Contents Editor’s Note

By Renee Grange

By Jorge Cruz

By Evely Torres

By Sarah Mejia

By Lesley Gonzalez

La Gente Newsmagazine is published and copyrighted by the ASUCLA Cornmunications Board. All rights are reserved. Reprinting of any material in this publication without the written permission of the Communications Board is strictly prohibited. The ASUCLA Communications Board fully supports the University of California’s policy on non-discrimination. The student media reserve the right to reject or modify advertising whose content discriminates on the basis of ancestry, color, national origin, race, religion, disability, age, sex or sexual orientation. The ASUCLA Communications Board has a media grievance procedure for resolving complaints against any of its publications. For a copy of the complete procedure, contact the publications office at 118 Kerckhoff Hall @ 310-825-9898

La Gente de Aztlan was founded in 1971 in response to the mistreatment of students of color here at UCLA’s campus. The first issue of La Gente De Aztlan covered Chicano protests happening on campus, setting the precedent for La Gente being a politically charged publication.

For generations, we have historically been pushed aside and disregarded as lesser members of society due to our ethnic backgrounds. Members of our respective diasporas have fought hard in order to gain equal rights and strive to receive adequate representation that can truly display how diverse and rich our cultures truly are. In order to ensure members of our respective communities are fairly and accurately represented,not only is it important that we look at external forces which prevent our people from flourishing, we must also look within and see how we sabotage ourselves internally.

By implementing intersectionality into how we view ourselves, we fight against mindsets and stigmas that plague our communities from within such as homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, anti-Blackness, anti-Indigeneity and the portrayal of cultural homogeny. While La Gente continues to stay true to its political roots, we have branched out and expanded our topics of interests since then. La Gente has continually served as a platform that allows Latine creatives to express themselves through newswriting, personal narratives, poetry, storytelling, opinion pieces, historical analysis and art.

Our team has continued to fight for the greater Latine community by not only expressing our own views but by advocating for and amplifying the voices of those who seek to help improve our communities here within the diasporas of the United States and within the countries of origin for our respective ethnicities. Through all the trials and tribulations Latin American communities have endured, our people have refused to lie down and allow ourselves to be stepped on. No matter what challenges we have faced, we remain resilient.

La lucha sigue, Karim Isaac Hyderali | Editor in Chief