’s barrio neighborhood. Photos by Alex Dominguez**

DOWNEY – The Downey Historical Society began a series of talks on Saturday, hoping to reclaim and record the history of Downey’s lost barrio community.

According to President Bob Thompson, the Historical Society is looking to record data surrounding the barrio neighborhood which stretched from the train tracks to Cleta Street, and from Brookshire Avenue to Patton Road.

Thompson said there is currently no recorded history of the Downey barrio.

“I think it should be brought to light that there was a barrio there,” said Thompson. “It needs to be talked about. It’s part of our history in Downey.”

Much of the history – along with the neighborhood itself – was lost when the homes within were claimed under eminent domain prior to the construction of Downey Community Hospital in the mid to late 60’s.

Members of the historical society gathered with a handful of members of the lost community, who shared stories of family, parties, community, school, and crime in the predominantly Latino neighborhood around the 1940’s, 50’s, and 60’s.

One of the Historical Society’s guests, 74-year-old Elizabeth Ann Hernandez, described life in the Barrio as “happy.”

“We used to have fun, we used to play games,” said Hernandez. “All the kids hung around each other. There were a lot of kids my age…We all hung around together, and we all played together.”

She added that the loss of the community was hard for her, and that to this day much of the experience has been blocked from her memory.”

“That was my whole life. That was my growing-up years. That was being who I am with all these people,” said Hernandez. “It was a traumatic experience when we had to move.”

“I was able to graduate from high school in 1966, but we had to move away; we moved away the year before everybody was starting to look for houses…

“After we graduated, that was it. That was a big turning point in my life because everything that I knew – all my friends, all my family – were gone.”

Hernandez still holds some resentment towards the arrival of the hospital.

“I remember them saying the Downey Hospital was cursed because everybody was so upset,” said Hernandez.

She added that the work that Thompson and the Historical Society was doing to restore the history of the barrio was “great.”

“The sad part of the change of Downey is them getting rid of all the historic buildings,” said Hernandez. “All the things that should have been preserved, weren’t preserved because they had committees that wanted newer things…”

“I feel it’s remarkable that [Thompson] is doing this,” she would add. “He was a part of it once – a very small part of it – but to me it was my life. That was my life. The barrio was my life, and that was taken away from me.”

Saturday’s meeting will likely not be the last, as Thompson hopes to continue gathering information.

“I’d like to see it continue,” said Thompson. “My goal is to find the history, get the pictures…and if we could, make a book.”

Work begins to record Downey's forgotten barrio history