Migrant Footsteps
Immersive Audio Walks Through History
Migrant Footsteps is a series of free, immersive audio walks developed by the California Migration Museum.
Each tour combines music, oral history, archival research and augmented reality to take you on a multi-sensory walk through five California neighborhoods in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Tours are free to download in the CalMigration App, and take approximately one hour to complete. To get started, check out the tours and locations below, download the CalMigration app, and get ready to explore.
Can’t make it in-person? Explore our new 360 video experiences from anywhere in the world. Select a tour below for more.
Explore Our Tours
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Downtown LA: Ni de Aquí, Ni de Allá
60 MIN / BEGINS AT EL PUEBLO DE LOS ANGELES HISTORICAL MONUMENT
Take a walk down bustling Olvera Street, “a Mexican Street of Yesterday in a City of Today,” and uncover the story of millions of Mexican Americans who were coerced into leaving Los Angeles in the 1930s and how this still resonates today.
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SF Japantown: Returning to the "Harlem of the West"
45 MIN / BEGINS AT STUART HALL HIGH SCHOOL, 1715 OCTAVIA STREET
It’s 1945, and Japanese American families, who have just endured 3 years of incarceration as “enemy aliens,” are returning to San Francisco. In their absence, the neighborhood has transformed into the “Harlem of the West.” Can this new place feel like home again?
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SF Castro: At Home in the Castro?
55 MIN / BEGINS AT TWIN PEAKS TAVERN, 401 CASTRO STREET
In the 1950s, Eureka Valley was a sleepy Irish Catholic enclave. Then an era of gay migration transformed this neighborhood into a queer homeland: a place with a global queer identity.
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SF Chinatown: Look Up
65 MIN / BEGINS OPPOSITE OLD CHINESE TELEPHONE EXCHANGE AT 754 WASHINGTON STREET
When a disaster destroys Chinatown in 1906, San Francisco elites see an opportunity to erase a hated neighborhood for good. But its residents have other ideas. This is the story of how one Chinese-American businessman helped reinvent the idea of “Chinatown” to save his community.
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SF Mission: Coffee Country
55 MIN / BEGINS AT 25TH STREET AND BALMY ALLEY
Go behind the cup and trace a century-long coffee trade between San Francisco and El Salvador that brought tens of thousands of refugees to the Mission in the 1980s, sparking the Sanctuary City Movement.
Get the App
Download the CalMigration app, select your tour and get started.
Don’t forget to fully charge your phone or tablet, and consider downloading the tour on wi-fi in advance.