Why East L.A. community members still worry about the future of a beloved tree

Every Sunday at 2 p.m., a group of community members meets on the corner of Folsom and Indiana streets, near the invisible boundary between East Los Angeles and Boyle Heights, to discuss the future of a bunya pine tree. The tree — El Pino, as it’s affectionately known by the community — is well known for its role in the 1993 crime drama “Blood In, Blood Out,” but to the people of East L.A. it has more communal significance than international recognition. A petition to County Supervisor Hilda Solis circulated quickly, amassing almost 16,000 signatures asking the politician to “save El Pino from being cut down.” Four days after the Día de los Inocentes prank, Gastelum told The Times, “I never want anything to happen to that tree.. It’s almost like a little treasure for us.” But organizers weren’t swayed by his pleas. “There’s nobody on God’s green Earth that can convince me that somehow building two huge buildings next to a poor tree is going to somehow quote unquote, ‘save the Pino,’” Paredes said. There’s a handful.” That’s exactly what Roberto Garcia-Ceballos, program manager at Fideicomiso Comunitario Tierra Libre, a community land trust in East L.A. and Boyle Heights, is worried about.