It has been some time since we've had an update on the Stories from MacArthur Park pitch on Spot.Us. We apologize. Below is a roundup of news and information from the area related to MacArthur Park including links to the latest blog posts from "The Entryway" the blog of Devin Browne who is reporting on stories from MacArthur Park. Our reporter is working on a longer-form radio story that we hope to be out soon. You can follow her experiences living in MacArthur Park through the "Entry" posts below.
Updates from The-Entryway.com
Entry 13: This entry is contributed by a fan of the blog, Felipe, who details his memories of growing up in LA.
Entry 12: Explores the role of Sunday Church for Maria and the family.
Entry 11: The second of two posts that explore the history of Maria, the maternal head of the family. This post explores life after Maria's seperation from her first husband until meeting her true love, Juan.
Entry 10: The second of two posts that explore the history of Maria, the maternal head of the family. This one explores Maria's childhood to the marriage of her first husband.
News from Around MacArthur Park
Walden House for ex-prison inmates opens in MacArthur Park MacArthur Park hosts a treatment center for ex-cons and drug addicts.
Police fatally shoot man near MacArthur Park when he refuses to drop gun. A man was killed by a police officer during a foot chase near MacArthur Park after he refused to drop a suspected handgun. The LA Times suggests such an incident is not uncommon. According to the article, there have been at least 121 officer-involved homicides in the Los Angeles County since January 200.
Suspected gang member killed by LAPD Officers. KTLA suggests there may be an increase in police shootings near MacArthur Park, particularly involving gang members.
Police rely on injunctions to curb gang activity. Police use MacArthur Park as an example of how to deal with crime stricken areas. “Authorities say dropping crime rates are proof that injunctions work. In one case, officials credit an injunction for transforming MacArthur Park in downtown Los Angeles from a place where killings and drug deals were common to a popular recreation area.”
Three Journalists Claim LAPD Officers Beat Them Lawsuit continues after journalists were allegedly beaten during an immigration rights march that happen three years ago.
Related: Witness LA has a post about a video of a belligerent man being tased Sunday night by an LAPD officer, and consequently hitting his head on the curb with a sickening thud.
ESPN Match Truck Hits Streets in LA (& NYC) Today. The ESPN food truck phenomenon plans to make its debut in MacArthur Park and other areas like it.
Pupusa Festival in MacArthur Park. A festival surrounding El Salvador’s national dish, La Pususa.
MacArthur Park Beautification Report: Monument, Meditation Spot. The Community Redevelopment Agency is putting in a statue of Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero in the middle of MacArthur Park for people to sit and meditate.
MacArthur Park Apartment Project Will Also Clean up The Streets. Major projects to revamp MacArthur Park include affordable housing, improvements on the subway station and nearby streets, new sidewalks, new curbs and gutters, and new underground utilities.
A Film about the gangsters, hustlers, and cocaine addicts in MacArthur Park but a film capturing the energy and humanity that embodies such an interesting place as MacArthur Park.
Tweets about MacArthur Park. What every day individuals are saying
@MommyFiercest: LAPD used that when they assaulted us in MacArthur park w/ rubber bullets tear gas billy clubs on #mayday 2007. Were u there @raquefella?
@JaykGallagher heading on down to 2509 wilshire near macarthur park to see my friend masasa moyo in a sexy play called "(three)some like it hot"
@GayTownKTown Hello leaky sulfur/calcium in MacArthur/Westlake Park Metro station
Posted by Spot. Us on 06/30/10
Like so many other students in MacArthur Park, Andrea is somewhere in between being trilingual and being non-lingual. She speaks Spanish with her friends, English with her teachers, and Kanjobal, a dialect from Guatemala, with her parents. This is what it seems. But the truth is a little more stark: Andrea lacks a foundation in any of these languages, and in truth can’t really speak proficiently in any of them. Her parents work 14 hour-days, sewing clothes, and were not around much to provide a base of Kanjobal. She learned Spanish mainly from television and the neighborhood, the latter containing more Spanglish than Spanish: “MUCHO BARGAIN” is the name of one store; “REGALOS PARA BABY SHOWER” is a sign on the door of another. English is taught to her in complicated, phonetically-based instruction that lacks context ("Paul hauled prawns into his yawl at dawn") and she speaks in broken, confused speech. Without the tools of language, this nine-year-old is often trapped in her own head.
Ms. Browne, of The Entryway, has been following and documenting Andrea and her family for more than two years. We've also interviewed and spent time with a number of other students at different ages and different language levels who struggle with living in between two worlds. We wonder what living in a country where the defining question at the American dinner table is often So Honey, What did you learn at school today? is like for these kids, who sometimes can’t really talk to their parents about anything but logistical details. Recent studies from the University of California at Berkeley indicate that minority students often cite “Lack of Familial Support” as a reason for dropping out. Is it possible this familial disconnect starts as early as the first grade, when Ms. Browne first met Andrea? (And was in fact Andrea's first grade teacher.)
Ms Browne and collaborator Louise Baker intend to create a 10-12 minute multimedia feature exploring what it means to be a semi-lingual child, and what sort of educational and linguistic infrastructure would be most helpful for her and other students in similar situations. We plan to use audio, still photographs, video, and text to tell this story.
Many of the little kids in MacArthur Park arrive to kindergarten and first grade with mouths full of silver and/or gold teeth. Mobile dental clinics visit the school and there are dentist offices on almost every corner, dealing with this incredible demand.
There are definitely some dental health experts that view this as a public health crisis -- that the teeth in these kids mouths are rotting out so early and so much that protective caps are in order. That moms are giving their babies bottles with Coca Cola in them. That juice is consumed here as if it were water.
But there are larger cultural codes at play that these dental health experts are missing. In some parts of Mexico, Guatemala, and El Salvador, gold and silver teeth are actually something of a great prize. Our roommates tell us that gold/silver teeth are given to kids who get good grades and behave well AND that a great many men buy themselves golden grills as it's a sign of handsomeness. You can get hearts or stars in your gold teeth. Even some of the stars in telenovelas have gold teeth.
My roommate Maria asked me if I like men with gold teeth last night and I was almost speechless -- had no idea how to tell her that where I come from, there is almost no greater sign of poverty than missing and/or silver/gold teeth. Dreds, ripped jeans, dirt under the fingernails, whatever -- but teeth! Teeth almost unmistakably give people away.
The questions are: is this a public health crisis or simply a difference in aesthetics across culture? If it's the former, what should be done, if anything?
The Entryway already has eight updates. We will be reposting some of these here and future updates as they come in.
You can see an elarged version of this post here.
