“It’s messed up that developers don’t appreciate it.”Ī rental Porsche Cayenne then parked nearby. “It’s a representation of who we are as a gente,” said the 26-year-old. “We need a white woman to climb it - then it’ll never come down!” Paredes cracked. “Can you believe this beautiful tree is going to get cut down?” he shouted to no one in particular. Just then, a chipster - a Chicano hipster - approached the fence and extended his arms toward El Pino in an air-hug. “Everyone feels a sense of ownership to it.” “This is like Mecca here,” said Miguel Paredes as he walked his bulldog, Rosie. My first time around, people moped around El Pino as if they were at a wake. If you want a metaphor for the gloom that infected 2020 versus the promise of 2021, it’s in the bristly shade of this legendary tree. I visited El Pino on two days this week - Tuesday afternoon, after Duarte’s post went viral, and Thursday morning, after Gastelum announced the news on KABC-TV Channel 7’s Facebook Live stream. It’s almost like a little treasure for us.” “If you Google ‘landmarks in East L.A.,’ the Pino comes up. “I never want anything to happen to that tree,” said Art Gastelum, the politically connected owner of a Pasadena construction firm who grew up two blocks away. mayor to save El Pino, even though he has no jurisdiction over it.įinally, the lot’s owner emerged to let the world know: El Pino isn’t being torn down. People signed a petition addressed to Eric Garcetti asking the L.A. County Supervisor Hilda Solis and anyone with any political weight in the Eastside. Instead, his 1.3 million followers spread the fake news across the world.Īngry calls and emails flooded the office of L.A. “We said in the comments that it was a joke,” an apologetic Duarte said, “but there were so many comments, and people didn’t read what we wrote.” (Because, honestly, how many people outside Latin America know there’s a day called the Feast of the Holy Innocents that’s the equivalent of April Fools’ Day?) The 26-year-old figured that people would get it was a joke, because Monday was the Día de los Inocentes (Feast of the Holy Innocents), a Catholic holiday that’s the equivalent of April 1 across Latin America. On Monday, Duarte posted a photo of El Pino and a caption that claimed a developer had bought the fenced-off lot on which the tree stood and planned to chop it down within weeks.
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