Good morning. I’m Gustavo Arellano, a Metro columnist for The Occasions, which implies I’m allowed to specific opinions. Like:
The American Southwest is cool.
However earlier than I get into that, right here’s what you should know to begin your day.
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Caminos del Southwest: A street journey by way of Latino America
Turquoise and silver. Tucson and Colorado. Mountains and deserts. And chiles — so many chiles.
The Southwest has many iconic options, however I used to be in quest of none of those after I hit the street this August.
I used to be looking out for Latinos.
Easy sufficient, proper? Latinos have lived within the Southwest for greater than 425 years. We’re a plurality of the inhabitants but nonetheless seen with suspicion by too many. However I used to be searching for them for a purpose — the purpose this 12 months: the 2024 presidential election.
So, over seven days— throughout seven states and almost 3,000 miles — I discovered story after story of the Latinos I do know: resilient, impartial and centered on fixing what’s in entrance of them as an alternative of being too involved with the White Home rat race.
The headquarters for the Sociedad Protección Mutua de Trabajadores Unidos in Antonito, Colo. The group is the oldest Latino civil rights group within the nation.
(Gustavo Arellano / Los Angeles Occasions)
I went all the way down to the U.S.-Mexico border in San Diego and noticed the Biden administration ending off the 30-foot border wall that the Trump administration began. I visited Arizona copper nation, which has lengthy despatched Mexican Individuals to Southern California who went on to impression L.A. politics. I noticed two memorials in El Paso devoted to the victims of the 2019 Walmart bloodbath, the deadliest assault in opposition to Latinos in fashionable U.S. historical past.
Drove all throughout New Mexico speaking to farmers. To Antonito, Colo., house of the nation’s oldest Latino civil rights group. Checked in with brewers. Frolicked with highschool youth convention alumni. Didn’t eat historic tacos, however I did cease to odor roadside sunflowers.
Why, I even did a listicle. And movies!
Curious why Latino voters aren’t a political monolith? Its all about rancho libertarianism
Right here in California, we’ve lengthy informed the story of how Proposition 187, the xenophobic initiative that voters handed overwhelmingly 30 years in the past, impressed a technology of Latinos to favor the Democratic Get together and thus flip us bluer than the waters of Lake Tahoe. However as I wrote earlier this 12 months, Latino voters have bored with Democrats utilizing the specter of GOP anti-immigrant insurance policies to scare them into sticking with them.
That partly explains the beneficial properties that Trump has made amongst Latino voters since 2020. However my journey additionally bolstered my perception in rancho libertarianism, a time period I coined in 2018 to explain Mexican American voters who aren’t absolutely liberal or conservative and embrace individualism whereas nonetheless working to higher their neighborhood.
I discovered distaste for Trump among the many individuals I spoke to however little enthusiasm for Harris, both.
What Voltaire has to do with Latinos within the ’24 elections
Latinos I talked to weren’t in a doom spiral like too many Individuals: They had been too busy preventing for and defending their lives and communities, particularly in opposition to far-away bureaucrats who solely consider them come election time. This strategy to America at this time limit jogged my memory of the concept underpinning Voltaire’s finale to his basic satire, “Candide”: People must deal with what’s in entrance of us as an alternative of obsess an excessive amount of about the remainder of the world.
“I need individuals to listen to the native voice and apply that to the native situation,” Michael Montaño informed me, “versus making use of every thing to the nationwide narrative.” Montaño, along with his cousin, owns the legendary Mitla Cafe in San Bernardino.
If solely extra individuals thought like him. In any case, learn the entire sequence right here, and don’t overlook to domesticate your backyard — mine wants some watering. Howzabout yours?
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Former classmates and pals of Pepperdine college students killed on Pacific Coast Freeway final 12 months collect in entrance of the “Ghost Tire” memorial Thursday in Malibu.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Occasions)
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When the Olympic Video games land in Los Angeles in 2028, neighboring Lengthy Seashore may even play a supporting function. The town plans to host eight Olympic occasions and can spend $933 million on infrastructure forward of the Video games. Somewhat greater than $210 million of the cash will likely be spent on Olympics-focused initiatives,” The Occasions’ Thomas Curwen wrote. “However some warning that even with that dedication, the Olympics might distract from fixing town’s issues.”
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In your downtime
Gusto Bread proprietor Arturo Enciso sprinkles sugar on freshly baked pan de muerto that has been brushed with melted butter.
(Shelby Moore / Los Angeles Occasions)
Going out
Staying in
A query for you: What’s one thing that not too long ago made you smile?
Was it a shock from a good friend? An evening at your favourite restaurant? Or seeing the Dodgers head to the World Sequence?
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And at last … your picture of the day
Present us your favourite place in California! Ship us images you might have taken of spots in California which are particular — pure or human-made — and inform us why they’re vital to you.
(Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Occasions)
Right now’s nice picture is from Occasions employees photographer Brian van der Brug.
A crowd watches as movers transport items of the House Shuttle Inspiration, a full-scale mock-up of an area shuttle, alongside Bellflower Boulevard on Thursday in Downey. The town’s area shuttle prototype is headed to a brief housing location till its new house at Downey’s expanded Columbia Memorial House Middle is accomplished, slated for early 2026.
Have a fantastic day, from the Important California crew
Ryan Fonseca, reporter
Amy Hubbard, deputy editor, Quick Break
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