Where I Go: Redondo Beach Brings Me Back to Myself

I’m the Keeper of My Family's Memories. My Hometown Is Where I Uncover the Layers of Our Past

Late one afternoon last year, during a troubled time in my life, I took a long walk on the beach.

A day of rain was ending. Watery sunlight shone on glossy streets. It was a brief lull in California’s unrelenting winter. To the west, a layer of cirrus clouds announced another storm approaching. A high wind chased the departing rain, churning the sea into a tangle of waves.

I had been here—the Redondo Beach shoreline at the southern end of Santa Monica Bay—many times before. I spent most of my childhood in …

by Jim Hinch | November 20, 2023

More In: Where I Go

Where I Go: A Lifetime Spent Journaling

As a Teen, It Saved My Sanity. Today, It Reminds Me to Pay Attention as Life Flows By

by Katherine Hoffman | November 15, 2023

For years, I’ve told people that I started keeping a journal at 13. But when I go back and look, what do I find? I was an elderly 15, already …

Where I Go: Seeing Panama City Through the Eyes of Elders

Experiencing the History of Black Life in the Country Where I Was Born

by Kaysha Corinealdi | October 16, 2023

In 2001, I made my first visit as an adult to Panama City, Panama. The city was both familiar and alien to me. My family migrated to the United States …

Where I (Don’t) Go: Three Years in Northern Colorado

I Haven't Left Larimer County Since Early 2020. It’s Taught Me How to Hear, Smell, and Feel at Home

by Lucien Darjeun Meadows | September 21, 2023

In late September in northern Colorado, where the Rocky Mountains meet the plains in the traditional and ancestral lands of the Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Ute Nations and peoples, the waist-high …

Where I Go: Becoming a Pokémon Champion

For the Last 15 Years, These Cute Digital Creatures Have Helped Remind Me That I Can Overcome Any Challenge That May Come My Way

by Rithwik Kalale | August 10, 2023

Most kids are obsessed with things—fantasies, foods, films—that they eventually outgrow.

It’s only natural. Our taste ages as we do.

But for me, it’s been 15 years since my parents got me …

Where I Go: My Teacher, the Tomato

How This Beautiful Plant and Its Magic Fruit Guides a Professional Chef in the Kitchen, and in Life

by Evan Rilling | July 17, 2023

Food can connect us to the earth, our community, and ourselves. But first, we need to open a space to listen to and be in exchange with the ingredients.

As a …

More In: Where I Go

Get More Zócalo