By Maria E. Garcia
On October 5, 1970, Logan Heights resident Laura Rodriguez chained herself to the Neighborhood House doors, setting in motion what has come to be known as The Occupation. The fearless sixty-one year old grandmother chose this very public display of activism to force a decision on the future of Neighborhood House.
The services that Neighborhood House had provided to the community for decades were reduced and eliminated as that location evolved in the mid-1960’s into an administrative office. Laura and Logan Heights activists would ultimately win this battle, with Neighborhood House becoming a Centro de Salud– health clinic– as the community had demanded.
I will describe in much more detail the actual occupation in a future article. On this October anniversary, Laura Rodriguez deserves her own series of articles that traces her life from her Logan Heights beginnings to the years she lived at the Marston House and her return to Logan Heights. [Read more…]