Community Voices

Perspective: Gente De Boyle Heights: Rise and Stand for Your Community

By Steven Almazan Photo by Ernesto Orozco On the outside, non-native Angelenos see Boyle Heights as a cultural war zone where residents are fighting for their lives. Some people might assume that there is a ... Read More...

Charlie Ruiz Vazquez dreams of helping homeless LGBTQ+ youth

This story and its audio recording were produced as part of a workshop by the Boyle Heights Beat in collaboration with the Latino Equality Alliance, Mi Centro/Los Angeles LGBT Center and PFLAG. Charlie Ruíz Va... Read More...

Alex Medina: Fortunate to have a loving family

Perspective: Investing in youth creates a better and more sustainable future for all of us

By Lou Calanche, Joel García, and Mario Fedelin Co-Chairs for the Boyle Heights for Youth Coalition Gabby Claro did not have access to after school and summer programs. She always had a knack for art, but her ... Read More...

Community contributors sought to tell Boyle Heights’ stories

Do you live or work in Boyle Heights? Do you have an insight into a pressing issue affecting your community. Do you have a special memory of a place or date in history? Do you know of a hidden gem in the neighb... Read More...

The day my Mexican father met César Chávez

By Álvaro Huerta, Ph.D. My late father, Salomón Chavez Huerta, first arrived in this country as an agricultural guest worker in the mid-1900s, during the Bracero Program. The Bracero Program represented a gues... Read More...

The day I learned I was Mexican and poor – demo 2

When you grow up in a segregated community and poor, often times, you’re not aware of your ethnicity and class status.

Perspective: For Residents Concerned With Gentrification, We Must Vote No On Measure S

By Gregory Ronquillo Residents of Boyle Heights hoping for a reprieve from election-induced political burnout will get no satisfaction in hearing March 7th will bring another Los Angeles election with a major ... Read More...

The day I learned I was Mexican and poor

When you grow up in a segregated community and poor, often times, you’re not aware of your ethnicity and class status. Growing up in tight-knit Mexican communities, from Tijuana, Mexico, to East Los Angeles, I didn’t realize that I was Mexican and poor until my first day of junior high school.

Perspective: Advancing education reform that values our culture rather than omitting it

Donald Trump’s recent remarks on the terrible state of our urban neighborhoods and how we need to “turn our inner-cities around” is part of a larger public discourse that perpetuates a deficit lens on our commu... Read More...