Sharis Delgadillo

(All gun owners that participated in the Gift for Guns Program will remain anonymous)

Dozens of cars pulled into the Ralphs supermarket parking lot along Compton Boulevard with their trunks packed with loaded handguns, shotguns, assault rifles and semi-automatics. The police were stationed and ready. The public stood by and watched.

 

It was the Gift for Guns exchange program hosted by the Sheriff's Department. 

 

On December 4 and 5, people were allowed to anonymously turn in their weapons in exchange for gift cards from Ralphs, Target, or Best Buy. No questions asked. For an old gun, you got a card worth $50; a standard condition gun was worth a $100 card, and an assault rifle was worth $200. In just one day, more than 200 guns were traded in said Deputy Sheriff Fernando Gonzalez.

 

This annual Christmas sprit program is an effort used to reduce crime in tough neighborhoods like Compton. Compton began the first annual Gifts for Guns program eight years ago, which later became a countywide project. 

 

"What better thing than to turn in your guns for? For something to better your future and your kid's future," said a young man who traded in his gun and wished to remain anonymous. "I don't want my kid growing up like I did."

 

But how effective is the program? Next to the Gift for Guns banner, along the side walk of Compton Boulevard, was hoisted the "Wall of Shame," a cardboard wall listing the names, ages, and pictures of residents who have been killed by violent deaths. It read that 118 people were killed in Compton since the beginning of the year.

 

Most of the people trading in their guns, however, were not from Compton.

 

"I'm glad to get rid of five pieces, and I came a long way but it's worth it, " said an elderly man who came from Woodland Hills.

 

"I'm from Culver City. I went all over town. I went to the one on Western and I went to the station here at Lennox, but they were all out of gift cards, " said a county worker that was waiting in line to trade in guns he found in the sewer while he was working. "They must have a lot of Roscoes, shot guns and shit like that down there."

 

Other people came from Long Beach and Moreno Valley.

 

Though Compton is a predominately African-American neighborhood and the victims of these violent crimes that the program promotes to be saving, more than half the people who came to trade in their guns were white Americans from out of town.

 

It was a unique sight for Compton.

 

Gonzalez defended the program because it was getting rid of unwanted guns from all over the city, not just Compton.

 

"We got a complete cross section. You get gang members who do the walk up and turn in their guns and walk away, we have honest citizens, and we have people from the NRA..." said Gonzalez. "Sometimes people have a small child and they don't want the guns in their homes."

 

A man who called himself George C., was protesting the Gifts for Guns exchange program along the sidewalk and said, " I've lived in some crap neighborhoods myself. I know what a gangbanger looks like. I've been to a few of these shindigs and I haven't seen a single gangbanger turn in their guns."

 

Many of the people were from out of town that wanted to exchange their guns for gift cards during the bad economy.

 

"With the recent economic downturn, I'm getting some gift cards so I can buy some dog food. If it's free, it's for me, " said the county worker from Culver City.

 

So why aren't the residences of Compton participating in this program?

 

Jim Hawkins, a volunteer for the Sports Spectacular teen intervention program, which also created the "Great Wall" display said, "If I were guilty, I wouldn't bring in a gun. I would have given it to someone else."

 

Hawkins made a point. One of the Hispanic men who was trading in a gun, said a friend gave it to him. " I don't get involved like that anymore, ya know? I got kids," he said.

 

Gonzalez when on to explain that even though the people turning in the guns are not the people most likely to commit a crime, it still reduces the chances of having guns turn up into the hands of criminals.

 

"A lot of the times when we go to, for example, burglary calls, we end up discovering out that a lot of firearms are stolen from homes during burglaries, "said Gonzalez.

 

George C., did not agree. As he proudly exposed his handgun hanging off his waist side, he marched down the sidewalk holding up signs that read "Criminals love gun free zones" and "Don't give them your guns."

 

George C., believes that guns keep Americans citizens safe and should not feel ashamed of owning guns because it's their constitutional right.

 

"A lot of cops pull over and talk to me here and half of them are on my side. They don't think this is doing any good either. It's disarming people," said George C.

 

After eight years of Gifts for Guns exchanges, Compton continues to have one of the highest crimes rates in Los Angeles.

 

L.A's Living Legend, Muralist Judy Baca
by Sharis Delgadillo

Judith F. Baca, is the 63-year-old legendary muralist and UCLA professor that has made Los Angeles into one of the mural capitals of the United States. She directed the longest mural in the world and worked on 3,000 projects. She jumped straight into public art after she received her Master in fine arts and learned the techniques of David Alfaro Siqueiros, one of "Los Tres Grandes" who began a muralist movement in Mexico after the revolution of 1910. Los Tres Grandes' philosophy was one that Baca inherited and crossed into the United States with: "We repudiate so-called easel art and all such art which springs from ultra-intellectual circles, for it is essentially aristocratic. We hail the monumental expression of art because such art is public property."

The Great Wall of Los Angeles is Baca's signature piece. This half-mile long mural is the longest in the world. It is located in the Tujunga Flood Channel in the San Fernando Valley, close to Baca's childhood neighborhood of Pacoima. The project began in 1974 and took five summers to complete. Over 400 at risk youth collaborated, along with painters, scholars, and the untold stories of women and ethnic people in Los Angeles who were "invisible in conventional text books." In between the images of the La Brea Tar pits to the 1948 Olympic Champions, the mural tells of the story of the original Chumash Indians, the wave of Chinese immigration, the Dust Bowl Refugees, Japanese internment camps, the Civil Rights movement, and the Beat movement of the Venice cafes.

 

Currently, Baca is restoring the Great Wall that has been deteriorated because of environmental damage. In a few years, Baca plans to expand the mural another half a mile to include the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s.

Baca's murals are based on the "memory of the land." Baca focuses on disenfranchised communities whose histories are not accounted for. She interviews people one by one, gathers their family pictures, and paints their collective history in their neighborhood. An example is the "The Migration of the Golden People" found on the wall of the Central American Research and Education Center of Los Angeles in Pico Union, which tells about the 1980's migration of Central Americans to Los Angeles.

 

In 1974, Baca began the first mural program in Los Angeles that led to the creation of the Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC). The name SPARC was inspired by a saying from Ho Chi Mihn, the north Vietnamese communist revolutionary president, "It only takes a spark to start a prairie fire."

 

Working out of an old jailhouse near Venice Beach, SPACR has organized programs such as Citywide that trained hundreds of youth apprentices and produced 400 murals in almost every ethnic community in L.A. The Neighborhood Pride program produced 105 murals but ceased because of city budget cuts.

 

SPARC murals recently have been damaged by graffiti. Baca believes the disappearance of her the programs has severed the relationship between the new generation of taggers and respect for the historical murals.

 

Baca theorizes that young people have "followed the guidance of the corporate logo." As America's billboards fill the landscape, it sends out the message to the world, "the power was in the individual's right to get his name up there," said Baca.

 

Her message to the graffiti writers,  "Think in the collective since. Your moment in fame is not so important as what you contribute by in large to the community from which you come from."

 

Baca said SPARC was the original founder of the Venice Pavilion today known as the Venice Graffiti Pit. These are walls were graffiti artists could paint legally right along the Venice boardwalk. According to Baca, SPARC lost their permit during a lawsuit with the city. SPARC sued the city for censorship, after the Los Angeles Police Department painted over a SPARC mural with a smiley face. Apparently, the LAPD found offensive the image of a pig dressed in a blue uniform beating a graffiti artist.

 

Her artwork has been the subject of controversy. In 2005, the anti-immigration group Save Our State led a protest demanding that the City of Baldwin Park to alter Baca's monument Danza Indigenas  (Indigenous Dance), located at the Metrolink station.

 

Save Our State sent death threats to Baca and demanded the removal of two of the quotes that were sandblasted onto the monument, which commemorates the death of the indigenous people during the San Gabriel Mission era. 

 

"This land was Mexican once, was Indian always and is, and will be again," which was written by the deceased poet Gloria Anzaldua. The second quote read " It was better before they came." Baca said the quote came from a city council member. Save our State said the underlined "they," references white people and called Baca a "reconquista," someone who wants California to be returned to Mexico.

 

Baca denies being a "reconquista," and that she picked the quote because there had been so much immigration in Baldwin Park, she didn't know who "they" were.

 

"If (Save Our State) really understood what that meant, they would have been even more offended," said Baca.

 

The quotes were never removed.

 

Some of Baca's recent works include Seeing Through Other's Eyes and Tiny Ripples of Hope, Dancer, Cesar Chavez Monument, World Wall: A Vision of the Future Without Fear, Durango Mural Project: Recollections, La Memoria de Nuestra Tierra (The Memory of Our Land), and the Guadalupe Mural Project.

Listen to Judy's interview and take a tour of SPARC's facilities.

The 25th Annual AIDS Walk Los Angeles was held in West Hollywood on Oct. 18, 2009. According to the Los Angeles Times, over 30,000 people participated in the walk. Several of the walkers were sponsored and raised money for various AIDS organizations. Many of the participants were enthusiastic young people from local high schools and colleges. The spirits of the walkers where kept high along the six mile route. Entertainment, water, ice cream, and cookies were generously given away by encouraging volunteers. At the finish line in West Hollywood Park, drag queens took pictures with thousands of participants. Student were hauled off in school buses, but not before they got a chance to scribble their signatures and messages on the AIDS Walk Banners, leaving their mark in history.

Fashion 21, is a clothes outlet named after Forever 21, selling the same brand names. It employs young women who also may not have private  transportation.

Parallel to Figueroa Street is the Metro Gold Line. An art gallery, the Avenue 50 Studio, worked with local high school students to beautify the train tracks. They outlined their bodies on card boards, cut, and posted the life size figures along the rail. 

The Asian community has always maintained a strong presence in Highland Park. This gated Buddhist temple is also found along Figueroa among all the other Latino business.

Amy Goodman is a 52 year old investigative journalist. She is currently the co-host and executive producer of Democracy Now! The War and Peace Report, stationed out of New York City. Democracy Now! is a daily TV/Radio program syndicated over 800 channels. It has was won over 54 journalism awards. Goodman's morning show extensively covers the wars in the Middle East and national security. Juan Gonzales is the co-host for Democracy Now!. The show has heavy prominence in the niche market for progressive independent media. It's Twitter account has over 11,000 followers. The broadcast station is an old firehouse located at 87 Lafayette St. New York, NY 10013. 

Since the violent protest of Iran that shook the world after the "stolen" election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Twitter has remained a relevant tool for Persians to spread their message to the world. Today, many supporters of this Iranian revolution are color filtering their online pictures green on Twitter. The green presents a new progressive movement that emerged after the protests. This may be considered a virtual state on the rise. Many Persians across the world, from Iran to Los Angeles, demonstrate solidarity by continuing to re-tweet the bloody images of the victims of Ahmadinejad's repression, and some updates on his tentative visit to N.Y. in October, to discuss nuclear arms with President Barack Obama.

Yet, this is where it has stopped. Since this climax, the Twitter revolution has dwindled. Another clash of violent protest hit the streets of Tehran Sept. 18., rallying against the Presidents election. In hopes of finding more first-person accounts and uncensored pictures, other than the L.A Times, I was disappointed to find none. There could be several reasons. The government has frightened the public to the point of paralysis, the government shut down the Internet, or the passion of the Iranian people burned their own loins. I really don't know. But for whatever unexplained reason, now I have to go back to looking at Iran through the eyes of the self-proclaimed "unbiased" middle-class media, showing me nothing but political leaders and third-world turban wearing species, instead of human beings fighting for a freedom we all desire.