Lasting Impact

Throughout the years Chicano Park has continued to be a hub for the Chicano community. Barrio Logan continues their efforts in enforcing and recognizing the history behind the park and allowing it to flourish while creating a safe space for all. The park holds numerous events throughout the year including tianguis and cinco de mayo celebration in order to bring the community together and embrace the culture. Similarly, the park has also continued to be a space of political assertion. With memorials, murals and gatherings in which people voice opinions on political matters that affect the community. Along with this, the Chicano Park museum and cultural center was opened in October of 2022. This museum gives life and acknowledgement to the long history of the park. Within the center there are exhibitions, collections and archives where everything embodies what the park is and stands for. Chicano Park day is an addition to this remembrance.  It is a yearly reminder of the struggle and resistance in which the park was built, therefore the celebration lands on April 22, the day the land was obtained.  The celebration is filled with crowds of people along with street vendors, lowriders, entertainment and more. In April 2023, the first in-person Chicano Park celebration was held for the 53rd commemoration after a 3 year hiatus caused by Covid. The turnout was astonishing as it was the most people that have ever attended the event. It is clear that the park is “not simply a reclamation of land for a community, but the transformation of that land by a community” (Amer 14). Asserting a day in remembrance of the initial fights for the parks allows for generations to follow to understand the story in which the land was obtained and celebrate the strength of la raza.