Tag: Los Angeles

Stories

Battling the Stigma of Eating Disorders Among Asians and Latinos

Eating disorders are often ignored in immigrant communities, but some are trying to change that.

Stories

Notes from an Indian Childhood: Christmas in Vegas

What kind of parents take their three under-age children to Las Vegas every year for Christmas? The Indian kind. New York based writer Nina Agrawal recounts a family tradition.

Los Angeles: Many Small Marches for Immigration Reform on May Day

The first of the marches in Downtown Los Angeles today - Photo: j.r.mchale.

The first of the marches in Downtown Los Angeles today - Photo: j.r.mchale.

In Los Angeles, there were at least five major organized marches pushing for immigration reform on May Day, three of which started from the same point in the heart of downtown: Broadway and Olympic.

Different groups and local organizations had different routes in mind: the first one started with about 1,500 people and followed a route similar to the mega-march of March 25, 2006.

Another demonstration started later, towards Temple and Alameda, somewhat to the east of the first one. Approximately 1,000 people participated. A third march in the same area during the afternoon gathered only a few hundred people.

Two other groups were marching in the afternoon in Downtown and Echo Park, a neighborhood just west of Dodger Stadium.

Groups of students were to march separately in the southeast area of Los Angeles County in support of the DREAM Act, which would allow undocumented students to regularize their immigration status and gain access to higher education.

The fragmentation of groups dissappointed a local activist, who had hoped for a unified contingent. “It’s too bad, the groups look very small by themselves. I participated in the first one and now I’m in the second one. They don’t take more than a block and a little more each”, said Ricardo Moreno, an immigrant rights activist in Los Angeles. “The groups are divided and to me, ’cause I know all the organizers, it’s about egos.”

AudioStories

A Venezuelan Shakes Up The L.A. Arts Scene: Pilar Marrero on Public Radio’s Studio 360

This weekend, Kurt Andersen’s nationally-syndicated public radio show Studio 360 featured a piece by La Opinión and Feet In 2 Worlds reporter Pilar Marrero on Gustavo Dudamel, the 28-year-old Venezuelan conductor who will take over the Los Angeles Philharmonic this fall.

Marrero, who is also from Venezuela, went to see “the Dude” in action with some L.A. youngsters.

You can see more at Studio 360‘s website or you can listen to the piece here.

[audio:http://audio.wnyc.org/studio/studio022009d.mp3]

From Coast To Coast, Latino Small Business Owners At Risk

By Diego Graglia, FI2W web editor

In New York and Los Angeles, the effects of the economic slowdown are hitting hard in one important sector of immigrant communities: small business owners.

Daily News.

Ramon Murphy in his Red Apple Grocery in Manhattan. (Photo: Daily News)

A fixture of many New York neighborhoods, the bodega, is fast disappearing from many corners. The president of the Bodega Association of the United States claims that “every day, two or three bodegas close in New York.” High rents and leases that force them into rent hikes are their main enemy.

In L.A., vendors at the Grand Central Market — many of them Latino — are facing a similar situation. Business is down, way down, and they can’t meet rent payments.

A vendor at the Grand Central Market in Los Angeles.

A vendor at the Grand Central Market in Los Angeles. (Photo: La Opinión)

A survey done by the USA Latin Chambers of Commerce said rent hikes and increasing operational costs threatens to put 61% of New York City bodegas out of business, according to a recent article in El Diario/La Prensa.

One example is Luis Sánchez, a bodeguero on Amsterdam Avenue in Manhattan who says his rent goes up 7% every year. He started paying $2,940 a month three years ago and now his rent is at $3,400 — he’s even had to fire his own brother recently. (more…)