A Candle for Sergio Rios Jr. and his family, our family

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This is and will always be Sergio Rios Jr., born and raised in our neighborhood; a soul who took care of every last one of us, including me when I was 16 years old in the pit cheering for Rage Against the Machine at Rock the Bells in 2007.

Seven years later, I was fortunate enough to take the lot of these photos during your birthday party at the “Black” bar on Santa Monica Blvd on October 24th, 2014, when you turned 24 years old just a few weeks ahead of me.

Now, there are countless people reeling and whose lives are upended mourning for you and Ricky; now, there are so many eyes across the city worn from tears, so many of our voices gripped by the salt, so many childhoods belonging to the next generation which will only get to hear about you and your other half’s light in every room we got to share with you all.

Now there’s this family you leave behind, and a lifetime of missing you facing us like Mount Wilson in the distance; for your boys, our brothers, now there’s this manhood unlike anything we could ever imagine in our boyhood.

But because I know you wouldn’t back down if the roles were reversed, I promise to take it on to the best of my ability; I trust with everyone else who loves you that you and your people’s name will never, ever be in vain so long as we have a chance to yell it out.

From our neighborhood to the top of Mount Wilson, this is and will always be Sergio Rios Jr.

J.T.

Btw L.A., did you know…?

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In 2020 the U.S. Census counted some 1.7 million Central-Americans in L.A. County. But from the Oaxacan Isthmus (!) to the Panama Canal—including the Caribbean islands—there are now over 100 million people who “hold the center” of the Americas, or who can identify as Central American or Caribbean.

And did you know that in 1823, after a decade of war for independence from Spain there was even a Central American Federation between Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama?! Even the U.S. recognized “CAF” in 1824!

4 Escudos from the CAF. 1835. Image courtesy of the National Numismatic Collection, National Museum of American History

Speaking of then, the largest influx of immigrants to the U.S. actually took place during the 1890s, when more than 10 million people fled wars and instability in Central, Eastern and Southern Europe to start over on Turtle Island; that year “foreign-born” people made about 15% of the national census, as opposed to 2020, when they made up 14%.

Discharge from Ellis Island. 1902. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Public Domain.

But what do I know? I’m just headed back to my father’s homeland to break bolillos with some Salvi pueblos and hear their thoughts on it all for Los Cuentos de Los Angeles. Please learn more at my fundraiser for the trip!

J.T.

JIMBO TIMES returns to El Salvador this January

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The land where my papá was born was for the longest time a maligned place in the stories told through the land I called home. In fact, exactly six years ago in a discussion regarding the U.S.’s immigration quotas Trump referred to El Salvador, as well as Haiti and other African nations, as “shit-hole countries.”

That same year I visited El Salvador for the first time. I was 27 then, and nothing would stop me from breaking through to this world I’d heard enough about but which I hadn’t seen for myself yet; instead of “The Violent Animals of MS-13,” I saw the volcanic highlands that enclosed the first pupusas ever known to a people and their pueblos, to say nothing of an entirely new family tree. It was also in San Salvador where I tried pupusas de masa de arroz for the first time, which to this day are still my favorite kind to ask of pupuseras in Los Angeles.

I also learned that the hometown had prepared me over a lifetime to find my way “back.” According to the 2022 Census, just under 1.7 million Central-Americans call L.A. home,* but that’s surely an under-count since the community grows daily in L.A. County while also doing its part to make Southern California one of the richest havens of culture in all of North America.

This January, I return to El Salvador for just the second time ever as an Election Observer for presidential elections taking place there. I’ll be part of a small delegation to show enduring commitment to a free and just El Salvador.

I’m now fundraising to pay for the trip! My fundraising goal covers the costs of the airfare, as well as in-country costs including lodging and transportation, and about $100 for miscellaneous expenses (like a few delicious queso duros). In addition to my role as an Observer, I’ll also be documenting the efforts of my delegation leading up to presidential elections on February 4th, including interviews with my fellow delegates and the Salvadoran people to uplift only more of this pueblo for Los Angeles.

As usual, you’ll be able to find all of these cuentos via jimbotimes.com, J.T. the L.A. Storyteller Podcast, and on Instagram: @jimbotimes. For any questions or comments, please don’t hesitate to reach out. Trust that I’m going to do my best to make you proud, Los Angeles, and thanks so much on behalf of Los Cuentos!

*An earlier version of this article mistakenly noted the Central-American population in L.A. as being at 836,000 people, when in fact the number is significantly higher.*

J.T.

person sitting and posing in traditional native american clothing

This map shows at least 62 different tribes in California prior to European contact

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The map is courtesy of the Northern California Indian Development Council, which has provided resources for American Indian communities since 1976. According to the U.S. Library of Congress:

“The earliest Californians were adventurous Asians who made their way across the Bering Straits to Alaska thousands of years ago when a warmer climate and a now-vanished land bridge made such travel easier. These men and women and their descendants settled North and South America, spreading out to form the various nations and tribes whom the first European visitors to this hemisphere dubbed ‘Indians.’ The mountain ranges of the Pacific Coast isolated these early settlers from the cultures that developed in neighboring Mexico and the western United States.”

Source: Northern California Indian Development Council.

There were at least six unique language networks in what would become California. In the L.A. basin area, the Gabrieleño, Tongva, or Kizh nation is noted as part of a network which spoke an “Uto-Aztecan” language.

In early 2024, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife is set to return 40 acres to the Pauite-Shoshone people in the Owens Valley in the department’s first ever such move.

In the “Southland,” 2023 also saw an Indigenous Charter School in El Sereno purchase 12 acres of land on behalf of the Gabrieleño Shoshone Tribal Nation to establish what will one day be known as the Chief Ya’anna Learning Village.

Be sure you’re subscribed to J.T. the L.A. Storyteller for more updates on Native American and California Native history soon!

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J.T.