City Magazine Spring 2019

CITY

MAGAZINE

Long Beach City College | Spring 2019

LIFE AS A DOMINATRIX SELLING LOAVES FROM HOME

JAIL TO COLLEGE MICROBREWERY CULTURE

Letter from

THE EDITOR Dear readers, This semester’s magazine at Long Beach City College has been a product of hard labor and dedication from all of our staff writers and editors.

After the previous year of unfortunately not publishing a magazine, we were more determined to complete our issue and make it memorable. In these 20 pages, these stories were thoughtfully reported in hopes of representing the entirety of the Long Beach area and highlights prominent topics in the community.

From focusing on the current rise of the microbrewery culture in Long Beach to putting a spotlight on individuals in the LGBTQ community, this magazine has a story for everyone.

Long Beach City College 4901 E. Carson St. Long Beach, CA 90808

Telephone: 562.938.4111 Email: vikingnews@lbcc.edu

Printed by Queen Beach Printers Long Beach, CA

MAGAZINE STAFF Magazine Editor Anna Karkalik Assistant Editors Alyssa Vega Iman Palm

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Staff Cassandra Reichelt Fernando Pacheco Abel Reyes Jorge Hernandez Steven Matthews Advisers Walter Hammerwold Chris Viola

This issue of City Magazine was published by the Long Beach City College journalism program. The City Magazine is sponsored by the Associated Student Body.

Opinions and photographs are not necessarily the views of the LBCC faculty or administrations.

contents SPRING 2019

Page 4

A Loaf-Changing Experience

Page 8

The Grief and Glamour of Brozlyn Lechelle

Page 10

My Journey Through Adoption

Page 12

Rally in Ruffles

Page 16

It’s Not Just the Beer

Page 18

Striving on my Own

Page 20

Breaking the Prison Cycle

Page 22

Freedom in Bondage

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Owner of Gusto Bread Arturo Enciso, sets up his cottage bakery every Sunday and sells from 10 a.m. until the bread is sold out.

A loaf-changing A Long Beach baker turns his living room into a neighborhood bakery

experience

Story by Alyssa Vega | Photos by Alyssa Vega and Anna Karkalik

A

fter moving into a house with a wood-fired oven, Arturo Enciso was instantly inspired to bake homemade bread. Six years later, the Long Beach selftaught baker opened his own bakery in his living room where he bakes his homemade bread with natural leaven, organic ingredients, and whole grains.

Enciso spent his spare time flipping through recipe books, taking baking classes, and eventually began selling his homemade bread to close friends and family.

Along the way, he decided to take a step forward with his

passion and worked for a couple of local bakeries. Nonetheless, working at a bakery was not the perfect fit for him.

Working at a bakery was not the same as baking homemade bread in his wood-fired oven at his home for Enciso—it was too competitive and ego driven.

“I didn’t want to be in a kitchen like that and I wasn’t finding the right bakery for me, so I decided to start Gusto Bread,” Enciso said.

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Gusto Bread is set up at the Long Beach baker’s home on Sunday mornings, where Artuto Enciso also bakes and prepares the bread.

After shortly realizing competitive bakeries were not his ideal environment, Enciso decided to get a Food Cottage Operation permit. The permit allows him to produce his bread in his private home and sell to restaurants and nearby farmers market.

Enciso turned his living room to a rustic village bakery that is open to the public on Sundays where pre-order is available to avoid their quick sellouts. During the week, Gusto Bread is set up at Marine Stadium Farmer’s Market on Wednesday from 3-7 p.m. and at Bixby Park Farmer’s Market on Tuesdays from 3-7 p.m.

Gusto Bread also offers workshops at the cottage bak6

ery to teach inspiring beginners and experienced bakers to strengthen their skills of baking bread with whole grain and natural leavened ingredients.

The level of creativity and attention to detail is shown in each loaf and pastry by Gusto Bread.

The most popular bread sold is the California loaf, which are naturally leavened and made with hearty red wheat that is stenciled with flour of the historic Bear Flag of California. This favored loaf is served at local businesses in Long Beach such as Wide Eyes Open Palms Cafe, Rose Parks Roasters, and Berlin Bistro.

“I try to learn the old tradi-

tion methods but I also make it very artful,” Enciso said.

“So bringing that artist and touch to it like using stencils for the California loaf.”

Aside from the California loaf or the sesame seed bread shaped into a sand dollar, Gusto Bread offers two of the same baguettes.

One shaped like a traditional long thin loaf and the other is thoughtfully shaped like a wheat stalk. For those who prefer to eat bits of the loaf, the baguette is perfect to tear by hand. However, the traditional long thin baguette is made to create a sub sandwich.

“I think the traditional methods are really important and not a lot of people

approach their bread that way. For instance, baguettes take me 24 to 30 hours to make the dough because I use the old traditional method, but if I used yeast I could make it in five to six hours,” Enciso said. “Not a lot of people know how to learn the old traditional method with baguettes, but I learned it and practiced for a long time. It takes a long time, but I think it’s very rewarding at the end and I have the drive to continue learning those methods.”

Enciso not only uses the traditional methods to bake bread, but also in his packaging. Gusto Bread partakes in less packing by not using sticker labels on their pack-

aging and instead of storing the bread in plastic the fresh baked bread is stored in printed recycled paper bread bags.

“I try to avoid storing my bread in plastic,” Enciso said. “Again, I look at the old ways and the traditional methods. Back in the day, people would store it in a cloth or wrap it in a linen and that helps keep the bread fresh. If you put the bread in a plastic bag it just makes it very moist and it loses its crispiness.”

According to Enciso, some people have lost touch of creativity through food.

He shares his recipes to his customers on how to eat his naturally leavened bread. His personal favorite recipe to use for stale bread is a Spanish cuisine soup.

“I think we’re so used to keeping bread in the fridge for a long time, but it’s a fresh product and it should be eaten the first couple of days that it is baked. That is how we should be treating bread and I try to remind people of those things.”

The bakery is centered in an old wooden country house that has a pastel blue accent color that outlines the architect of the house. The patio is decorated with rustic furniture, outdoor plants and a “Bienvenidos” sign that welcomes close neighborhood shoppers.

When customers step foot into the bakery, they are welcomed into the living room, which is set up with a long table with fresh homemade bread that is set out to sell and some samples to taste for new customers. After bakery hours, Enciso spends his time baking and preparing the bread in the living room.

On one corner of the small

living room, there is a shelf of recipe books titled “From the Wood-Fired Oven” and “Bread Baking for Beginners” that were used when Enciso sparked his passion for baking bread six years ago.

Gusto Bread was influenced from a song called “Un Puño de Tierra,” by Ramon Ayala. In the song, the Mexican musician sings this lyric “hay que darle gusto al gusto,” which translates to “we must give pleasure to taste.”

His ambition of creating bread with skillful patterns and made with tasteful ingredients are what connected him to name his bakery.

“Gusto in Spanish can mean different things. It could translate to taste, joy, or pleasure,” Enciso said.

“That lyric made me really like that word ‘gusto’ because it has those meanings because it could mean taste. When I looked that word up I discovered that in English gusto means artistic expression or doing something artfully. To me, Gusto just makes sense.”

Gusto Bread embodies the pure passion and the love of traditional methods of baking bread.

“I’m not a whole sale baker, there’s people who choose that route, but I can only use so much out of this space,” Enciso said. “I offer them this and everyone just seems so happy with it and it’s the perfect bread to work with.”

Customers would agree that Gusto Bread is the type of bread customers wish groceries will sell, but the special experience of Gusto Bread is buying it from an old cottage neighborhood bakery made with artistic expression and passion.

The Grief and

Brozlyn of

By Anna Karkalik The last photograph taken of Brozyln Lechelle and her late mother, hangs next to her bedside as a reminder of the support and love she received growing up.

Her mother, Jolene-Rae K. Kapua-Allison, and stepfather, Christopher R. Kapua-Allison were together for 20 years before he fatally shot his wife and then himself moments later.

Lechelle’s stepfather, who was part of the Hilo Police Department on the island of Hawaii for 11 years, and it was his own service revolver that was used to commit the murder-suicide.

“I feel like if I would have called the cops, since he was a police officer, it would have only made it worse and it probably would have happened earlier,” Lechelle said referring to the troubles her mother and stepfather faced during their marriage. “To go through something for that long, she must have really loved him.”

Lechelle’s mother was always a big supporter of her career as a drag queen and loved watching her daughter when she performed traditional Tahitian dances.

Jolene attended Lechelle’s first running in the Miss Continental Plus Pageant in 2016.

“That one meant a lot to me that she was there because I had won some smaller pageants in Hawaii, but that first one was a

Glamour

Lechelle

A Hawaiian native finds a new family in the drag community after losing her mother to domestic abuse

huge circus,” said Lechelle as she recalled the motivation she received from her mother throughout her performing career.

For Lechelle’s father the process of acceptance took longer, however, with some convincing from Lechelle’s grandmother Judith Leslie, he became one of her biggest supporters.

“I had to explain to him for a long time, that’s how your son is, and he’s gone this far in life, and there’s nothing wrong with it,” Leslie said.

Growing up observing her grandmother, who she lived with for most of her life, was her incentive for applying makeup and sparked her interest in fashion and more feminine trends.

“I would paint my face in the morning, go to work, add some more makeup, and then perform at night. I enjoyed it and the hustle,” Lechelle said.

At the age of 16, Lechelle became close to a local Puerto Rican drag performer, Cookie Jones, who inspired her life of performing after a night of dressing up and dancing around the house.

By the time she was 17, it was time for her first taste of the spotlight.

“It was amazing. I did not think the crowd would be as receptive as they were and from there, I thought yeah this is what I’m supposed to do; I found a place for me,” Lechelle said.

After losing her mother, Lechelle knew that staying in Hawaii would only bring the daunting thoughts of the tragic death of her mother, but was met with overwhelming support from her family when she brought up the idea of moving to West Hollywood.

“My family said if you don’t go now you never will, so go; and after that I left,” Lechelle said explaining her hasty decision to leave her hometown island of Hawaii.

Having that push of support from everyone in her life in Hawaii and her drag family in Los Angeles, made the transition seamless and expresses how blessed she felt during the short two week move.

After arriving in Los Angeles, and settling in her new apartment she shared with her cousin Sasha Colby, another drag queen performer, Lechelle began to do local performances and has performed at Long Beach’s iconic Hamburger Mary’s alongside her cousin.

Lechelle enjoys performing at these businesses that openly support the LGBTQ community because of the like-minded ideas shared and the nonjudgmental environment.

“The people that you come across, you never know what their story is and you have to accept people for who they are,” Lechelle said.

Lechelle’s grandmother, was the one who encouraged and uplifted Lechelle to always remain herself no matter who she wanted to be and took Lechelle to legally change her name when she was 19 from Brock Leslie to the performer name she uses today.

“People like my grandson, they must already be so afraid, it’s hard. We should not make it harder for them but a lot of people still do not understand and I have always told my grandson life goes on,” Leslie said.

After traveling back home to Hawaii to celebrate the one year passing of her mother, Lechelle is currently preparing for the next Miss Continental Plus Pageant, which is held in Chicago.

Lechelle still adds elements of her Tahitian traditional dance to her performance in memory of her mother.

“To go through something for that long, she must have really loved him.”

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MY JOURNEY THROUGH ADOPTION ‘It has become one of the hardest things I have had to come to terms with’

Story by Anna Karkalik | Photo by Alyssa Vega Rummaging through my mother’s items in her closet was one of my favorite pastimes as a child. Trying on her costly dresses that she only wore on special occasions and pairing them with her suede heels which were four sizes too big for me was something I often did.

While exploring through her closet one day on the very top shelf hidden under some loose childhood photo albums, was a small shoebox that paralyzed my thoughts before I even opened it.

When I was young, I swore to myself that if I ever found out who my biological parents were, I would not care. I knew who I was and I knew who my parents were, therefore, I never had the urge to search for them. However, sitting on my mother’s closet floor staring at a small shoebox that contained piles of information about my genetic history, I couldn’t help myself but care.

I became an investigator and searched up all the different

Photo provided by Anna Karkalik Anna Karkalik and her half-sibling Christopher have developed a closer bond sharing their adoption stories together.

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possible names and birth records that were associated in that box until I finally found her.

Her fierce red hair framed her delicate features with freckles covering her face and a bright smile was present on every photo I scrolled through as I compared my appearance to hers. The more I looked through her photos the more curious I became about my genetic background.

I contemplated what to do with the information I had found for a long time and for the first time in my life, despite how close I have always felt to my adopted mother, I was scared to tell her what I had been doing.

I took the information to my older biological brother Christopher who was shocked I had found the distant family we had only ever heard brief stories about.

My parents were always very transparent with my brother Christopher and I about our three other siblings who we all shared the same biological mother and different fathers, however, seeing them all for the first time still came as a shock.

Together, we decided to leave it alone and not bring it up to our parents or try to contact them. We did not want to intrude on their family and we weren’t ready to speak to them.

Three years later I had turned 18 and waiting for me one day after school, was a letter addressed to my brother and myself from our biological mother.

Our adoptive mother was more surprised than either of us; she was clueless to the fact that we already knew so much information and the letter became a reality for her that our relationship with our biological mother would not be through photos sent every year but something more concrete.

Christopher and I both began to start separate relationships with our biological mother and siblings. In comparison to how he reacted the first time I brought this information to his attention, I was surprised that my brother was more willing to connect with our distant family and began to develop a close bond with our biological mother. I didn’t understand why and he couldn’t explain to me his reasoning.

Growing up, the stories told by our adoptive parents

Despite reconecting with her biological mother (left), Anna Karkalik still feels closer to her adoptive mother (right).

shed a negative light on our biological mother and the underlying layer of resentment was still there for me.

Like most people who are adopted my first question was why? Why were my brother and I given up while she kept the other three? Given that one year separates all five kids, was there something wrong with just the two of us?

The letter sent explained during the time of her pregnancies, partying, drugs and bad habits were part of her lifestyle and as a result from that life, she did a lot of things she regretted and had to live with including giving us up.

My adoptive parents were fortunate to have one biological daughter but always wanted a bigger family. They considered adopting a child overseas from Russia but an opportunity came to adopt locally through Catholic Charities.

My parents were approached with the idea of adopting our younger brother after hearing our biological

mother had become pregnant again a year later after me, however, job opportunities for my father in the Middle East resulted in them being unable to care for another child and our biological mother decided to keep our last sibling.

I often wonder what his life would have turned out to be had my parents been able to adopt him, and if his misfortunes in life would have existed if he would have grown up with us.

Throughout the years, I have grown closest to my younger biological brother because I feel guilty that he was one decision away from getting the same opportunities in life that me and Christopher were blessed with.

It took me months to be comfortable enough to ask my biological mother information about who my father is and was met with information that further pushed me away from her.

During my process of being adoptive, the man who signed off on my

adoption papers was my other older sibling’s father.

My biological father during the time was not cooperative and would not take ownership of the pregnancy. One man who she believed may possibly be my biological father made attempts to get DNA tests but I have never felt comfortable enough to go through with it.

Being adopted into this family was something I have always been proud of, something I loved sharing with my friends growing up despite their timid questions.

Adoption has shaped every part of me and my personality and I am grateful for the opportunities I have been given; however, being adopted has become one of the hardest things I have had to come to terms with as I have grown up. It has brought new questions to my mind about myself and my background that sometimes I am not yet ready to face, but curiosity I want to follow throughout my years to come.

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RALLY IN

RUFFLES A political stance shown through campy fashion

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“I wanted to make a sign and wanted it to be meaningful, so I made a dress.”

Story by Fernando Pacheco and Anna Karkalik | Photos by Fernando Pacheco Feeling his political voice was not being heard through wordy text glued on colorful cardboard; a political activist sent out to display his message through campy fashion.

Khuong Lam participated in his first political march for the rights of the LGBTQ community in front of the L.A. City Hall with three posters he crafted in his hand. He no longer makes these long winded posters but condenses his ideas in fashionable art.

“That day I felt like we were not there to change people’s minds. I guess we were there to show we’re in solidarity for each other,” Lam said as he recalled the first moments he felt like a political activist after marching alongside his fellow LGBTQ community.

Lam’s persona, Glamda Da Fabu-

lous, was born around the concept of campy fashion - exaggerated, unconventional and sometimes gaudy dresses worn with a political purpose.

Glamda is a part of Lam, not necessarily his alter ego; however, a confident persona Lam uses to vocalize his once unheard voice. Glamda came to life when Lam felt the government was not listening or supporting minority groups in America, “Who am I? I’m nobody and I’m frustrated, we all are,” Lam said as he explained the purpose of Glamda.

What initiated as a Halloween costume, designed by Lam in 2016, has evolved over the years into loud political dresses with ideas stated in bold hot-glued letters or particular patterns plastered with political references.

Dresses made origanally to take a stance against President Trump hang in Lam’s garage alongside his signature bows and pink dress that he wears to rallies.

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“I wanted to make a sign and wanted it to be meaningful, so I made a dress,” Lam said. According to Lam, using a dress to promote a message helps humanize the topic that is sometimes too complex and displays it through creativity rather than a poster which people will just glance over and soon forget. The dress itself embodies not only what he is trying to say, but also who his character is.

“I just see it from a different perspective; it’s just me with a bow on my head. I do come off as trans but my makeup isn’t as drag-ish so I don’t know what people see and I don’t really care,” Lam said.

Lam’s persona name was influenced

by Glinda the Good Witch from the Wizard of Oz, with a modern personalized twist added by Lam. She has been spotted in a multitude of events including pride events in San Francisco and San Diego and has marched alongside other like-minded individuals in the Resist March and the Bernie Sanders rally in Los Angeles earlier this year.

The flowing ruffles and pink tulle spark your attentionhowever, the real message is the one created by Lam, who works through all his emotions to assemble a creative figure as an outlet for his political voice.

Lam confessions continued as he explained feeling misunderstood by people understanding where Glamda ends and Lam continues. According to Lam, he feels people may be confused by his gender orientation as a gay man or believe he is Glamda full time.

“She’s just a drag character. ust me without tits, hair, and pussy. She’s not a woman; she’s Glamda. She’s just more feminine,” Lam said.

Glamda expresses her political stance through fashionable art seen at the Bernie Sanders rally and gay pride parades.

Lam’s inner feminine side, is explored through the evolution of Glamda’s dresses, giving him the confidence to wear these campy dresses in public in the hopes to be politically heard a couple of days out of the year.

Even though Lam’s confidence can be shown through Glamda, he still faces negativity for what he does.

“There’s a huge negative connotation to people that do drag, and there’s a stamp on me already, and that’s the risk I had to take with Glamda,” Lam said as he explained his social responsibilities as Glamda and not wanting to be labeled but in most instances is.

Displaying himself in many different places, while being himself and speaking his voice, is not always easy, “Some people think I’m a clown, fag; it is scary, but I’m glad the places I go to, there are like-minded folks. Everyone welcoming,” Lam said.

Yet even if scared, when Glamda finally steps out of the vehicle people, notice her. Even though shy, Lam is

forced to interact and be social with people whenever he is Glamda.

Tran Lam, Khuong Lam’s sister, explained her brother’s political persona.

Glamda is, “A bold voice that he (Lam) uses in order to express his views and beliefs; a way to scream louder, (with) the colors the boldness of Glamda; you can’t walk past Glamda and not turn twice,” Tran Lam said.

Regardless of what comes after, Lam is enjoying what Glamda is doing now and the impact he is having on his audience.

Optimistic about Glamda’s character development but also about life itself, Lam is letting Glamda evolve from solely being political.

The dress now features an icon Rupaul reference, “Shantay you stay !!!, Shatay away…” positioned on the front and the back of the light pink dress.

In a time where people want to help but don’t know how, Lam found a personalized unconventional way to speak up for himself and hopes others do the same.

“Find your voice, in politics, life, in your creativity. Don’t give up,” Lam said.

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Timeless Pints features Vinyl Night where customers are encouraged to bring their favorite records and enjoy a pint on the side.

IT’S NOT JUST THE You don’t need a drink to enjoy these ambitious microbreweries

BEER

Story by Anna Karkalik and Alyssa Vega | Photos by Anna Karkalik Ambitious Ales - 4019 Atlantic Ave, Long Beach, CA 90807 We sat down with co-owner Juan Carrillo at Ambitious Ales to discuss how their microbrewery is more than the beer itself.

How do you stay connected to your local community of Long Beach? It’s not just about drinking. One of the foundations of the business is to be a community asset. One of the ways we do that is engaging with the community and giving back by opening up this space. We have a range of demographics in here, older couples, young couples playing a board game, we have families with their young kids and dogs and so there are different reasons that people connect to a brewery. We want you to enjoy this space without feeling like you have to drink.

What efforts do you make to be environmentally friendly?

We recycle our water in our brewing system and recirculate it.

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We also look at what type of impact we are making and with that excess grain that gets used in the brewing process we donate it to a local farmer that picks up all the grain and uses it for compost and feed.

What is unique about Ambitious Ales compared to other breweries? Two things, so first it’s our brand and what we represent. We always want to push ourselves and our name speaks for itself, Ambitious is a value as individuals, and as a business, it’s one of our goals. We are always pushing the boundaries when regarding our beer. If you look at our beer selection it is all very unique. We have a blonde with coffee vanilla, we have a Belgian Table Beer with lavender camel and then we add 600 pounds of fresh strawberries, and we have our Imperial Stout brewed with chilies, coffee, and vanilla beans. It’s all very different but we still have our classic style of beers and we do our own interpretation of them. Secondly as a company, in regards to

being a community asset, most people don’t challenge themselves in asking what else they can do to give back, we’re not always looking at it for the money, we’re looking at how do we measure our success in regards to how we give back to the community.

Can the customers skip the beer and get some caffeine instead? Yes of course! We have our own sarsaparilla and our own cold brewed coffee. We make our own cold brewed coffee and get the beans from Rose Park roasters in downtown Long Beach.

Can you tell us a bit more about the space? One of the biggest things for us is that we wanted to make this place very welcoming. Our aesthetic is very clean, and our brand is very simple with black and white and some pops of color. We love the window and we really wanted to have them big and open, and if you notice there is a long communal table in the center and that was done on purpose to help bridge that gap between people and that ties into being a community asset. Most places don’t have communal tables, everything is separate, we wanted to get away from that so people would be forced to sit next to each other and engage in conversations.

We heard you guys are dog-friendly? Yes we are! That’s our owner’s dog, our other partners had dogs as well. Part of it is why not? Dogs are such a big part in a lot of people’s lives, sometimes they are almost like our babies so we want to make sure people can still go out and enjoy themselves.

Who had the vision behind Ambitious Ales? It was our whole team. So myself and my four other partners. We have been working on this project for nine years since we have been in our early 20’s and we were home-brewing and then three years later we decided to get more serious and develop a business plan and researched a lot of stuff that took us about a year and a half to two years. We needed to raise money but no bank would give it to us, we had no assets and no collateral, we had to raise the money privately ourselves and that took us another two and a half years. Then we got this building in Sept. 2017 and built it all ourselves. We put a lot of what we call sweat equity, the equity that we put into the company that is just our labor and love for years. It got tough, there were some years where we were like ‘Is this even going to happen?

We’ve been talking about it for five years already, six years.’

We all stuck it out and we all proved it to each other that we really wanted this and this is really going to happen, and nine years later here we are.

Why did you want to get into the brewing business? I think everyone had their own reasons, it started off just as home-brewing and it was an excuse to hang out. We were going to brew some beer together, it takes about four or five hours, we were all just hanging out ordering some food, listening to music. We all play soccer so we would go kick the ball around while we waited. It really was an excuse to all hang out together. We did a wedding and someone from the wedding heard about us tasted our beer and after that, we did about four or five weddings and then private events. After that, we knew we had something going on.

Top photo - Co-owner of Ambitious Ales Jerome De Leon, encourages college students to come in and try their imperial stout brewed with coffee and vanilla bean.

Bottom photo - Student Nelly Santana displays how microbreweries can be used to get some studying done at Ten Mile Brewing.

IT’S MORE THAN A BAR: What makes this environment a great place for college students? It’s a very laid backspace, you can use this space for multiple things. You could come in and pull out your laptop and get to work and handle your stuff, and then right after put your laptop away and engage with people and hang out without the need to get drunk or do anything else. It’s very casual and the lighting is great, it’s a nice and welcoming environment where you’re not forced to drink.

Striving on my own Rejecting my family’s Mexican-American traditions has pushed me toward a higher education

By Alyssa Vega

I

clear the table and wash the dishes every night after dinner in my family’s household. There are certain nights when I’m feeling more rebellious about fulfilling the role of domestic complicity typically expected amongst Mexican women, but other nights I just sigh as I see the towers of plates stained with remnants of the enchiladas that my five brothers devoured that night for dinner and just get to work.

I grew up as the lone sister amongst five older brothers. As typical of patriarchal Mexican American culture, my parents focused most of their attention on my brothers – something

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I have never resented them for, but it made me quickly learn that any goals and ambitions I had, I would have to accomplish independently and through my own sheer grit and determination.

As a first-generation Mexican-American female, there has been more pressure to get a job than to claim an education. Compared to my peers from school, the relatively small importance put upon education was limited to how it would affect my career and marriage prospects.

While the older generations of my extended family were not dismissive of education, they were apathetic. The actual benefits of being an educated

individual—let alone an articulate women—never occurred to them. This is why I don’t consider my ethnic heritage to be the totality of my culture; my youth and gender have shaped me as much, if not more than it.

My rejection of the role of women in Hispanic culture, spurred by language barriers, and guided by liberal millennial peers in school are what encouraged my higher education.

My Mexican heritage is incredibly important to me because it helped shaped my core beliefs, causing me to place huge importance on my family.

However, there are black spots to the Mexican-American traditions that I

“The television will play loudly for no one watching, the washer would be loaded with more clothes, and people would prepare dinner with the radio blaring for no other reason but to do something near me.” rejected, namely the importance of traditional gender roles.

For instance, I would grow frustrated whenever I am unable to concentrate on a homework assignment at the kitchen table because my father is apathetic towards my college education.

He would see me pouring over papers, only to interject with trivial questions for attention. The television will play loudly for no one watching, the washer would be loaded with more clothes, and people would prepare dinner with the radio blaring for no other reason but to do something near me.

Although I appreciated their attempts to connect with me, however, their complete disregard for my studying grew tiresome. For example, they might encourage me to finish my homework, but the enforcement was irregular. I can count the times when my parents were actively supportive, instead of empty words without purpose. I saw the positive aspects of my culture, and it influenced me to become a well-educated female by not following my family traditions.

A large reason for my sharp divorce from traditional Mexican-American gender roles may have come about from the language barrier that exists between me and old generations of relatives because of my very limited understanding of Spanish.

While my parents were able to largely get rid of their own accents, with common day to day language, but struggle with longer conversations in English. It was similar to the language barrier I have for Spanish—I can order off a menu or ask for the nearest bathroom, but conversation breaks down very quickly.

They could not communicate with me in a way I desired and the barrier has only increased in college. We all danced around the subject, where we would pretend they knew what I was learning in school to not damage their pride. This impacted me in a way that my parent’s culture did not impart in me. Whereas the first two generations of my family immigrated after growing up in Mexico, I am the first generation to be born in America.

The combination of me not being able to communicate with the older generations in depth, as well as being exposed to other cultures as an American, allowed me to be self-critical of my own culture. This allowed me to differentiated both American and Mexican cultures. While I cherished my upbringing and childhood, American culture places higher importance on education. Even in America, this did not extend fully to women. My biggest clash with both American and Mexican culture was still over the role of women.

Being isolated from my older generations of my family caused me to embrace my own new generation more than others my age. The children from my family can be divided into two groups: the ones that speak Spanish and the ones that do not. The ones that speak Spanish tend to be closer to the older generations, more conservative and more traditional. The older generations in my family believed that women should simply graduate high school quickly and get a job to support the family. Alternatively, the ones that do not speak Spanish, like me, are more like the stereotypical “millennials” and are more open-minded.

By utilizing my culture’s traditional focus on providing for my family while eschewing their denial of the equal ability of females, education is not only a stepping stone to a better career but also a way to improve myself. The limits that have been placed on me and the low expectations of me have frustrated me to the point of it being a motivation in my pursuit of academia. The support of my family has not gone unappreciated, but at a certain point, the pedestal for my femininity has become an island for my capabilities. However, by being a Mexican-American female has brought an influence in the millennial and liberal ideologies to allow me to realize my full potential as equal to my peers.

In a way, I am thankful for having language barriers that allowed me to be open-minded as a slight outsider to my own heritage to take the good out of the bad. However, as a minority, I was able to look at American culture also slightly like an outsider and to decide from myself what parts I wanted to assimilate into. With regards to education, I found that assimilating into both Mexican and American cultures allowed me to pursue higher education.

While I clear the table and wash the dishes every night after dinner in my family’s household, there are certainly nights when I’m feeling more rebellious but then I think of the news articles I read that day. I consider the impact of cultural patriarchal norms very evident in Mexican culture and decide this might make a very compelling personal statement one day.

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Anthony Yracheta was formerly incarcerated for portions of his life but is now taking steps to build a better foundation for his future.

BREAKING THE

PRISON CYCLE

By Iman Palm

After battling addiction, depression, and spending time in jail, LBCC student Anthony Yracheta is dedicated to building a better life for himself.

At the age of 12, Yracheta’s had his first interaction with the police after cops saw him and his friends smoking weed and cigarettes while walking around on a school day in Pismo Beach, which is a predominantly white area.

“One side you got like these nice beach homes and the other side it’s all RV park, being brown kind of singled 20

us out in that white community,” said Yracheta.

“A cop rolled up on us and through us on the ground. I mean I’ve been stopped by cops before for riding a bicycle without a helmet, but I never had a cop come up to me and physically throw me on the ground and point a gun to the back of my head and scream at us and say you know some pretty racial stuff. I kinda had this negative visual of them from then on.”

After this initial encounter with law enforcement, Yraacheta got into more

legal trouble resulting in minor offenses such as driving with excessive tickets and bar fighting. These actions resulted in him being in and out of jail during his late teens and early twenties.

“It was a combination of life issues and I guess a mental state like depression. The town I came from, I don’t know there wasn’t a lot to do I guess, so I gravitated towards people who partied and stuff like that. That gets out of hand, it got out of hand for me,” Yracheta said.

Yracheta was charged with a felony of grand theft after a night out partying with friends.

According to Yracheta, he was accused of stealing items from someone’s car, however, he had none these items with him.

The owner of the property ended up dropping the charges against Yracheta; however, when he got to court he was faced with possible prison time or three years probation.

He served about four months in jail, had to pay an approximated 12 thousand dollar fine, and three years of probation. “(In jail) you are stripped of everything, It makes you feel like you aren’t a person. You get no rights, you get nothing to do. It’s a pretty dehumanizing experience. The justice system failed me and I left there with a felony on my record for something I really didn’t do,” Yracheta said.

After being released from prison, Yracheta felt motivated to better his circumstances in life; however, finding a job while having a felony on his record made it harder than initially intended.

“I fell into a really deep depression at that point and I turned to alcohol a little bit but mostly drug sales. I ended up becoming a drug dealer and being on the streets and doing whatever was necessary to get by and make things better in my mind and that’s the road I ended up taking. That was the whole deal for like five or six years,” said Yracheta.

During this time, he went back to jail twice for having too many tickets for carrying a large amount of drugs.

During his second time in jail, Yracheta was sent away for a month and according to him during that time is when he decided to get serious about

“(In jail) you are stripped of everything, It makes you feel like you aren’t a person. You get no rights, you get nothing to do. It’s a pretty dehumanizing experience.” taking the steps to build a better life for himself.

“When you are done, you’re done.

I gave up and I just didn’t wanna live that life anymore. I’ve known I didn’t want that for a long time but I hadn’t made that conscious effort to just do something about it and trudge through the things I did not want to or didn’t think I could or that were gonna be hard. I didn’t wanna be sober and think about all my problems. I didn’t wanna have to start at the bottom and basically say I didn’t have any job experience. I eventually did though getting clean and finding a job,” Yracheta said.

During his transitional phase, trying to get himself cleaned up, Yracheta realized he could start attending college.

“I wanted to go back to school I just didn’t know how to and I guess my criminal history deterred me from thinking I could. I never really looked into it and I was just like I’m going to work where I work and I met somebody who told me otherwise,” Yracheta said.

Yracheta’s girlfriend, Bridget Cervelli, taught him that he could still get an education regardless of his background and she has seen a positive change in his outlook on life.

According to Cervelli, Yracheta does not come from a background where he learned much about college.

“I think he has a lot more confidence. He has a lot more goals for

the future. I think he sees his future as being a lot more bigger than it was before,” Cervelli said.

After moving to the Long Beach area with Cervelli, Yracheta initially attended LBCC in hopes of becoming a drug and alcohol counselor but later decided to pursue a career in the automotive industry.

At LBCC he is the president for the Justice Scholars, a club on campus aimed to support those formerly incarcerated.

Club member Jessica Martinez explained what the club aims to do for the college campus.

“A big point of the mission of our club is it really establish visibility here on campus. We want to be more engaged in student life and raise an awareness to the issue. We hope to empower and advocate on behalf of the formerly incarcerated and the systems impacted students,” Martinez said.

Yracheta expressed his love for the club and how it has made him feel more comfortable to express his past.

He plans to remain president of the club for next semester.

With about one year left at LBCC, Yracheta plans to continue his studies and ultimately hopes to get a job in the automotive industry.

Photo provided by Anthony Yracheta Yracheta at the age of five. During his childhood, Yracheta wanted to pursue a career in the automotive industry and is now currently doing so after multiple encounters with the law.

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Freedom in

By Cassandra Reichelt Tied to the bed spread eagle and blindfolded, Megan was brought to the point of ecstasy by a spiked roller.

The first time Megan played with Louann Chin, a transgender dominatrix, she could not even remember how many orgasms she had.

“She liked her breasts being spanked and then she wanted to be ass spanked.

I flipped her over, played with her 22

Bondage

breasts and then I made her orgasm to the point that she doesn’t even remember how many orgasms she had. I think at one point she couldn’t stand up when she tried to stand up she had to sit back down for a minute,” Chin said.

Long Beach City College student Chin was born and raised in Long Island, New York in 1968 and during 1999, she began cross-dressing while she

grew an interest in Bondage, Discipline, Sadism, and Masochism.

Nov. 2015 is when Chin transitioned fully into a woman, but for the beginning of her life, Chin knew she was different, “I knew I was different but didn’t know why I was different. There were very small clues as time progressed wondering why I felt a little bit more comfortable in like women’s depart-

“People perceive BDSM has to be sexual, they assume oh you’re into BDSM. Oh there’s going to be intercourse, someone’s dick is going to go into someone’s vagina or someone’s asshole or someone’s going to get a blowjob, but here’s the thing, BDSM is not about that; sex is not the same as BDSM, where there is BDSM does not need to be sex.” ment stores rather than the male,” Chin said.

Transitioning into a woman was mentally enlightening, refreshing, and was something she was searching for throughout her early life.

Being in the BDSM community is something that makes her more than just a transgender woman.

BDSM entails kinks, fetish, role-playing, medical play, pony/puppy play, shoe worship, etc. it is everything that is not considered to be ‘normal’ play in the bedroom but in the world of BDSM they display pleasure received through pain.

A common misconception about BDSM is that it just focusses on pain and not pleasure, but according to Chin, that is not the case at all.

Safe, Sane, and Consensual are the rules that are lived by when playing in the BDSM community but it is different for all who play.

Going into unfamiliar territory can be intimidating for someone and Chin had a no different experience, “I was little, not naive but you know a little nervous, a little frightened because going into that kind of scenario, what you see on the internet or on TV and then to see it in person was like oh my god, it’s intimidating,” said Chin.

Chin attends play parties and conventions like DomCon and uses social media to connect with others to show how people can freely express their fetishes without judgement or shame.

Megan and Ginger are just a couple of friends that Chin has played with but have separate relationships with her.

Chin and Megan have only played with each other once but it was memorable for both.

“She enjoys spanking me with her hand whenever we go out to the parties and events in LA but we do not have an official Dom/Sub relationship,” Megan said.

A Dom/Sub relationship is when the

“What you see on the internet or on TV and then to see it in person was like oh my god, it’s intimidating.”

Dominant has all power and control over the Submissive, otherwise it is just for personal pleasure and fun time.

Chin believes that spanking someone should go gentle first and then harder, but some people may like going hard from the beginning, it depends on how they want to be spanked.

“You have to warm up a person. Specifically, let’s say just spanking on the butt you know you have to bring blood to the top and warm it up to get that blood flowing cause if you start out cold it’s going to hurt and you know some people like that. I like to start out with the warm-up because you’re getting in tune with the person you are playing with, you’re getting them familiar with your hand and who you are,” Chin explained.

Aftercare in the BDSM community is affectionate care and attention to that person after play, “You know the hug, the feeling them, and making sure that they’re okay,” Chin said.

Going into the Dominatrix mindset

Chin has to think toward that mentality of her role as Empress Louann, “At first I will ask them my name I will ask, ‘So, what’s my name?’ and they will say, ‘Mistress’ I go, ‘No, not Mistress, Empress. I am Empress Louann’ and I’ll ask them again, ‘What’s my name?’, ‘Your, Empress’ and I’ll go ‘Thank you’,” said Chin as she explained her process of getting into her role which ends when they mutually agree that they are done.

Domination is not prostitution, it is professional and there are no penetration or sex acts involved.

“People perceive BDSM has to be sexual, they assume oh you’re into BDSM,” Chin said. “Oh there’s going to be intercourse, someone’s dick is going to go into someone’s vagina or someone’s asshole or someone’s going to get a blowjob, but here’s the thing BDSM is not about that; sex is not the same as BDSM, where there is BDSM does not need to be sex.”

Chin does not get paid for what she does as a Dominatrix because she does it for fun, it’s not her job.

There are certain limitations she won’t do, “Top three are needles, blood, and scat (feces/poop). There is a lot of other stuff along with that I’m not licking someone’s ass, I know my limitations, I’m not a painslut I can take my share of pain but by no means am I an actual painslut,” Chin said.

It has to be negotiated between the Dominatrix and Submissive about what weapons/tools are used and what activities are agreed upon to play.

Although being a dominatrix isn’t her full time profession, Chin wishes the people around her to be respectful of her interest in BDSM as a transgender woman.

Chin believes that the BDSM community allows people to embrace their fetishes, but it also brings together an actual family that loves, respects, and cherishes one another with the enjoyment of spanking some butts.

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PRODUCED BY THE LONG BEACH CITY COLLEGE JOURNALISM 80-88 CLASSES