The Corsair- Volume 123 - Issue 3 (Spring 2022)

March 23, 2022 | VOLUME 123 ISSUE 3 | SANTA MONICA COLLEGE

WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH

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March 23, 2022

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CONTENT News | pg. 3 Photo Story | pg. 4-5 Culture | pg 6 Arts & Entertainment | pg. 7 Opinion | pg. 8 Sports | pg. 9

EDITORIAL STAFF Katheryne Menendez | Editor-in-Chief Gavin Quinton | Managing Editor Jackson Tammariello | News Editor Carmen Gonzalez | Culture Editor Leonard Richardson-King | Opinion Editor Maxim Elramsisy | Photo Editor Celso Robles | Sports Editor Ashley Cox | Arts & Entertainment Editor Juliette Marquis | Multimedia Editor Andrea Marcy | Design Editor Aaron Schuchman | Design Editor Marlene Herrera | Social Media Editor Sarah Nachimson | Copy Editor Conor Heeley | Copy Editor Sophia Elidrissi | Digital Editor

CORSAIR STAFF Jorge Devotto Ordoñez | Anna Sophia Moltke | Nick McCall | Danilo Perez | Blake Thorton | Marc Federici | Karen Vartanian | Forrest Flanders | Jon Putman | Brandon Espelta | Drew Andersen | Guadalupe Perez | Rebecca Hogan | Kajsa Broman | Shahrzad Ghazizadeh | Samara Critney | Claire Hollingsworth | Zipporah Pruitt | Kyle Penix | Ashley Chinchilla | Dylan Smith | Sydney Adams-Smith | Brittney Ornelas | Keith Mowatt | Josh Hogan | Leo Gilad | Stacey Htet | Roxana Blacksea | Rafaella Ramaciote | Emily Miedema | Jason Osorio | Alexandra Barrett | Aja Marshall

FACULTY ADVISORS Ashanti Blaize-Hopkins | Journalism Adviser Gerard Burkhart | Photo Adviser Sharyn Obsatz | Social Media Adviser

CONTACT Editor-in-Chief | corsair.editorinchief@gmail.com

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WEBSITE www.thecorsaironline.com

FRONT PAGE Activist Luna Hernandez speaking at the International Women’s Day March in front of the Los Angeles City Hall on Tuesday, March 8. (Forrest Flanders | The Corsair)

Illustration by Katheryne Menendez

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR I was born to an undocumented woman in Los Angeles on October 16, 2003.

My mother had only been in the country for two years at that point. Despite the hardships that came with being undocumented, she was also expected to be a stay-at-home mom. My grandmother came to the United States from El Salvador in 1979. She was an undocumented single mother of six, and to sustain both herself and her kids back home, she had to work as a cleaning lady for various families in Los Angeles.

At the core of their American experience was not only poverty and xenophobia but also the misogynistic limitations that were put on them as women. They were expected to be the primary caregivers of the family while the men were the breadwinners. But as low-income mothers, they had to be breadwinners as well.

Motherhood is perhaps one of the most difficult things someone could ever experience in their lifetime. From the excruciating process of labor to the emotional, mental, physical, and economic cost of raising another human being, motherhood is a serious decision that everyone is entitled to make for themselves. Even though motherhood was nowhere near an easy feat as immigrant mothers, my mother and grandmother had the luxury of being able to choose to have children from consensual relationships, having healthy pregnancies, and getting support and resources from family. This is not a luxury that is afforded to everyone.

According to the National Institute of Health, about 32,101 pregnancies result from rape each year. Besides dealing with the emotional and physical trauma of the incident, victims who become pregnant and who would potentially raise their rapist’s child could also face the difficulties of motherhood, as well as the added emotional turmoil that affects many victims.

Pregnancies of all kinds, including those resulting from consensual sex and those resulting from rape, also have the potential of being extremely detrimental to the health of the pregnant person, as well as the fetus. Medical complications such as the placenta separating from the uterus or the premature rupture of the amniotic sac, also known as someone’s water breaking, can be fatal to pregnant people. The fetus can also have complications, including defects and medical conditions that make death likely and guaranteed.

Raising a child is also expensive, requiring about $233,610 per child in the span of childhood, ages 0 to 17, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. Around 49.3 percent of women who have chosen to have an abortion fall under the American poverty line, a threshold of $31,661 per family, with income being one of the leading factors for choosing an abortion according to the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

In all these cases, there is an inherent and dire need for abortion access.

But at its core, pregnancy, and motherhood should be a decision purely dictated by choice, regardless of whether it be because of life-threatening factors or someone simply not wanting to have a child. Something as consequential and life-changing as motherhood is, no one should be coerced to sustain another human being at the cost of their livelihoods, lives, or discomfort, regardless of any outdated dogmas.

Like my mother and her mother before her, I hope that my potential experience as a mother is fulfilling and beautiful. But my biggest wish for motherhood is that it is a choice that I make for myself, not a choice that I am forced to make by politicians who will never have to deal with the ramifications of their policies.

Katheryne Menendez Editor-in-Chief

March 23, 2022

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Abortion Rights Limited Across the Country Anna Sophie Moltke | Staff Writer Jackson Tammariello | News Editor In the last year, the states of Texas, Florida and Idaho have passed legislation restricting abortion access and reproductive rights. The Guttmacher Institute found that since Texas’s anti-abortion legislation went into effect, at least one abortion clinic in 12 states which do not border Texas reported seeing additional patients from Texas.

Additionally, organizations including Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights have organized protests against the anti-abortion legistlation.

Texas, Sep. 1, 2021 — A restrictive abortion bill went into effect in Texas on Sep. 1, 2021. Approved by Gov. Greg Abbott on May 19, 2021, the bill known as the Texas Heartbeat Act bans abortion after the detection of a “heartbeat” from a developing fetus. That cardiac activity can occur as early as six weeks.

Opponents of the bill, such as the ACLU of Texas, have argued that this law is an outright ban on abortions in Texas, as six weeks has the same timeframe as two missed menstrual cycles, at which many women may not even know they are pregnant.

Idaho, March 14, 2022 — On March 14, the Idaho State House approved Senate Bill 1309 (SB 1309), a law similar to Texas’. Like the Heartbeat Act, SB 1309 effectively bans abortion after the fetus has a dectable “heartbeat.” In the case of a successful abortion, the bill also allows the fetus’s family members to bring legal action against the person who chose to have the abortion, as well as the medical professional who performed the procedure.

A woman holding a coat hanger with an attached flyer saying “March 8 International Women's Day” at the International Women’s Day March on Tuesday, March 8 in Los Angeles (Forrest Flanders | The Corsair)

California, March 8, 2022 — Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights organized protests across the United States on March 8 in honor of International Women’s Day. The rallies, which were held in cities such as New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles, arose in reaction to the recent anti-abortion and anti-reproductive rights legislation.

Activist and author Sikivu Hutchinson proposed ways to get involved with local and national politics to fight the anti-abortion bills that Republican legislators continue to promote. Some

methods she suggested include coalition-building, protests, voting, holding anti-abortion politicians accountable, supporting abortion funds, and training people with uteruses to self-determine on their own reproductive health care.

Hutchinson believes that the Republicans legislators passing anti-abortion measures have been emboldened by former President Donald Trump and his acolytes. “These are all part part of a more systematic white conservative agenda to dismantle many of the gains people of color, queer folks, and wom-

en of all ethnicities have made over the past few decades,” she said.

Florida - July 1. 2022 Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s desk awaiting his signature is House Bill 5, which the Florida House voted to pass on Feb. 17. If signed, the bill would go into effect July 1. The bill bans access of abortions after a 15 week period. The law allows exceptions for cases of fatal injury to the mother or for fetal abnormalities that would result in death.

Pandemic Linked to Depression & Anxiety Sydney Adams-Smith | Staff Writer For the school’s Spring 2022 semester, Santa Monica College (SMC) offers 20 percent of its classes on-ground.

Los Angeles County, where SMC is located, Public Health Department reports a total of 31,508 COVID-19 related deaths and 2,826,077 cases since March 2020 as of Tuesday, March 22.

Along with that spread of COVID-19, mental health issues in the SMC community have surged over the pandemic, said SMC counselor Maria Reynoso.

“The pandemic brought about a higher need for mental health support for our student population,” she said.

Students at SMC are not alone in the struggle with mental health over the pandemic. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention

(CDC), the percentage of Americans with anxiety and depression symptoms increased between August 2021 and Feb. 2021.

An Oct. 2021 survey published by the CDC found that the range of adults reporting anxiety symptoms jumped from between 7.4 and 8.6 percent to 28.8 and 37.2 percent within a year.

Depression symptom rates went from between 5.9 and 7.5 percent to 20.2 and 31.1 percent within a year. According to the CDC, these increases were among men, Asian Americans, young adults, and parents with children in the home.

Reynoso explained some students felt their anxiety and depression were heightened during the pandemic. There was also a spike in students requesting mental health services from SMC. "Currently, we are also hearing students

address the increase in anxiety as they transition from virtual learning back to in-person learning,” She said.

As SMC reopens, students who attend courses on campus are required to show proof of vaccination with a booster and wear masks indoors. This marks a new phase in the school’s reopening since it first switched to all-virtual classes on March 16, 2020 in response to the COVID-19 outbreak in Los Angeles County. In the Fall 2021 semester, SMC held 15 percent of classes on-ground and required proof of full vaccination.

According to Reynoso, more students requested mental health services over the pandemic due to many causes in addition to virtual learning.

"Students reported feelings of anxiety and depression for different reasons,

including experiencing a sudden shift in learning modalities, lack of social connection, not being able to separate home from school responsibilities, and fears of the unknown,” she said.

SMC students were not prepared to handle the rise in anxiety and depression over the pandemic. "Many did not know how to manage their feelings and related changes," Reynoso said.

There are many resources available to SMC students struggling with mental health. These include individual therapy services for students, a 24/7 Support Line, and Guardian Scholars, a program committed to supporting current and former foster youth exiting the foster care system, also provides students with guidance on mental health topics. More information can be found on SMC’s website.

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Protesters gather in front of the Los Angeles City Hall on Tuesday, March 8 and hold signs with photographs of women who died from unsafe abortions. (Danilo Perez | The Corsair)

International Women's Day in Los Angeles Anna Sophia Moltke | Staff Photographer

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n Tuesday, March 8, hundreds of protesters gathered at Los Angeles City Hall for International Women’s Day to express their support of women’s rights, abortion rights, and intersectionality. The advocacy organization Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights, which promotes women’s reproductive freedoms, led a march from City Hall to Pershing Square in Downtown Los Angeles. To promote the demonstration, the organizers distributed flyers calling on Angelenos to, “refuse to let the U.S. Supreme Court deny women’s humanity & decimate their rights!”

Following the speeches at City Hall, organizers from Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights led the group of protesters through the streets of Downtown Los Angeles, with guidance from the Los Angeles Police Department. Counter-protesters were also present, holding graphic images of deformed fetuses on signs and using the siren feature on their megaphones in an attempt to drown out the speeches given by activists. The march ended at Pershing Square, where singer Reverie Love performed her original song “Black Hearts,” along with two other singers, to close off the event.

Activist Luna He Day March led by Angeles City Hall

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Counter-protester Shiva Bagheri (left) and abortion rights advocate Taurean Charles (center) argue in front of the Los Angeles City Hall on Tuesday, March 8.

(Danilo Perez | The Corsair)

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ernandez speaks to a crowd at the International Women’s y the organization ‘Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights’ at the Los on Tuesday, March 8. (Anna Sophia Moltke | The Corsair)

Protester Marissa Duarte ties a green bandana on her arm at the International Women’s Day March in front of the Los Angeles City Hall on Tuesday, March 8. The green bandana is a symbol worn by many protesters and activists symbolizing their support of abortion rights. (Anna

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C U LT U R E

March 23, 2022

Rain Boe Brings Color To Spring Street Gavin Quinton | Managing Editor

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n the heart of the Historic Core of Downtown Los Angeles, nestled between the cracked sidewalk and a large orange parkade, diverse plant life bursts from concrete. The Spring Street Community Garden provides space for local residents to garden, picnic, and meet their neighbors. One gardener, Rain Boe Wave, has been a member since the garden’s inception in 2016. Over the years, Wave has helped to develop the space into a sanctuary amidst the bustling backdrop of city life.

“It's a space where people can come to just relax and enjoy nature,” Wave said. She has helped design a picnic area where garden members and volunteers can sit and enjoy the plant life.

That space is surrounded by flowers, greens, fruits, vegetables, and a banana tree that hangs overhead. Wave also works to maintain the surrounding plant life of many other areas within the garden, including a location for chess and a bathtub alongside a toilet stuffed with fruit trees.

Martin Burg, a founding member and part of the garden’s leadership team, attributes the success of Spring Street Community Garden to the community members who volunteer. “So many things about the garden evolved out of the ground and from who showed up,” he said.

Wave quickly got involved when the garden was first being developed. “In

Rain Boe Wave watches the birds fly over the Spring Street Community Garden in Downtown Los Angeles after she filled the seed feeder on Monday, March 21. (Anna Sophia Moltke | The Corsair)

Rain Boe Wave, in her handmade tie-dye jumpsuit, walks through Spring Street Community Garden in Downtown Los Angeles on Monday. (Anna Sophia Moltke | The Corsair)

the beginning, she started out with a single plot, but it was obvious that she knew a lot about gardening,” Burg said.

“She eventually brought things to plant in the public areas.”

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Wave started showing up every day.

She began directing her attention to the design of the communal space. With the help of her fellow gardeners, Wave cultivated the public areas of Spring Street Garden into a lively and cohesive space by arranging plants, garden fixtures, and furniture. “She had the skill and good design sense and really responds to all of that stuff,” said Burg.

Wave said that she has always had a knack for plants and nature. Burg attributes her eye for design to her many years of making her own clothes. She ran a fashion brand, Itz Urz, in Los Angeles for 20 years and had a storefront on 4th Street in Downtown Los Angeles. Before that, Wave studied and recorded music, even performing locally.

Born and raised in Korea, Wave moved to Los Angeles in 1970 after the Korean post-war reconstruction. As she studied English in school, she prac-

ticed her skills by reading American magazines. “I read teen magazines and learned about rock concerts,” she said.

“I thought ‘that’s it!’ That’s the reason I wanted to come to America. I wanted to be a rockstar.”

Wave studied music at California State University, Northridge, and traveled abroad to study in Germany for a year. When recounting her interview to become an exchange student, she shared how the diploma fit into her passion for creativity. She said, to the interviewer, “I have a beautiful house and my walls are all decorated, but I have a little space to decorate it with one more thing, so that’s what the diploma is for.”

Wave still practices music and continues to make all of her own clothes from scratch. She can always be found adorned in rainbow tye-dyed cashmere. She has now been a member of the garden for over 6 years. Her current venture is lining the walkways with durable vegetation so that Spring Street Community Garden is overflowing with greenery.

March 23, 2022

A R T S & E N T E R TA I N M E N T

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Pixar “Turning” From Theatrical Release

A cardboard cutout for the movie "Turning Red" displayed at El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, Calif. on Monday, March 14. (Josh Hogan | The Corsair).

Josh Hogan | Staff Writer

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isney and Pixar’s new coming-of-age animated film “Turning Red,” was slated to be Pixar’s first theatrical release since “Onward” in 2020.

Throughout December 2021, COVID-19 Omicron cases were on the rise. In a January 2022 announcement, Disney cited this as cause that “Turning Red'' would no longer be a theatrical release, but instead keep its March 11 release date exclusively as a direct-to-streaming release on the Disney+ streaming platform.

Pixar Studios believed “Turning Red,” its twenty-fifth animated feature film, would be their’ smash hit return to the big screen after two years of being confined to streaming. Instead, the production is the third Pixar film, after “Soul” (2020) and “Luca” (2021), to be removed from theatrical release and reset for a streaming only Disney+ release.

The film was directed and co-written by Chinese-Canadian animator, director and screenwriter Domee Shi, who has worked on Pixar features such as “Inside Out,” “Incredibles 2” and “Toy Story 4.” Shi became the first woman to direct a Pixar short, “Bao,” for which she won the 2019 Oscar for Best Animated Short Film. Shi is the first woman to have sole director's credit on a Pixar feature film.

“Turning Red'' was inspired by feelings from Shi’s own adolescence. The story looks into the life of a 13-year-old

Chinese-Canadian girl, Meilin Lee, voiced by Rosalie Chiang, who struggles between continuing to be a high achieving perfect child, obediently in line with the expectations and culture of her perfectionist mother, voiced by Sandra Oh, versus letting herself dive into the Messy craziness of unpredictable adolescence. Her ancestors have mystical ties to the red panda and whenever Mei gets excited or stressed out she uncontrollably turns into a giant red panda.

Although it was a d i re c t - to - st re a m Disney+ release, the film had a one week theatrical run at Hollywood's El Capitan Theatre. “Turning Red'' lead voice actor, Rosalie Chiang, made an appearance during an El Capitan showing on March 14. About working with Pixar, 16-year-old Chiang said, “It's such a dream come true, it's such an amazing campus, it's so big and spacious and I’m so grateful to be a part of it.”

Sharing what inspired her to start acting, Chiang said, “just watching Disney Channel and just watching TV and seeing all the other kids my age being really fun and energetic and having a good time on TV and that's what I wanted to do.”

Ludwig Göransson, composer for “Black Panther,” “The Mandalorian” and “The Book of Boba Fett” series, composed the film’s score. Billie Eilish and her brother, fellow singer-songwriter Finneas O’Connell, wrote three original songs that were performed by the film’s fictional boy band 4*Town, with two of the band members voiced

by Jordan Fisher and Finneas.

Disney simultaneously released “Embrace the Panda: Making Turning Red,” a documentary focusing on the film’s all-female creative team.

Although Disney cited COVID-19 health and safety concerns as their reason for pulling the film from theaters, Boxofficemojo.com, reported that the top four box office earners in December 2021, were “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” “Sing 2,” “Encanto,” and “Ghostbusters: Wafterlife,'' proving that audiences for animated and family-friendly films had returned to theaters.

Pixar may finally be granted its chance to return to the big screen, with plans to release the Toy Story spin-off prequel film, "Lightyear," the origin story of Buzz Lightyear, in June 2022.

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March 23, 2022

The War on Gay and Trans Youth

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Sarah Nachimson | Copy Editor

nti-LGBTQ+ politicians across the United States, specifically in Texas and Florida, recently proposed a slew of legislation to harm gay and trans youth. Texas Governor Greg Abbott released a letter on Feb. 22 with measures that he thought would protect the children in his state. Although the District Judge Amy Clark Meachum in Travis County, Texas temporarily blocked the bill on March 11, the state’s Attorney General Ken Paxton allowed the law to continue as of March 22. Abbott’s orders call for Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) to prosecute parents who gives their transgender child gender-affirming medical treatment, such as hormones, with charges of child abuse.

Additionally, on March 8, the Florida legislature approved a bill which would ban discussion of gender identity and sexual orientation in classrooms from kindergarten to third grade.

These laws have real life repercussions on the wellbeing of thousands of children across America. A 2021 Gallup poll found that, in the U.S., 20 percent of those in Gen Z identify as LGBTQ+. That means in classrooms and pediatric offices, one in five people born between 1995 and 2010 will fit under the LGBTQ+ umbrella.

Laws which attack the very existence of queer youth will

be detrimental to their mental health and lives, explained Santa Monica College (SMC) GayStraight Alliance (GSA) Inter-Club Council Delegate Jesus Esparza. "If we're not actively engaging in these spaces, we won't be able to protect queer youth all over the country, especially in states that are more conservative," he said.

Protecting queer youth means ensuring transgender children can recieve necessary gender-affirming medical treatment. “When your body grows in a way that is not how your brain views it, that is a trauma upon yourself,” SMC GSA social media director Sam Germain said.

“A longer term, scary, invasive trauma.”

These attacks rob queer youth of their childhood. Instead of growing up with the freedom to explore their own identity, gay and trans youth are forced to fight for their very existence. Fight for the right to wear what they want. Fight to stay with their parents in Texas. Fight to merely say "gay" or "non-binary" in Florida classrooms. "This is only pushing the belief that our very existence is not accepted," Germain said. "Our very existence is something that's allowed to be contested in a legal way."

Although these laws are fair-

ly new, the homophobic and transphobic attitudes accompying them already have a devastating impact on the wellbeing of queer youth.

According to Germain, The Trevor Project, a suicide prevention organization for LGBTQ+ youth, saw a 150 percent increase in calls from Texas trans youth to their suicide hotline in 2021. "We are reliving this wave of targeting and antagonizing and villainize and vilifying," they said.

LGBTQ+ rights are a relatively recent phenomenon in the U.S., but the attack on their identity is nothing new. It was less than seven years ago, on July 26, 2015, when the Supreme Court legalizing same-sex marriage.

Policies that attacked gay Americans, such as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” preceded that decision for decades. New legislation, such as Abbott’s order and the “Don’t Say Gay” Law, echoes the history of America’s oppresive treatment towards the

LGBTQ+ community. “We've been through this process of people being forced and outed and hyper-sexualized,” Germain said. “It's still something that we're dealing with. We are still dealing with the fallout and the stigma from all of that.”

Esparza, who can't vote in the U.S. himself, shared a solution to stop the harmful wave of anti-trans and anti-gay legislation. "Vote people out," he said. "People who have outdated ideas of gender identity and what feelings you should have."

Germain pointed out that voting is one of the ways those with privilege can protect the LGBTQ+ community. New legislation, such as the bills in Texas and Florida, actively works to undo the progress that provided equality for gay and trans youth in America. Clearly, the fight for LGBTQ+ rights is far from over.

Illustration by Katheryne Menendez

SPORTS

March 23, 2022

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Thousands Take to the Streets for the 37th L.A. Marathon Jorge Devotto Ordoñez | Staff Writer

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n Sunday, March 20 the 37th annual Los Angeles (L.A.) Marathon was held in the city of Los Angeles, starting at the Dodger Stadium in Downtown L.A. and ending in Century Park, Culver City. According to the L.A. Times, this year the L.A. Marathon had 14,300 participants ranging from the ages of 12 to 88, from 45 nations, and from all 50 states.

Delvine Meringor, an elite female runner from Kenya, won the race with a time of 2 hours 25 minutes and 3 seconds. John Korir, also from Kenya, was second place with a time of 2 hours 9 minutes and 7 seconds. This is Korir’s second consecutive win of the LA Marathon.

Meringor crossed the line followed closely by Korir who crossed it eight seconds after . Korir tried hard to catch her, but the Kenyan woman kept a strong pace and held him off. Women began the race approximately 18 minutes before the men based on the women’s and men’s expected race times.

At the 19.5th mile, located near Santa Monica Boulevard intersection with Manning Avenue, two running clubs joined forces to cheer and support the event. Valley Runners Los Angeles (VRLA) and Team Crüda were all out supporting their participants and mostly everyone else passing by during the LA Marathon.

One of the founders of VRLA, Marisol De Santiago, was in charge of the music of the day as DJ. “It has been eight years since we started doing this event and this is our second year at this

Runner Delvine Meringor of Kenya runs east on Santa Monica Boulevard in Westwood, Los Angeles, towards the finish line. Meringor won the 37th annual L.A. Marathon with a time of 2:25:03 on Sunday, March 20. (Jorge Devotto Ordoñez | The Corsair)

location.” said De Santiago.

The members staged their canopies and colorful balloons at the Northwest corner of Manning Avenue and Santa Monica Boulevard. "The Beast”, Juan De Santiago, and Sergio Morales were the MCs rallying the congested corner with their cheers and words of encouragement to the passing runners.

Keeping the energy always high, they pumped the volume when runners with disabilities and participants representing Latin countries and the Army came close.

On Manning Avenue and San-

ta Monica Boulevard there were two piñatas hanging from the traffic light, a white unicorn with a rainbow-colored tail and a yellow pineapple. A few runners managed to tap or touch the pineapple piñata, which made the crowd cheerful.

Javier Garcia and Aracely Rodriguez, members of VRLA, managed to dress as cows to get the attention of the participants. They were offering bottled waters, orange slices and bananas cut in pieces to anyone crossing their sight.

From VRLA, De Santiago said that all their five members participating

made it to the finish line, but she also noticed that some cleaning trucks came onto the path of the marathon, ultimately stopping many runners from completing their race.

The city of Santa Monica was the finish line of the L.A. Marathon from 2009 to 2019, but this ended abruptly in 2019. The McCourt Foundation, who organize the L.A. Marathon, cited lack of space for runners, fans, and vendors in Santa Monica as a primary factor in their decision to relocate.

March Madness Rages On Keith Mowatt | Staff Writer

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very March, the Division I National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Committee selects 68 college basketball teams to play in a single-elimination tournament and ultimately crown a national champion. The event, named March Madness, has a long history of memorable moments which fans cherish.

When asked what his favorite March Madness moment of all time was, Joel Padilla, a 24 year-old Santa Monica College (SMC) student who works in the Student Services Center, said, “As a UCLA fan, last year's run was very memorable.” Padilla was referring to the run in which the team of University

of California Los Angeles (UCLA) went to the final four in March Madness of 2021. A game-winning shot in overtime by former Gonzaga point guard Jalen Suggs in a game against UCLA, on March 31, 2021, ended the Los Angeles university’s season.

“I really enjoy the electricity of the event… basketball is one of those sports that any given team can win on any given day,” said Padilla.

30-year-old Robert Escobar, a custodial worker at SMC, also enjoys following March Madness. Escobar's favorite part of the tournament is spending time with his family when watching the games. When asked who he’s rooting for in the basketball tournament, Escobar said, “USC and UCLA,

because I am an L.A. guy."

This year's tournament features four teams from Southern California.

UCLA, the University of Southern California (USC), San Diego State University (SDSU) and California State University, Fullerton (CSUF) all received a shot to win it all. UCLA played Akron in the first round on Thursday, March 17 and pulled out a tight win with a score of 57-53.

“It was a good win,” said Padilla. “It was closer than what I would have liked.

Luckily, they weren’t one of the teams that was upset.”

UCLA went on to play Saint Mary’s College on Saturday, March 19 in the second round. Unlike the first round’s close win, UCLA won in blow out fash-

ion with a score of 72-56. With this win, UCLA has punched their ticket to the “Sweet Sixteen”, which is the name for the sixteen teams remaining after the first weekend of March Madness. UCLA will play North Carolina on Friday, March 25 at the Wells Fargo Arena in Philadelphia, Pa. at 6:39 p.m. for a spot in the “Elite Eight.”

Aside from UCLA, the other Southern California teams featured in this year's tournament did not fare well in the tournament. CSUF, SDSU, and USC all lost to their first round opponents, Duke, Creighton and Miami respectively. CSUF lost 78-61, SDSU lost 72-69, and USC lost 68-66. UCLA is the last Southern California team left standing as March Madness carries on.