Warrior Life Fall 2023

Warrior Life El Camino College

Fall 2023

&

Exponentially Growing with Junko Forbes New board of trustee member Brett Roberts

Top 5 checked out graphic novels

Fast & furry-ous: meet cat club caretaker Carl Turano

Meet our staff Khoury Williams, Kim McGill, Brittany Parris,Greg Fontanilla Erica Lee, Christopher “Jesse” Chan, Nasai Rivas

Writers

Greg Fontanilla, Khoury Williams, Saqib Rawda, Monroe Morrow, Brittany Parris, Delfino Camacho

Photographers

Kae Takazawa, Kim McGill, Jeremiah Dela Cruz Ingrid Barrera, Leyna Kobayashi

Illustrators

Stefanie Frith, Kate McLaughlin

Student Media Advisers

Brittany Parris

Editor-in-chief

Greg Fontanilla

Managing Editor

Jack Mulkey Jessica Martinez

Support Staff

About us and how to join Warrior Life is a student-run magazine located at El Camino College, 16007 Crenshaw Blvd., Torrance CA 90506. El Camino College students interested in being a part of the magazine must enroll in Journalism 9 for spring 2024 or contact student media adviser, Stefanie Frith at sfrith@elcamino.edu for more information.

Letter from the Editor

I

f I could erase all memories of my senior year of high school, I would.

Each morning, the administration staff would take turns writing down the names of colleges my classmates had accepted admission to on a wall outside the main office, and every morning, my stomach was in knots as I passed by it.

While my classmates compared acceptance letters and plans for the next phase in their lives, I was having panic attacks in the restroom over my future.

With a pile of rejection letters and optimism waning, I was sure I would not accomplish anything in life.

Almost a decade later, nothing could be further from the truth. The thought of majoring in journalism never crossed my mind.

After a last-minute acceptance to California State University, Northridge, I graduated in 2018 with a degree in English and Asian American Studies.

As luck would have it, almost a year later, a global pandemic would halt any plans of finding employment, and I would have the following 2 ½ years to do nothing but think.

With no experience in my major, I enrolled in El Camino College expecting to learn Excel and find a data entry job.

However, after meeting with an academic counselor, they suggested looking into journalism after I shared my passion for writing and storytelling. Nothing could prepare me for the changes in my life.

Since being in this program, I’ve gone from taking a beginner course in journalism to being the opinion and features editor for The Union, and now, the editor-in-chief for Warrior Life magazine.

I share this story with almost anyone who will listen, but in middle school, one of my dreams was to become a magazine editor for Seventeen magazine, and who knew nearly a decade that I would come so close to it.

Like everything in life, it came with its challenges, but luckily, I had a fantastic team with me every step of the way.

Khoury, Erica, Kim, Elsa, and Tramarr, I cannot thank you enough for taking this course along with the hustle of your everyday life. It has been a joy to see how passionate you all have been with the stories you have written and watch them develop over the semester, and it’s with great pride that I can see the rest of the community enjoy it as well.

To Greg, my managing editor, it has been an honor to work alongside you again, and I cannot thank you enough for taking on this role and ensuring this magazine made its way to completion. You’ve had my back throughout this process, and it meant the world to me.

To Stefanie, Kate and Jessica, I still think of my nervousness when seated across from you as I was interviewed for this position. Up to that point, I still struggled with a lot of self-doubt and questioned how I would ever make it as a leader, but then I

remembered that you all had prepared me for this moment, and you’re the reason I am the writer I am today.

For that, I will always be thankful.

To everyone else who helped contribute something to this issue, you are now part of the legacy of Warrior Life, and I hope you wear it with pride, as do I. With that, I hope you all have as much fun reading it as we did making it.

All the best, Brittany Parris

Table of contents 5- 6

Lost in ace

7

What’s in your bag?

8-13

Exponentially Growing

14-15

Treat yo’ shelf

22-23

Handle with curl

1621 There’s no justice here

32-35

From the diamond to the finish line

36-40

Dyeing to live, living to dye

41-44

50th hip hop annivesary

45

Illustration spotlight

46-47

Family dysfunctional

48-49

Goodwill Hunting

50-51

Top 5 comic book shops Fantastic felines

24-31

52-59 A Trustee’s dedication

Lost in Ace I knew I was asexual since my teens. A lack of understanding about my orientation meant that I didn’t feel comfortable coming out until my 30s.

Story by Erica Lee Illustration by Jeremiah Dela Cruz

E

veryone thought Luke* was the perfect boyfriend for me. He was Asian-American from a biracial home studying computer science at UC Santa Cruz. We bonded during freshman year over a love of video games, zombie movies and “Doctor Who.” We were dating by our sophomore year.

On the surface, everything looked perfect. We were two nerdy teens who found each other on a summer night at a bus stop across the street from the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. Luke was singing “Still Alive” from “Portal” and I joined in. Some would say the rest was history.

But after eight months of dating, I ended the relationship.

If anyone asked, I said we weren’t compatible. In reality, things were more complicated.

The truth is this; I’m part of a rare group. This is a group that totals 1% of the population.

I am asexual.

Asexuality is a lack of sexual attraction or a lack of interest in sexual activity with others. It is often described as existing on a spectrum. Those who identify as “ace” can still have sex or be repulsed by it. We can crave romance or forgo it all together. Some may choose to marry and have children and others don’t.

Asexuality is an orientation, just like heterosexuality, homosexuality, and bisexuality.

So why did I date a man who I wasn’t really into?

We got together because everyone we knew was starting to pair up. After a year, it felt like the next step in our relationship. Neither of us had dated before, and outside pressure pushed us together. I liked Luke, but I didn’t share the attraction for him that he felt for me.

My friends told me to give him a chance anyway.

“You’ll like him the more you get to know him better,” they said, insisted even.

Worst. Advice. Ever.

Our last date didn’t end well. We went to the movies on a Friday in downtown Santa Cruz. Without warning, he leaned in for a kiss. It would have been our first.

That is if I hadn’t swerved out of the way.

Later, when asked how my first kiss went, I said that I didn’t have one.

“Why not?” My friend Kim sat across from me, staring with narrow eyes, her arms folded over her chest. Behind her was the “Stud Wall”, a collage of shirtless male models and actors she and her friends had curated for years.

I stared past Kim, glaring holes into the space behind her.

“Christ,” I thought. I never liked that wall.

Sex was everywhere and I hated it.

“I don’t know,” I snapped. “I think I’m asexual!”

By the time I was 20, I knew I wasn’t straight. I couldn’t call myself gay, either. I never had crushes. While I found some celebrities attractive, I liked them more for their acting or their music. I hated “The Notebook” and couldn’t get why everyone wanted to see “Magic Mike” so badly.

In the seventh grade, I threw up after Sex Ed. I later blurted out to the nurse that I never, ever wanted to have sex. Like, ever.

No wonder H.R. Geiger made his Xenomorphs look so phallic. Sex organs just looked so alien.

Kim gaped at me with wide eyes. “What? You can’t be asexual. Only sea sponges are asexual!”

According to the Human Rights Campaign’s 2021 LGBTQ Community Survey, 82% of asexual people reported that they faced mental health challenges. This comes from the stigma associated with being ace. Often, we are told our identity is a phase or that we “haven’t found the right person yet.”

13 years ago, there wasn’t a dialogue about asexuality.

The first and only time I visited the UC Santa Cruz LGBT resource center ended badly. The student volunteer on duty didn’t know what asexuality was. When she asked another volunteer for help, her colleague had never heard of asexuality either. She seemed unsure if they had any material about it.

Since that time, the so-called “invisible orientation” has become more visible. There is more asexual representation now than it was over a decade ago.

According to the UCLA Williams Institute, “asexuality is Warrior Life | 5

an emerging identity. We expect that the prevalence and understanding of asexuality will grow as more youth reach adolescence and become familiar with the identity.”

In the meantime, I just thought there was something wrong with me. I wasn’t asexual. I just hadn’t found “The One” yet. I just had to put myself out there more.

Dating felt like a chore. It was an entry on a “To-Do” list that was put off as much as possible. Dating apps were treated like junk mail catalogs destined for the trash.

I pushed myself into dating because I thought it was something you were supposed to do in your 20s. My mom was always talking about how her friends’ children were getting married and having kids of their own. Pressure to find someone was mounting the closer I reached 30 and more of my friends started to settle down.

I never thought I’d find validation on Netflix.

In season three of “Bojack Horseman”, Todd Chavez reconnects with his ex-girlfriend Emily. Things seemed to be going well, but not quite. In the episode “That Went Well,” Emily finally asks Todd what his deal is. Does he like her or not?

“I’m not gay,” Todd says. He looks down at his ice cream sundae, absentmindely fidgeting with the spoon. “I mean, I don’t think I am. But I don’t think I am straight either. I don’t know what I am. I think I might be nothing.”

I choked on my beer.

6 | Warrior Life

That episode finally put to words what a decade of Google searches couldn’t.

In hindsight, I wish this representation existed ten years ago. Maybe it could have made navigating relationships in my 20s manageable. Maybe it would have made coming out easier if I had something to back me up. Who knows.

What I do know is this.

I am asexual, and that’s okay. *Author’s Note: Names have been changed to maintain confidentiality of those involved.

LGBTQIA+ resources are available to El Camino College students in Resources can be accessed in-person through the Social Justice Center in the Communications Building, Room 204 or online at https://bit.ly/3MohcNz For more information about asexuality, visit the Asexuality Visibility and Education Network website at https://www.asexuality.org/

Sophomore Ami Jacobson warms up with sprint drills on the track on Wednesday, Nov. 1. Jacobson keeps a pair of Sony headphones in her training bag because of the sound quality. In addition to headphones, she keeps stretch bands, Icy Hot, and a pair of running shoes in her gym bag.

What’s in your bag?

Story and photo by Greg Fontanilla

Student-athletes don’t just carry around books, writing materials and laptops. They also carry items to keep up with items for training for their respective sports. Warrior Life interviewed El Camino College student-athletes to find out what they carry in their training bags.

Here are the top five items Warrior Life discovered!

1) Training shoes For freshman Payton Garrison, an outside hitter and opposite hitter on the volleyball team, a pair

of Nike’s Kyrie shoe line for the volleyball court is preferred. She prefers Kyries, because of the stability it has to offer, and allows a good bounce.

2) Headphones Ami Jacobson, a sophomore on the crosscountry team, keeps headphones in her bag.

3) Hydration container Water. Electrolytes. These are crucial components for proper bodily recovery,

but it can’t be consumed without a container to hold it. Returning softball player Malia Martin prefers to haul around a Hydroflask container.

4) Snacks Another must when it comes to nutrition, food is consumed to fuel workouts. Protein bars are a favorite among athletes since they are always on the go. Sophomore Tana Wynia, a midfielder on the soccer team, prefers Kind protein bars, “You never know when you’re going

to be hungry,” Wynia said.

5) Pre-wrap Long hair can be a nuisance for athletes, but there’s a simple solution: Prewrap. It has many purposes, but for soccer players Ariana Ramirez and Allison Sibley, they use it to keep their hair tied back when they’re on the field to keep their hair from flailing during practices or games.

Warrior Life | 7

8 | Warrior Life

Exponentially growing

Junko Forbes, a mathematics professor who teaches statistics at El Camino College showcases math materials in her office on Thursday, October 12.

El Camino College statistics professor helps solve life’s equations in and out of the classroom Story and photos by Greg Fontanilla

Warrior Life | 9

El Camino statistics professor Junko Forbes writes equations on a whiteboard in a classroom on Thursday, Sept. 21. A native of Shizouka, Japan, she moved to California to study English, but also decided to pursue a degree in mathematics at California State University Long Beach. “As long as there are students, I’ll be teaching,” Forbes said. She is now in her 15th year teaching at ECC.

A

s a young child, Junko Forbes never thought she would teach mathematics. She wanted to be a music composer for films like how John Williams composed for the Star Wars and Harry Potter series, or “Jurassic Park.”

Her passion for music began at the age of 3, playing the piano until she was 18. As a college student, she wanted to double major in music and mathematics.

On two separate times in her life, she had light bulb moments that allowed her to put the pieces of her future together.

A future in teaching mathematics.

When she was in high school, her mathematics teacher ignited Forbes’ natural inclination for numbers. Her junior 10 | Warrior Life

year, she failed a math exam, but her math teacher noticed her potential.

“He really believed in me,” Forbes said.

The second time around, she was in college. As a California State University Long Beach student, she was under the instruction of Yong Hee Kim-Park, who inspired her to develop a passion for statistics.

More than a decade later, she’s at El Camino College, in charge of about 200 math students of her own.

During the week, the 42-year old math professor can be found in a classroom in the Mathematical Sciences building at ECC, teaching statistics. On a fall afternoon, she is putting up a math equation on a projector in her classroom.

She does a lesson on lower and upper fences and outliers.

To demonstrate how to solve the equation, she pulls out a calculator, then displays another equation for students to solve. She slowly walks around the classroom, checking each student’s work.

A student raises his hand. She hustles over to help.

This is what she enjoys most. Helping students understand the often complicated nature of mathematics can cause some students to struggle. Since 2008, she has worked at ECC teaching statistics, helping the math division’s success rates, with her teaching style.

“I really believe that teaching is the most rewarding way of contributing to other human beings,” Forbes said.

She’s been seen flashing her contagious smile in El Camino College’s math building, greeting those she stumbles across.

The clicks and clacks of the math professor’s shoes can be heard as she’s walking around the building.

Originally from Shizuoka, Japan, she attended an all-girls Catholic school for six years – junior high to high school. The eldest of five, she has two brothers and two sisters. As a high school student, she played basketball, but also developed a passion for mathematics from her math teacher, who was president of the school.

She later moved to the United States at 19 years old to learn English.

After high school, she was accepted at Long Beach City College, the first to respond to her applications. After one year, she considered going back to Japan before she realized she wanted to teach while tutoring at the Math Success Center at LBCC. She then decided to pursue her math degree and wanted to stay in Los Angeles.

In addition to taking math courses, she began taking music classes, because she wanted to double major in math and music. However, Forbes found music to be difficult but sought it out as a hobby. On the other hand, she had a natural interest in math and thought pursuing it as a career would work in her favor.

“I just loved tutoring students, so I pursued earning a degree in mathematics,” Forbes said. “I wanted to try teaching in classrooms to see how that makes me feel.”

Upon this realization, she decided to pursue a math degree, transferring to California State University Long Beach, where she obtained her bachelor of science degree in mathematics with a certificate in statistics.

She followed that up with a master’s degree in math, also from CSULB. While attending graduate school, she launched her teaching career in February 2007 at Cerritos College as a part-time instructor. It was here she taught intermediate algebra.

“It was a great sense of fulfillment, I felt,” Forbes said.

“It made me feel like this is it, this is going to become my passion.”

Forbes was teaching intermediate algebra her first semester at California State University Long Beach when she realized she found her calling as a teacher.

Feeling nervous on her first day, she walked into a room of 40 students, but also felt a sense of fulfillment knowing she was contributing to the success of her math students. On her first day of teaching, she walked into a room of 40 students feeling nervous but also feeling a sense of fulfillment knowing she was contributing to the success of her math students.

After graduation from CSULB, Forbes applied to work at several community colleges, including Rio Hondo, El Camino, and LBCC. She eventually began teaching at El Camino in 2008, starting off as a part-time instructor in the college’s mathematical science department.

Forbes taught basic math courses including algebra.

Early on in her teaching career at El Camino, “pure lecturing” became her method of teaching, but she acknowledges this type of method was not working for her.

This entailed writing on chalkboard, with no group work.

“It was not working. I figured I was losing my students’ interest,” Forbes said.

In an effort to change her teaching methods, she attended professional development seminars, in which her colleagues from different community colleges shared their different teaching methods. Forbes also attended programs, including the Basic Math Skills Cohort for approximately two years, after being recruited by math instructors Lars Kjeseth and Arturo Martinez. She attended the seminars every Friday.

“I was very excited to go in. I was not nervous,” Forbes said. “Once I got there, I was a little nervous because I was intimidated by other teachers’ teaching methods.”

Forbes had grown accustomed to her own teaching method of pure lecturing. That eventually changed after learning about different teaching approaches.

One of those methods learned was a teach-back method.

This entailed lecturing for about 20 to 30 minutes, and students doing an in-class activity in order to reinforce the lesson material. Additionally, Forbes would have students work in groups. After working on the in-class activity individually or in groups, she called students up to the whiteboard to demonstrate how they came up with an answer for a math problem.

Forbes realized this type of teaching method allowed her students to better understand course material, and continues to use this in her classrooms today.

“I was able to see if my students understood the concept or not,” Forbes said. “It was a good way of assessing students.”

Marlowe Lemons, dean of the Mathematical Sciences division at ECC has observed this in Forbes’ classroom.

“When I’ve seen her in the classrooms, she’s very proactive in learning,” Lemons said. “She teaches the lectures, and has some type of activity that puts them in groups and collaborates.”

Susan Tummers, a math professor who has been with El Camino for 24 years, said Forbes is an excellent professor

“I really believe that teaching is the most rewarding way of contributing to other human beings” Junko Forbes

Warrior Life | 11

and someone who strives for growth.

“She’s excited to teach. She likes to see students understanding material, she loves her subject and wants to convey her love of (the) subject to her students,” Tummers said.

That love is obvious. During an interview with Warrior Life, a statistics student interrupts, praising Forbes for her work as a math instructor.

“The best I’ve had since I got here,” Sha’heed Scoggins said.

Lemons also praised Forbes.

“She has a good rapport with her students,” Lemons said. “She is a very popular professor amongst our students.”

Lemons continued to discuss the hard work the longtime professor has put in.

“She’s always been supportive and helpful to the department,” Lemons said. “She really puts forth blood, sweat, and tears to see all of her students succeed.”

In 2010, Forbes was hired for a full-time position as a math professor at ECC. Thinking she did not get the job after interviewing with a panel that included then President Tom Fallo, she received a phone call that afternoon from Donald Goldberg, who was dean of the Mathematical Sciences division at the time, offering her the job.

As a newly hired full-time professor, she began teaching additional classes, including statistics, a class she teaches at least once every semester. At the beginning of every semester, Forbes conducts basic data collecting in her classrooms in order to adjust teaching material based on student interest by giving surveys.

In her surveys, she extrapolates basic data from students such as interests, majors, or even the number of hours a student works at their job.

“I can tell what kind of students I am going to be teaching,” Forbes said. “I do change my lecture notes accordingly, to what kind of students I have in my class.”

She also makes it a point to memorize students’ names by the end of week one, keeping them interested and appreciated.

“They deserve the best version of me,” Forbes said.

“That’s important as a teacher.”

Forbes said the majority of her students take her statistics classes as a general education requirement, while there are very few who major in mathematics.

According to ECC’s Office of Institutional Research and Planning, the success rates of the math department as a whole during fall semesters have averaged out to about 50.2% from 2019 to 2022. The completion rate is nearly 70%. The success rate during spring semesters from 2020 to 2023 is about 60% on average, while the completion rate is 77.3%.

Carolyn Pineda, an analyst in ECC’s Insitutional Research and Planning said the COVID-19 pandemic affected the numbers from the spring 2020 semester.

“There were so many emergency withdrawals due to spring 2020 pandemic,” Pineda said.

Outside of teaching mathematics, Forbes enjoys 12 | Warrior Life

listening to classical music and watching musicals. Some of her favorite musicals include “To Kill a Mockingbird,” which is based off of a book of the same name, written by Harper Lee. Additionally, she likes to travel with her husband Sean Forbes, who is a screenplay writer. They met at LBCC while taking the same English class together and now live together in Long Beach.

She likes to travel – San Francisco, San Diego, Singapore and back home to Japan. In addition to traveling together, the couple likes to watch musicals and movies, and visit museums.

Forbes said math is more than just a tough subject, it can be used in many ways.

“We can actually model our world with mathematical equations,” Forbes said. “We can actually describe what is going on in the world, how we can solve our problems using mathematical models so we can make suggestions for a better world.”

Junko Forbes smiles during one of her statistics classes on Thursday, Sept. 21. “They [students] deserve the best version of me. That’s important as a teacher,” Forbes said. In her off time, she enjoys watching plays and musicals. In addition, she likes listening to classical music.

Junko Forbes, right, assists a student during a statistics class on Thursday, Sept. 21. Forbes began her career as a math instructor in 2008, working her way to mathematics professor in 2010. She is now in her 15th year teaching at El Camino College, primarily teaching statistics.

Warrior Life | 13

Treat yo’ shelf to the top 5 most checked-out graphic novels

W

ith a massive collection of 76,259 books and two floors of resources at students’ disposal, the library at El Camino College offers tutoring, study rooms, a vast database and an archive of the school’s history. Whether you’re an avid bookworm or just searching for a new title, these top checked-out titles will get you on the right track and can all be found in the firstfloor lobby.

Story and photos by Brittany Parris

14 | Warrior Life

1. Demon Slayer: kimetsu no yaiba Koyoharu Gotōge

In Taisho-era Japan, this manga follows the brother and sister duo Tanjiro and Nezuko. They embark on a journey after a demon slaughters their family, turning Tanjiros’ sister into a demon who must find a way to turn herself back. Readers can expect to explore themes centering around demonology, revenge, and 1900s Japan. # of times checked out: 76

4. Scott Pilgrim

Brian Lee O’Malley Adapted as a film and soon-to-be a Netflix animated series, the graphic novel follows 23-year-old Scott Pilgrim, whose average, everyday life gets turned upside down when the mysterious Ramona Flowers enters his world. The six-volume series offers everything from romance to an appreciation for its comic strip art style. # of times checked out: 24

2. The Promised Neverland Kaiu Shira

Imagine the film “Chicken Run” but with children and a mysterious caretaker.

The orphans at Grace Field House lead a comfortable life before uncovering a dark truth that changes their lives forever. The 20-volume series will fare well with those interested in fantasy and suspense. # of time’s checked out: 45

3. Chainsaw Man

Tatsuki Fujimoto

Created in 2018, “Chainsaw Man” follows the story of Denji, who lives in a world where devils roam the earth and are hunted down. In a chain of events to earn money, he harnesses the power of the beings he agrees to hunt. Readers can expect to explore supernatural, horror, and paranormal themes. # of times checked out: 35

5. Blank Canvas: my socalled Artist’s Journey

Akiko Higashimura For budding artists, this autobiographical manga by Akiko Higashimura, the creator of Princess Jellyfish, will draw you in as she explores her high school dream of becoming a comic book creator—specifically, the unconventional teachings of her art instructor, who does not care about manga. Readers can expect themes of aspiration, coming of age and the importance of female artists. # of times checked out: 21

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16 | Warrior Life

L.A. County Sheriff’s deputies raid a marijuana dispensary on Imperial Highway in South Central Los Angeles on March 9, 2022.

The majority of the workers frisked and detained were women.

Women are the fastest growing population in American jails and prisons. Their experiences over four days in the world’s largest jail system exposes why caging people increases the problems the injustice system claims to address Story and photo illustrations by Kim McGill Warrior Life | 17

F

our days before Americans elected Barack Obama president in 2008, I was sitting on the hard plastic back seat of an LAPD squad car parked on the corner of Manchester and Figueroa in South Central Los Angeles.

It was a seat designed to survive the blast from a strong water hose to wash down blood, urine and vomit. The seat looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in forever.

A giant, muddy orange moon sat on the horizon casting shadows across the asphalt. A man asking for money in the Popeyes Chicken drive-through line gave me a sympathetic nod.

Staring out the window, my head was drowning in questions. Would my car be impounded? What would happen to my backpack, my wallet, computer and phone?

How would I contact my job to say I wouldn’t be there for days? Who would get food and water to my dogs?

I was one of more than 17,000 people detained in Los Angeles County that night, 72% pre-trial, most for nonserious, non-violent charges, who were locked up only because they were too broke to pay bail. Their “crimes” were connected to living on the street, driving without a license, public intoxication, experiencing a mental health crisis, selling sex or possessing small amounts of drugs.

That night, the jails across the nation were filled with people who deserved better.

They still are.

After hours in a holding cell in the basement of the LAPD’s 77th Division, I was booked on a misdemeanor warrant and driving with an expired registration, fingerprinted and photographed. An officer in plastic gloves used a long q-tip to swab the inside of my mouth for DNA, and I was transferred into a cell.

I have been locked up before and since, in addition to the LAPD’s 77th Street Division, in the LAX Airport and Van Nuys jails; Century Regional Detention (CRDF) – the main L.A. County women’s jail in Lynwood; The Tombs in New York City; and shorter detentions in various police stations and courts.

But that week in 2008 was different.

Everyone in the nation seemed to be talking about the possibility that the U.S. would elect its first Black president, including the people I was locked up with in L.A. County.

For hours overnight after being booked, and for another hour at the midway bus transfer holding area outside Men’s Central Jail on the way to court on Monday morning, and then for eight hours again in the holding cells beneath the court — the conversation was legitimately hopeful.

People talked about the historic possibilities of that year’s election. We talked with once-in-a-lifetime whispers that maybe, this time, things really would change. The wars on the poor, the wars on “gangs,” the wars on drugs, would crumble. People would get some financial help and jobs that pay enough to live on. Mothers would be reunited with their children. Banks would be punished for their sins, and people would be able to keep their homes.

White, brown, and black women all raised hopes that they would be out in time to go to the polls. Many said they had registered for the first time. Two Black women cried because they knew they wouldn’t be released in time to vote.

Because of the importance of that moment for all of us, I have etched these women, their stories and everything that happened that weekend into my memory.

One woman booked on a DUI spoke about what she would have to do to survive once she was fired from her job because she couldn’t have contact with the system.

Another woman cried when she expressed her fears that her ex-husband would use her arrest as leverage to take the kids from her.

A woman who already had two prior DUIs was devastated that she could go to prison. She sobbed that she didn’t know where her child was, because she couldn’t reach her mother to advocate for the baby’s release from child welfare (DCFS— Division of Children and Family Services) custody. Nearly each woman who left custody from that cell—leaping up as their name was called — turned to her and promised they would try and reach her family.

Before dawn on Monday morning, shackled at our ankles, wrists and waists – and also chained to the person next to us – we waited in line to board the giant black and white L.A. County Sheriff’s bus to court.

The bus had already made stops to pick people up. As we climbed onto the bus, we filled a few rows of battered seats in the front that were reserved for people labeled as female.

Two men sat in floor-to-ceiling cages — deemed by the

The number of women

incarcerated in the U.S. has increased 475% in 40 years.

18 | Warrior Life

system as requiring physical separation from other people arrested in L.A. for driving without documentation, and — with openings so tiny that fingers couldn’t fit through the was now frantic that she would miss court and lose her child metal grates. The majority of rows in the back were filled forever if she wasn’t released in time. Without pen or paper, with men similarly shackled as we were.

I repeated with her over and over the names of immigrant Usually, Sheriff’s deputies and the driver are on the bus. rights organizations she could call for help.

But on this day, for a reason never shared with us, they left Among the women, there was occasionally a harsh word, us alone on that bus for what but there were many more seemed like at least an hour. unbelievable acts of kindness: I have never experienced the patience offered to someone bombardment of sexually who was muttering to explicit language hurled at herself, hallucinating, and people as I heard coming from occasionally screaming out the back of the bus on that day. obscenities; care and comfort A few men began to speak and embraces given to the in a low tone, seductively desperate mothers; the and honey tongued, casting sharing of food and blankets; their comments out toward a and the women who cleaned specific target, describing her, the filthy cells, picking up pleading with her, describing discarded food containers what they’d like to do to her. and tissue so that all of us Some women failed to might be more comfortable. respond. Others shouted for Jails, prisons, juvenile the men to stop or insulted halls and ICE detention their looks or chances. centers extract thousands of Then the comments from the dollars from families who back escalated dramatically are struggling financially, to furious curses and violent punish broken people, threats. Some women tried torture abused people, make to fight back verbally. But we addictions and afflictions were small in number and the more severe, deny sick people noise pollution overpowered quality medical care, grow us until the deputies boarded violence, depression and the bus. hate, and dump people back I admired and loved the onto the street much worse – women for their courage. financially and emotionally – In the holding tank at court, than before we were arrested. a young woman from Mexico A lot of details about that cried for hours. She and her weekend also reflected the husband were pulled over in People protested to stop the building of a new women’s jail in realities of jails and prisons. their car a few months earlier Lancaster. Due to community pressure, the L.A. County Board There’s a distinctly sweet and arrested for not having of Supervisors voted to abandon the project in August of 2019. and rancid smell to nearly documents. Her baby was all the lock-ups I’ve been in taken into DCFS custody. The parents were later deported - that’s embedded in my memory – a combination of tasteless, signing away their rights to an immigration hearing because carbohydrate-saturated food and the use of damp towels they feared being detained for months without their child. that turn sour with too many uses without washing.

Back in Mexico, she desperately contacted DCFS over and Sometimes the smell is much worse. Once at the Van Nuys over to get a court date to regain custody of her baby. She Jail I was locked into a group cell where several bunk beds entered the U.S. for that family court date, was stopped and were maneuvered like Tetris to fill the space. The stench Warrior Life | 19

was overpowering — menstrual blood, urine, perspiration and clothing that had been on one person so many weeks without washing that it was impossible to tell its original color or shape.

An elderly woman apologized to all of us. She spoke with humility and dignity. “We have been in here for days, with no access to a sink,” she said. “Some of us came in off the streets already stinking. We are really sorry.”

Each strip search is dehumanizing, removing clothing in front of strangers and having to bend over and spread your butt cheeks. I was part of a class action lawsuit involving 93,000 women incarcerated between March 2008 and January 2015 that exposed details of this horrific practice at CRDF resulting in a $53 million settlement. Similar practices still take place across California and the nation except where facilities invest in body scanners.

Guards find the most intimate ways to belittle and disrespect you and everyone around you. They ignore pleas for essential supplies like toilet paper or menstrual

20 | Warrior Life

pads, fail to respond when people beg them to open a cell to pee or urge them to call medical staff for someone who is sick.

The blasting of air conditioning ensures frigid, sleepless, torturous nights. The lack of air conditioning on hot days can cause heat stroke and occasional fatalities.

Health care is inadequate and substandard. During the COVID pandemic, American jails and prisons were second only to nursing homes in having the highest number of deaths. During wildfires, juvenile halls, jails and prisons have put numerous lives at risk by failing to evacuate quickly and efficiently.

Even the staff has no faith in the system’s claims that jails and prisons help people. There’s a cold-hearted line that they repeat often when people are released — “We’ll see you back soon.”

I was released late at night on November 3, 2008, in time to vote on Tuesday.

As the election results came in, a wave of hope washed over my neighborhood.

But over the next two years, it quickly evaporated.

It took until 2015 for Obama to comment on mass incarceration — seven years into his eight years as president. He didn’t appoint anyone as head of the OJJDP (Office of Juvenile Justice and

Delinquency Prevention) until year five.

He deported more people than any other president in U.S. history — the greatest number from L.A. — and left Guantanamo open in spite of his campaign promises.

Obama spoke of the struggles of young men of color, and then claimed the issue was mentorship, getting them to “pull up their pants” and prepare for a job market that still had nothing to offer.

His administration visited Ferguson and Baltimore and Cleveland, acknowledged that police policies were killing black and brown people, but then defied community calls for civilian oversight, independent investigations, and alternatives to police in schools and communities. But, the administration pushed body cameras and police training.

Instead of funding our dreams, the administration spent billions of dollars each week on troops and drones in Afghanistan and Iraq.

This is not to say that I don’t miss the dignified, intelligent leadership of the Obama

Teenagers incarcerated at Camp Scott in Santa Clarita, under the custody of the Los Angeles County Probation Department, on June 19, 2009. At the time, L.A. had the largest juvenile hall and youth prison system in the world. Community organizing forced the County to close Camp Scott in 2020 along with the closures of several other facilities. The community also won a commitment that youth in Los Angeles will no longer be under Probation supervision by 2025, but under the care of a new Department of Youth Development instead

administration, especially compared to the four years that followed his terms.

But, the significant changes that have been won — to reduce jail and prison populations, to decriminalize drugs, to challenge the death penalty and extreme life sentences, to eliminate court and probation fees and fines, to increase police accountability and oversight — these changes have been made by the mass movement led by formerly incarcerated people, people still inside and their families.

Still, despite this historic progress, things for women have gotten worse. Decarceration efforts are leaving most women behind.

According to Vera Institute of Justice, “the number of women incarcerated in the United States has skyrocketed in the last four decades, increasing 475% in 40 years.”

Women are the fastest-growing population in jails and prisons. While men’s jail populations fell 9% from 2008 to 2018, women’s jail populations grew 15%. In state prisons across the U.S., women’s incarceration rates are also climbing at double the rate of men’s.

In some ways, we should look back in time to plan our future. Fifty years ago, nearly 75% of U.S. counties had no women in their jails.

Almost all the women I was locked up with in 2008 were there because they couldn’t afford bail. They could have been given a desk appearance ticket to show up at court, whick also would have saved L.A. County millions of dollars a year in policing, court and jail costs. In 2023, L.A. County is taking steps to reduce cash bail, a small but increasing trend among U.S. counties.

There’s a growing movement in the U.S. and internationally calling for the abolition of cages.

Across the world, countries are rejecting the policies, policing and punishment systems that the U.S. has been exporting for decades.

We can break from America’s addiction to incarceration and build a world without prisons.

It will save billions of dollars that can be invested in employment, education, harm reduction, mental health care and housing - the essential services needed to reduce crime and increase safety.

It will also save lives lost to the epidemics of suicide, violence and disease that decimate the people inside, those who return home and struggle to re-enter communities, and even the jailers. Law enforcement and prison guards have the highest suicide, substance abuse, domestic violence and child abuse rates of any profession.

Because, no one can get well in a cell.

Formerly incarcerated people who want to go to El Camino, as well as those of us already here, can get support registering for classes, help accessing financial aid and scholarships, and gain peer support from other system impacted students at ECC’s FIRST Program (Formerly Incarcerated Reentry Students Thriving).

(310) 532-3670 x 7811 (323) 546-9878 Warrior Life | 21

Handle with curl My hair was one of the worst things in my adolescence and became my greatest pride in adulthood. The journey to acceptance was an uphill battle.

Story by Brittany Parris Illustration by Ingrid Barrera

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ne of my most prized possessions in middle school was my MySpace account.

XxCherryxxBombxX was a curation of my newfound interest in the pop-punk lifestyle.

With my dial-up internet, slowly but surely, I could comb through page upon page of background layouts. One of the most important decisions I could make was to find the perfect spread to communicate that I was soft but not approachable and that black was my favorite color.

From carefully selected song playlists to random gifs, my page was a shrine that encompassed a new era in my life and there was only one thing that would help bring it all together – side-swept bangs.

More than anything, as a 13-year-old girl in 2007, all I wanted was side-swept bangs with pin-straight choppy layers teased at the root and dyed all different colors to use as my profile photo.

Instead, I had to settle for the two waist-length pigtails I had donned since I was 3. This style paled in comparison to who I wanted to be and reminded me that I was different from the models and rock stars I started idolizing.

From then on, my hair became my heaviest burden, a point of contempt between me and my mom and I would spend the next decade deconstructing the narrative that it was unmanageable.

In my defense, I didn’t realize I had curly hair until I was a senior in high school.

It took a trip to a hair salon in my 20s, where the hairdresser told me I had four different curl patterns, ranging from shapeless waves to corkscrew curls.

That would be thanks to my parents. My dad, who is American Indian and Japanese, has the perfect Shirley Temple-type curl, and my mom, who hails from Trinidad and Tobago, has more tightly coiled curls, making z-shaped patterns she maintained by wearing her hair in a slick back bun.

I think you want to allude to your parents background – that way we can better understand why you didn’t look like the models you saw in magazines.

With my hair almost past my waist, the weight of it gave the appearance of being wavy and with a bit of oil, the frizz was practically non-existent.

However, my hair in its natural state was only reserved for “special occasions,” such as church, birthdays and both my graduations from elementary and middle school. Aside from that, it was confined to braids that took my mom hours to complete.

For her, this was our way of bonding. Our late nights were spent with me sitting on one of our kitchen chairs, sometimes grabbing a pillow from my room to sit on so I’d feel more comfortable, and my mom’s skilled hands weaving strands of my hair in the same pattern.

It reminded her of her country, Trinidad and Tobago, where adults well into their 70s still braided their hair. It helped her recreate the same moments as she did with her mother before she passed.

It starkly contrasts the Westernized society I grew up in, where braids were meant to stop past a certain age.

We’d watch movies and TV shows or sometimes just play music. We loved The Black Eyed Peas, and I could belt out

their entire Monkey Business album word for word.

If she were doing multiple braids, I’d have my Game Boy Color in hand, playing Kirby Tilt n’ Tumble and shoving the controller in her face when I beat my high score.

As I got older, our nights got quieter. Instead, it was filled with arguments and frustration over the same thing that brought us together.

She wanted her little girl.

I wanted freedom.

At 15, I practically twisted her arm to let me cut my hair, and finally, with 8 inches gone, we were back to our late nights, but instead, it involved a hair straightener and lots of patience. I still feel the 250-degree heat from the hot plates warm my fingers as I hold my ears down.

I was one step closer to being who I thought would make me happier, even at the expense of the relationship between my mom and my sanity.

Even with straight hair, I still had to wrap it every night so that it wouldn’t frizz, I couldn’t get too sweaty or my hair would lose its shape and it only lasted two weeks before I had to repeat the process.

I wish there were a defining moment of self-love that caused me to start wearing my hair naturally, but honestly, I was just tired, and my teen angst phase faded into something softer.

As time passed and more representation became present in media, my love for my hair blossomed. I still remember flipping through Seventeen Magazine and seeing a hair tutorial involving curls without using a curling iron. That was unheard of when I first discovered the publication in middle school.

Like most situations where I needed answers, I turned to the internet. Around 2011, the Curly Girl Method was popular among the natural curl community. It contained a carefully curated list explaining how to care for your hair while avoiding heat, combs, brushes, shampoo, and various chemicals.

At a time when there were very few natural hair products on the market, the Garnier Fructis curls line became my best friend and was just the beginning of my long journey to getting my hair healthy again.

Finally, shelves were dedicated to just my hair type.

Now, I can visit a salon knowledgeable of maintaining my curls and who doesn’t dissuade me from wanting to try something new.

Now, at 29, my hair finally feels like home.

Warrior Life | 23

Fantastic felines and how to care for them

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El Camino College’s cat colonies have always helped the campus.

One man is determined to return the favor Story by Erica Lee Photos by Monroe Morrow

o one is sure when the coyotes first appeared.

They seemed to come out of nowhere. It was as if, one foggy night, the coyotes suddenly materialized out of the mist like a nightmare straight out of a Stephen King novel.

Within 10 years, the once-thriving community of 300 cats who called El Camino College home was whittled down to sparse colonies totaling somewhere between 30 to 50 cats.

The life of an El Camino cat has become more precarious since the recent pandemic. But they are not alone in their fight for survival. One man, backed by a dedicated network of volunteers, has made it his mission to help one of the most vulnerable groups on campus.

Carl Turano is a warehouse stock clerk who has been working at El Camino College since 1999. He is a tall, wiry man of 62 who speaks in a low and gentle voice. He can be spotted around campus from time to time in a bright sunflower yellow Taylor Dunn utility buggy.

When he is in uniform, which includes a weatherbeaten brown outdoor hat with a mesh crown and a blue El Camino College utility shirt, Turano comes across as one part cowboy, one part first responder.

Turano first started out as a custodian working the night shift back in 1999. That was when he met the woman who changed his life forever.

Mary Semeraro had been working at El Camino College in 1966 as a physical education instructor who coached softball and volleyball. She already retired by the time Turano joined the staff. But she wasn’t going to let retirement stop her from visiting the campus every night.

“Mary was creeping around here at night, feeding kitties,” Turano recalls of his old friend. “She was moving so slow and stiff and I felt bad for her. I started helping her and then I started hanging out with her more. She was very good to me.”

Taking care of cats isn’t new for Turano. He is a lifelong animal lover whose desire to help others goes back to his childhood near Rochester, New York.

When he was eight years old, Turano rescued a stray gray kitten. That cat was named Smokey and lived another 18 years under his care. He even tagged along when the Turanos moved from New York to California.

In the following years, Mary Semeraro and Turano visited the campus every night to feed cats. They forged an indestructible bond, almost like a mother and son.

Semeraro became a mentor to Turano who showed him the ropes and introduced him to the many cat colonies spread out across the 26-acre campus.

There is Penny, the unofficial Queen of El Camino College and Semeraro’s favorite. She is a calico with large blotches of muted brown, gray, and white fur on her back who loves to sunbathe by the succulents near the Bookstore. She has been living at El Camino for the better part of 16 years.

Peggy is a gray tabby and a bit of a loner who hangs around the Humanities Building.

Most El Camino College cats don’t have official names. A tuxedo cat with a thick mustache lingers by the Schauerman Library. A gray-and-white tom with a bobbed tail loiters around Stadium Way. Another gray-and-white unfixed tom dubbed “Gaston” is known to roam around the art Warrior Life | 25

Carl Turano sets out portions of pate for two cats near the Construction Technology building on Thursday, Sept. 28. The Cat Care Club relies on donations and volunteers to support the colonies. They used to meet face-to-face to coordinate club activites but have not been able to since start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

buildings and the Bookstore. He has been pursuing a shy little tortoiseshell, but she isn’t interested in him.

Turano calls her “Miss Kitty” when he feeds her.

“I want his balls,” Turano said, shaking his head as he passed by Gaston’s usual haunt near the Bookstore. He has been trying to trap and release Gaston for years but he is cunning. Gaston knows what those metal cages are really for. He is an old-timer who’s been calling campus “home” for years and knows a thing or two about how to survive.

Trap-Neuter-Return is a program where the feral cat population is caught and taken in for a medical evaluation.

This may include having to spay or neuter the cats in order to control the population.

Having an unneutered male cat, or any unfixed cat, poses a hazard. Cats begin breeding as young as four months and will produce a litter of four to six kittens within nine weeks.

This can go on for years. As a result, there is a population boom that overwhelms animal shelters in an already strapped and strained system.

“This past year took a turn. We saw more animals coming into the shelters,” Ana Bustilloz, director of communications and marketing for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty 26 | Warrior Life

to Animals Los Angeles, or spcaLA, said. “People are losing their homes, or they have to relocate and live where no pets are allowed. Or they can’t afford the pet care anymore.”

While spcaLA has seen a steady adoption rate in the past few years, the flood of animals coming in strains the system. As Bustilloz puts it, “for every five we adopt, six more come in.”

Day by Day Carl Turano’s workday begins at dawn. He pulls up to the Receiving Facilities warehouse on Manhattan Beach Boulevard on a wine-colored Schwinn Meridian tricycle.

The tricycle used to belong to his wife, but he finds that it is useful when commuting from his home in Lawndale.

The large black wirework basket in the back rattles with cans. Fancy Feast. Friskies. The brand doesn’t matter as long as it’s pate.

Turano feeds the cats hours before his 8 a.m. shift is scheduled to begin. He takes care of the colonies when he isn’t on the clock because he’s received pushback from the

Top: Penny takes a break from eating to ponder her surroundings on Thursday, Sept. 28. At 16, she is one of the oldest cats to live at El Camino College. She was the favorite of Mary Semeraro, who first introduced Turano to the campus cat colonies over 20 years ago.

Bottom: “Miss Kitty” looks up after being interrupted from her breakfast on Thursday, Sept. 28. She was abandoned on campus as a kitten two months prior. Carl Turano is working to find a home for her because newly abandonded cats face more dangers than feral cats who have lived on campus for years and know how to survive.

college in the past.

There was an incident in 2020 in which a neighbor reported Turano to El Camino College for feeding the cats.

An investigation conducted by the college later revealed that the neighbor, and his dog, were harassing the colonies.

Nevertheless, Turano received a letter reminding him that “feeding cats is to be done on [his] personal time.”.

Turano loads the supplies onto the bed of his signature ride: a bright yellow Taylor Dunn buggy. In addition to the cans, he adds a jug of fresh water. There is a large gray tub with a screw-on lid that is halfway filled with dry food.

Once he is sure everything is ready, Turano takes off for the first of his many stops of the morning.

The first colony waits patiently under the ramp of the Facilities Construction Management portable building.

This is a quartet of three tabbies and one butter-colored cat.

They swarm around Turano’s ankles as he washes out the coffee can lids and plastic dishes that act as makeshift bowls. He prefers these because they are plentiful. If one goes missing, it can be replaced.

Turano carefully opens the cans and divides each portion in half. One can is enough to feed two cats. He gives out enough dry food so that the raccoons and other critters don’t try and take more.

On average, Carl Turano will use up to 10 cans a day. He pays for the supplies he will need and relies on donations.

Sometimes, he will get a shipment of wet food from a generous donor. On the menu today is Kirkland Signature pate. It was a contribution from an El Camino employee whose own cat didn’t care for it.

Once the quartet is fed, he moves on to his next stop. For the next hour, Turano takes his buggy around campus and visits his friends. He greets staff and faculty members he comes across with a “good morning” or a wave.

The colonies live in the hidden corners of the campus, just out of sight from the regular hustle and bustle as students go about their day. As their caretaker, Turano is privy to their secrets.

Turano heralds his arrival with a low whistle. As soon as they hear the breakfast call, the cats come out. They poke their heads out from shrubs and materialize from behind buildings. He takes the time to carefully portion out their food, calling them “mama”, “papa” or “pretty” as they inch closer and accept his offerings.

One of Turano’s favorites is the shy tortoiseshell known as “Miss Kitty”. He has been trying to find a home for her ever since she was abandoned on campus as a four-monthold kitten. She only comes out in the morning, for breakfast, then disappears. Her mottled torishell fur camouflages her against the bushes she lives in.

As he drives by the old Art-North Building, Turano is quick to point out one of their safe spaces. Cats such as Gaston are known to hide on the roof.

“When the coyotes come,” Turano said, “they’ll get on the roof. The coyotes can jump 12 feet and they systematically go for cats.”

Passing by the newly opened Arts Complex, he notes how there are no cat colonies living there yet, but they may move there one day.

As El Camino College continues to change its landscape, Warrior Life | 27

the cats adapt to their new surroundings as well.

“I will do as long as I’m able to,” Turano said. “I hope other people will take over when I leave. The kitties will always be here. I think everyone should find a way to give to the campus. This is my way of giving back to El Camino College. It’s a beautiful school and a great place for me for many years.”

The Rescue Carl Turano is just finishing his rounds for the morning when he gets the call. “Is that right,” he asks, phone pressed against his ear. His head is tipped so low that the brim of his brown outdoor hat shades his eyes from the low early autumn sun. “Big cat or little cat?”

A split second later, he jumps into the cab of his buggy and takes off.

Within minutes, he pulls up to the sally port of the El Camino College police department. Officer Erika Solorzano waits for him in the courtyard, a mediumsized gray kennel at her feet. A pair of large golden eyes as bright as headlights peer between the metal bars of its cell.

The inmate is a small orange tabby with a white bib and scruffy matted paws. He roams restlessly inside, meowing nervously.

The cat was taken into custody by a cadet at around 10 p.m. the night before. He was then held overnight by police until he could be released into Turano’s care.

Solorzano called Turano because she knows the cat will be in good hands.

“I know he loves cats,” Solorzano said. “And he takes care of them and feeds them. He’s been part of a group that I know feeds the cats on campus.”

The group that Solorzano is referring to is the El Camino Cat Care Club. It is a network of volunteers whose mission is to provide food and care for the cats. This was first started

by Carl and his wife Debbie in 2012 as a means to keep members in touch with the goings-on around campus.

In the past, the members would meet at each other’s homes. There, they would coordinate club activities such as Trap-Neuter-Return.

Since the pandemic, members have not been able to meet face-to-face, but they have never stopped caring for the cats.

Volunteers including Elise Geraghty, a full-time English professor, have carved out their own niche in sustaining the El Camino College cat colonies.

Geraghty has been caring for the cats near the Humanities

Building since 2011. Once a thriving colony, it has been whittled down to Peggy, the lone survivor. The others had been picked off by coyotes over the years.

Among the fallen was Don Cornelius.

“He was the dean of the humanities campus cat,” Geraghty recalled lovingly. Don Cornelius, a black tom, was abandoned. Named after the host of “Soul Train”, he soon found his place at El Camino, where he met his best friend Orange, an aptly named tabby.

Don Cornelius and Orange shared many happy years together until tragedy struck. Sometime during the night between Dec.15 and Dec.16, 2018, Don Cornelius was killed in a wildlife attack. In his old age, he couldn’t outrun his assailant. His body was found within hours of the attack.

His death was covered in a December 2018 article for “The Union.” As of 2023, his murder remains unsolved. It is believed that a coyote took his life.

Cats are not native to El Camino College, but coyotes are. As urban development projects began to take root across the South Bay, coyotes were displaced from their natural habitats and were forced to find a way to survive.

“Coyotes go after cats because they are predators, that’s what they do,” Turano said. “Certain colonies hang out together and they don’t take new kitties. So that’s how the coyotes get them.

They’re smart. They systematically catch up to them.”

“I hope other people will take over when I leave. The kitties will always be here. I think everyone should find a way to give to the campus. This is my way of giving back.”

- Carl Turano

Right: Carl Turano sets out a can of food for a cat who lives near the Distance Education Center on Thursday, Sept. 28. It is estimated that up to 50 cats live on the 26-acre campus. As their caretaker, Turano is privy to their secret hiding spots.

28 | Warrior Life

Top: A clowder of cats share a meal under a portable building in Receiving Facilities on Thursday, Sept. 28. Cats who live in colonies have a better chance at survival because they have members who can teach them the tips and tricks to find food and avoid coyotes.

Bottom: Carl Turano gets a call from the El Camino College Police Department to pick up a stray on Thursday, Sept. 28. Every time a cat is found on campus, Turano is the first to respond. He then works with the Cat Care Club to find a permanent home for the cat.

By 2019, El Camino College had installed Nite Guard lights around campus to deter coyotes. But by then, the damage was done. Countless cats lost their lives. Besides Don Cornelius, the fallen include Orange, who passed shortly after his friend. Penny lost her daughter to the attacks.

El Camino staff who aren’t members also step in to help.

Gary Crawford is an unofficial volunteer. He is a groundskeeper who has worked with Carl for 12 years. His jurisdiction is the west side of the campus, near the softball field on Stadium Way. “I love cats,” Crawford said. He beams when he thinks of a particularly special cat he came across.

“I actually had one of the cats that was dropped off here.

I took care of him for five months and I ended up adopting him,” Crawford said.

That is the outcome Turano hopes to get for the little orange stray now sitting in the back of his buggy. After leaving the station, he drives a short way to the westside of campus. Once he’s in a quiet area away from prying eyes, he gets to work.

He calls Debbie.

“Hey babe, I got another cat,” he greets her. After a few minutes, he pauses to get a few pictures of the kitten.

These will go on the El Camino Community Cats Facebook page, where over 300 members will see the post.

Turano hopes that word will get around and they can find a good home for the cat.

“The problem with dumping a cat on campus is that you’re not providing a good life,” Debbie Turano said.

Warrior Life | 29

While a feral cat was born to survive, a cat who came from a home and depended on others for food and shelter is left at a severe disadvantage.

Debbie Turano, who retired from El Camino College in 2020 after a 28-year career, said there are risks when abandoning cats on campus. They are surrounded by streets and could get hit by cars. They deal with coyotes, who will eat them. Cat colonies are territorial, so they don’t always accept new members. Without a colony to guide them, the strays are left to struggle alone.

The cats don’t just live at El Camino College. They help control the rodent population and serve as a guerilla pest control force.

Back in 1988, El Camino College launched a plan to evict the cats on campus. Vice president of administrative services Dr. Don Sorsabal said in a Gardena Valley News article that it was because “a large wild cat population poses several health hazards.”

Instead, the decrease in cats saw a new animal trend on campus. Rats.

“It was really awful,” Debbie Turano said. Rats and mice were spotted in the halls, chewing on electrical cables and disabling electronics. One couldn’t open a cabinet without finding a pile of rat feces or a puddle of urine.

El Camino College turned into the city of Hamelin before the Pied Piper’s arrival.

Eventually, more cats returned to the campus and the rats disappeared.

Once in a while, someone will suggest removing the cats again. This is always met with an outcry from the community. Members of the Cat Care Club have appeared at Board of Trustees meetings to advocate for the colonies, who can not speak for themselves. The motion to evict the cats is always denied.

“Cats are a support for students,” trustee Nilo Vega Michelin said.

As Carl Turano is getting photographs, the orange cat rubs up against the bars. He is friendly and quickly warms up to him. After the battery of medical tests and shots, he hopes wthe cat will find a new home soon. He feels good about this one.

“I will continue to take care of the cats for as long as I am able to,” he said. “They are my friends.”

Donations to the Cat Care Club can be mailed to: Carl Turano 3400 Manhattan Beach Boulevard Torrance,CA 90506 Phone:(310)740-7289 El Camino Community Cats Facebook Page: https://bit.ly/3QMqpkl 30 | Warrior Life

After being released from lockup, an orange cat looks up at Carl Turano with a look of trust on Thursday, Sept. 28. He was abandonded on campus and was soon taken into custody overnight by El Camino College police. Within a week, the cat was adopted by a family thanks to the efforts of Turano and the Cat Care Club.

Warrior Life | 31

Aaron Cohen runs through wickets during a practice session on Wednesday, November 1. Cohen orginally played baseball, but later switched to running in high school.

32 | Warrior Life

From the diamond to the finish line A baseball player turned runner credits two people who inspired him to run and attend El Camino College

Story by Nasai Rivas Photos by Saqib Rawda and Greg Fontanilla

Warrior Life | 33

T

he runner sprints across the park.

Passing other runners one by one, the sounds of the cheering engulf him.

With sweat dripping off his lean 5’10 frame, he reaches the finish line with a time of 21:05.2, placing third.

He knows although he finished this race, there is still more running to do.

His name is Aaron Cohen.

Cohen helped give El Camino College’s cross country team a victory at the South Coast Conference Championships at Ken Malloy Harbor Regional Park on Friday, Oct. 27.

The men’s team came in second place overall, with Cohen earning a spot on the All-South Coast Conference First Team.

Despite being the all-star speedster, Cohen did not start off as a runner.

Originally a baseball player who has played since childhood, Cohen was aiming to play at West High School in Torrance, but wasn’t able to make the team.

As fate would have it, that was when the track and field coach Jason Druten persuaded Cohen to join West High’s running team.

“He’s kind of like my inspiration,” Cohen said. “Without him, I don’t think me, or maybe like all my teammates, wouldn’t be where we are now.”

During his time at West High, Cohen said he was an ambitious runner who was always eager to win and become faster than everybody else. After high school, Cohen was convinced to attend El Camino by his older brother, Ethan, who graduated from the college.

When he arrived at El Camino, Cohen said he changed as an athlete.

“Then just coming here [to El Camino], it was just more about becoming a more complete athlete,” he said. “Being a better teammate, being a better leader, being a better person.”

Cohen credits El Camino assistant coach Kirsten Green for helping him become a better athlete.

Cohen’s coach Dean Lofgren, who has been coaching at El Camino for 33 years, said Cohen knows the sport well. “[Cohen] is very knowledgeable in the sport of both cross country and track,” Lofgren said. “He has put himself amongst the best in southern [California].”

Born and raised in Torrance, Cohen said from he was always a sports person, even as a child. Cohen grew up alongside his brothers,​Ethan and his younger brother Liyam.

“As I grew up, I kinda learned a lot of different things, through religion, through friendships, through people in general,” Cohen said.

One of Cohen’s childhood best friends continues to run alongside him within the cross-country team. Business major, Tyler Bradford, 18, has been friends with Cohen since preschool and they are teammates today. Bradford said Cohen is humble and caring of the friends and family around him.

“Whatever [Cohen] wants to do in life, he is gonna strive to do it,” he said.

In academics, Cohen is currently majoring in 34 | Warrior Life

kinesiology. Outside of cross-country, he is a big hockey fanatic, a foodie and a guy who wants to live the college experience.

“A lot of my teammates, we have been going out, enjoying ourselves, living that college life,” said Cohen.

Cohen said he is inspired by one motto, “Once a warrior, always a warrior.”

“Growing up I was always told you gotta be a warrior, you gotta battle through things,” Cohen said. “Life is about the obstacles that you face.”

Aaron Cohen runs down the track during a Wednesday, November 1 practice. Cohen attributes his high school coach Jason Druten as the inspiration to run. His brother, Ethan Cohen, also played a role in convincing him to attend El Camino College.

Aaron Cohen and his childhood friend, Tyler Bradford, pose on the track after a cross country practice on Wedneday, November 1.

“Whatever [Cohen] wants to do in life, he is gonna strive to do it,” Bradford said of his friend.

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36 | Warrior Life

Dyeing to live, living to dye

With 32 years of fashion industry

experience under his belt, Will Hoover shows no signs of slowing down.

Story by Brittany Parris Photos by Khoury Williams and Greg Fontanilla

Will Hoover reviewed the instructions for starting a shirt pattern on Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023 at El Camino College.

Warrior Life | 37

W

ill Hoover’s epiphany appeared as he lay on the gravel of Yorba Linda Boulevard.

The night started strong with conversations over pizza and drinks. A beer and a half later, at 50 mph, Hoover is a blur as he makes haste into the night.

Seconds later, he’s airborne.

A drunk driver hits him head-on, propels him 50 feet and for those first 15 seconds on the ground, Hoover realizes that his days are numbered.

Now, 13 years later, Hoover is bringing his new lease on life into the classroom.

At 58 years old, he’s making a name for himself.

New to El Camino College, the part-time pattern instructor has spent the last 23 years in the fashion industry, curating his brand and dabbling in other creative endeavors with the hope of abolishing fast fashion and guiding the minds of the next generation of fashionistas.

All of which became possible as recovered from his brief brush with death.

Naturally, the journey to this point in his life is no short feat as he faced a tumultuous childhood and a new way of conquering life.

He grew up in Fullerton, just 10 miles up Harbor Boulevard from Disneyland, where he’d watch the nightly fireworks from his backyard.

As he got older, his teen years consisted of surfing sessions in Huntington Beach or riding motorcycles in the oil fields by his home.

However, a passion for design manifested thanks to the influence of his surrogate grandmother, Mrs. Della Hensley, who cared for him and his older sister and taught Hoover how to sew when he was 5.

A sewer in the factories in Los Angeles in the 20s and 30s, Mrs. Hensley, taught Hoover how to use his mom’s old singer.

He boils down his childhood into four words: good, combative, interesting and mindboggling.

“It was good because our generation didn’t have technology,” Hoover said. “Which meant my mom would say go outside and play, and we would.”

However, as he embraced his new creative outlet, it became a point of contempt between him and his mother as she tried to snuff out this interest.

It wasn’t until he was well into adulthood that he could make sense of her behavior and concluded that creative people are outside of the box and anything outside of that is seen as unsafe, uncertain and scary.

One of the first designs he shared was a pair of jeans that he cut up and patched back together, but being a designer wasn’t in the cards yet.

Even as he experimented with his looks, taking inspiration from bands including Duran Duran and

David Bowie, he spent the last quarter of his high school education immersed in art classes, where he excelled and took an interest in watercolors.

In 1984, he enrolled in Orange Coast College as an art student, partaking in various mediums, from photography to sculpting and computer graphics.

“At the time, in my late teens, I didn’t have the courage to be a starving artist,” Hoover said. “So, I was trying to expand my thinking.”

Hoover admits that a primary reason he got into fashion was his interest in how things are made and the overall creation process.

“I realized as a designer, I was really interested in how screen prints are made or how embroidery is done or how a wash or dye is created,” Hoover said. “Being the star designer wasn’t as important as just knowing how to build garments properly.”

Entering his early twenties, Hoover took on the position of a production artist for a needlepoint company, handpainting needlepoint screens before a co-worker introduced the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising (FIDM) as another stepping stone into his career.

After graduating in 1987, it would be another 12 years before Hoover got his first pattern-making job at the institution he studied, but only after gaining experience at major skate and surfing brands Gotcha and Ocean Pacific.

With ten years of official patternmaking instruction, Hoover admits he spent more time at FIDM than he intended, pointing out issues with the administration and their lack of ability to adapt to the current fashion and generational climate.

As he dealt with a lackluster administration, Hoover encountered two events that would change the trajectory of his life — starting with the discovery of his birth parents in 2006 and 2010.

His older sister, whom the Hoovers also adopted, helped connect him to a woman specializing in family reunification.

“I called her. She was in Nashville. I called her at seven o’clock my time and before I’d left for work at 8, she called me back and gave me my birth mother’s maiden name,” Hoover said. “By three in the afternoon, I was talking to my birth mother.”

Hoover can only describe the experience as surreal.

“I’d gone 42 years and I always saw myself as a potted plant,” Hoover said. “You’re of this world, but you’re not planted in it, and I always speculated why, and I found out, and within weeks of phone conversations, we laughed

“Being the star designer wasn’t as important as just knowing how to build garments properly.”

-Will Hoover

38 | Warrior Life

similarly. She understood me.”

Four years later, he was reunited with his birth father.

An interesting character, his birth father, had his own experiences in the film industry before moving on to be part of the original HALO skydivers and jumping close to the atmosphere.

When Hoover found him and met him, he was a quadriplegic at a VA Veterans Hospital, just 5 miles away from his home in Lakewood at the time.

Earlier that same year, he was also recovering from a motorcycle accident that made him question his mortality and the summers he had left.

He says he has about 20.

He can still recall the 10 to 15 seconds he lay on the ground, his body wadded up with only a broken small toe and a subsequent amount of PTSD and for the next two years, four days a week, he was in a doctor’s office, undergoing physical and psychological therapy.

“That changed a lot of my perspective of life and important things,” Hoover said. “I started thinking in that perspective, the 20 summers thing.”

Notably, it inspired an interest in leatherwork.

While paramedics attended to Hoover, they cut him out of the leather jacket he was wearing at the time of the accident.

Remarkably, he could sew it back together since only the lining was cut. After a few alterations and notable scuff marks, he still wears it to symbolize the battle scars he earned that day.

In turn, it also reignited his desire to extinguish fast fashion and as he eases into his new position at El Camino, Hoover plans to do just that.

In the classroom, Hoover is a powerhouse whose presence attracts attention.

Not one to simply sit behind a desk, he calls students up for a demonstration, carefully explaining each detail, from measurements to clothing movement. He uses himself as an example, contorting his body in different positions to show where the fabric stretches and tightens.

His teaching style manifested based on his preference for retaining information.

“I remember being in school, and it didn’t matter if it was in high school. I was always a visual learner,” Hoover said. “I’d get really pissed when an instructor would say this is what we do, and just do it this way.”

It pays off as his students hang on to his every word.

Fashion design major London Matlock, 22, appreciates Hoover’s teaching style and personality “He’s a great professor. He helps in any way he can,” Matlock said as she maps out a pattern for a dress. “We were discussing cars and that has nothing to do with fashion and it was just very helpful. He’s very humble and very insightful.”

In the same breath, fashion design major Albert Bolanos, 32, echoes the same sentiment as he notes Hoover’s years of experience.

“He’s a pool of knowledge. His knowledge is worth so much, and he’s a very good storyteller because of his experience,” Bolanos said.

With that 23 years of exposure, Hoover, alongside fashion department coordinator and professor Vera Ashley, is working on creating and teaching a new program course to be ready for enrollment in fall 2024.

Currently, it’s just an idea still in the works, only discussed in e-mails back and forth, but to Dr. Ashley, the new class is intended to help anybody who wants to start or is doing an online fashion business.

During his pattern-making class, Will Hoover demonstrates his sewing skills on Thursday, Nov. 9, 2023 at El Camino College.Hoover started sewing at age five after being taught by his psuedo-grandmother, Della Hensley.

Warrior Life | 39

As Dr. Ashley puts it, many people start with ideas, sometimes great ideas, but they don’t know how to execute them, find funding materials and end up failing or not doing as well as they should.

“I’m super excited about it, and I think it’s going to help out students,” Dr. Ashley said. “That’s extra information for them because they’ll get a trained instructor that can guide them to make their business successful.”

A subject Hoover is well versed in as he creates his label, Paul Dunn, the brainchild of Hoover’s passion for creating, his experience as an art student, and his love for upcycling.

The name derives from his birth name before he was given up for adoption around the 1970s, and his name was legally changed to William Hoover.

“I thought it sounded more like a designer name,” Hoover said.

Across the board, Hoover has dabbled in everything from painting in multiple mediums to building cars and motorcycles, upholstering furniture, and had a brief experience as an actor and singer in a band.

Later, he switched to the apparel industry and his interest changed to constructing clothing.

As a designer, he became interested in how screen prints and embroidery are made, how denim and dye are created and the manufacturing of garments.

“Being the star designer wasn’t as important as much as just knowing how to build garments properly, for different tiers, or in the marketplace,” Hoover said.

More than that, he realized the importance of changing consumer behavior and utilizing raw materials before they are taken to landfills to waste away and emit more greenhouse gasses.

Nonetheless, students will also get a look into his other business ventures, which include the assembly of pro and amateur fight gear, which Hoover jokes is what makes him money.

With talks of a new class, Hoover does see glimmers of hope in the new generation and how they are rethinking fashion.

“I do see students wanting to be experimental,” Hoover said. “I have seen more students interested in repurposed or upcycled looks and really trying to utilize it.”

Outside of the classroom, Hoover wastes no time as he has compiled a list of everything he wants to accomplish before another summer passes.

Hoover’s itinerary is packed with a list of things to help encourage his creative process: getting back into surfing, restoring old bicycles, paddleboarding, starting a YouTube channel, finishing his three series of paintings and possibly writing a book.

As far as how he wants to be remembered, the thought doesn’t interest him.

“They’re gonna think whatever they’re gonna think anyway,” Hoover said. “If I was helpful and influential, that’s how I’m going to be remembered and I won’t be around to hear it, so when you think about it, it really doesn’t matter to me how.

40 | Warrior Life

Will Hoover prepares for a demonstration on Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023 at El Camino College.

Hip Hop just turned 50 Visit these spots to celebrate South L.A.’s contributions to the world’s most popular culture Story and photos by Kim McGill Happy Birthday, Hip Hop. You’re #1.

By 2017, 31% of U.S. radio listeners preferred Hip Hop according to Nielsen Ratings’ tracking of TV and radio use. In 2020, 23.3% of worldwide album sales came from Hip Hop / Rap.

Respecting the Roots of Hip Hop There is no doubt that the East Coast gave birth to Hip Hop. Philly created popping as a dance style and also tagging that inspired the giant piecing and All City train cars that came to define NYC graffiti. The South Bronx elevated the art of DJing with break beats, scratching and sampling, as well as adding breakdancing to the culture. Doug E. Fresh (Douglas Davis of Harlem) originated beatboxing. Immediately, the new culture spread throughout the five boroughs and New Jersey.

The idea that “rap” alone could define such a diverse culture was quickly abandoned, and Hip Hop came to be seen as encompassing four elements: MCing (also known as rhyming or rapping), DJing, breaking and graffiti. Later, people added fashion and a whole new flavor of social justice organizing into the mix.

As Hip Hop has its 50th birthday, here’s where to honor what South L.A. added to the culture. Jump in your low low if you’re as lucky as Ice Cube (O’Shea Jackson) – “I gotta go, ‘cause I got me a drop top. And if I hit the switch, I can make the ass drop.” Or grab a friend and get there however you can.

French bulldogs Swisher and Dutch pose in front of one of more than 200 classic lowriders featured at the annual Zoot Suit Riot Memorial Cruise on June 5, 2022 in Los Angeles, Calif. Lowriders have played a significant part in L.A.’s Hip Hop culture, and remain the ride of choice for many artists.

Youth at Nickerson Gardens Public Housing Deveopment in Watts restore the names of residents who have died on the memorial walls located on the front of the recreation center on August 1, 2009. The walls remind people to reflect on the many young people who have lost their lives due to street or police violence, drugs, suicide and other preventable causes.

1. Reality Rap / Gangsta Rap In Regulate, Warren G (Warren Griffin III) with Nate Dogg on the hook (Nathaniel Hale) said, “They got guns to my head, I think I’m goin’ down / I can’t believe it’s happenin’ in my own town / If I had wings I would fly, let me contemplate / I glanced in the cut and I see my homie Nate /16 in the clip and one in the hole / Nate Dogg is about to make some bodies turn cold / Now they droppin’ and yellin’, it’s a tad bit late / Nate Dogg and Warren G had to regulate.

Warren G said of the lyrics, “That record was things I went through, and our friends went through. We’d witnessed that and we’d been a part of it. We just told the story.”

South L.A. gets credited for the creation of “gangsta rap.” But that’s not really accurate. The media, cops and critics labeled the music without really listening to the conditions detailed.

Gangs in L.A. were created out of two realities.

First, L.A. was extremely segregated, enforced by redlining, restrictive housing covenants, racial segregation in schools and sundown towns. These public policies existed alongside the invisible borders of neighborhoods. Black and Brown people knew not to cross Alameda Street into South Gate or Lynwood.

To protect themselves against white gangs, Black youth created their own groups in the 40s and 50s.

The second factor that gave rise to gangs was the loss of Warrior Life | 41

manufacturing jobs with globalization. In South L.A. alone more than 70,000 living wage jobs disappeared in the 1970s and early 80s.

Investigative journalists and Congressional hearings have exposed that drugs were used by federal agencies and local law enforcement to fund anti-revolutionary death squads in Central America while also destabilizing the Black and Brown power movements in U.S. cities. Youth who had no job prospects found themselves trapped in a deadly drug economy. Drugs and guns provided street gangs with a lethal mix.

From the start, South L.A. Hip Hop was neighborhood based. It didn’t constantly bang whatever set people claimed.

It documented the realities of life in specific communities.

So, yes South L.A. gets credited with the creation of “gangsta rap.” But really, what South L.A. gave the world was “reality rap.” There were some gritty, truth telling tracks before, for sure. But L.A. Hip Hop was the first to make “where you from” central to the culture and the stories people told.

Below are a few of the many places that turned young people into Hip Hop historians: These are residential neighborhoods. Please be respectful and ask permission before taking any photos.

Jordan Downs Public Housing Development on 103rd Street just east of Wilmington in Watts where many of the scenes in the classic film Menace to Society, featuring Hip Hop music from MC Eiht (Aaron Tyler) and Spice 1 (Robert Greene Jr.), were filmed. A lot of the housing is being torn down and redeveloped, so you won’t see many of the projects’ units as they originally looked.

Nickerson Gardens Public Housing Development in Watts where the Bounty Hunter Bloods – that feature heavily in the creation of Death Row Records – are from. The recreation center on Compton Avenue, just north of Imperial Highway, features the names of neighborhood residents who have died.

The location where Nipsey Hussle was killed and the site of his original store – The Marathon – is located on the west side of South Central L.A. at 3420 W. Slauson Ave., Los Angeles 90043.

On the corner of Crenshaw and Slauson, there are Nipsey Hussle tribute murals in the Fatburger Parking Lot and also on the U.S. Bank Building.

Take a moment to reflect on all the people that have lost their lives - or been buried alive in prisons - including all the Hip Hop artists who have been killed in L.A. County. More rappers have been killed here than anywhere else in the world.

2. Lowriders As 2Pac (Tupac Amaru Shakur) said in his classic tribute to the South Side – “To Live and Die in L.A.” – “It wouldn’t be L.A. without Mexicans. Black love, Brown pride in the sets again.”

Chicano culture contributed a lot to West Coast Hip Hop. In NYC, the subway system plays a central role in Hip Hop including providing a perfect canvas for graffiti writers.

But, L.A. lost its vast Red Car transit system in the 1950s. An aggressive campaign by General Motors, Firestone Tires and Standard Oil eventually led to the destruction of the streetcars and their replacement with freeways, buses and automobiles, along with all the pollution, climate change and respiratory illness that comes with them. Since then, L.A. has remained addicted to cars.

42 | Warrior Life

Large murals decorate the outside walls of the Del Amo Swap Meet in Rancho Dominguez, pictured here on Oct. 29, 2023, including a tribute to Compton rapper and co-founder of both Ruthless Records and N.W.A., Eazy-E (Eric Knight).

Lowriders were first built in barrios across the Southwest and Southern California in the 1940s. After rehabilitating classics, the cars’ owners and hangers-on would cruise the boulevards to show off their unique creativity and mechanical wizardry, including dropping cars as low to the ground as possible. “Bajito y despacito, limpio y lindo – Low and slow, clean and mean.”

When cops pushed California to outlaw low riders in 1958, Ron Aguirre took Pesco hydraulics from a B-52 and installed them in his ‘57 Corvette. From then on, drivers could flip a switch to lift their suspensions to make their cars “legal” for the streets.

Car clubs formed and have remained a central part of So Cal life. Black communities admired the masterpieces Chicano hoods were rolling in and formed their own car clubs and renovation efforts.

When gangsta rap jumped off in L.A., lowriders were the ride of choice.

As Eazy-E (Eric Wright) said in the very the first line he dropped: “Cruisin’ down the street in my ‘64 / Jockin’ the freaks, clockin’ the dough / Went to the park to get the scoop / Knuckleheads out there cold-shootin’ some hoops / A car pulls up, who can it be? / A fresh El Camino rollin’, Kilo G / He rolls down his window and he started to say “It’s all about makin’ that GTA” Some of the most active lowrider clubs and events include: @zoot_suit_riot_memorial_cruise on Instagram Manny “Pachuco” Alcaraz and Art Zamora sponsor an annual cruise from the Eastside to Downtown L.A., featuring only cars from the 1940s and 50s, to commemorate the 1943 Zoot Suit Riots. More accurately considered a sailor riot, white seamen and other soldiers roamed the streets of L.A. and attacked Mexican American youth. L.A. area media, officials and law enforcement defended the military and criminalized the youth.

Watts Finest Car Club, @wattsfinestcc on Instagram Watts Life Car Club, @wattslifecarclub on Instagram Both these clubs distribute food weekly to the community on Wilmington Avenue just south of 103 St. in Watts and also distribute toys in the same location at Christmas.

3. Swap Meets As early as 1986, the mixtapes crated by a young DJ, Dr. Dre (Andre Young) were a hot item, selling at The Roadium Swap Meet in Torrance.

Legend has it that the original conversation between Eazy-E and Dr. Dre (then of the World Class Wreckin’ Cru) was set up

by Steve Yano who sold music – including Dre’s mixtapes – at The Roadium.

Yano marketed Hip Hop when record stores thought it was too much of a gamble to take up precious space in their crates.

While Hip Hop artists knocked on – and eventually knocked down – the doors of the music industry, they also looked to other places to hustle their music.

And they found South L.A. swap meets.

Deindustrialization in the 1970s and early 80s left manucturing sites abandoned. Korean immigrants began to establish indoor swap meets in old factory spaces throughout South L.A. based on the marketplaces in their homeland.

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These included Slauson Swap Meet opening For this part of your tour, sit back, relax and in 1983, Compton Swap Meet (officially called take out your phone. Search YouTube for Don Compton Marketplace) in 1983, and Rancho Campbell locking on Soul Train.

Dominguez Swap Meet (Del Amo Plaza) in Don Cornelius established Soul Train to 1990. gave a national platform to Black musicians The relationship between Korean and dancers, including Funk music, merchants and the Black community considered a precursors of Hip Hop. (James suffered as customers were treated badly, Brown and P-Funk are said to be the most stores failed to hire Black staff, and were sampled artists in Hip Hop.) also accused of having unfair pricing and When Soul Train moved to L.A. in 1971, the inferior merchandise. Tensions escalated after show searched the area for young, Black talent the killing of 15-year-old Latasha Harlins in Graffiti murals cover the outside walls of the and heard about L.A. Trade Tech student Don 1991 by Soon Ja Du who wrongly suspected Del Amo Swap Meet in Rancho Dominguez “Campbellock” Campbell who originally a tribute to Tupac Shakur on Oct. 29, performed locking in the college’s cafeteria. the Black teen of shoplifting. This was one of including 2023. the sparks that ignited the ‘92 L.A. Uprising, Locking was based on freezing a dance along with the acquittal of LAPD officers in the beating of Rodney move with fast and exaggerated arm gestures that matched the King. breaks in the music. Lockers were regularly featured on Soul Train But, Eazy-E forged a special relationship with North Korean and the dance linked with the East Coast’s popping and breaking immigrant Wan Joo Kim who opened Cycadelic Records at to give Hip Hop its distinct moves.

Compton Swap Meet. Kim got the idea when he was selling women’s hair products at The Roadium and saw Yano making 5. K-Day Radio a lot more sales with Hip Hop music. Eazy-E delivered boxes of Ruthless Records’ first single “Boyz-in-the-Hood” out of the trunk Radio stations thought Hip Hop was a passing fad, and MTV of his car to Kim and other swap meet vendors. ignored it as amateurish and “not real music.” There were plenty MTV finally woke up and created Yo! MTV Raps. When they of racist suppositions of record labels, radio stations and TV invited N.W.A. on the show, the group took host Fab Five Freddy producers, the vast majority of whom were white men. MTV on a tour of the neighborhood, including a stop at the Compton banned the first music video – Straight Outta Compton – released Fashion Center.

by N.W.A. Hip Hop headz didn’t just get their music at the swap meet. It KDAY Radio went on air in 1948, licensed out of Redondo Beach also became the place – and still is – to get all your fashion needs at 1580 AM as a soul / R&B station. In 1983, KDAY hired Greg met - fresh white tees, long white tube socks, Dickies, Ben Davids, Mack as music director and he brought on Dr. Dre and DJ Yella Boy plaid flannels, a new pair of chucks or Nike Cortez, gold teeth, as the new program’s first “mix-masters” making it the first fullchains and medallions, or bandanas (rags, flags) in any color a time rap radio station in the nation. KDAY was so influential that hood demanded (until drama led some swap meets to discontinue it was involved in brokering an historic peace treaty among Blood the sale of “gang attire”). and Crip sets in Watts on 1992.

It’s important to mention that L.A.’s Black O.G.s as well as Tune in to KDAY now at 93.5 on the FM dial for old-school Hip gangsta rappers got their style of dress, some of their language Hop classics. including “homies” -- in addition to their loyalty to lowriders from Chicano cholo cuture.

You must be hungry.

N.W.A., Tupac, and Kendrick Lamar all made the Compton Swap Meet a West Coast Hip Hop landmark when they featured To finish your tour of L.A.’s iconic Hip Hop spots, eat at it in their videos.

Fatburger. There’s plenty of locations to pick from, but you could The Compton Swap Meet closed in 2015, another victim of stop at the Crenshaw and Slauson spot where Nipsey Hussle’s WalMart. But, The Roadium, Slauson and Rancho Dominiguez mural is. Lovie Yancey, a Black woman who moved from Tucson to Swap Meets are still open. If you only have time for one visit, make South Central, founded the original Fatburger on Exposition Blvd. it Rancho Dominguez that pays tribute to the graffiti side of Hip and Western Ave. Originally called Mr. Fatburger, Yancey dropped Hop culture with its entire outside covered in aerosol art.

“Mister” from the name when she dropped her business partners.

As Ice Cube said it’s a good day when you eat here – “No helicopter Check out these swap meets that played a significant role in the lookin’ for a murder / Two in the mornin,’ got the Fatburger.” E-40, growth of Hip Hop: Kanye West and Pharrell have all invested in franchises.

Or treat yourself to Roscoe’s House of Chicken and Waffles The Roadium with locations close by in South Central L.A., Long Beach and 2500 W. Redondo Beach Blvd., Torrance Inglewood. Biggie Smalls (Christopher Wallace) rhymed that he “frequently floss hoes at Roscoe’s” in his classic track Going Back Rancho Dominguez Swap Meet to Cali. In Murda, Compton’s The Game (Jayceon Taylor) said, (Del Amo Plaza) “When you eat at Roscoe’s, watch out for the chain snatchers.” The 2787 Del Amo Blvd., Rancho Dominguez lyrics were a prophetic warning as to the fate of Philly trap legend PnB Rock (Rakim Allen) who was killed at Slauson Swap Meet (Slauson Super Mall) the Roscoe’s location on Main and Manchester on Sept.

1600 W. Slauson Ave., L.A. 12, 2022 after his girlfriend posted their location on Instagram showing off his jewelry.

4. Soul Train

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Then, find somewhere cozy and take a long nap.

Illustration by Leyna Kobayashi Inspired by “Exponentially Growing” Warrior Life | 45

How family dysfunction led me to an epiphany The relationship I had with my dad growing up was every kid’s dream.

Toxic relatives, abuse, and a brain tumor turned it into a nightmare.

I

Story by Greg Fontanilla Illustration by Kae Takazawa

was 6 years old when my dad was driving in Old Torrance. I felt a thud. He accidentally struck a pedestrian. My mom, little brother and I were in the car. Mom checked on the woman who had been struck.

Luckily, the pedestrian survived.

Two decades later, I learned about the moment dad had experienced as he hit the woman crossing the street – his periphery narrowed.

He developed a blind spot in his eyesight due to a brain tumor he was not aware of and did not see the crossing pedestrian. Three surgeries later, dad was still functioning, but required long-term medication in order to keep the tumor from swelling.

He relied heavily on those medications, but the side effects, combined with his declining mental state and health issues began to take a toll not just on him, but on me.

The relationship I had with my father in my childhood was a fantastic one. However, that faltered as I reached my teenage years. I attribute that to family turmoil and my dad’s brain tumor diagnosis. Little did I know his diagnosis would tear us apart, but also served as a blessing in disguise.

As dad’s health declined, I experienced feelings of selfdoubt, confusion, fear, and anger for years - feelings which were deliberately instilled in me by relatives.

People at some point in their life will face adversity.

However, they can make a conscious decision to move on from their past, or continue to sulk in misery.

I chose the former. I chose to experience growing pains, become a wise and decent human being, rather than feel sorry for myself.

In March of 2000, dad had been diagnosed with a pituitary brain tumor after growing concerns about his health, stemming from the car accident he had been involved in.

Even after his surgeries, he resumed life working as an accountant and continued to make quality time with my brother and I. We did it all together.

On weekends, he would take us to Charles H. Wilson Park to play tennis, football, basketball and baseball, where we could hear the thud of the ball when it makes contact 46 | Warrior Life

with the bat, the racket, or the rim.

Meals were also a part of our quality time.

“Balong, mangan tayon.”

An Ilocano translation of “young boy, let’s eat,” are words I often heard my dad tell my brother and I when we were kids. He would also say this to us in Tagalog, translated to “kain na tayo.”

In hindsight, these are words when I felt the love and care from my dad. He just wanted us to be happy and fulfilled, making sure we would not go hungry. After work, he brought home Pizza Hut. When he wasn’t working and had free time, he cooked Filipino dishes and soups like Tinola, a hearty soup broth with potatoes, carrots, beef, onions, along with other vegetables.

Perhaps my favorite moment with my dad was when we went to Disneyland in August of 1997. We watched the incredible and epic night time show, Fantasmic. As a young boy, I was enthralled watching Mickey Mouse take on Disney villains in a show containing special water effects and fireworks.

Dad took us there with the intention of creating timeless memories and bringing happiness. And it worked.

These are moments I will always treasure with my dad – I get emotional looking back at these moments, because I feel I wasted time and threw away those memories after the turmoil in our household worsened over the years.

Fast forward a few years later, my parents’ marriage slowly fell apart after dad’s brain tumor diagnosis. Heated arguments between my parents were a frequent occurrence in our household.

I had the natural inclination to mend their relationship, but felt powerless as an 8 year old kid to do so.

Powerless - because I was under constant pressure at home by relatives to adhere to Catholic values and cultural Filipino norms. For instance, the idea of “utang ng loob,” translated to “debt of gratitude,” an expectation that good deeds provided must be repaid.

Additionally, my dad’s mental state began to change because of his marriage, paired with financial instability due to becoming unstable with his career. My relatives would mentally, verbally, and emotionally abuse and

manipulate him. Numerous times, my dad would be forced to cook food for “family” functions, only to be told last minute he is not invited. They used him to get what they wanted.

Over the years, his good name was slandered and libeled.

He was labeled a “dead-beat dad” and a “poor excuse for a father” for being unemployed.

His career became unstable - he would endure periods of on and off unemployment for several years because of his failing health due to the medications he had been taking for the pituitary brain tumor, along with numerous diagnoses, including diabetes and heart disease.

What hurt him most of all was watching his own children being used as leverage against him, as well as watching my cousins, aunties and I turn on each other, also used as leverage.

At the age of 55 in his later years, he began walking with a cane. It pained me to watch dad experience these life changes, but most especially when I hit my teenage years, because I argued with him over minute and sometimes serious topics.

When I was in high school, I felt ashamed and left out when I watched my friends and fellow classmates receive their driving permits and license. Sometimes, dad picked me up from school and would have to duck my head, because I did not want to be seen in the passenger’s seat. I did this, because I wanted to feel independent. We argued over things like this.

At one point, my friend’s mother saw my dad sitting in

front of Seafood City, a supermarket in Carson with a cup in hand begging for money, a hood over his head after his divorce from my mom.

Again, I felt powerless in mending our relationship and taking action to make my dad feel better.

After he died in 2020 at 59 years old, I asked myself a crucial question.

“Was I a good son?”

It took me months of deep in reflection to answer this. I was not a good son. I was disrespectful toward my dad. I had no intention of being disrespectful. However, given the circumstances I experienced at home and with extended relatives, it felt like I was forced to pick sides. I was forced to listen to my extended family’s nonsense for 27 years.

At the time of his passing, we hardly had contact. On the other hand, I know I loved and cared for my dad. When he became physically disabled in his later years, I would drive him to the grocery store so he could buy his food and other resources.

It’s taken three years of long talks at night with friends and deep reflections to finally understand my dad and receive the closure I needed.

Dad’s brain tumor was a blessing in disguise, because it also served as a lesson for me to grow out of my past, forcing me to move on with life the way he would have wanted. Talking with my best friends allowed me to realize the divorce and extended family turmoil were not my fault. They also allowed me to see that certain relatives are sadistic and diabolical individuals who have no remorse.

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Air Jordans, Nikes and Pumas grace the walls of Uptown Cheapskate in Torrance on Tusday, Oct. 24. Sneakerheads will not break the bank in the name of acquiring new finds.

Goodwill Hunting

Save the environment and your money when you go thrifting Story and photos by Erica Lee Don’t let inflation stifle your style. You can still furnish your home and look fly on a budget. From cookware to designer bags to one-of-a-kind vintage clothing, there are plenty of treasures to find at your local thrift shop. So make like Macklemore with $20 in your pocket because we’re “gonna pop some tags.”

1. Salvage Society

2. Uptown Cheapskate

Salvage Society offers quality clothes, homewares and electronics in this bright and organized space for under $10. Every second Saturday and last Wednesday of the month offers a storewide 50% sale that sees thrifters lining up at the door an hour before they open. Salvage Society also offers a year-round $1 rack as well as kids clothing and uniform pieces such as medical scrubs.

Stepping into Uptown Cheapskate is like exploring a rich friend’s closet brimming with Dior, Gucci and Balenciaga. The clothes can be pricey, knowing that they resell designer goods such as $50 Kate Spade purses, $300 bedazzled Louboutins and $500 Moncler down jackets, it’s a steal. They can purchase your gently used clothes, but be aware that they will reject clothing that is not considered “in-style” at the moment. Uptown Cheapskate also sells makeup.

Hours: Monday-Saturday: 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Sunday:

closed

Address: 13430 Crenshaw Blvd, Gardena, CA 90249 Phone: (310) 412-1234 Website: https://www.salvagesociety.org

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Hours: Monday-Saturday: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Sunday: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Address: 20725 Hawthorne Blvd, Torrance, CA 90503 Phone: (424) 452-6097 Website: https://www.uptowncheapskate.com/ location/torrance/

A ceramic phrenology model is just one of many unique collectibles found at Out of the Closet in Long Beach. Proceeds go toward funding HIV healthcare and the store’s on-site pharmacy.

A shopper checks out shoe deals at Edgar and James in Redondo Beach. Designer sneakers and heels from Steve Madden, Nike, and Puma go as low as $10.

A little girl looks through board games at Savers in Lomita on Tuesday, Oct. 24. Here you can find childhood favorites like Monopoly, Scene It, and Pretty Pretty Princess for under $10.

3. Edgar and James

4. Savers

5. Out of the Closet

Goodwill’s answer to a carefully curated boutique, Edgar and James in Redondo Beach is smaller than most thrift stores. What it lacks in space it makes up for in quality.

Edgar and James specialize in designer goods for under $20, with shoppers finding everything from Banana Republic suits ($20) to Lucky Brand jeans ($10) to Nike sneakers ($20) on the racks. Fitting rooms are available for customer convenience.

Hours Monday-Sunday: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Address: 317 Torrance Boulevard, Redondo Beach, CA 90277 Phone: (310) 379-4612 Website : https://www.instagram. com/edgarandjames/

This “thrift superstore” has something for the whole family. On top of men’s and women’s clothing, they carry a huge selection of kid’s clothing and toys as well as books, games, DVDs, furniture and kitchenware. Prices range from $3 baby clothes to $40 TV consoles.

Everything is sorted by size and category. Savers also offers a free rewards program.

This store and donation center is an LGBTQIA+ safe space offering free HIV testing and an AHF Pharmacy. You can find Nike, JCrew, and Under Armor alongside vintage threads for under $20 with designer items like $85 Jimmy Choo heels and a $40 Vera Wang wedding dress occasionally cropping up. Proceeds from Out of the Closet go to providing HIV healthcare services.

Hours: Monday-Sunday: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Address: 24911 Western Ave, Lomita, CA 90717 Phone: (310) 326-2187 Website:https://stores.savers. com/ca/lomita/savers-thriftstore-1203.html

Hours: Monday-Saturday: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Sunday: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Address: 3500 Pacific Coast Highway, Long Beach, CA 90804 Phone: (562) 494-0340 Website:https://outofthecloset. org/ Warrior Life | 49

Top 5 comic book stores near El Camino College Superheroes, supervillains and creatures unite at a place near you Story by Christopher “Jesse” Chan Photos by Delfino Camacho

F

ans in the United States have had a devotion to graphic novels since their inception in 1897, when Hearst Syndicate published a book of reissued comic strips, and with good reason. With a large following came the increase in demand for source materials. As a result, such comics may command high prices, as did Superman #1, which sold at auction for $5.3 million in 2022. Comics provide not only enjoyment, but also a financial advantage to those who seek them out.

1. Geoffrey’s Comics Geoffrey’s Comics is located a few blocks west of El Camino College. Geoffrey’s welcomes customers to purchase both new and classic comics. Geoffrey’s also sell clothes and other themed products, in addition to comics. Customers are invited to browse both in-person and online.

Address: 4068 Redondo Beach Blvd., Unit 1, Torrance, CA 90504 Phone: 310-538-3198 Hours: Monday, Wednesday, Friday: 12-7 p.m., Tuesday: 2-6 p.m., Thursday, Saturday, Sunday: 12-6 p.m.

Website: https://www.geoffreyscomics.com 2. SLABBs! With the increasing value of comics, SLABBs!, located within a five minute drive from campus, sells authentic original comics that have been graded and encapsulated with SKU numbers that have been certified by CBC Comics. com. SLABBs! bills itself as a collection store. Customers can choose from various items, including comic books and figurines.

Address: 3940 Marine Ave., Suite B, Lawndale, CA 90260 Phone: 424-404-8415 Hours: Wednesday: 5-9 p.m., Saturday-Sunday: 12-6 p.m., Monday-Tuesday, Thursday-Friday: Closed Website: https://www.lawndalecomics.com 3. The Comic Bug The Comic Bug in Manhattan Beach hosts events regularly at many of its locations. Free comic book day is just one event that oftentimes attracts crowds to both engage in board games and discussions for fans of the novels.

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Address: 1807 Manhattan Beach Blvd., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266 Phone: 310-372-6704 Hours: Monday-Tuesday: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Wednesday: 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., Thursday-Friday: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., SaturdaySunday: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Website: https://www.thecomicbug.com 4. Comic Cult Comic Cult in Torrance ventures out into many other directions in the comic world, as have other comic shops before them. Comic Cult is known for its gaming meetups and is typically described as a “low-key” store. Comic Cult sells various items, including figurines and their primary comics.

Address: 1047 W. Carson St., Torrance, CA 90502 Phone: 310-328-5830 Hours: Tuesday-Saturday: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Sunday: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday: Closed Website: https://www.facebook.com/comicculttorrance/ 5. Stuart Ng Books Unlike many comic shops, Stuart Ng Books in Torrance sells a wide range of books in addition to comics including animation, film, sketchbooks, magazines and children’s books. Stuart Ng Books also sells high-end items that are priced at $75 or more.

Address: 20655 S. Western Ave. #104, Torrance, CA 90501 Phone: 310-909-1929 Hours: Open daily: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Website: https://stuartngbooks.com

(Top): The exterior of Geoffrey’s Comics is a well-known sight to many El Camino College students. Located just west of the campus, Geoffrey’s Comics originally opened in Gardena in 1979.

(Bottom): Found on the back wall of Geoffrey’s Comics on Nov. 9, these racks hold the new monthly comics that are up for sale.

Geoffrey’s Comics became the fourth comic book store in Los Angeles when they opened.

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El Camino College Trustee Brett Roberts takes a moment to show his respects to the city of Inglewood at a mural in front of Antojitos Martin on Oct. 13. Roberts represents Inglewood and Ladera Heights in his Area Seat One position on the Board of Trustees.

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A Trustees dedication to The

“CITY OF CHAMPIONS”

Community leader Brett Roberts facilitates Inglewood’s growth through his various positions

Story and photos by Khoury Williams

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Inglewood Ladera Heights Torrance Los Angeles County Culver City Santa Monica

Inglewood Ladera Heights Torrance Los Angeles County Culver City Santa Monica

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n the corner of South Market Street and East played a vital role in my upbringing,” Roberts said.

Hillcrest Boulevard lies Market Nails, a staple Inglewood has now become a cornerstone not only to his of Inglewood’s historic Market Street for over 30 daily livelihood but to his overall welfare too. years. The owner Lisa Tran, provides her customers with a “That’s the thing about Inglewood, it’s like a little big wide assortment of styles for shapes and polish. city where you got the local shops, local businesses and so Tran grabs her nail file, bringing her customer’s hand into forth. We’re in the backdrop of Los Angeles but it’s still got the bright white beam of her lamp’s light, like a performer this small-town kind of feel to it,” Roberts said. “That’s one taking the stage under a spotlight. of the things I love about this city.”

Tran’s center of attention is unwavering as she focuses Roberts often strolls around Market Street and several solely on refining her client’s custom-made acrylic nails. other local shops to greet and visit business owners who A focus that suddenly breaks as a tall 6-foot-one man, are all within walking distance of Inglewood’s City Hall. carrying a blended green smoothie, strolls by with a slow For a meal and a place to work in peace while also yet confident strut. observing cars and pedestrians, Mutiara Mas is Roberts’ “Hey, Lisa!” go-to spot – serving up authentic Asian halal cuisine with “Hey! Hi Brett, how are you? Going to take a walk friendly smiles in a small restaurant on South La Brea today?”

Avenue.

Tran has been doing Brett Roberts’ mother’s nails since Outside of strolling through Inglewood and indulging he was only 10 years old. While doing routine touch-ups in the various types of food available, Roberts is currently and coatings on the weekends, Tran saw him grow up dating and aspires to have kids in the future. before her eyes.

During his free time, Roberts enjoys watching movies, Now 30 years later, Brett television and reading. The Roberts is a community first thing Roberts does leader with many different every morning is read the That’s the thing about Inglewood, it’s news alongside a glass of responsibilities that are all threaded together through the like a little big city where you got the water. He reads articles from city of Inglewood. several different outlets to Roberts is a member of local shops, local businesses and so forth. gain “a broader perspective” El Camino College’s Board We’re in the backdrop of Los Angeles but on everything happening in of Trustees, a community the world. relations manager for LA it’s still got this small-town kind of feel Roberts also reads a lot of Metro, an Inglewood Traffic to it. books including “Adversity and Parking commissioner, for Sale: Ya Gotta Believe,” a campaign organizer for

by Jeezy, “A Higher Loyalty:

Barrack Obama, a 61st State Truth, Lies, and Leadership,” — Brett Roberts Assembly District Democratic

by James Comey and “The Alternate-Delegate and a Purpose Driven Life,” by world traveler seeking to Rick Warren. facilitate growth in the city of Inglewood through his In 2019, Roberts published his own book, marrying his various positions. passion for his work with his love for traveling, titled As a member of the Board of Trustees, Roberts proudly “From the Cubicle to the World: The Definitive Travel Book represents his position, wearing a blue custom-made El for Busy Professionals Who Want to Explore the World.”

Camino College windbreaker jacket that shows his name “It’s really just a combination of various things I’ve been above “Area Seat One,” Brett’s position on the board. writing for a couple years. Whenever I’m on a plane or a In Area Seat One, Roberts represents El Camino College train or wherever, I tried to just write a little bit here and in the communities of Inglewood and Ladera Heights. It’s there, journaling my thoughts on various subjects,” Roberts Inglewood though that is cemented in Roberts’ life. said.

On a warm yet breezy Friday morning in the fall, Roberts, Roberts has traveled to 99 total countries and is still 40, walked around Market Street greeting store owners he undecided on what the 100th country will be. Roberts would often visit, reminiscing about his childhood and said he loves traveling to meet new people and experience growing up around Inglewood. different cultures, biology and food.

Now a proud Inglewood resident, Roberts was born Music is also a staple of both Roberts’ life and the city in the city and raised in Los Angeles by his grandmother of Inglewood. As he continues strolling through Market Lillie Roberts and single mother Margaret Roberts. They Street, live music can be heard on both sides of the street did everything they could for Roberts, from taking him as the sound of beating drums and a saxophone fills the air. on numerous road trips, museums and reading Amelia Inglewood is also home to several well-known musicians Bedelia novels. All this eventually led him to develop a including Swae Lee, Becky G and Omarion. natural interest in his city and the world around him.

Roberts is a fan of all genres in music but credits hip-hop “All of that stuff just sparked a natural curiosity in me as the main genre that keeps him focused. Roberts’ favorite that was baked in from the start because of the foundation hip-hop artists are Tupac, Nipsey Hussle, Jay-Z, Nas and that my mom and my grandma laid for me. They really André 3000.

Trustee Delegate Community Relations Campaign Organizaer Manager Leader

Education Transportation Community Village Society

Inglewood Ladera Heights Torrance Los Angeles County Culver City Santa Monica

L.A. Metro’s Community Relations Manager Brett Roberts shows respects to the late Nipsey Hussle, one of Roberts’ favorite rappers, at a mural painted by the pedestrian walkway construction project from Slauson to Long Beach Avenue in Los Angeles on Oct. 20.

“One thing I’ll say about hip-hop is that it gets me in the zone whether it be the beat or the way somebody’s flow drops on the beat. It just gets me going and feeling like I’m about to hit the day hard,” Roberts said. “Music is the backdrop of everything we have going on.”

From food to coffee, clothes, beauty salons, music, entertainment and more, Inglewood not only has those basic needs covered but to Roberts, it is a hidden gem within Los Angeles County that is always bustling with options and activities.

“There’s hope, there’s opportunity, there’s industry and I just think we’re a crown jewel in the great county of Los Angeles because there’s so much happening here within these nine square miles,” Roberts said.

As Roberts himself has gained a lot of prominence, so has the city of Inglewood, however, the city has changed a lot over the past 100 years to become known as “The City of Champions,” that it is today.

Inglewood was a predominantly White neighborhood in the 1920s with small redlined districts designated to Black, Hispanic, Latino, Asian and other ethnic family groups. By the 1980s and today, Black and Hispanic people make up the majority of Inglewood’s population according to the 2022 United States Census Bureau.

Over the last decade, Inglewood’s residents have been heavily impacted by gentrification. High-end establishments and venues built around the city have raised the cost of living, putting Black and Hispanic neighborhoods at risk.

The most recent projects of the SoFi Stadium and the upcoming L.A. Metro K-Line Station — a project that Roberts himself oversees, are two projects that can improve Inglewood’s economy while also putting residents at risk for increased cost of living.

Roberts said his goal for Inglewood is to help improve the health of the city while also retaining its residents and communities.

“I want to see as many amenities come to the city but I also want the people who have been here to be able to enjoy that as well,” Roberts said. “We have to have a truthful and honest conversation about the distribution of wealth in this country because there are some glaring discrepancies there…but I think for cities like Inglewood, rent control is a start.”

Roberts said Inglewood enacted a rent control measure in 2019, setting a 5% capacity limit on yearly rent increases from landlords. Roberts believes the measure is a “step in the right direction” because it holds property owners more accountable.

From working in public transportation and government positions, Roberts can use his experience and connections in conjunction with each other with Inglewood being the center point tethering his responsibilities together.

“I can leverage a lot of the communal relationships that I have all throughout the city and leverage what I’m doing in these roles and the connections I have all throughout [Inglewood] to bring them all together,” Roberts said.

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Trustee Delegate Community Relations Campaign Organizaer Manager Leader

Trustee Delegate Community Relations Campaign Organizaer Manager Leader

Power Believe Live Uplift Support Spark Connection Trust

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Power Believe Live Uplift Support Spark Connection Trust Belonging Home

Power Believe Live Uplift Support Spark Connection Trust Belonging Home

died on March 23 to fill the vacant seat.

After a special board meeting on May 12, Roberts was selected as the newest trustee to take over Area 1. He was sworn into his new position by Inglewood Mayor James Butts on May 15.

“We selected trustee Brett Roberts and he’s been a great addition to El Camino.

I know that [Brown] would really appreciate and respect the work that trustee Roberts is doing because he doesn’t just call it in, he goes to El Camino events, he’s highly engaged, he talks to people and he goes out to represent El Camino in a very positive way,” Murakawa said.

Roberts did not personally During one of his routine walks through Inglewood, Trustee Brett Roberts takes a moment to relax and know Brown but he knew take in the scenery at a modern café and coffee shop called Awakening on Oct. 13. of his many accolades and his College’s Board of Trustees is to strengthen the bridges character. Roberts said he connecting the city of Inglewood, Inglewood Unified has “big shoes to fill” when it comes to the legacy Brown School District and El Camino College. left behind and what he meant to the El Camino College “We have all this industry here in Inglewood. I want community. folks from the city to be able to go to a place like El Camino, “I didn’t know him but I know he did some great things get a certificate, get a degree and then come back to So-Fi and in this role, I just want to build on the things that he or The Forum to become a sound engineer or something did and seek out ways to forge new paths as well,” Roberts along those lines,” Roberts said. said.

Roberts’ position on the Board of Trustees became open Other goals that Roberts has as an El Camino trustee are to due to the death of former Board of Trustees President complete the student housing project, increase enrollment Kenneth Brown on March 23. and increase faculty wages.

Trisha Murakawa, the current Board of Trustees president “I want to remove any barrier that’s possibly out there said she was an ally and a supporter of Brown’s and his because the knowledge that you get from a community sudden death was shocking. college allows you the opportunity to pursue the dreams “It was devastating and unexpected, even now, It’s still that you might have,” Roberts said. very emotional to me and I still think about him. I miss him,” Murakawa said.

The El Camino College Board of Trustees attended October’s Association of Community College Trustees conference in Las Vegas. Brown had started running for the organization’s board at the start of the year and Murakawa said attending the event was another reminder to her that Brown was no longer here.

When Brown died, Murakawa had to step in as interim president of the Board of Trustees to work on filling the vacant Area One seat. “[The board] had to have a meeting to talk about what the timing was going to be, what the process was going to be and when we were going to do this,” Murakwa said.

“I had to preside over that meeting as the vice president fulfilling the role of the president and that meeting was L.A. Metro’s Community Relations Manager Brett Roberts looks emotional but we did it.” at concept designs for several L.A. County projects on Oct. 20 The Board of Trustees had 60 days from the day Brown

Education Transportation Community Village Society College Circle Fraternity

Trustee Community Relations Campaign Organizaer Leader

Power Believe Live Uplift Support Spark Connection Trust Belonging Home

The community college system allowed Roberts a second chance at achieving his dreams as well.

Growing up with his mother and grandmother, Roberts said he often struggled to focus on his educational responsibilities, opting instead to set his priorities on partying and being the cool kid on campus at Westchester High School – now known as Westchester Enriched Sciences Magnets.

Eventually, Roberts had to attend a continuation school for a semester to ensure he graduated on time with his high school diploma.

“I had to really get it together because I felt that I could do better than what I’m doing right now,” Roberts said. “I was not being the person or student that I should’ve been.

I knew it was within me and I was able to revert and get back on track.”

While he didn’t get to live out the high school experience that he would’ve wanted, Roberts felt that he was given a second chance and a clean slate by enrolling in Santa Monica College in 2000.

Community college gave Roberts a renewed drive for his educational journey. Using numerous resources made available to him, Roberts made the best out of every opportunity given to him and remained diligent throughout his time at Santa Monica College.

“Santa Monica College afforded me the opportunity to learn how to become a better student,” Roberts said. “I was able to work on my studying skills and I was able to have a network of folks to make sure that I got to the next

destination.”

Afterward, he earned a Pepperdine University where he earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration and public relations from Pepperdine University, followed by a master’s degree in marketing from Pepperdine Graziado Business School in 2007.

After completing graduate school, Roberts said he felt unsatisfied working for many years as he moved through various temporary positions, including one at Home Depot where he unloaded goods from a freight truck.

“Come hell or high water, we’re going to get through and we’ll do whatever we got to do,” Roberts said. “It’s honorable work and even with this MBA from Pepperdine, if that means I got to eat some humble pie and slam freight until we get to where we got to go, I’m rolling up my sleeves and slamming freight.”

While floating between different temporary jobs, Roberts decided to get involved in politics by volunteering for the Democratic Party and becoming a field organizer during former U.S. President Barrack Obama’s original campaign run between 2007 and 2008.

“I was not a fan of President [George] Bush, I was against the Iraq War, I don’t like what’s happening overseas in terms of our foreign policy,” Roberts said. “As an 18-yearold, I was like, how can I counter that? Well, let me get active with the opposition party, the Democratic Party.”

As a field organizer for Obama’s campaign, Roberts arranged for Democrats to get on buses to Nevada and Arizona where they would knock on residential doors

Trustee Brett Roberts talks to Roc Nation’s National Director, Reza Sarrafieh, about his plans as an El Camino College trustee in Inglewood’s Miracle Theater on Oct. 13. Sarrafieh is an El Camino alumni who is interested in the future of the college.

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Education Transportation Community Village Society College Circle Fraternity

Education Transportation Community Village Society College Circle Fraternity

Inglewood Ladera Heights Torrance Los Angeles County

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Trustee Delegate Community Relations Campaign Organizaer Manager Leader

Trustee Delegate Community Relations Campaign Organizaer Manager Leader

to get people to vote. Roberts also helped with fundraising “Far beyond growing the business, I also feel you have and phone banking to engage with more voters. a responsibility to give back. That’s why I was so happy Roberts then used his newfound political knowledge to you saw the message I sent you [Roberts] because you have run as a delegate for the Democratic National Committee always been a guy that is there to help and I know you’re (DNC) and won in 2012, 2016 and 2020. Roberts currently going to help a lot of people and a lot of kids in the process serves as the California Democratic Party’s alternate of what you’re doing,” Martin said. “And I feel like that’s delegate for the 61st State Assembly District. the most rewarding thing.”

“I’m a delegate to the California Democratic Party and Through his business, Martin was able to give four that was an appointment made by Assemblymember Tina students from Inglewood $1,500 in scholarships each.

Mckinnor. I serve as her delegate and I go to the [democratic] For Inglewood’s students, Martin felt that El Camino’s conventions and we’ll vote on the endorsement of certain presence was not felt enough throughout the city but candidates running for office,” Roberts said.

Roberts is actively working on making sure the college is Currently, Roberts said “there’s a good chance” that present. he will run as a DNC delegate for the 2024 election year “We’re looking to change that. There’s some small depending on the candidates, but his primary focus is on connection with Inglewood High playing their football his current campaign run for a full four-year term as an games at [Murdock] Stadium but I want to make El Camino El Camino College Board of Trustee starting in November more prominent throughout the city of Inglewood,” 2024.

Roberts said. “We have our community engagement teams Roberts’ family legacy is forever synonymous with from El Camino setting up a booth and a kiosk at some of politics as his great-grandfather, Charlie Roberts, was one these events. I’m out and about, when you see me walking of three petitioners in the Texas Supreme Court Case of around the city, I’m usually wearing some El Camino stuff.”

Terry v. Adams in 1953.

Both Martin and Roberts see Petitioners Charlie Roberts, El Camino College as a good John Terry and Arizona Fleming alternative for current and former sued Texas County for race...I know you’re going to help a Inglewood students who may not based discrimination due to their what to do after high school lot of people and a lot of kids in know exclusion from White-only preor for those who can’t afford to go the process of what you’re doing, to four-year universities. primary elections.

Terry v. Adams was the final “You’re the perfect guy to create

case on voter rights in Texas. The that bridge and let our students petitioners won their case the know they can get to El Camino. same year - allowing equal rights I want to help out because I know — Christian Martin when it comes to voting in the Brett, you’re going to help these state of Texas. kids out,” Martin said. “They can Roberts’ eyes become cloudy come back home, make an impact in with tears as he recounts his Inglewood and Inglewood grows.” great-grandfather’s legacy and said he wants his name to As Roberts leaves, Martin makes sure he walks out with stand for something like Charlie Roberts’ did. a fresh bowl of fruit and green juice mixed with cucumber, “The reason I reference [Charlie Roberts] is because celery, apples and spinach. when I see his name on a street sign out in Texas or when Across the street from Antojitos Martin is the Downtown I read about my great-grandfather online, it’s because Inglewood K-Line Station, a project stretching 6 miles he did something,” Roberts said. “When I see my name across L.A. County connecting people from LAX airport to on something or my image, that has to mean something, seven essential destinations throughout the county. otherwise, it means nothing.

Above the Downtown Inglewood Station is a mural of Roberts continues to walk proudly through Inglewood, Roberts beside his mother and several other Inglewood greeting local residents, shop owners and taking every residents. opportunity to talk with them about the city of Inglewood “When I say I’m a part of this Inglewood fabric, I’m and El Camino College. During his walk, Roberts makes locked in here. That’s actually my mom right here [left] so I an important stop at Antojitos Martin restaurant on East always look at that as my mom having my back.”

Florence Avenue in Inglewood.

Roberts said when he looks up at the mural painting Owned and operated by Inglewood native Christian of him, he feels gratitude to the city of Inglewood and Martin and his family, Antojitos Martin is just one of six appreciates the way his life has centered around it. restaurants his family owns in the city. Martin is a longtime “I’m a firm believer in what’s for you will be for you and friend of Roberts. Roberts walks in and they greet each I never thought I would move to Inglewood, become an other with smiles and hugs.

Inglewood trustee but all the stars aligned in a way where Martin and Roberts have a mutual respect as they both I found myself in an apartment here, bought a home here, admire each other’s work ethic and they both want to my work has largely been here,” Roberts said. “All of this invest in Inglewood’s youth. As a new father to a newborn stuff has manifested itself for me here. It feels like my son, Martin has a newfound perspective on what it means purpose here is to be here in this city and make it the best to support kids. place that I can.”

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Trustee Brett Roberts visits his longtime friend, Christian Martin at his Antojitos Martin restaurant on Oct. 13. Martin and his family own and operate five restaurants across Inglewood. Martin said his family’s first restaurant opened up in 2009.

Trustee Brett Roberts stops at the Downtown Inglewood K-Line station during one of his routine walks through the city to admire a mural painted of him and his mother [left] along with several other Inglewood residents on Oct. 13. Created by artist Kenturah Davis in 2022, Roberts said the murals makes him feel gratitude to the city of Inglewood.

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Inglewood Ladera Heights Torrance Los Angeles County Culver City Santa Monica

Inglewood Ladera Heights Torrance Los Angeles County Culver City Santa Monica

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