LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes invites members of the community to contribute to a participatory Community Quilt of Hope to honor the legacy and work LA Plaza founder Gloria Molina. 

Each Community Quilt will be formed by 169 fabric squares with messages or decorations expressing gratitude to Gloria Molina or stories on how she has bettered the lives of Angelenos. The squares will be available to be filled on the first floor of LA Plaza at the entrance of LA Starts Here! as part of a temporary exhibition that will include photographs as well as artwork made or inspired by her. 

The fabric squares will be gathered by members of TELAS (The East Los Angeles Stitchers), an organization Gloria co-founded and has participated in for many years, and sewn together to make a Community Quilt of Hope for her loved ones.

LA Plaza is partnering with Grand Park, recently renamed as Gloria Molina Grand Park, during its Easy Mornings‘ sessions to take place on April 17 and April 22, to install a pop-up where community members will complete the fabric squares. Both institutions are within walking distance from one another, and they both have been impacted by Gloria’s work.

Gloria Molina, who recently announced that she is ill with terminal cancer, was the first woman to become a Los Angeles County Supervisor for the First District, from where she was the person most responsible for bringing LA Plaza to fruition. LA Plaza is the only museum and cultural center in Los Angeles dedicated to telling the story of the city from a Mexican-American and Latino perspective.