This Radical, Revolutionary Nation of Immigrants

Zócalo Book Prize Winner Jia Lynn Yang Chronicles the Changing Tides of American Identity

The 2021 Zócalo Public Square Book and Poetry Prize winners, Jia Lynn Yang and Angelica Esquivel, are creators of works that find the humanity in two of Zócalo’s favorite subjects: community and place.

Esquivel opened our annual book and poetry prize program with a reading of her winning poem, “La Mujer,” which “transports across cultures and generations, and yet feels very specific and momentary. It’s profound and moving,” said Tim Disney, who sponsored both prizes this year. Disney congratulated Esquivel for winning the 10th annual Zócalo Poetry Prize, for the poem …

by Sarah Rothbard | May 21, 2021

South L.A. Doesn’t Need Saving

Instead, the Area Could Be a Savior to a California That’s Pushing out Its Working Class

By Joe Mathews | July 7, 2016

“How can we save South Los Angeles?” is a tired question. It’s an artifact of previous decades when the region formerly called South Central was known by its reputation for …

Using Art to Help Undocumented Students Become More Visible, On Their Own Terms

A Poet’s Powerful Example Inspired Immigrant Students in South L.A. to Dream Bigger

By Ky-Phong Tran | July 7, 2016

For three years, I was a high school English teacher at 103rd Street and Broadway, the southernmost tip of South Los Angeles, a stone’s throw west of Watts. Many Californians …

Big Corporations Are Good for Social Progress

Multinational Companies, in Particular, Have Found That Oppression of Minorities Is Just Bad for Business

by Andrés Martinez | July 13, 2015

Maybe we would all benefit if corporations wielded more political power, not less.

Ever since the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision in 2010, it’s been fashionable to deplore (with full-on …

Reforming Immigration and Education

Former U.S. Senator Jon Kyl on Ending the Debate Over Immigration and Wendy Kopp and Kevin Carey on Making Great Teachers

Hosted by Anne-Marie Slaughter | January 10, 2014

Anne-Marie Slaughter talks with former Arizona Republican Senator Jon Kyl about why 2014 may finally be the year the U.S. solves its immigration reform deadlock. Wendy Kopp, the founder of …

Could Cesar Chavez Deliver Immigration Reform?

A Student of Chavez Is Leading a Fast on the National Mall; History Suggests the Tactic May Work

by Miriam Pawel | December 3, 2013

Forty-six years ago, Cesar Chavez huddled in Delano, California with a group of farmworkers he had launched on an improbable mission: to stop the sale of grapes until California growers …

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