Is South L.A. Forging a New American Identity?

3655 South Grand Avenue,Los Angeles CA 90007

27 July, 2021

Description

Zócalo is thrilled to host our first in-person event of the year! More information to come soon via email. A Zócalo/Esperanza Community Housing Event Moderated by Angel Jennings, Assistant Managing Editor for Culture and Talent, Los Angeles Times South Los Angeles, one of the West Coast’s last great working-class places, has been a destination point for two great migrations: African Americans arriving from the South and East, and, more recently, Latin Americans immigrating to Southern California. While media have long dwelled on examples of interracial and interethnic conflict there, the everyday reality of South L.A.’s ever-changing neighborhoods has revolved around Black-Brown co-existence, cooperation, and innovative multiracial organizing. How have South Central’s diverse residents managed to find solidarity in unsettling and polarizing times? What new and shared place-based identities have emerged from the area’s mix of histories and cultures? And what can the rest of L.A., and the U.S., learn from South L.A.? USC sociologists Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo and Manuel Pastor, co-authors of South Central Dreams: Finding Home and Building Community in South L.A., and Corey Matthews, Chief Operating Officer of Community Coalition, visit Zócalo to explore the lessons of South L.A.’s struggles and successes. This event is produced in partnership with South Central Innervisions: An AfroLatinxFuturism multidisciplinary arts festival on July 31, 2021 at Mercado La Paloma. Image Credit: Background photo courtesy of David Allen/Inland Valley Daily Bulletin. Zócalo Public Square connects people to ideas and to each other by examining essential questions in an accessible, broad-minded, and democratic spirit. At a time when our country’s public sphere and our global digital conversation have become ever more polarized and segregated, Zócalo seeks to create a welcoming intellectual space and engage a new and diverse generation in the public square. We pursue our mission by convening events and by publishing ideas journalism. Because democracy is as much a culture as it is a system, we believe that creating meaningful opportunities for citizens to communicate with—and learn from—one another both nurtures and protects it.