ESPIRALITO

I am the generation that felt the intense effects of the Los Angeles Riots. White flight took off to gated communities and valleys over Los Angeles hills and by the time I was in 1st grade, all that was left was the Black and Brown. Cop radio played 24/7 in my home as the show COPS ran and ran on the television screen. An LAPD office operated down the street and they creeped constantly through our alleys. Capital was most apparent in La Curacao, an appliance store that replicated a towering Mayan pyramid in the heart of Panorama City. Young “pelones” cruised around and met in circles creating activity in the neighborhood, as did abuelitas walking to the bodega, kids like me running and occasionally scraping a knee. The city eventually shut down my street, Burnet Ave, due to gang activity. It was lively, culturally rich, joyful but also full of tension and a shadow of racial tension and police repression always lingered.