22 July 2007 - 6:15 pm

Then on to the weekend.

Carol called me earlier in the week to offer a ticket to a show called Zorro in Hell, by a little group called Culture Clash. They have been around for years, I even heard a story about them on NPR, and they kept putting on plays/performances about things that sounded interesting to me. Water + Power was their last thing, about the politics of water here in LA, you know, the backstory behind China Town, Mr. Mulholland and all. The one they did before that was Chavez Ravine, a vibrant, cultural center of the Hispanic community before eminent domain came in to make Dodger Stadium and that sordid tale. Interesting stuff, little known historical stories buried by the dominant (white) culture, you know, that fun stuff. But told by an improv type acting troupe, scripted, but funny. The truth not so painful to swallow when you're laughing so hard. You think hard about it later on whatever gets stuck in your craw.

So I was excited to go. Zorro in Hell? By Culture Clash? What's it about? Don't know, don't care. Let's go.

They were selling T-shirts, for a mere $20 bucks, but they wanted cash only. I pouted. Kind of looking like the poster for Wicked, the same billious green, red/orange and black. But this had the famous head shot of Chavez, with the black beret, but with a black Zorro mask across his eyes. Radical or hero? Hey, I'm about to move into a predominantly Latino community, I want a T-shirt that proclaims I may be white, but I have interest in cultures other than mine.

Okay, let's make this clear. That is, history impacts everyone, regardless of race. When I heard that Dodger Stadium destroyed a community that had been existing just fine previously, I was pissed. But that was a few decades ago, nothing I can do about it now. I can boycott Dodger Stadium, not too difficult, my being such an apathetic baseball follower, but does that really make any difference now?

And yes, I am guilty of gentrifying a predominantly Latino community. I think. Everyone I have seen so far in the building I am about to purchase a share of has been white, and everyone walking the streets immediately outside is Hispanic. And? This is what I can afford. This is where I can afford. I read through the stats of the neighborhood, and discovered with my college degree, I am in the minority of 25% of my neighbors also having degrees. I am in the high median of earning power in the neighborhood, but not the top most. And I am one of 16% of the neighborhood that is white. And? I don't feel as though I am displacing anyone. I am buying from a white seller, who bought it from another white person. I am not demanding there be a Starbucks in the neighborhood. I am happy there isn't one. I am thrilled that public transportation is so readily available a few blocks away with subway or bus because I plan to use it, since it IS readily available. I am excited there is a park that people in the neighborhood frequent and stretch on the inviting grass all day and into the night. I am thrilled that I see so many people walking about on the sidewalks. I like the neighborhood I am moving into. Just the way it is. And just where it is. I don't want to change it into something else, into something it isn't. If I wanted that, I wouldn't be moving there.

At what point does it become gentrification? Does it start with the people changing who are moving in, or with the neighborhood businesses changing, trying to attract a different clientele? Do the people moving into the new lofts downtown feel guilty about raising the rents of places that stood vacant and derelict for years? Some of these buildings were office buildings that got converted to lofts, some were just empty, and now they have started building completely brand new buildings for the amenities people want in downtown living rather than trying to retrofit the old buildings. This was a downtown that was dead and dying when I moved here in 2000, the sidewalks rolled up at 6 pm when all the downtown workers fled to anyplace but downtown to live. Sure, there were people that lived downtown then, but the perception was it was mainly the marginalized, the mental patients released from institutions, drug addicts and veterans who all were vagrants, and then the illegal immigrants and the elderly. Many of these people still live downtown. But now they are just not the only ones living downtown.

This last weekend, a full scale grocery store opened in downtown, for the first time in 57 years or some such. The homeless and elderly and immigrants who used to predominantly live downtown, they needed a grocery store all these years, but no one was listening to them. (They didn't have money to make anyone listen to. They didn't have a voice, other than those other voices complaining ABOUT them.) Since the going rate for lofts in downtown start at the high $200ks, up into the seven figure range, someone decided to start listening to those people complaining. So not only was it A Grocery Store that opened this weekend in downtown, but it was an Upscale grocery store in downtown, complete with olive and cheese bar, extensive wine section and laundry services. And yes, it is a straight shot down 9th from my new place, maybe 12 blocks away, but I don't think I will really be needing that. Show me where I can get fresh fruits and vegetables within a few blocks of my place, and I think I'll be fine for the most part. I'll even walk to get my fresh produce. With my own bag. Just like all the locals I will be living with do.

I don't want to come across sounding racist, and I don't want to be the cause of gentrification, and for the most part, when walking around in these predominantly Latino and Asian communities (Koreatown to the West, Filipinotown to the North(and yes, that's what the official city signs saying what neighborhood I am in say!)), I am mostly aware that I don't speak the predominant language of the community I am in, not what skin color I or they happen to be wearing. I feel like I'm in a foreign country, experiencing a new culture. I look for clues on how to behave, how to fit in, not how to impose my culture on them. Maybe it's because my parents were both anthropologists, but I feel as though I am moving to an island within the ocean of Los Angeles, having lived on mainland white West LA (next to the island of Santa Monica), I am now moving to Puerto Rico or Taiwan, say.

Okay, enough of that tirade.

So, went and saw Zorro in Hell. Funny. There were a lot of references I didn't necessarily get, but for the most part did. I loved Kyle the Bear. He cracked me up. Yes, a bear (or a man dressed up in a bear suit) was an important character in the performance. At one point he announced he had to "go shit in the woods." (It was a throw away line, it was not pivotal to the plot.) But most of the time he was a gay bear psychiatrist. He threatened to eat people, but mainly he just wanted to sodomize them. Sorry, I don't know why that was so funny, it just was. Otherwise, he was a well read, thinking, thoughtful psychiatrist bear. Who happened to be gay.

Anyway, that really was a minor subplot but what I happened to enjoy most. That and the sword fight re-enactments of Zorro movies I have never seen.

If you get a chance, go see it. Especially if you like Zorro movies. Or psychiatrist bears. Jungian maybe?