This year, as wildfires scorched Los Angeles and federal raids terrorized immigrant communities, residents of the Eastside and Boyle Heights rallied around a shared mantra: “Solo el pueblo salva el pueblo, only the people can save the people.”
Across Boyle Heights, residents patrolled neighborhoods for ICE activity, while the local group Raíces con Voz delivered groceries to immigrant families too afraid to leave their homes. Students walked out in protest of President Donald Trump’s immigration policies. In El Sereno, Evil Cooks fed firefighters during the January wildfires.
Volunteers also organized and made demands for basic public services, like vote centers, working streetlights and equitable library services amid the closure of the Benjamin Franklin Library.
Looking ahead to 2026, we spoke with Eastside business owners, activists, students and volunteers to hear what they learned from their neighbors, how they got through 2025 and what they hope for the year ahead.
Sol Márquez, 39, leads Centro CSO’s immigration committee
When unmarked vehicles descended on a local Food-4-Less this summer, Boyle Heights residents quickly got to the scene to warn others of federal immigration agents potentially being nearby.
The incident didn’t turn out to be a raid, but to Sol Márquez, an activist with the social justice group Centro CSO, the response from residents signaled they were ready to alert and protect others.
This is the same kind of energy Márquez hopes for the coming year.
“Trump’s presidency has three more years left, and he has made it known that LA sets the stage on a national level. … I hope Boyle Heights is ready to pull up when another threat or ICE raid happens,” said Márquez, 39, who leads Centro CSO’s immigration committee.
This year, Márquez saw people who had never protested before take to the streets “in the name of kicking ICE out of our barrios.”
“I had never seen so many neighbors care for others like 2025,” she said. “They would call to check up on me or alert me if they saw suspicious vehicles on our streets. … Or joined our various protests this year.”
Márquez, who has lived in Boyle Heights for more than a decade, cherishes the sense of community here, as well as its “long history of fighting back.”
“It’s astounding how a neighborhood of thousands still can feel very familiar and very small-town-like. All roads lead back to Boyle Heights, and I love the movimiento our people have created here,” Márquez said.
Leonardo Vilchis, 63, co-founder of Union de Vecinos
With the pandemic and recent immigration raids, Leonardo Vilchis of Union de Vecinos has seen neighbors stepping up for one another, distributing groceries and providing rides to those too afraid to leave their homes. He hopes to see more of that in 2026.
“During these times under the federal attacks, it’s important for people to speak up and to talk about the needs they have,” said Vilchis, who helped start Union de Vecinos, a local branch of the Los Angeles Tenants Union.
Housing displacement is a main concern, Vilchis said. Many residents have yet to recover from COVID-19 and are losing work as prices rise, making it harder to pay for rent, he said. Some are being pushed to sell their homes or face rent hikes.
Local government, he said, isn’t doing enough to assist residents.
“While the city government has been telling us a lot about how to know our rights, they’ve done very little to really decrease or diminish or push back against the federal agents that are breaking the law,” Vilchis said.
Vilchis thinks back to the origins of Union de Vecinos.
“We had this mantra, which now is becoming more and more real and meaningful — ‘Solo el pueblo salva el pueblo.’ It’s very important for people to come together and to know that it is when they … organize their demands, and when they speak to each other, that they’re stronger,” Vilchis said.
“Politicians come and go. Community organizations come and go, but the people who live in the neighborhood are the ones who stay, and they’re the ones who take control of their own lives and move forward,” he added.
Iciar Rivera, 40, Friends of the Boyle Heights Libraries founder
Frustrated by what she called a lack of city leadership, Boyle Heights resident Iciar Rivera organized her neighbors to push for a long-delayed reopening of their local library.
After repeated delays at the Benjamin Franklin Branch Library, Rivera established the Friends of the Boyle Heights Libraries, the first group that represents all three local branches. The group is pressing for equitable library services and more accountability from the city.
Rivera, a mother who now sits on the Boyle Heights Neighborhood Council, said she was motivated after seeing community members advocate for businesses on the brink of closing or local groups fight for immigrant communities in ways the city wasn’t.
“I feel like the more grassroots, the better. It’s been a tough year for people in Boyle Heights,” Rivera said.
Looking toward 2026, Rivera wants to see more transparency from city leaders, citing the work of LA City Controller Kenneth Mejia.
“Everything he’s doing in regards to the budget is such a great way to actually show accountability and transparency. That is exactly what people are always asking for and exactly what people want out of their politicians,” Rivera said. “We can always bring numbers, and if we bring numbers, then I think we can all be a lot more clear on results.”
Prisilla Hernandez, 12th grade, President of the Social Justice club at Roosevelt High School
Prisilla Hernandez, a senior at Roosevelt High School, never imagined herself as a leader at such a young age. But watching Eastside students walk out in February to protest President Trump’s immigration policies inspired her to do the same.
She joined them in their march to LA City Hall earlier this year.
“I felt like I needed to participate to make a change or at least show them that more youth want to [take a] stand,” she said.
That demonstration sparked a wave of opportunities for Hernandez, including a summer internship with Students Deserve, a youth-led activist organization. As ICE raids intensified across LA, she learned how teachers and parents at her school were organizing patrol teams. Eventually, Hernandez became president of Roosevelt’s social justice club.
“It’s a little overwhelming, especially because there’s always a rally going on, there’s always planning to do, and it’s all new to me,” she said. “But I feel like other people being there and helping really calms me down.”
This month, the club launched a letter-writing campaign to people in detention centers, an effort Hernandez said is meant “to give them a little hope.”
Next year, she hopes to continue advocating for community-based safety at schools so students can access the resources and education they need. She says her motivation comes from her neighbors, her friends and their families — and even people she has yet to meet.
Hernandez wants others, especially young people, to realize their voices matter.
“I really hope people can step up and take action,” she said, “whether it’s by showing up to protests or at public comment, or even posting [on social media] to further inform others… Unfortunately, we just can’t stop fighting until these issues are solved.”
Alex Garcia, co-owner of Evil Cooks
When the January wildfires affected the community surrounding their metal-themed restaurant, Evil Cooks owners Alex Garcia and Elvia Huerta began cooking for firefighters, even as high winds cut off their power and forced their restaurant to close.
“Here in El Sereno, we’re trying to build a community between businesses because that’s the only way we unite. That’s the only way that we can stay afloat,” Garcia said.
By summer, federal agents began raiding car washes, restaurants and Home Depots across LA.
Garcia responded by posting pro-immigrant signs in his restaurant and passing out red cards to inform people of their rights. He saw many other neighbors do the same.
“When you have all these things going on, I think people huddle up and are more open to creating community,” he said, “That’s something that I would like to keep next year, and not just here in the community, but in all of LA.”
Garcia said local restaurateurs have not only banded together to support undocumented residents and mixed-status families, but also helped one another recover from the pandemic.
In November, they launched the El Sereno “food passport,” a $10 booklet offering discounts at 18 neighborhood restaurants, to encourage residents to support struggling small businesess.
In 2026, Garcia hopes more eateries participate in the program to strengthen local businesses and pop-ups after a hard year.