For 48-year-old Boyle Heights native Virginia Childress, school spirit runs deep. Childress’ father was a football coach who coached for Theodore Roosevelt High School and James A. Garfield High School, so she attended numerous East LA Classics.
She envisioned herself one day performing in a Classic as a Roosevelt drill team member and fulfilled that goal when she attended RHS. Eventually, she became drill team captain in 1993 and led her squad until she graduated in 1994.
“Growing up in Boyle Heights, you kind of live in a bubble, so those were my goals, to perform in the Classic wearing the red and gold uniform. Finally getting to do it was amazing and everything I thought it would be,” Childress said.
The business manager for childhood friend Will.i.am will return to her dancing roots this Saturday as she and other alumni take part in a celebration at Roosevelt High commemorating its 100th anniversary. Some notable RHS alumni include former mayor L.A. Antonio Villaraigosa, former LAUSD board supervisor Victoria “Vickie” Castro, and former L.A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling. The keynote speaker will be Maria Lucy Armendariz, a judge of the Superior Court of L.A. County, who graduated from Roosevelt in 1988.
Partnerships for Los Angeles Schools is co-sponsoring the event alongside the LA Unified School District, Theodore Roosevelt High School, and the Roosevelt High School Alumni Foundation. Centennial planning began last August.
Daniel Flores, a communications manager for Partnership for L.A., said his organization is excited to celebrate a public school that’s become synonymous with Boyle Heights, one of the oldest neighborhoods in the city.
“Roosevelt High School is more than just a school—it’s a cornerstone of the Boyle Heights community. Roosevelt students have inherited a deep sense of pride in our school from their families and community,” Flores said.
The free event will feature campus tours, food vendors, a car show, performances by local musicians, as well as a “dance of the decades” showcase co-curated by Childress. The showcase will feature several alumni dancing to songs from the 1920s to the present day.
“We only get one shot at our centennial, “ Childress said. “So I just hope to bring smiles to people’s faces and take people back [in time] when they hear the music.”
Roosevelt opened its doors in 1923 on 4th Street and has experienced many changes throughout the years. The school, which has been home to students of various ethnicities and nationalities, is now the educational home for a predominantly Latino population.
In 2018, the Roosevelt administration began its campus modernization project by demolishing and replacing several of the campus’s original structures, including the historic R building. The R building was constructed in 1922 and, before its demolition, was eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places, according to the L.A. Times. It was a key site in the 1968 walkouts, a massive student-led demonstration that saw thousands of students walk out of Eastside high schools to protest poor conditions, including Roosevelt.
The campus might look different today, but Vivian Candy Tanamachi, a class of 1969 graduate, said the school spirit and neighborhood pride are still very much alive. “The spirit of Roosevelt isn’t in a building. It’s in the person,” Tanamachi said.
Tanamachi was born and raised in Texas before permanently settling in Boyle Heights at the age of 11. Tanamachi is the vice president and founding member of the Roosevelt Alumni Foundation, a non-profit organization that hosts fundraising events to raise money for school supplies, repairs, and scholarships.
Because of the profound impact of Roosevelt and the neighborhood on her life, she continues to be an active member of the alumni foundation. “To me, it was a great place to grow up. Even if they weren’t your parents, they watched out for you. Different parents would drop us off, we’d walk to the dances, but then always there was a parent to take us home,” Tanamachi said.
On behalf of the foundation, Tanamachi has been hunting for school memorabilia, such as old copies of school newspapers, banners, trophies, and more. These objects will be put on display in the new building for students and centennial celebration attendees to see.
Tanamachi believes it’s important for today’s generation to know their history and understand that Boyle Heights has served as a refuge for multiple generations of immigrant, first, and second-generation students from many different countries.
“It’s really important to the alumni that the students understand their history. Boyle Heights has always been an immigrant community, a lower-income community. Those things haven’t changed, but the faces and the people of color have,” Tanamachi said.
