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

J.T.4 Comments

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.

person inserting a videotape into the video player

You are invited to a special screening of Maria’s Story

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This January 16th marked 32 years since El Salvador’s 1992 peace treaty, also known as the Chapultepec Peace Accords, which were signed between the Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional (FMLN) and the U.S. backed right-wing government of El Salvador, ending a 12 year war in the Central American Nation which killed at least 75,000 Salvadorans, disappeared 8,000 others, and displaced at least a million more.

By the early 1980s the U.S. had its hands in conflicts across the globe, from the mountains of Afghanistan to the coasts of Nicaragua and the forests of El Salvador; former president Ronald Reagan made his commitment to this modus operandi clear as soon as he was elected in 1980, moving quickly to establish the “Contras,” or counter-revolutionary death squads against the socialist Sandinista government in Nicaragua. The U.S. dollar’s role on these “Cold War” fronts–as is the case now with its support for Israel against Palestine in the “war on terror”–was an open secret.

In 1985 at the White House, Reagan stood alongside then-Salvadoran president Duarte, whom had only been elected in June 1984, and called him “a close friend.” He then went on to claim that “elections, economic reforms and communist guerillas losing ground [in El Salvador] would [not] have been possible without the economic assistance and military training and equipment that [the U.S.] provided.” The U.S. government would send between $4.5 – 6 billion in economic and military aid to El Salvador over the 1980s, though not without loopholes and controversy, including the Iran-Contra affair.

President Reagan’s and President Jose Napoleon Duarte’s of El Salvador Remarks during his Working Visit in the Rose Garden on May 16, 1985. Courtesy of Ronald Reagan Library.

This is all the more reason why it’s stunning that the war in El Salvador outlasted even Reagan’s tenure. In 1987, 37 year old Maria Serrano lost one of her three daughters, Ceci Serrano, to an ambush by the Salvadoran army on her pueblo. While Maria didn’t mention Reagan by name as she discussed “the enemy,” or those responsible for the attack, she did note that losing her daughter in a particularly ruthless and dehumanizing fashion to an army Reagan had so much praise for was a major factor in her decision to become a guerilla fighter and organizer with the FMLN.

Save the date! For next Thursday, January 25th at 7:30 PM in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles.

In Maria’s Story, using solar-powered batteries, film-makers shadow Maria on-the-run” for two months through highlands and waterfalls as she and fellow farmer communities devise a major offensive against the Salvadoran army, an offensive so effective it ultimately spurs both the FMLN and the U.S. backed Salvadoran government to sign the Peace Accords; weaving together the different moments which led Maria into such a precarious position to begin with, the film captures the undeniable humility of a people simply struggling to live free from the grip of empire in the late 20th century.

I’m now honored to present a screening of Maria’s Story at none other than the Re/Arte (medianoche) bookstore in Boyle Heights. Proceeds from the event will go towards supporting my upcoming visit to El Salvador as an Election Observer, and attendees will also get to check out all of the amazing libros–many of which are no longer in print or just anywhere else–at Re/Arte.

Tell a friend, bring your own concha–available nearby on E. Cesar Chavez Ave–and enjoy! It’s going to be an unforgettable time.

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.