By Abel M. Salas, Editor With our twelfth annual year-end, holiday season issue in production, Brooklyn & Boyle extends heartfelt and infinite gratitude to the greater family of readers, contributing writers, advertisers, artists, educators, advocates, activists, organizers, community builders and dreamers that have made this significant—but no less hard-won and hard-earned—milestone possible. Conceived, discussed and developed in the fall of 2007 in and around East L.A., El Sereno, Lincoln Heights, City Terrace and Boyle Heights, our plucky, still standing and still independent East Side arts, culture and community issues print publication and online media platform proudly welcomes a new decade with at once vividly intense and subtly provocative cover art by East L.A.-based visual artist Maritza Torres . We acknowledge, of course, the respected curators and arts community colleagues who hipped us to her work early on, foremo...

A 1993 hunger strike at UCLA that led to creation of the César E. Chávez Center for Chicana and Chicano Studies was modeled on a 1987 student action, says Dr. Álvaro Huerta. Photo © 1993 by Abraham Torres/RumbleSkout3.com Editorial by Dr. Álvaro Huerta To borrow—more like crib—from the great James Baldwin’s writings and speeches, I declare to America’s racists that I am not your “wetback.” I am a man. I am a Chicano. I am a proud son of Mexican immigrants—the salt of the earth. I say these words from a place of privilege, having earned advanced degrees from world-class universities. These include a Ph.D. (city & regional planning) from UC Berkeley, as well as an M.A. (urban planning) and a B.A. (history)—both from UCLA. I also say these words because my personal and family backgrounds were indeed plagued by abject poverty, violence and a sense of hopelessness. I spent the earliest years of my life in a Mexican slum (Colonia Libertad, Tijuana, Baja California) and my form...

From left: Antonia Hernández, Councilmember Gil Cedillo, Mayor Eric Garcetti and City Attorney Mike Feuer.  (Photo courtesy the Office of the Mayor, Los Angeles) by Abel M. Salas Offering a powerful and pointed response to the anti-immigrant rhetoric espoused by the President-elect as a hallmark of his campaign, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti was joined earlier today by L.A. County Supervisor Hilda L. Solis, City Councilmember Gil Cedillo, City Attorney Mike Feuer, California Community Foundation president and CEO Antonia Hernandez, the Weingart Foundation’s Fred Ali and Robert K. Ross, M.D., president and CEO of The California Endowment. The philanthropic and elected leaders came together at a press conference to announce the creation of a $10 million fund to assist immigrants facing deportation. Amidst the fear and uncertainty that has followed the election, many hard-working, law-abiding immigrants worry that a Trump administration will make good on his threats to cr...