Our politics and news are all about the borders and divides that separate the U.S. and Mexico. But in real life, we’re becoming more alike. Some 37 million people living in the United States today trace their roots to Mexico. They are part of a giant diaspora so intertwined with American life that its political, cultural, educational, and economic impacts …

American history credits protest with ending segregation and the Vietnam War, securing women the right to vote and the LGBTQ+ community a path to equality, and building one nation out of 13 colonies. It’s a national tradition enshrined in the Constitution and fiercely protected by the legal system. But protest can also be violent, messy, and contested, and frequently ends …

In the 1920s, Southern California’s Inland Empire was a bucolic place, dotted with small towns set amid orange groves. It was also a growing outpost for the Ku Klux Klan, whose members subjected the region’s minority residents to exclusion, harassment, and violence in following decades. Today, antisemitic, anti-Muslim, anti-Black, anti-Latino, anti-Asian, and anti-LGBTQ movements persist, with hate crimes again on …

Is “Latino” a race or an ethnicity? Is it European or American? Is it a source of strength or of subjugation? And does it bring people together—around shared histories of migration and resilience—or is it born from racial ideas about “the other,” borders, and national identity? Journalist and novelist Héctor Tobar is a professor of English and Chicano/Latino studies at …

California has been Tomorrowland since long before Walt Disney opened the theme park version—and its greatest inventions have changed the world for the better. But its government often seems stuck in the past. And the Capitol’s dominant interests are more focused on maintaining their current power than investing in big, California-grown ideas—which appear to be more perilous than promising. Artificial …

Crenshaw Motors Ford. Majestic Pontiac. O’Connor Lincoln-Mercury. In the 1950s and ’60s, car dealerships lined Crenshaw Boulevard, ready to serve the neighborhood’s rising Black middle class. Cars and Crenshaw have gone together ever since. To this day, enthusiasts drive their custom lowriders to “the Shaw” most weekends, looking to show off sleek chrome details and roaring engines, and to take …