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4. You're listening to KPFK, 90.7 FM Los Angeles, 98.7 FM Santa Barbara, 93.7 San Diego, and
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6. La Raza Radio with Matt Cedillo.
7. Welcome to La Raza Radio.
8. We're here at La Raza Radio.
9. Believe in drawing and understanding from the study of history and economics
10. and our sense of direction of the demands of the people and the movement.
11. Welcome to La Raza Radio.
12. Very excited this hour to bring to you Juan Carlos Munoz Hernandez,
13. as well as Marta Segura, as well as David A. Romero.
14. And we'll be discussing the life and work of Juan Carlos,
15. as well as the environmental, ongoing environmental disaster with the lineage fire with Marta Segura
16. and the goings-on, some cultural events with El Martillo Press with David A. Romero.
17. Very, very excited to be speaking to him.
18. Welcome to La Raza Radio.
19. And welcome back to the Rastor Radio.
20. We are now joined by Juan Carlos Munoz Hernandez, who is a visual artist as well as a sculptor and muralist.
21. He's got quite a storied life.
22. And I'm really, really honored to have him on for this hour.
23. And so, yeah, let's just right into this.
24. Juan Carlos, for our audience who might, you know, might not be as familiar with the story,
25. can you tell us a little bit about, like, you know, your early life and how you really didn't seem like you were destined to become this great celebrated artist that you are today?
26. Oh, man, thank you.
27. Yeah, so I grew up in Boyle Heights, and I grew up, if you're not familiar with that area, just east of downtown, just east of Little Tokyo.
28. It's Boyle Heights and a little area called Pico Aliso.
29. So it was Aliso Village, Pico Aliso, and Pico Gardens.
30. And I grew up first in Utah, which is Pico Aliso housing projects.
31. and I lived there for several decades.
32. You know, early childhood memory was, you know,
33. growing up around different tribe people
34. would see a lot of like, kind of like,
35. calligraphy on the walls.
36. Not too many murals.
37. There were not too many murals there.
38. There was murals up the hill,
39. which is like up by Brooklyn and stuff,
40. but I didn't really, really go up there.
41. I just kind of hung out around the, you know,
42. around the projects there.
43. And I have family members over there close to Tommy's Rampart area.
44. And one kind of graffiti piece that stuck out was from this graffiti artist named Crime Rick from the LA Bomb Spot K2S graffiti crew in LA.
45. So that really like my first kind of encounter with art was I think was that you know like kind of like a visual you know and that really kind of popped some good energy into my head
46. and started like kind of tagging around the neighborhood there in the projects.
47. Yeah.
48. Now you and I met at a fundraiser for Proyecto Pasarau,
49. and I know that you have like kind of a lot of history with him.
50. And for audience who might not be familiar, can you tell us a little bit about what Proyecto Pastoral is and then also your connection to it?
51. Yeah, so Proyecto Pastoral began with a mother.
52. So my jefita, my mom's Paula Hernandez, she was one of the founding members of Proyecto Pastoral.
53. So it was a group of women that got together there in Los Proyectos.
54. and when there was a lot of violence going on,
55. they decided to kind of do some outreach
56. with praying and a lot of cooking.
57. And so they started making quermeses.
58. There was a lot of funerals going on around that time,
59. a lot of violence, a lot of death was around there.
60. And I don't want to paint like a dark thing,
61. you know, a dark cloud around it
62. because there was a lot of good memories too, you know,
63. that my mom and the jefitas,
64. Las Madres, right there from the projects, kind of put together all this product,
65. put together all this great energy, you know, by cooking,
66. by attending to the folks that were more in need.
67. And from Proyecto Pastoral, actually, from that tree came Homeboy Industries,
68. which was founded by Father Greg Boyle.
69. So, yeah, so there was a lot of happiness there and a lot of, of course, a lot of tears, too, you know.
70. Of course, of course.
71. Can you tell some of the early memories when Greg Boyle kind of started there over at the...
72. It was a little crazy because, so when he got there, there was Dolores Mission Church,
73. and Dolores Mission Church was the neighborhood church which the three projects would go to.
74. And when Father Greg started inviting everyone, when I mean everyone, he started inviting everyone over.
75. So at one point, I don't think the people that were there already, they didn't want that kind of energy there.
76. They don't want Father Greg there anymore.
77. So they had a big meeting across the street from the Lord's Mission.
78. I wasn't there, but I was told it was either like, you know, you're going to get out of here, G, Father Greg, or we'll see what happens.
79. And so then they had the meeting and my mom got up and just imagine like a town hall meeting
80. that there's like maybe about 100, 200 people and some people were just talking going on
81. and people were just concerned about the neighborhood.
82. And so then my mom got up and she basically said, what would, not basically, but spiritually,
83. she said, what would Jesus do?
84. you know and everybody kind of like thought for a second and everybody applauded and then I believe
85. that's how Homeboy Industry started that night and then that community just became even more
86. more stronger more unity you know again there was there was still a lot of violence there so the
87. mothers with their cooking with their marches for for peace there was a lot of marching going on
88. They were, you know, like I remember like it would be nighttime.
89. It would be like 7, 8 at night.
90. And the jefitas were out there man in the front line while there was you know shootings you know but their their faith was so strong that Yolanda Gallo actually told my mom
91. if we die here, we'll go straight to the doors of heaven.
92. That's how strong their faith was.
93. That's very powerful.
94. So let's move into your role as an artist.
95. When did you initially start taking an interest in art?
96. And when did you start thinking about this is something you were going to do with your life?
97. uh that came later man but um so father greg i i think it was like i mean i started hitting the
98. the walls uh the panic zone the yards and then hanging out with with uh the homies uh uh
99. tempt and and and uh cash and therefore started hanging out with those guys right there at the
100. panic zone then we started doing murals so father father greg asked me to do a mural first in
101. Clarence Street, right in the projects.
102. And I believe that was
103. 87,
104. 88?
105. Then from that wall, we did
106. the one at
107. Cea, which is over there by
108. Pico Gardens.
109. And the murals I was doing, it was not really graffiti.
110. It was done with aerosol.
111. And we were just kind of trying to send
112. a message out there.
113. Again, we had eight
114. different tribes. By tribes, I mean
115. different barrios there that were
116. pretty much all going they were pretty active at the time then around that time there was the the
117. rodney keen riots that that kicked off as well which was like 91 92 and then uh robert graham
118. with uh his wife angelica houston and edward james almost decided to reach reach out to the to the
119. inner city and from what i heard they they asked robert graham to go to the art schools but he
120. he was like he insisted not to go into the hood so then they well i was painting a mural there
121. for father gray asea i was up in a scaffold and um manuel guerrero from the gang you servers
122. rolled up and he basically said if i wanted a job and my first thing was like man does it pay how
123. much and he said yeah man you know at that time i had just i just had a baby who's like a year old
124. And I got off the scaffold, needed the money, and took me down to Venice.
125. And, you know, for people that grew up in the projects, we never really left the projects.
126. The only time we probably would leave was, like, up the hill to shoppers and get our groceries and stuff.
127. You know, we would never leave there.
128. So I got in the car with all my materials, all my spray cans, and they drove me to Venice.
129. And I was like, man, where are we going, you know?
130. Venice seemed like another side of the world.
131. So when I got to Venice, it was all clean.
132. It was like, damn, I'm like in heaven right here.
133. You know, like the beach and the weather and everything.
134. It was so, so cool, man.
135. So, so nice.
136. And then I went to the street called Market Street.
137. And that's where I met the late Robert Graham.
138. And about 30 of us got interviewed that day.
139. and he hired seven of us.
140. At this time, I had no clue who he was.
141. But yeah, he asked me.
142. The interview consists of art
143. and producing a sculpture that was made out of bronze.
144. He brought it out.
145. He showed it to me.
146. And of course, I didn't really have too much interest in it
147. because my interest was more graffiti And my mind was still in the barrio in the hood the hood so he showed it to me man i want to produce something very special here i want to do
148. something produce it a bunch of times you know but each each piece is going to be special like
149. you know uh and i said okay i didn't really know i didn't really catch on
150. i didn't really know what he meant you know not not at that time and
151. And so then two weeks later, man, I got the call and he hired me.
152. So then I started driving from the projects.
153. I started driving to Venice.
154. And then we started the project, the Mocha.
155. It was called the Mocha Torso Project.
156. Mocha was, so it was a project that we did in collaboration
157. with the Museum of Contemporary Art here in Los Angeles.
158. So we started producing these sculptures in bronze.
159. And then he started taking us around to the museums.
160. and I was like, man, who is this guy?
161. You know, because we were like getting the VI treatment, you know.
162. And I was like, man, so he hooked up a studio for us right there on Market Street, you know,
163. and it was a nice studio.
164. We started casting bronze.
165. We learned of the whole La Loz wax process,
166. which is, you know, you do the clay and then you make the mold,
167. you make the master and then you pour wax into the silicone rubber mold.
168. Then you get your waxes and then you cast them in bronze. It's a long process. It's it's man. It's like a 11 step process and
169. It was a lot of hard work man a lot of hard work
170. It was like who did we get ourself into you know, but it was like it was something new and then at the time
171. You know, I was still losing losing friends and stuff on him
172. in Bo Heights, you know in the projects and I think they I think G said up
173. from like 85 to 95
174. it was called
175. I don't really like repeating it
176. but it was called The Decade of Death in LA
177. so started doing that
178. but still it was still like
179. to me art has always
180. played a bubble of protection
181. around me and my
182. soul and my loved ones
183. I always had like sketchbooks around my house
184. where my children could
185. kind of sketch and do
186. whatever but it's it's kind of like an important thing that that i always had around the house of
187. the black books you know where people sketch ideas and do their their artwork and pieces
188. portraits and whatnot but yeah i think it's important for me to say that that it has been
189. like a shield you know art and sculpture and i've been very fortunate to have worked with robert
190. Graham through Father Gray, you know, kind of Father Gray kind of got me started.
191. You know, he pretty much created the car and I got on the car and there was a few flat
192. tires on the way.
193. But we prepared the tires and gave the engine a good tune ups and stuff and kept it going,
194. man.
195. And, you know, then I started working on all these international projects with Graham.
196. You know, we worked on the Duke Ellington Memorial in D.C., Charlie Burr Parker in Kansas City, and then the Great Bronze Doors here at the Cathedral of Los Angeles.
197. You're listening to KPFK La Raza Radio.
198. We're now joined by Juan Carlos Munoz Hernandez,
199. and we're talking about his journey as an artist,
200. as well as the legacy of Robert Graham.
201. So Juan Carlos, for our audience who might not be as familiar,
202. can you tell us a little bit more about who Robert Graham was and why
203. His art was so important.
204. I mean, I think many people would recognize a lot of his artwork, but maybe not necessarily his name.
205. And certainly wouldn't associate the name Robert Graham with the Mexicanos.
206. It was Robert Graham Peña.
207. His father was Graham and his mother Peña, last name Peña.
208. And, you know, yeah, Graham, his father was European and la mamá was Mexicana.
209. And Robert Graham was born in Mexico.
210. Then he came to the United States.
211. But when he was in Mexico, his mom would take him to the museums and, you know, he got introduced to all the legends, you know, Los Tres Grandes, you know, Orozco, Siqueiros, Indigo Rivera.
212. And then, of course, all the everything else that Mexico City has, you know, Los Templos Mayores and all that stuff.
213. So, yeah, so Robert, he's known, you know, Robert Graham is known for the female figure in bronze, nude, nude female form.
214. And he did the gateway for people that are not familiar.
215. He did the gateway for the 1984 Olympics right there at the Coliseum.
216. there's two, a male and a female athlete
217. that are on top of this bronze pedestals
218. that almost looks like a,
219. kind of like a Roman number, you know,
220. it's like two pedestals, two bronze pedestals.
221. And then there's like a bar across
222. and then the two, the female and the male are on top.
223. And yeah, so he was known for that.
224. It was like just a lot of discipline in his work, man.
225. He would make almost the female, they would look like they were going to come up to you and walk up to you, you know?
226. Yeah, so he was known basically for the female figure, how he kind of perfected, you know, but I don't really know if that's even the right word, man.
227. I guess how he made the female figure sculpted.
228. If he was going to walk up to you and ask your name or something,
229. he perfected it.
230. But I know that's not the correct word
231. because it was more of a natural feeling,
232. more than a perfection thing.
233. There was a lot of focus involved.
234. I do know that.
235. Almost like at a surgical point of sculpting
236. you know where it was it was very uh it was like either you do it or you don't you know you do it
237. or you die kind of kind of feeling you know that's how kind of uh the focus was was on it you know
238. on each sculpture that he made you know what i mean yeah the anatomy the anatomy of the female
239. form he got it right on there you know initially you know the first thing i recounted of his work
240. was when I visited someone in Detroit and I saw the Joe Louis.
241. Yeah, the Joe Louis arm.
242. Yeah, I was not there during that time.
243. You know, that was before me.
244. Again, I started in 92.
245. And one thing he did mention was it's unfortunate,
246. but if you see a lot of the murals out in the street or in the urban areas,
247. murals or sculptures, like you will never know who the artist is.
248. You know, and it's kind of, damn, you know,
249. because a lot of work goes into these things, you know.
250. Even like music, right?
251. Like music, they have to play it and play it
252. and play it on the radio for you to know the,
253. to this day, probably, you know,
254. there's songs that are being played on the radio
255. and we don even know who the artist is but you know you like the rhythm that playing there No it was it was actually coming into studios i really got full scope of everything i not familiar with his name but it was it was until i came into the studio that i actually saw yeah all those things
256. and realized oh my god that was all one man like yeah all these things yeah yeah yeah and he kept
257. going he kept going man like you know he was he was uh he loved to work man he loved he loved the
258. craft and and i never i mean he ran he ran that studio uh with a lot of discipline you know it
259. was just non-stop and you know you think that that uh you know you hang out you hang out and
260. i'm in venice now and and then i meet new friends and you know they're out there you know doing
261. their thing and the weekends and he was not about that you know he was more about the craft and
262. and putting something together there that was going to make it for for for the ages you know
263. he certainly has he certainly has well i want to talk a little about your own work though um
264. so in uh right there there at studio 347 right around the corner there's a giant painting of
265. your own and it's it's the symbol of these birds are kind of flying together and they don't
266. necessarily yeah you describe the paint describe the paint for our audience yes so i don't i don't
267. know the year but there was a comet flying over us maybe two decades ago two decades ago and and i
268. sat down with an elder from he was a lakota he mentioned how the thousands of birds fly together
269. and they don't crash and he said man i wish humanity was like that you know and and we sat
270. there for about an hour we talked about that and he talked about the water and taking care of mother
271. earth you know and uh that was that was special that was very special so then like 20 years later
272. i started um i'm always kind of experimenting with materials and whatever caused my soul you
273. know i'm kind of there i dive into it so i started doing these paintings with with spray with aerosol
274. paint, spray paint. And I had no clue what I was doing, man. I was just in the lab,
275. just trying to create something. And all of a sudden, man, I started creating these pieces
276. that were titled Memoration. So Memoration, it's when the thousands of birds fly together
277. without crashing, and they are actually helping each other out and making these forms in the
278. sky you know and so naturally that started happening in my paintings so i started doing
279. these memorization pieces with with color and and then i seen some of the colors kind of
280. like not getting along with each other but i was like i kind of i i spoke to them and i said listen
281. man you guys don't have to like you guys want to live together in this canvas and this wood panel
282. forever and and so then they they sat down around the table and and uh with some good food from the
283. jefitas that that they made and and actually you know they ate the food from that good food that
284. came from the soul and and and the color started getting along little by little and and that became
285. the murmuration series that i started making you know then from that came the rivers of life which
286. which was a lot of line work that I also made.
287. That's kind of speaking from like the heavens,
288. from the earth to the heavens, you know,
289. these vertical lines and then also horizontal lines.
290. So when the horizontal lines meet with the vertical lines,
291. it creates a positive symbol which makes life And then I started making about three years ago i was with stephen graham and i started making these loose sculptures that ended up being part
292. of the memorization series because of the conversation that the loose-sized sculptures
293. when the light has a conversation with him in the space between the sculpture and the wall
294. on the surface, it creates these
295. murmuration pieces.
296. And I did a further
297. investigation with
298. David Brafman from the
299. Getty Research Institute.
300. He curated a show
301. that was over here in
302. L.A.
303. Yeah, so that's what you've seen there.
304. And I personally
305. think that the reason these birds
306. make these shades is because of
307. the communication
308. that the tree
309. the trees have under on the ground with the root system they have this there's all this electricity
310. so now you have these beautiful birds communicating with the trees the roots of the trees that we
311. don't see and that's how they're making all these shapes these beautiful shapes you know
312. now we kind of talked about on canvas but how has this concept of these birds how has that uh
313. influenced your sculpture work?
314. It was accidental, man.
315. It's all been kind of accidental.
316. It's all been brought to me by the grace of God,
317. by the Creator.
318. These special moments that kind of come to me
319. and it just kind of happened.
320. I can't even explain it.
321. I, there's no, it's just kind of the, uh, the loose side.
322. I had like a little swatch there.
323. I don't even know, remember how I had got it.
324. And I had an oven where I warm up the clay for the bronze sculptures.
325. I put the piece of loose side in there and I came back like an hour later.
326. It was, and it was like a, I think it was like a half inch by an inch swatch piece.
327. And I've, I don't even know where I got it from, but I put it inside the oven,
328. came back an hour later picked it up and it was valuable it was i was able to move it i could have
329. something here i got very excited now when i started creating these uh you know to make a
330. bronze sculpture it's at least three three to four months you know depending on on how detailed and
331. how big the sculpture is you know some sculptures could take up to a few years you know uh with
332. Lucite material, you know, it'll take a day or two to get a result, a good result, you know.
333. And so I was fascinated.
334. But what fascinated me more that it's like alive, like it becomes like meaning alive, meaning the conversation it has with the light and space.
335. it almost goes back to
336. the Cusco artists that came from Venice
337. which were
338. they were doing a lot of
339. Light in Space
340. you know like Larry Bell
341. and those masters you know
342. You listen to KVFK La Raza Radio
343. we're now joined by Juan Carlos Munoz Hernandez
344. so Juan Carlos I guess final question
345. where can people connect to your work
346. where can people find your work
347. how do people get a hold of you if they want to
348. purchase your work or bring you to a gallery
349. Yeah, one thing I think that's I could mention that it's so we were in Venice before, you know, I
350. grew up there in Boyle Heights and and
351. They knocked the projects down you know so a lot of families got They had to move out out of there and I was kind of one of the first ones that had to move out So I met up in Venice and I was going through a hard time in Venice
352. Used to sneak into Robert Graham's studio to kind of take a shower and whatnot.
353. Anyhow, the studio was in Venice off of Windward.
354. Robert Graham passed and we had to relocate about two to three times.
355. the third time uh we relocated to Boyle Heights and not only Boyle Heights but we relocated a
356. block from where I grew up at so it was it was like I couldn't believe it man after 30 years
357. I'm back back in the hood back in the neighborhood where I grew up and it's directly across from
358. Proyecto Pasoral Impacto um so I'm surrounded by these uh beautiful people that work there and
359. and let's let let's let you on ganas every day you know even now with the the fire that was there uh
360. they're over there uh helping people out with with air purifiers and just there just so basically
361. with my feet and they were doing there's women that are there now they're doing that they're
362. doing that you know they're they're helping out the gente so uh yeah so the studios there is
363. 347 Clarence Street, Los Angeles, California, 90033.
364. I'm also on IG.
365. I go by Heaven underscore K2S.
366. And look it up, Juan Carlos Muñoz Hernandez.
367. A su servicio, you know.
368. Thank you so much for your time, Juan Carlos.
369. We'll have to do it again.
370. I also want to give a big special shout out to Suzanne Thompson
371. of the Arts and Cultural Bridge Foundation for connecting us.
372. Yes.
373. We had an incredible, incredible, you know,
374. showing an incredible cultural event and we're looking forward to more.
375. So thank you again, Juan Carlos Munoz-Sarantz for your time
376. and for all the incredible artwork you do.
377. And for also for being such a, you know,
378. keeping the flame of Robert Graham going and everything you do.
379. Gracias, man.
380. Thank you so much.
381. Thank you.
382. Thank you.
383. And gracias, Suzanne.
384. And thank you for coming over and doing that poetry reading
385. and bringing good energy to the studio last week.
386. And it was the sculptures and the walls definitely needed that, you know,
387. needed that good energy.
388. We'll do it again soon.
389. Yes, sir.
390. Thank you.
391. Thank you so much.
392. And welcome back to La Raza Radio.
393. We are now joined by Martha Tsegura, who is a health and environmental advocate and has been for over 30 years fighting the good fight.
394. And we're really, really honored to have her on to talk about the ongoing question of the
395. lineage cold storage warehouse disaster, the fire there, of which there are many, many
396. health concerns and many, many environmental concerns, which are still quite literally
397. lingering in the air.
398. I know the story has seemed to the smoke has kind of dissipated.
399. A lot of people have kind of turned away the attention.
400. But no, there are still many, many things that we need to be concerned about.
401. And so that's why we asked Marta to come on.
402. And we're very, very honored to have her.
403. So, Marta Segura, can you tell our audience a little bit about some of the things that we should still be concerned about?
404. Thanks for inviting me here, Matt.
405. I continue to be extremely concerned because it's...
406. sort of being treated like multiple hazards. First, the emissions from the smoke and the fire.
407. Now there's the, not just the odor, but the emissions from the rotting food and meat.
408. And the other thing that we really need to consider is that this is Boyle Heights that's
409. crisscrossed by freeways and has been exposed to environmental pollution by nearby Southeast LA.
410. So the people that live there already have pre-existing health conditions. And I wanted
411. to point out that it's a very dense area. It's one of the densest, if not the densest area in
412. all of Los Angeles. And the people that work there are not remote workers. They're not like your
413. Silicon Valley workers that can work from home. They have to go into work. So many of them have
414. either exposed themselves or have stopped working altogether, which is another issue altogether.
415. It's an economic issue. But just in terms of the disaster itself, we should see it as one
416. comprehensive long-term disaster with multiple hazards. And going back to the initial fire,
417. that by the way, lineage is saying that there's still flaring going on in one of their letters
418. to the city. So the fire may not be completely over, right, as per lineage. Those emissions from
419. the smoke were not just particulate matter, which was what was being reported by local city officials
420. and local county officials and the Air Quality Management District. Particulate matter is just
421. the size of the particles in the smoke. What really matters is the toxicity. What kind of
422. metals are in the air? What kind of chemicals in the air? What kind of emissions from the plastics,
423. the ammonia the solar panels all of that is i think finally being measured by ucla
424. and and perhaps by aqmd i had to look into that but it's it's not what was being reported what
425. was being reported to people initially is that they did not have anything to worry about that
426. the particulate matter was coming down but by the way that particulate matter was much higher than
427. what we found in the Palisades, even in the beginning. So if you think about it, it's very
428. high particulate matter, very high level of toxicity, which is still yet to be determined
429. by UCLA, in a very dense area of predominantly working class Latino families, eight out of 10
430. people there are Latino. You have mixture for chaotic disaster and health conditions,
431. not just for the short term, but for the long term.
432. And that's the other thing that concerns me
433. is in Palisades, you were evacuated.
434. Here, we had no evacuations.
435. People were just told to stay home.
436. They have been given some air purifiers,
437. but air purifiers don't necessarily remove all the toxics
438. because we still don't even know
439. what toxics are in the air, right?
440. And who's gonna do the remediation
441. and the cleanup of these homes
442. so that they can be safe in the future.
443. And that's still a question that's going on with the fire from the Palisades.
444. I don't even know if those cleanups are done yet.
445. So you have compounding health hazards from one disaster that need to be treated,
446. not siloed, not in fragmentation, but comprehensively.
447. Yeah, absolutely.
448. I mean, you know, there's so much unknown with how much toxic are being released.
449. with the destruction of the solar panels and in them,
450. the lithium, all these things.
451. This other question of the rotting meat how is this being addressed And what are the particular dangers of having just that much rotting meat in a densely urban area What your audience doing
452. Well, see, one would expect the Department of Public Health to give us a fair assessment of
453. that. But the only assessment I have read from County Department of Public Health is that there
454. is a stench that, again, there's not much to worry about. But what happens with 85 million pounds of
455. rotting meat and food is that once it decomposes, it can become bacterial and endotoxin emissions,
456. which are going to then add to the risks of the people's lungs and tissue that have already
457. breathed in toxic smoke. So if you can imagine the tissue in your lungs still inflamed, still
458. trying to heal, still trying to recover from the toxic smoke and still basically unhealed,
459. then now you have endotoxins and bacteria coming into that broken inflamed tissue in your body.
460. it's it's definitely the worst possible scenario for people's health and lungs and then in addition
461. to that if you have rotting food then you get mice and rats and other vermin who are going to
462. be coming in to take advantage of the situation that create even more endotoxins and bacteria
463. in the air. So, you know, and the smell is bad enough, but I think the difficulty of the breathing
464. for a healthy person is bad. But then if you think about the disproportionate amount of people there
465. with asthma, kidney disease, heart disease, lung disease, because these are working class people,
466. and they are exposed to these types of chemicals in the workplace, and or because they live in a
467. situation where there is crisscrossing freeways and lots of air pollution. And so they unfortunately
468. already have pre-existing health conditions. So I really think there should be free screening
469. brought to the people, you know, in those mobile screening medical trucks that come out to
470. communities for free health care. That's what should be in that region. And it's not just
471. Boyle Heights because Southeast LA is adjacent to it. East LA, I heard that it went as far as
472. the San Gabriel Valley and the air was traveling eastward. I even felt it here and I live in the
473. eighth district, right? So I can't imagine what it was like right there in Boyle Heights. But I
474. hope that kind of answers your question. There are so many angles by which to look at these risks
475. that I probably get a little off track,
476. but the bottom line is the disproportionate amount
477. of health disparities in this community
478. with these different levels of toxic exposure
479. from the chemicals to now the endotoxins
480. in the meat is really bad.
481. Yeah, you know, I myself, I grew up in El Soleno,
482. but also in Maywood.
483. My parents had joint custody,
484. so I would go one week and one week.
485. And I have chronic bronchitis
486. And I always wonder if that was related to, you know, the solid stuff with Exide and all the battery factories out there.
487. And the freeways that are nearby, too.
488. More than likely.
489. More than likely.
490. Right?
491. I also want to sort of mention that when it cumulative exposure to multiple chemicals and emissions then it gets harder to place the blame on who was responsible for it And that is how many companies get reduced liability from these types of incidents But we really have to focus in That why it great that Dr Yifeng
492. Zhu from UCLA is measuring the toxic organics, the toxic metals and anything else that she might
493. perceive as being emitted from the types of products that were there at that facility.
494. it's going to be really important to have that assessment.
495. And I heard also that USC is not out there measuring
496. and that East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice
497. is out there measuring.
498. So it's going to be really important to have this baseline
499. so that we can attribute that cause to this exposure
500. to these families to get some sort of reparations,
501. compensation and medical treatment, right?
502. You're listening to KPFK, the RASA radio.
503. We are now joined by Martha Segura.
504. Martha, you wrote an article
505. where you mentioned the work of Dr. Zhu.
506. Can you tell our audience a little bit about who Dr. Zhu is and the work that she is currently doing?
507. Yeah, she's an air pollution scientist from UCLA.
508. I know she's affiliated with the School of Public Health and the School of Medicine, the Philly UCLA School of Public Health and School of Medicine.
509. And she has dedicated her life to understanding the impacts of air pollution on communities such as Boyle Heights.
510. and I would just recommend folks look her up.
511. Her last name is Z-H-U.
512. And there are other air pollution scientists,
513. obviously that work at UCLA,
514. too many to mention right now,
515. but I think she is the one that's been quoted
516. as this being a double jeopardy
517. where the levels are higher and toxicity is higher.
518. And it's not just the particulate matter
519. that should be measured, right?
520. And AQMD is going to give us some measurement of heavy metals or VOCs, but for some reason hasn't yet. It's still measuring that.
521. So it's not very reassuring to know that our city can approve the permitting for a facility such as this in a residential neighborhood that's super dense without really taking into consideration the multiple chemical and toxic hazards that can be emitted in the event of a fire.
522. And then to know that the other jurisdictions, whether they're the county or the air quality management district, aren't monitoring for those types of toxic emissions just for particulate matter.
523. Right. And it's not just the city of L.A. who isn't capable and doesn't have the capacity.
524. It's all the cities. We're being bombarded by warehouses and data centers and facilities such as this.
525. and we're permitting them without really considering all of the environmental and public health considerations for local residential communities.
526. I want to ask you, though, so all these permits and these factories, are they being built in primarily working class communities,
527. communities typically of color, Latino communities? Is that what we're seeing the majority of this happening?
528. I mean, well, in L.A., yeah, that's what you're seeing.
529. And Montebello, I think, is fighting the good fight.
530. And there are other communities that are predominantly Latino that are in southeast Los Angeles that are also trying to do that.
531. Gilroy, a community in San Jose that I think is predominantly Latino, is also fighting a data center.
532. And then if you look at the south, there are very rural, working class, black neighborhoods that are fighting these data centers.
533. And not to say that they not also in rural white areas because they are actually just trying to really target as many places as possible that have water to run their operations Yeah it seems like we want to get all the data out here before we shift the conversation and be like and it all environmental racism but like
534. but like we want to, but it really does seem.
535. Low income communities for sure. And in, and in California,
536. those low income communities are predominantly Latino and black. Right.
537. And I want to go back to your point about the food rotting.
538. So it's not just a stench. It's not just a smell. It's not just a nuisance.
539. It is an additional exposure that needs to be measured, that needs to be monitored and needs to be screened from a public health perspective.
540. And people need protection and there's still an opportunity to evacuate.
541. And I'm not quite sure why those evacuation orders have not come into place since there was a governor's declaration of state of an emergency.
542. And what that really means is like there should be resources allocated from the state and we should have local elected officials advocating for those resources.
543. Air purifiers are great. Masks can be somewhat helpful.
544. But since we don't know what kind of toxic are in the air, we may not have the right masks at all.
545. And in fact, N95 masks don't protect you for most of this.
546. Air purifiers are helpful, but again, we don't really know.
547. We've never tested this in an environment like Boyle Heights.
548. What I think would have been preferable is to create a disaster zone, evacuate the people
549. that are in that perimeter that are closest and have made accommodations for those individuals
550. to be rehomed during the cleanup.
551. Because right now, I think that's part of what's slowing down the cleanup is that it's
552. so close to people's houses.
553. Absolutely. In your article, you also mentioned the work of Michael Kleinman, who was a UC Irvine toxicologist, and he's talking also about the dangers of the rotting meat.
554. That's right. I think, again, to put a finer point on it, rotting meat is not just a stench or smell. Rotting meat creates its own toxins and people are going to be exposed probably through multiple hazards. It could be in the water. It could be in the air. It could be, you know, just a really horrible nuisance all at the same time.
555. But if you breathe it in while you are still recovering from the toxics from the initial smoke, then it becomes an even bigger problem where infections are a possibility, not just damaged tissue.
556. Right. Yeah. Which causes asthma, which causes COPD, which causes other lung diseases in and of itself, the scar tissue.
557. But if you add bacteria to it or endotoxins to it, it just really complicates it.
558. No, absolutely not. You wrote a great article citing all these doctors doing all this incredible work, but I think our audience does understand that breathing in plastics is not good for you, and breathing in rotting meat immediately after that also cannot be good for you.
559. It adds to the problem, right?
560. Yeah, this is all bad. So throughout our conversation have reiterated the fact that the city is not doing enough. The city is not doing enough to evacuate people and did not do enough to evacuate people in initial fires and is not doing enough now. Where is this failure stemming from, do you believe?
561. I think, number one, fire departments are set up to fight fires, right? And yes, they do some sort of hazardous evaluation, but they are not scientists. They're not public health experts. They are not air pollution experts either. So they can only manage the incident. They can only manage the response to the fire.
562. They are not the experts to tell us what our public health impacts are,
563. nor is anybody in the mayor's office.
564. So what you need are
565. an alignment, a comprehensive team of experts that are looking at the public health hazards,
566. that are looking at it as a comprehensive compound multiple disaster, and how the sequence of that,
567. those exposures from these multiple hazards is impacting communities' health, and how that
568. sequence of hazards needs to be mitigated, needs to be cleaned up, and what will make it safest for
569. the people. Because I've always said that the city charter main purpose is to protect the public
570. health and safety of our communities. That's why cities truly exist. That's why we have
571. public works and alley sanitation. And honestly, that's why we had an environmental justice unit
572. in the planning department. We had an environmental justice unit in LA sanitation, and those programs
573. have been defunded. So if you really truly believe as an administration that there are systemic
574. environmental justice issues, you don't dismantle the programs that are set up in the city to bring
575. light to those issues. And I also think that we need to think about permitting and zoning,
576. and where we put these types of facilities relative to where people live, breathe, play,
577. work, where they use the water sources.
578. We need to go upstream and think about whether or not it's a good idea at all.
579. Yes, it creates job, but is it really a good idea?
580. If we're going to be living through these disasters more and more, and I want to bring
581. back the issue of extreme heat.
582. If we have these fires and smoke with toxins and endotoxins in the air, and then you add
583. extreme heat, that worsens the risk to your tissue and your health, right?
584. So somehow in extreme heat, those pollutants come into your body in a way that makes it
585. much worse because your body is less able, your immune system is less able to resist
586. those toxics in your body.
587. so it's just
588. exhausting
589. and that's why
590. you see more
591. hospitalizations
592. and deaths
593. during summertime
594. even when it's
595. normal
596. yeah
597. absolutely
598. and I think
599. you know like
600. there was a
601. fire not too
602. long ago
603. in Pomona
604. like a factory
605. Garden Grove
606. almost at a
607. very very near
608. disaster
609. or you know
610. it was an
611. explosion
612. I think a lot
613. of these
614. factories that
615. were built
616. you know
617. 30 40 50
618. years ago
619. they're starting
620. on whatever
621. so I think
622. we're going to
623. see a lot
624. more
625. just problems
626. and issues
627. And I mean, like, it was just a couple months ago, it was like, it seemed like just one week, there was all kinds of just nothing, nothing the size that has happened in Boyle Heights, but there were other failures and things falling apart.
628. And I think that we're going to see a lot more of that. I think we're going to need a lot more of a response in our cities. And this is really very important to us.
629. And then you can't out respond a disaster that's this complex. You have to prevent it. And prevention is really a zoning decision. And it comes down to having a city council that accepts that reality, an administration that accepts that reality, and that the public health and safety of its individuals are more important than, you know, a company coming in and saying we're going to bring jobs.
630. because those jobs are never more important, right,
631. than the public health of the people that live there,
632. especially when it comes to
633. who gonna pay for this disaster right Is it the people and the taxpayers Is it the corporation Because we need a resolution sooner rather than later So I think what Boyle Heights needs now is a full public inventory of what burned and what the testing has found and also access to doctors screening and health care
634. Compressed contained removal of all the rotting food treated as a health hazard itself.
635. an honest cumulative assessment of those people living the closest, right? A disaster zone and
636. an evacuation for those in that perimeter. And the burden of proof should not be on the families.
637. And the burden of proof really shouldn't be on the city. The city doesn't have that capacity.
638. The burden of proof needs to be done and paid for, I think, by the insurance companies of all
639. the companies that are responsible for putting lineage in that very dense area.
640. Well, Marta, I want to thank you for your time. This has been very informative, and I would love
641. to have you back on as this story develops and as more pressure needs to be put on the city,
642. or if the city is doing the right thing. Either way, I'd love to have you back on to discuss that.
643. Great. Thanks, Matt. Great to be with you.
644. Final question, where can people find your work and connect to your advocacy that you are
645. still carrying out?
646. they can find me on LinkedIn right now.
647. I don't have a website or anything.
648. I'd love to answer their questions and they can just ask me those questions on
649. LinkedIn.
650. All right.
651. Thank you again,
652. Marcia.
653. Thank you.
654. Take care.
655. Welcome back to La Raza Radio.
656. We now are joined by the editor-in-chief of El Martillo Press,
657. an author, poet, a novelist, wears many, many hats,
658. but is known for his signature hairstyle.
659. David A. Romero, welcome to La Raza Radio.
660. We're going to go through a speed round here
661. because we have so much to talk about or so much to inform the good public
662. about the activities of El Martillo Press and our friends at the MCI
663. and various other things.
664. So let's get right into it.
665. So Beyond Baroque, tell me about Beyond Baroque.
666. Yes.
667. So on Saturday, July 11th, the great Ray M. Rodriguez,
668. El Martillo Press author, will be bringing his collection,
669. Todos Somos Sagrados, All Are Sacred, to Beyond Baroque on a lineup that will also feature Lorna D. Cervantes,
670. Jose Hernandez Diaz, and William Archia.
671. So we've got some, you know, a mix of, you know, legends, you know, from different eras, different scenes there,
672. all in support of Ray and his beautiful new collection celebrating the women of Proyecto Pastoral
673. and the work that they did in Boyle Heights.
674. and continue to do. That event is going to start at 7 p.m. and tickets are $10, but it's $10,
675. you know, going towards, you know, supporting this wonderful collection and the great authors
676. and, you know, that literary space beyond Baroque. Yes, beyond Baroque is a great historic
677. institution You know Allen Ginsberg read there Bukowski was a regular there and many many great voices have come through Beyond Baroque It an incredible place and deserves your support And of course with the attack on the arts Beyond Baroque definitely
678. as all of our literary institutions,
679. does need your support.
680. All right, moving on.
681. Grand performances.
682. Tell us about grand performances.
683. All right, next up on the docket is grand performances.
684. So Ray M. Rodriguez, you know, hot, you know,
685. hot, hot author right now with his collection,
686. Todos Somos Sagrados.
687. He's bringing that to grand performances
688. Grand performances being
689. Of course this legendary
690. Arts venue
691. At the heart of downtown
692. Los Angeles
693. It's going to be a poetry night
694. A Flor de Canto kind of evening
695. And this lineup has
696. Ray himself, Lorna De Cervantes
697. Once again joining him
698. The legend, one of the greatest
699. Chicana authors of all time
700. Check the Wikipedia
701. Fresno Poet Laureate
702. Adid Medina is driving down from Fresno to join the lineup. Cesar K. Avalar, another poet laureate,
703. poet laureate of Pomona, fellow El Martillo Press author. Just to rewind, Lorna de Cervantes,
704. of course, is a forthcoming El Martillo Press author. So we're so honored to have the legend
705. be joining us. And then Janet Gonzalez, friend of the press. But yeah, Janet Gonzalez, of course,
706. great poet with years and years of experience in the slam community and the greater east side,
707. you know, arts, poetry, literature community. So we're happy to have her join. And then the
708. headliners that evening will be Las Chorizeras. So headed by Nancy Sanchez, this collective of
709. This all-female mariachi band is, you know, must-see entertainment.
710. And they always bring a powerful social message of social justice, of empowerment, upliftment of the community, celebration of the community, especially in these trying times of ICE raids and Trump in office.
711. It's really empowering to have a group like them, you know, at the forefront of this night.
712. So, yeah, you got to check that out.
713. You know, if you're a fan of poetry, if you're a fan of Las Chorizadas, and if you aren't, then you should be.
714. So come check them out. That's going to start at 6 p.m. It's going to go to 9 p.m.
715. Lots of great poetry. There may be some surprise guests in there as well.
716. So, yeah, I would go on to say that if you are not, you will be.
717. So, yeah, it's got to go down. All right.
718. East LA Library.
719. Something that's happening at the East LA Library in conjunction with the great Mexican Cultural Institute of Los Angeles.
720. Yeah, so El Martillo Press is very honored to be partnering up with the Mexican Cultural Institute of Los Angeles to present one of its authors, the great Herbert Seguenza of Culture Clash.
721. Now, speaking of Grand Performances, Herbert Seguenza was just recently featured with Culture Clash at Grand Performances, and that was a phenomenal evening.
722. But that evening, you know, yeah, we didn't just celebrate only him.
723. And now that you have an opportunity to celebrate only Herbert Seguenza, he also joined us at Romans not too long ago.
724. But this will be an afternoon. It's going to be at 3 p.m. at the East L.A. Library at the Chicano Resource Center of the East L.A. Library.
725. And Herbert Seguenza is going to be presenting his new play, which is Diego Rivera, his story.
726. And this is a phenomenal play in which Diego Rivera Herbert as Diego Rivera interacts with Cantiflas with Frida Kahlo with a host of other characters and at times switching from one character to another in dialogue with one another
727. So it's really, it's a hilarious but highly educational play and explores the man in great depth,
728. all facets of his life and just brilliance in the way that only Herbert's Quenza can.
729. And finally, the Museum of Latin American Art.
730. Yeah. So on Saturday, July 25th, we'll be in the lobby.
731. El Martillo Press is presenting a reading with Lorna de Cervantes, Hoser Guerrero.
732. It's our honor to invite this great slam champion, a phenomenal, phenomenal slam poet to join us from Denver or from San Diego.
733. He kind of moves back and forth these days.
734. He might be flying all the way from Denver, Colorado to join us for this reading.
735. It's going to be him, Lorna De Cervantes.
736. Sonia Gutierrez is driving up from San Diego and the Tomas Rivera award winning Sonia Gutierrez for a book, Dreaming with Mariposas.
737. Donato Martinez, profe at Santa Ana College, is going to be there.
738. So that's always, you know, it's always exciting to see if any of his former or current students, you know, might come out to go see him, see the crowd pleasing author.
739. And once again, Ram Rodriguez will be on the bill. He'll be joining us.
740. So, yeah, really a pleasure to continue to work with Mola.
741. Mola you know being a great supporter of course of the you know traditional arts painting mural
742. sculpture but also you know increasingly a supporter of the literary arts so that's really
743. really beautiful thing to see and we're happy to ride on that wave and this can all be found at
744. the website elmartinopress.com yes it's all there it's all there and more and infinitely more it's
745. all there and more and it's all true.
746. Thank you so much, David Romero, for your time
747. and I will have you
748. back on as there is more to report.
749. All right. Thank you. And with that,
750. we want to thank our guests,
751. David A. Romero, Marta Segura,
752. and Juan Carlos Munoz
753. Hernandez. It's been a great show.
754. We want to thank you, the listeners.
755. As always, we want to thank Gary Boppet, without whom
756. this show would not be possible. Thank you, Gary.
757. And as always,
758. give you la raza.
759. I'm Gary Baca, and we got to let you know about a couple of things happening before we get out of here.
760. Big Daddy Kane, rapper Big Daddy Kane, will be at Yama Va Casino tonight.
761. That's Yama Va Casino tonight at 8 o'clock.
762. And also Friday, July 10th, Bobby Brown, 35 years of Don't Be Cruel.
763. That'll be at the Saban Theater in Beverly Hills.
764. That's Friday, July 10th.
765. And that's coming up tomorrow.
766. Bobby Brown, 35 years of Don't Be Cruel Saban Theater.
767. We do have a pair of tickets.
768. Call now and get yourself them tickets.
769. It's 818-985-5735.
770. That's 818-985-KPFK, extension 1.
771. Make sure you hit extension 1.
772. Come to the studio.
773. The group Ambrosia with How Does It Feel?
774. They have a show also on Friday, July 10th at the Canyon in Agora Hills.
775. The Elevators and Afro Man, Saturday, July 11th at the Pacific Amphitheater, Costa Mesa.
776. And then the Royal Chessmen along with Elvia Cadena and all kinds of great new artists such as C.
777. Towner and Christian Garcia will
778. be July 11th at the