Desde el “agua de spa” y pasando por la “ensalada de maíz callejera mexicana”, no es ningún secreto que la gentrificación subyuga los objetos, los espacios y la memoria. La gentrificación es el desplazamiento de barrios urbanos que experimentan un declive económico. Sucede por una variedad de razones injustas. Las razones pueden incluir la llegada […]
Author Archives: Rachel Mendiola
Rachel Mendiola is a first-generation, Mexican-American communications professional since 2017. She earned her bachelor's and master’s degrees both in English, Comparative Literature, and Linguistics from California State University, Fullerton with a concentration in 20th century American Modernism, disability studies, and trauma theory. She currently serves in California State University, Long Beach’s Division of Academic Affairs, where she amplifies rudimentary initiatives with the power of writing.
Posted inOpinion
COMMENTARY: Resisting Gentrification
Located in the heart of Santa Ana, California, La Cuatro (famously 4th Street) had everything. It was where my family purchased my oldest sister’s quinceañera dress at Mina’s Bridal and where we’d enjoy fruta con chile in the summers. Extended families with aunts, uncles, grandparents, and a superfluity of cousins flooded its walkways to run their mandados. It was where my parents watched Titanic in Spanish in 1997 and Shrek in 2001. It had the Fallas Paredes brimming with families purchasing bulks of affordable clothes. The many quinceañera and wedding dress stores at every twist and turn. Authentic botas picudas (pointy boots) for Saturday parties. Mexican business owners selling goods from back home for those who couldn’t recross the border. You just had to be there. My family stopped venturing to La Cuatro around 2010.
While a newer generation of Latinx entrepreneurs arose, established their businesses, and have done their best to honor the space, almost everything is gone.
Posted inOpinion
COMMENTARY: Navigating family and the professional world as a first-generation Latina
Women are having babies at an older age. I conjecture that the rising cost of living, excruciating job market, and lack of resources are contributing factors. Because of post-pandemic circumstances, I too will be a part of that pool. I will break the cultural and generational expectation to have a child before the age of 30. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that birth rates have declined across the country in recent years. According to Excelencia in Education’s 2020 data, only 8% of Latinas earned a master’s degree, and 1% earned a doctorate degree from Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs).