I’m Proud to Be Un-American

A New Poll Shows the Rest of the Country Hates the Golden State—And That’s a Good Thing

I’m not really American, and I couldn’t be prouder of that.

I hope you, my fellow Californians, feel the same way.

Because sometimes there’s no greater compliment than an intended insult.

This time, the backhanded praise came in the results of a Los Angeles Times survey, conducted early this year by the Canadian firm Leger, which examined how Americans feel about California.

Among the findings was that half of American adults believe our state is in decline. The survey made headlines for laying bare how much American conservatives dislike the Golden State. Two-thirds of …

by Joe Mathews | April 2, 2024

Cowboy Boots Were Made for Everyone

For Over a Century and Half, the Footwear Has Carried the Story of a Nation

by Jackie Mansky | February 2, 2024

“In these anxious days,” wrote Aaron Latham in the original Esquire article that inspired the movie Urban Cowboy, “some Americans have turned for salvation to God, others have turned to …

Raging Against the Political Machine

The 2000 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles Tells the Story of a City—and Nation—in Transition

by Ben Austin | January 29, 2024

In 2000, I ended up in a cage outside the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in downtown Los Angeles wearing a dark suit, swimming against the current in a sea of …

Fifty Years of Living with America’s Unexploded Bombs

Laos Was Collateral Damage in the U.S.’ Secret War. The Wounds Are Visible in the Land and in Generations Still Waiting on Justice

by Sera Koulabdara | December 21, 2023

A horrific image haunts me: my father amputating a little girl’s leg to stop her from bleeding to death. The girl attended the same village school as my siblings and …

tktk | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

Raven Chacon Makes Noise

As Zócalo Presents His Work in ‘How Do We Hear America?,’ the Composer Shares His Liner Notes on Composition, U.S. History, and the Los Angeles Music Scene

Interview by Eryn Brown | December 7, 2023

Raven Chacon has been making noise, literally and otherwise, since he was a youngster growing up in New Mexico. Fascinated by instruments of all kinds (those he’s bought and those …

The U.S.-Mexico Corn Conflict Is Popping Off

There’s a Cross-Border Battle Over GMO Crops, Biodiversity, Food Security, and Public Health

by Ernesto Hernández-López | October 26, 2023

On October 19, the United States and Mexico announced that they had formed a panel to review an ongoing dispute over corn. Though drug trafficking and migration tend to take …

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