Dying Single In Los Angeles
When my time comes, I will likely die alone in my apartment. That is the reality for singles in the city. We’re flying through the masses solo. I’ve been living in the same apartment building, just off Sunset Boulevard, for almost a decade now, and in my time here, three people have died alone, one just before I moved in. The four died of different causes, from falling and hitting their head to suicide. Some might think dying alone is tragic, but would it be better to die in a cold hospital around strangers?
Joan Didion, The “Windy Bitch” and Where I Was From
I question the character of Mexican horticulturist Amado Vazquez, considering he named an orchid after Joan Didion. Myriam Gurba mentions him in the section titled “The White Onion” of her 2023 Creep, which critiques Didion’s racial grammar and the silenced Native American and Mexican voices that haunt her work. She is one of the few writers willing to critique Didion and the white literary establishment for positioning her as a prominent California writer.
The Cartels Killed My Cousin
I was on the UCLA campus in front of Royce Hall, watching Palestinian and Israeli protesters, when I found out my detective cousin, in Mexico, had been assassinated. The text from my mom said “Mataron a Ivan.” She didn’t have to explain who did it; I knew.
Societal Decline In Murata, Ishiguro, and Ma
Recently, I read the novels Convenience Store Woman by Suyaka Murata, Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, and Severance by Ling Ma back-to-back, and they left me grappling with this question: when our most sacred parts can be sold, is there anything that we hold sacred, invaluable, priceless?
Undergrad Observations: UCLA Signs and Campbell Hall
While the banners, graffiti, and the elitist detachment in some of the classrooms are troubling, I find that what the university keeps quiet is much worse. In the heart of the campus is a site that doesn’t make it on the tour, Campbell Hall, where students Alpertice “Bunchy” Carter and John J. Huggins, Jr. were assassinated.