Our Favorite Public Programs of 2023

It Was a Year of Hard-Hitting Conversations, a Traveling Public Square, and Even a Dance Party

 

It’s Zócalo’s 20th birthday, and we hit the two decade milestone running—we hosted 21 events in 2023 to fulfill our mission of connecting people to ideas and to each other.

At our homebase at the ASU California Center in downtown Los Angeles, we discussed some of the biggest issues of the day—from artificial intelligence to surveillance. We enjoyed a special homecoming, hosting our first-ever event steps away from our namesake: Mexico City’s Plaza de la Constitución, otherwise known as the Zócalo, one of the largest public squares in the world. We traversed California, …

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

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

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 …

My Boss Owes Me Over $12,000

A Bay Area Restaurant Worker Recounts His Fight Against Wage Theft

This piece was published alongside the Zócalo/Irvine Foundation program “How Can Workers Make Sure They’re Treated Fairly in the Workplace?” Read the Takeaway of …

Culinary Historian Maite Gomez-Rejón

I Feel Loved

Maite Gomez-Rejón is a culinary historian, co-host of “Hungry for History,” and founder of ArtBites, which explores art and food through lectures and cooking classes in museums. Before joining the …

Finding L.A. in Food Splatters and Spiral Bindings

Three Centuries of Cookbooks from Clubs, Churches, and Other Groups Chronicle How the City Has Lived, Worked, and Eaten

This piece publishes alongside the Zócalo/LA Cocina de Gloria Molina/California Humanities program “Do We Need More Food Fights?” tomorrow, Thursday, September 14, at 7PM …

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

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 …