As of May 20, members from the Bus Riders Union began a hunger fast on the grass area of Placita Olvera to stop MTA from increasing fares from $1.25 to $1.50 for regular fare, a day pass will be $6, weekly passes will be $20, and a monthly pass will be $75. These fare increases are scheduled to take place during the summer. MTA released their budget for the next fiscal year to the public breaking down where they would be making cuts, who much money is allotted to what and the increase in bus fares. Esperanza Martinez, one of the lead organizers for the union says that the increased fares are being passed down and targeting minorities, who are the majority of people that rely on the bus. All the poor people who depend on the bus for their livelihoods. People who commute everyday to work, school or just to get to doctor appointments and everyday commuting.
Lizbeth, Mohammad and Yahaira are undocumented students. They are DREAM Act family. Like all the other undocumented students throughout the country, they can no longer sit idly by as life keeps passing us by. Whenever an undoc student speaks out in public, whenever we travel and whenever we organize rallies and protest, we are putting ourselves at risk for detainment and deportation. These three leaders have put themselves on the front lines because the time for the DREAM Act to be brought to Congress as a stand alone bill and be passed. Since it was first introduced 8 years ago, the DREAM Act is the only way college educated undoc students have to fix their immigration status.
After twelve years of searching, the good folks of Audubon Center at Debs Park finally spotted the elusive California King Snake today in the park.
Jeff Chapman, Director of the Audubon Center told LA Eastside:
“These guys have been seen in City Terrace, Ascot Hills, and Flat Top. I used to do reptile monitoring with kids from Franklin before the center and we never found them. Three years ago, we put out boards in the park and checked them periodically, but again we never detected them. So, this is very exciting for us and for the whole human/non-human community in the Northeast!”
If you live on the Eastside but have yet to visit the Audubon Center, now’s the time! There are all sorts of activities for children and adults and a very enjoyable trail from which you can take in the local floral and fauna of Debs Park.
Audubon Center at Debs Park
4700 North Griffin Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90031
(323) 221-2255
Hours: Tuesday – Saturday 9 a.m to 5 p.m.
The Audubon Center at Debs Park opened in 2003 as an environmental education and conservation center for the communities of northeast Los Angeles. The Center is located in the third largest park in the city of Los Angeles. More than half of the park is covered in walnut-oak woodland, grassland, and coastal sage scrub, a remnant of the native habitats that once rimmed the Los Angeles Basin. Over 140 species of birds have been recorded here.
RADIO SOMBRA’S FRIDAY FILM NIGHTS
FRIDAY May 14, 2010 7pm NO MORE SMOKE SIGNALS
NO MORE SMOKE SIGNALS
(2008 U$A/Switzerland, 90 mins) English
Kili Radio – “Voice of the Lakota Nation” – is broadcast out of a small wooden house that sits isolated on a hill, lost in the vast countryside of South Dakota. It’s a place that’s long forgotten; lying at the crossroads between combat and hope, between the American dream and daily existence on America’s poorest reservation.
Yet we find people like Roxanne Two Bulls, who’s trying to start over again on the land of her ancestors; the young DJ Derrick who’s discovering his gift for music; Bruce, the white lawyer who for thirty years has been trying to free a militant who’s been fighting for American Indian rights; and finally John Trudell, an old AIM activist who’s made a career for himself as a musician in Hollywood.
Everything converges at Kili Radio. Instead of sending smoke signals the radio station transmits its own signals across a vast and magnificent landscape with a delightful combination of humor and melancholy. Native hip hop and broken windshields: pride has been restored – it really is OK to be Lakota(Kili = Lakota: awesome).
Centro Comunicacion Comunitaria
3806 E. Cesar Chavez Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90063
Boyle Heights- East Los Angeles
Just below Self Help Graphics
* Donations go towards keeping Centro Comunicacion Comunitaria operational and East L.A. Radio Sombra except if otherwise posted for a special presentation
K-12 Students Free!
Suggested donation: $3 adults – no one will be turned away
RADIO SOMBRA’S FRIDAY FILM NIGHTS
FRIDAY MAY 7, 2010 7 pm
THE 800 MILE WALL
Special Screening and Dialogue with Film Maker John Carlos Frey
+ Guest Music Performance
(2009, U$A, 90 mins) English/Spanish w/ English Subtitles
The 800 Mile Wall highlights the construction of the new border walls along the U.S.-Mexico border as well as the effect on migrants trying to cross into the U.S. This powerful 90-minute film is an unflinching look at a failed U.S. border strategy that many believe has caused the death of thousands of migrants and violates fundamental human rights.
Since border walls have been built, well over 5,000 migrant bodies have been recovered in U.S. deserts, mountains and canals. Some unofficial reports put the death toll as high as 10,000 men, women and children. As a direct result of U.S. border policy, migrants are forced to cross treacherous deserts and mountains in search of low skill and low paying jobs in the United States. The New York Times writes, “Current border strategy is serving as a funnel through deadly terrain.” The 800 Mile Wall documents, in great detail, the ineffective and deadly results of a failed border policy and offers some thoughts and on how the current human rights crisis may be resolved. Directed by John Carlos Frey and Produced by Jack Lorenz.
More info:
http://www.800milewall.org/
View Trailer
K-12 Students free!
Suggested donation: $3 – no one turned awayy.
*Donations go towards keeping Centro Comunicacion Comunitaria operational and East L.A. Sombra
Centro Comunicacion Comunitaria
3806 E. Cesar Chavez Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90063
Boyle Heights-East Los Angeles
Just below Self Help Graphics
For more info and complete schedule for May 2010 visit us at:
If you’ve grown up in the United States as an “other” or you just happen to look like one, you are probably quite accustomed to the regular indignities of not being one of them. Somehow you manage. You just want to get by. But then they do something so utterly outrageous and in your face that yer like “Fuck This, No Mas!” They push the indignities over that line you were hoping to avoid. Arizona did that recently, making any friends and family that look “other” open targets to harassment. It’s not like harassment wasn’t the norm before, its just that now it’s a protected and legal practice.
Fuck that.
Sometimes, enough is enough. Time to take it to the streets to show our collective disapproval.
It would seem that everyone and their mom is going to be in Downtown this Saturday for the May Day march. I myself will also be there of course, but what about after the march is over. Then what ? Well, jump on board the Goldline and make your way East of the river and indulge in a night out in Boyle Heights. Marching, chanting and holding up signs can take its toll and work up a hunger. Well what better way to end a protest than by supporting the Boyle Heights Street Vendors Association. The street vendors are officially back. All the hard work from East Los Angeles Community Corporation’s Community Organizing Department will culminate into what is sure to be a great night of some of the best antojitos in L.A.
137 N. Soto (soto st. and Michigan Ave) between 6pm and 10pm. Â Help us support street vendors who are struggling to make a living and fighting for the right to work in their own community. (Bring Cash, no credit cards accepted)
Dark Crossing finally hits the theaters today! Never heard of it? Me neither. But hey, it has Miklo of Blood In, Blood Out fame so its got to be good. Showing in select theaters only, the nearest one seems to be in Texas.
Or you could wait a few weeks and check it out at your local library.
Action Packed!
Click ahead for some classic Miklo clips. You know you’re gonna. Continue reading →
I am ecstatic to report that Boyle Heights is in the process of finally getting a place for food vendors to share their fabulous foods with the people once again. Harmony between the vendors, police and people calling the police on the vendors is one of the key problems that the food vendors faced when they were doing it alacart on Breed and Chavez. East Los Angeles Community Corporation and it’s amazing organizers have done an amazing job in helping the vendors get this market going, meeting requirements that will give it the final ok from the L.A. City Council. Can I have my pancakes with cajeta now ?
