The Takeaway

Making Pozole and Memorializing Mexico’s Disappeared

Food Reunites Families With Lost Loved Ones

“Food can be a strong place to talk about things we don’t want to talk about,” Zahara Gómez Lucini said at last night’s special Zócalo program, “Do We Need More Food Fights?” The event, presented in partnership with LA Cocina de Gloria Molina and California Humanities, was part of Zócalo’s 20th birthday series “What Connects Us?”

Gómez Lucini is the photographer and creator of Recetario para la memoria (The Memory Recipe Book), a cookbook that collects recipes from the families of desaparecidos—the tens of thousands of people who have disappeared in …

by Talib Jabbar |

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More In: The Takeaway

How History Takes on Healing Power 

Discussing Reparations and Repair at Memphis’ Lorraine Motel

by Jackie Mansky |

The Lorraine Motel in downtown Memphis, just blocks away from Beale Street, the city’s historic African American commercial center, first opened as a whites-only establishment in the 1920s. …

Four panelists sitting in front of a blue backdrop that has the logos of Zócalo Public Square and The James Irvine Foundation on it. The panelists are, from left to right: Cresencio Rodriguez-Delgado, Janette Dill, Helda Pinzón-Perez, and Martha Valladarez.

Better Health Care Starts with Better Health Care Jobs

The Industry Needs Higher Wages, More Paid Leave, and Pathways to Advancement

by Joe Mathews |

The most important healthcare workers in this country—entry-level workers who do the caregiving and provide preventive services—are often paid poverty-level wages and provided insufficient benefits and supports, said panelists at …

Where Local People Build Local Change

2023 Book Prize Winner Michelle Wilde Anderson Says Strong Communities Need New Narratives, New Networks—And Investments in the People Who Already Live There

by Sarah Rothbard |

Four of the poorest, most maligned places in America have become beacons of hope—and burgeoning centers of trust, in people and local government—since going broke in the Great Recession. How …

Boxing Isn’t Only a Labor of Love—It’s Work

The Industry Will Require Collective Effort to Overcome the Challenges Champions Face in and out of the Ring

by Talib Jabbar |

Boxing has big pictures (Raging Bull, Creed), big personalities (Muhammad Ali, the original G.O.A.T.), and big spectacles (pay-per-view fights adorned with flashing lights, raucous crowds, and stylized ring entrances). You …

There’s Power—and Promise—in Talking About Monuments

Doing Better By Future Generations Starts With Breaking Today’s Culture of Silence

by Jackie Mansky |

“I get the feeling some people don’t want this conversation to happen,” said historian William Sturkey during last night’s public program at Two Mississippi Museums in Jackson, Mississippi.

The framing question …


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