Undocumented Neighbors

[tishaLA]

14. I live just a few blocks from MacArthur Park

so you can imagine that a lot of my neighbors are undocumented. The wait staff at my local pupusería is also likely undocumented. I've taught lots of undocumented students at my university -- back in the day they were called "AB 540" students because of the assembly bill that gave undocumented students in-state tuition, but fortunately that shorthand has disappeared. As I've told my friends in small towns on the east coast where there are far fewer undocumented people, these people are my neighbors, friends, students, and strangers I cross paths with every day at the supermarket or on public transportation, so seeing the pain and sensing the fear in community members hurts. A lot.

Every year in LA, there seems to be an infinite supply of illegal fireworks going off in the weeks before, during, and after July 4th. This year it was much quieter because people aren't outside as much and, if they are, they don't want to draw attention to themselves. I'd always hated those goddamned fireworks going off at all hours for weeks on end, but now I miss them because of what the relative silence signifies.