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7/3/2017 0 Comments

Life With A Deported Parent

April 26, 2017 

Youth Radio and Boyle Heights Beat
by ZOLA CERVANTES 
​Produced by Erika Aguilar
Featured on All Things Considered, NPR

This story is an example of how sharing ourselves via audio can inspire and motivate and fill the lonely spaces among strangers. 

I met Zola Cervantes in early 2017 through Youth Radio. She was a reporter for the community newspaper and website Boyle Heights Beat. It's a powerhouse of teenage journalists (led by adult editors) so well connected and trusted by the Boyle Heights community they report on that professional journalists in Los Angeles are envious of the students' leads! 
​

Zola was telling her editor at Boyle Heights Beat about the college admissions essay she was writing. It was about the immigration jail visits Zola made when she was 10 or 11 years old to see her dad before he was deported to Tijuana, a city he had never lived in before or had family there. She talked about the weekend visits she and her brother and mother make, and how she pulls all-nighters on  Sunday to do homework before returning to school on Monday. Zola talked about how her family talks about moving to Mexico or Spain so they can be together but she doesn't think it'll work out for her because she'll soon be attending college, then work and adult life and then ... 

"Zola, you have to write that story," her editor said. 

She got to work writing and her editor picked up the phone to pitch the story to Youth Radio, a youth media production group based in Oakland that helps teens produce news stories for NPR, the New York Times, and many, many national media outlets. And that's how I got involved.

I had so much fun helping Zola produce her audio story for NPR, which aired nationally April 26th ! We storyboarded and workshopped her focus; I taught her how to use a microphone and an audio recorder; we logged and logged, and wrote and wrote! We even toured the NPR studios in Culver City while we recorded in studio.

A couple of my favorite lines in her story are these: 
"That's my I call him Apá. He calls us his 'shorties' or 'mis enanos.' I get emocionada when I see him, like excited but emotional at the same time." 
​
But the best part has been sharing Zola's story with other teens and young people and seeing how it inspires them to tell their stories. "I can relate," said one girl at a Youth Radio audio training workshop I taught at a few weeks ago. Full circle, I'm working with another high school student named Maria to tell her story about immigrant farm life in Merced. 

Tell your story. Shout it. Share it, and be unafraid. 

Read Zola's story on Youth Radio and Boyle Heights Beat. Links below. 

Youth Radio
Boyle Heights Beat
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4/27/2017 1 Comment

You called us about the Trump series. Here’s our response.

April 14, 2015 

The Los Angeles Times 
by Erika Aguilar
​
In April, the Los Angeles Times unleashed a six-part editorial series called “The Problem with Trump” that dissected and assessed the personality of our President – Donald J. Trump. The project struck a nerve with readers all across the country. People called with praise and scorn. Some questioned why the Times’ editorial board took a stand on Trump while others wallowed in the analysis the board provided.
 
We took your phone calls and emails and turned them into a short interview podcast with the Times’ editorial board.

​Have a listen. 

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4/27/2017 0 Comments

Muslim Doctor Runs for Lieutenant Governor, Vows to Fight Trump

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March 30, 2017 

KQED, The California Report 
by Erika Aguilar

A physician who immigrated to the United States from rural Pakistan announced his campaign Wednesday to become the next lieutenant governor of California.

Dr. Asif Mahmood, a political newcomer, said he’s got the credentials to fight President Trump on policies that he believes are “attacks on minorities.”

“As a Muslim immigrant from the great, blue state of California, I’ll be a triple threat to Donald Trump,” Mahmood said standing outside the federal immigration building in downtown Los Angeles.

The 56-year-old pulmonologist immigrated to the United States in 1991 to attend medical school, and has been practicing medicine for 17 years. He lives in Southern California with his wife and three teenage children.

Mahmood is running as a Democrat. He laid out three campaign promises Wednesday: Medicare for all Californians, free community college and standing up to Donald Trump.

“It’s time to get tough on hate,” he said.

​But, as a political novice, Mahmood was slim on specifics of how he would get those things done.

His campaign consultant, Ace Smith, said they would need to raise between $1 million and $3 million to be competitive, but he felt like Mahmood had the network to do so.

Mahmood echoed that confidence Wednesday when he touted his volunteer work at clinics and with interfaith groups, saying he didn’t think his Muslim faith would hinder his ability to reach supporters.

“I’m a proud Muslim,” he said. “I’ve been very accepting, and I think I will be accepted considering my track record.”

Although the position’s duties are mostly ceremonial, the lieutenant governor sits on the University of California Board of Regents, is the president of the State Senate and serves as acting governor when needed.

Outgoing Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is running to take Gov. Jerry Brown’s place, is termed out leaving the race without an incumbent.

Mahmood will have to work hard to get his name known to voters. The race for lieutenant governor has already attracted seasoned politicians such as state Sen. Ed Hernandez (D-San Gabriel Valley).

Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León is another potential candidate for lieutenant governor. Although he has not formally made a decision to run, de León has filed campaign finance paperwork to fundraise.

Health care product inventor Howard Leonhardt is also considering a run for lieutenant governor as an independent, according to his campaign website.

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4/5/2017 0 Comments

Despite Pro-Trump Rally, Is Orange County Becoming Less Conservative?

PictureHuntington Beach, California. Photo by Erika Aguilar for KQED.
March 28, 2017

KQED, The California Report
by Erika Aguilar

More than 1,000 people in Huntington Beach marched this past Saturday at a rally in support of President Trump in a region that used to be considered Southern California’s conservative stronghold. But that’s been changing.

The “Make America Great Again” rally in Orange County was held to coincide with other pro-Trump events across the nation, and drew a large crowd to the beach walking path at Bolsa Chica State Park. A fight broke out early between rally goers and protesters, some of whom dressed in black and wore masks over their mouths. A crowd of marchers was pepper sprayed by the protesters, and at least one of the protesters got into a fist fight with a marcher. A reporter and a photographer from the OC Weekly say they were attacked by pro-Trump marchers. At least six people were taken into custody, said Capt. Kevin Pearsall of the California State Parks Police department. Four were arrested. But the march continued.

It’s unclear what exactly sparked the spat of violence. Kevin Pham, 47, said a woman wearing all black threw the flag he was waving and punched him in the face. The Orange County resident pointed to a swollen cut between his eyebrows.
“We just wanted to have a little family event,” he said. “All my brothers are big time Republicans so we decided to come.”
​
But Pham isn’t Republican, per se. He considers himself to be “purple” or an independent.
​
“People here are a little bit more open minded, you know, whatever is good for the country is what they vote for,” he said.
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4/5/2017 0 Comments

Disney artist Claire Keane's connection to Rapunzel is personal

March 23, 2017

KPCC 89.3, The Frame
by Erika Aguilar

When Claire Keane was six years old, she wanted to paint the walls and ceiling in her bedroom with murals.

She never got to.

But decades later, Keane would find herself in a virtual fairytale tower castle, where her childhood dreams came true.

“Drawing,” Keane said flipping through a colorful sketchbook. “That’s where it’s at for me.”

​Keane is the creative brainchild behind the Disney character Rapunzel from the 2010 animated film “Tangled." The movie is about a lost princess held captive in a tower castle for 18 years by an evil woman pretending to be Rapunzel’s mother so she can reap the youthful, healing powers of the girl's lasso-like blonde hair.

​As a visual development artist for the animated film, Keane designed the murals that Rapunzel painted on the walls of her tower. She also inspired the personality and identity of the Disney princess. That's thanks to her father Disney animation legend Glen Keane who was executive producer of “Tangled." 

“I really did get to know her quite intimately,” said Claire Keane. “She was like an alias for my life.”

​On March 24, the Disney Channel is launching a new animated show, “Tangled, the Series” based on the 2010 film. After working on the "Tangled" movie, Keane was asked to act as the visual development artist for the series, too.
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4/5/2017 0 Comments

Jordan Downs’ toxic legacy

March 1, 2017

High Country News
by Erika Aguilar
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Thelmy Pérez stood on a cramped street corner in the Jordan Downs public housing complex in Watts, a low-income neighborhood in the heart of South Los Angeles, California. 

The area’s sooty appearance makes it easy to forget that the Pacific Ocean is just 15 miles away, to the west. Behind Pérez is the homely buzz of auto shops, junkyards and cluttered recycling centers. Facing her is an empty lot that’s waiting to be transformed into attractive shops and restaurants. 
Pérez is an organizer with the advocacy group LA Human Right to Housing Collective. She has been helping tenants at this 700-unit housing project in their fight for decent living standards and an environmentally safe neighborhood.

Jordan Downs’ difficult history goes back to the discriminatory housing laws of the 1960s; frustration with police back then would eventually erupt into the Watts Riots. By 1992, violent feuding by local street gangs had contributed to a historic spike of murders in Los Angeles — nearly 1,100 in a single year.

Currently, a $1 billion plan to overhaul the decaying public housing complex holds out some hope for change. But the persistent soil and groundwater pollution around the housing project, left behind by former steel mills and industrial companies, has some people doubting whether the residents will ever escape inequitable living standards.

“It’s not just the groundwater plumes,” Pérez said as she stood over one of the underground contamination sites. “It’s this whole industrial area. What does that do to a body, not just physically, but also your stress levels, mental capacity?”

Watts is unlike other parts of the Southwest, or even Southern California. Instead of tall photogenic palm trees, there are forests of wooden utility poles feeding electricity to crowded households. A handful of flat, trodden parks nearby attempt to offer a natural escape, but they are too small to satisfy the local population. Life expectancy in Watts is 72.8 years — eight years less than in the rest of Los Angeles. And Jordan Downs is among the top 10 percent of California neighborhoods most affected by air pollution, poverty and proximity to toxic cleanup sites, according to a state environmental health scorecard. 
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The Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles removed approximately 259,000 tons of lead and arsenic contaminated soil found on this 21-acre lot that it purchased in 2008 to redevelop and expand the Jordan Downs public housing complex, which sits next to the empty lot. Photo by Erika Aguilar.
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    This is a collection of stories I've recently written and produced for various publications. 

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