Umar Rashid, "I only have eyes for you, my enemy. Consider the jaguar a blessing. Or, Guerilla warfare in the Yucatan peninsula. Anansi travels.", 2021. Acrylic and mica flake on canvas, 72 in. x 72 in.
Image courtesy of the artist. Photograph by Claudio Rocha.
Image courtesy of the artist. Photograph by Claudio Rocha.
Why Is the Santa Susana Nuclear Accident Still Being Covered Up?
Excavating Six Decades of Buried Secrecy, Neglect, and Flat-Out Lies in the San Fernando Valley
In 1979, the year of Three Mile Island, I exposed another nuclear accident—another partial meltdown—in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. It occurred at the Santa Susana Field Lab, a reactor and rocket-testing facility in the mountains between the San Fernando and …
What Can We Learn From the Failings of William Mulholland?
The 'Father of Los Angeles' Was a Link in a Chain of Theft and Loss—And Its Consequences Ripple Into the Present
For much of my life I have been in conversation with a man who died 86 years ago. He was born in Dublin in 1855 and grew up poor, with a face bruised by the fists of his father. He ran away from home at 14, joined the British Merchant Navy, and came to America …
After 150 Years, Is L.A. Ready to Remember the Chinese Massacre?
Long Buried, the Bloodiest Night in the City’s History Surfaces Amid a New Wave of Violence
Zócalo Receives Major Grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Two-Year Event and Editorial Series Will Launch in October 2021
Zócalo will publish original, multidisciplinary works including essays, photography, illustrations, and poetry. Participants will include scholars, artists, and others whose personal histories intersect with the question; the project also will highlight creators from a range of underrepresented groups. By providing a kaleidoscopic view of how America has remembered its sins, the project aims to reimagine the subject’s future …