Southern Californian big heads

I keep running across big heads sticking out of the ground. There was a purple one that lived for a season in Golden Gate Park. And there were the grand stone Olmec heads in Mexico.


And then there was this: Mack Robinson looking over the civic center of Pasadena.

Mr. Robinson was an athlete. He won the silver medal in the 200 meters at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, just a hair behind Jesse Owen. These two gave the lie to Hitler's boast that the contests must prove Aryan superiority.

This Robinson was the brother of Jackie Robinson who integrated Major League Baseball.

A small tree, deprived of its leaves by winter, casts a morning shadow over the head of Jackie Robinson.

I'm not sure that a couple of monster heads make a particularly inspiring monument to a couple of local men who made good, but clearly some Pasadenans do.