I’ve spent a better part of the past 24 hours reading through Facebook statuses lamenting the ruling in the Zimmerman case, and all I can think about is how much I need to get off my phone. The ruling came down last night and my feed is still a solid stream of hoodies, anger, and through all that, a tiny glimmer of hope.
Between a late start this morning, breakfast, some family coordination and finally a writing meeting in the evening, I only managed to catch the end of an action in Boyle Heights organized by the East LA “Ni Una Mas/Not One More Coalition” formed in response to the case.
My family is originally from Boyle Heights, a neighborhood that has been a revolving door of ethnic groups for the past century but currently home to a sizable and lively Latin@ community. I took my favorite parking spot in JTown, walked to the train station, then caught the Gold Line east.
Sometimes I forget how close Little Tokyo is to East LA. How the streetcar used to bring folks to JTown, and how even today it’s a straight shot down First to cross the river and hit Little Tokyo. I think about how far we seem from each other, but how our actual physical distance alone reaffirms the nonexistence of ethnic communities as solitary beings, and how there is such hope for coalition building between us all.
I spent a little more time at Mariachi Plaza after the action was over. I walked to the other side of the station, taking in the dancing and wonderful smells of Sunday-night pupusas and tamales. The sun fell as I descended into the subway, taking with it the haunting pollution-purple hue of the Los Angeles sky.
We will keep building our communities, keep building our coalitions, and keep building our minds. We will work together so that there will be not one more.
Down Like JTown 