The Brief

Reyna Grande was 9 years old when she came to this country from the mountainous Mexican state of Guerrero in 1985.

She came from Iguala, a town that would become infamous in 2014 after 43 teachers’ college students were taken by armed men and never seen again.

Grande’s parents emigrated before her, hoping to give their children a life without the poverty they’d endured.

“We were afraid that our parents would forget about us, that they would not come back,” she told LAist. “It was a childhood full of fears.”

Today, Grande is an established author who’s published several award-winning books, including novels and memoirs. She has also co-edited a collection of poetry, prose, and artwork about what it’s like to live as an undocumented person in the United States.

Soon, she’ll publish an essay collection, tentatively titled Writing Home, about immigration, motherhood, and the craft of writing.

But none of this came easy. In fact, it wasn’t even part of her plans, which would be upended in ways big and small, until she enrolled at Pasadena City College.

English, books, and band 

Grande and her siblings didn’t see their father for eight years. When he first moved away, he worked in California’s Central Valley, harvesting crops and sleeping in an abandoned car to save as much as possible. His goal was to build his family a home.

With the help of a coyote, Grande and her siblings joined their father in the United States. They settled with him and their new stepmother in Highland Park, before the neighborhood gentrified.

Grande became a fifth grade ESL student at Aldama Elementary School, an experience that clawed at her sense of worth.

Her classmates looked like her and had Spanish surnames. But they spoke English fluently, “and sometimes they were the ones making fun of me and my siblings, making fun of our ‘wetback’ accent,” she said.

Grande learned to play the alto sax at Luther Burbank Junior High School, where she also read voraciously and won a short-story contest. At Franklin High School, she joined the marching band and proudly donned a navy blue and gold uniform at parades, football games, and pep rallies. Her father, who was forced to quit school when he was 9, demanded academic excellence. Grande kept good grades. And when she was admitted to UC Irvine, she celebrated with her family.

But there were a lot of conflicts at home. Both of her older siblings had started college and quit, and her sister had just left the house without their father’s consent. Ultimately, he didn’t let Grande go to UCI.

Grande was still underage when she graduated from high school. All she knew was that she wanted to keep studying.

Reveling in campus life

Grande enrolled at Pasadena City College. And for the next two and a half years, she fully immersed herself on campus.

She prioritized her general education courses, but also made room in her schedule for drawing and painting. She worked as a tutor, wrote for the school paper, signed up for swimming lessons, played the alto sax in the marching band, and represented her college at the annual Pasadena Rose Parade.

Grande also loved to write. For her, it was a kind of therapy, a tool that helped her sift through what was going on at home. Her father drank heavily and was often abusive. He beat her and her stepmother.

Grande kept a journal and filled hundreds and hundreds of blank pages. Still, she didn’t envision a career in writing.

“I never thought, ‘Oh, I'm gonna grow up to be a professional writer,’” she said. “Part of that was because, all through my experience in school, I hadn't been exposed to any authors who look like me.”

That changed in the summer of 1994. Grande enrolled in Dr. Diana Savas’ English class, and she introduced her to a host of Latina and Latin American authors: Helena María Viramontes. Sandra Cisneros. Isabel Allende. Julia Alvarez. Laura Esquivel.

She would often tell Grande a variation of this refrain: “If Alvarez, Cisneros, and Viramontes can publish their stories, so can you.”

“Little by little, she convinced me that I had the talent, that I had stories that mattered,” said Grande. “Thanks to her, my relationship to writing changed.”

Savas was surprised that, in a city like L.A., “which was predominantly Latino and Mexican,” Grande “had never read a book by a Latina or Latino author.”

“That just absolutely boggled my mind,” she told LAist.

“I just wanted her to know about them,” Savas added. “Part of that was that they were Latino, Latina writers. But they were also just wonderful writers.”

A new home

Savas also supported Grande through an especially challenging moment. One evening, her father beat her stepmother so severely that she had to go to the hospital. Then, the police came to their home.

“They arrested him right in front of me,” said Grande. “I watched the cops take him away. And then, the next day, I still had to go to class, turn in my homework, pay attention.”

She moved in with her estranged mother and slept on the floor of her tiny apartment. Grande used public transportation to get around, and it now took her three hours to get home from Pasadena. She had a class that ended at 7 p.m. One night, a group of men followed her home. Grande ran all the way to the apartment. When she told her mother about what happened, she suggested dropping the class.

“I felt so helpless and hopeless,” said Grande. “I needed to talk to someone.”

She went to Savas’ office hours, hoping for some advice. Savas listened carefully. Then, she offered her a room in her home.

Savas lived across the street from campus. And aside from being convenient, the professor’s home made Grande feel safe. At her father’s house, she’d grown accustomed to being holed up in her bedroom, lest she run across him in a moment of ire. In The Distance Between Us, one of Grande’s memoirs, she describes how different it was to live with Savas:

“I'm really grateful,” said Grande. “She didn't have to do that.”

Savas doesn’t think she did anything remarkable. She offered Grande a place to stay, she told LAist, out of “basic human decency.”

When it came time for Grande to transfer to a four-year university, Savas also provided support. Together, they researched schools with strong creative writing programs. Savas also proofread her personal statements and encouraged her to apply for scholarships.

Today, nearly 30 years later, Savas thinks Grande gives her “too much credit.”

She confirmed that she helped Grande with the transfer process, but she underscored that Grande was “very industrious.”

“She was always finding scholarships here and there and everywhere,” Savas told LAist.

When the acceptance letters arrived, Grande had to choose between UCLA or UC Santa Cruz. Savas encouraged her to explore someplace new.

Grande took her advice and moved up north. She fell in love with the redwood forest, made new friends, and gained independence. Soon after, she became the first in her family to earn a college degree. When she graduated with honors from UC Santa Cruz, her father, mother, siblings, and extended family were in the audience.

Savas was there too.

“I think we all need somebody to tell us ‘Yes,’” she said. “Most of us hear: ‘No, that's impossible. No, don't do that. No, that's the wrong career.’ I think that's the message most students get ... My role was to say: ‘Yes, you can do this, you should do this.’”

Author Reyna Grande with her former English professor, Diana Savas, at a scholarship dinner in 1996.

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Courtesy of Reyna Grande

)

Grande credits her community college experience with transforming the trajectory of her life.

“I have so much love for [Pasadena City College],” she said. “It was there that I started to take the steps I needed to become the person I am now.”

She’s returned to the campus repeatedly, including in 2008 to deliver a commencement speech, and in 2012 as the college’s first writer-in-residence.

Grande has also lectured at other colleges and universities and will soon be a visiting faculty member at Randolph College in Virginia. These experiences have given her a chance to see how higher ed institutions across the country are working to help meet students’ basic needs.

“I believe there is more awareness now than when I was a student, of how students may be suffering from housing or food insecurity,” she told LAist via email. “I know some colleges even run a food pantry where students can come and grab what they need. But community colleges could provide more support in terms of emergency housing. When I visit colleges, sometimes I hear stories of students living in their cars, for example, because they have nowhere else to go."

She added that more counseling would help students with their mental health: "All these things would help students have a better chance of succeeding.”

'Maybe I’m not really a writer'

Grande completed her first novel, Across a Hundred Mountains, in the early 2000s. At the time, she was back in Los Angeles, working as a teacher at Edison Middle School. She was also a single mother with a little boy. At night, she’d stay up late writing, hunched over her kitchen table.

“I don't even know how I managed to find the energy to work on that novel,” she said. “But I had this desperation of making sure that my dream didn't die.”

When the book was published in 2006, a friend called her to say he saw it at Vroman’s bookstore in Pasadena.

Grande got in her car and drove over to see it. She found her book on display and snapped a photo. Part of her couldn’t believe her eyes.

Writing a second novel was even harder, she said.

“I kept thinking, ‘What's my agent gonna think about this book? What’s my editor gonna think about this book? What are the readers gonna think about it? What are the book critics gonna say?’ I had all these voices in my head.”

“Maybe I’m not really a writer,” she thought. “Maybe I just got lucky. Maybe the first book was a fluke.”

Today, she knows it wasn’t.

The federal government has drastically scaled back the number of recommended childhood immunizations, sidelining six routine vaccines that have safeguarded millions from serious diseases, long-term disability and death.

Just three of the six immunizations the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it will no longer routinely recommend — against hepatitis A, hepatitis B and rotavirus — have prevented nearly 2 million hospitalizations and more than 90,000 deaths in the past 30 years, according to the CDC's own publications.

Vaccines against the three diseases, as well as those against respiratory syncytial virus, meningococcal disease, flu, and COVID, are now recommended only for children at high risk of serious illness or after "shared clinical decision-making," or consultation between doctors and parents.

The CDC maintained its recommendations for 11 childhood vaccines: measles, mumps, and rubella; whooping cough, tetanus, and diphtheria; the bacterial disease known as Hib; pneumonia; polio; chickenpox; and human papillomavirus, or HPV.

Federal and private insurance will still cover vaccines for the diseases the CDC no longer recommends universally, according to a Department of Health and Human Services fact sheet; parents who want to vaccinate their children against those diseases will not have to pay out-of-pocket.

Experts on childhood disease were baffled by the change in guidance. HHS said the changes followed "a scientific review of the underlying science" and were in line with vaccination programs in other developed nations.

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine activist, pointed to Denmark as a model. But the schedules of most European countries are closer to the U.S. standard upended by the new guidance.

For example, Denmark, which does not vaccinate against rotavirus, registers around 1,200 infant and toddler rotavirus hospitalizations a year. That rate, in a country of 6 million, is about the same as it was in the United States before vaccination.

"They're OK with having 1,200 or 1,300 hospitalized kids, which is the tip of the iceberg in terms of childhood suffering," said Paul Offit, the director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and a co-inventor of a licensed rotavirus vaccine. "We weren't. They should be trying to emulate us, not the other way around."

Public health officials say the new guidance puts the onus on parents to research and understand each childhood vaccine and why it is important.

Here's a rundown of the diseases the sidelined vaccines prevent:

RSV. Respiratory syncytial virus is the most common cause of hospitalization for infants in the U.S.

The respiratory virus usually spreads in fall and winter and produces cold-like symptoms, though it can be deadly for young children, causing tens of thousands of hospitalizations and hundreds of deaths a year. According to the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, roughly 80% of children younger than 2 who are hospitalized with RSV have no identifiable risk factors. Long-awaited vaccines against the disease were introduced in 2023.

Hepatitis A. Hepatitis A vaccination, which was phased in beginning in the late 1990s and recommended for all toddlers starting in 2006, has led to a more than 90% drop in the disease since 1996. The foodborne virus, which causes a wretched illness, continues to plague adults, particularly people who are homeless or who abuse drugs or alcohol, with a total of 1,648 cases and 85 deaths reported in 2023.

Hepatitis B. The disease causes liver cancer, cirrhosis, and other serious illnesses and is particularly dangerous when contracted by babies and young children. The hepatitis B virus is transmitted through blood and other bodily fluids, even in microscopic amounts, and can survive on surfaces for a week. From 1990 to 2019, vaccination resulted in a 99% decline in reported cases of acute hepatitis B among children and teens. Liver cancer among American children has also plummeted as a result of universal childhood vaccination. But the hepatitis B virus is still around, with 2,000-3,000 acute cases reported annually among unvaccinated adults. More than 17,000 chronic hepatitis B diagnoses were reported in 2023. The CDC estimates about half of people infected don't know they have it.

Rotavirus. Before routine administration of the current rotavirus vaccines began in 2006, about 70,000 young children were hospitalized and 50 died every year from the virus. It was known as "winter vomiting syndrome," said Sean O'Leary, a pediatrician at the University of Colorado. "It was a miserable disease that we hardly see anymore."

The virus is still common on surfaces that babies touch, however, and "if you lower immunization rates it will once again hospitalize children," Offit said.

Meningococcal vaccines. These have been required mainly for teenagers and college students, who are notably vulnerable to critical illness caused by the bacteria. About 600 to 1,000 cases of meningococcal disease are reported in the U.S. each year, but it kills more than 10% of those it sickens, and 1 in 5 survivors have permanent disabilities.

Flu and covid. The two respiratory viruses have each killed hundreds of children in recent years — though both tend to be much more severe in older adults. Flu is currently on the upswing in the United States, and last flu season the virus killed 289 children.

What is shared clinical decision-making?

Under the changes, decisions about vaccinating children against influenza, covid, rotavirus, meningococcal disease, and hepatitis A and B will now rely on what officials call "shared clinical decision-making," meaning families will have to consult with a health care provider to determine whether a vaccine is appropriate.

"It means a provider should have a conversation with the patient to lay out the risks and the benefits and make a decision for that individual person," said Lori Handy, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

In the past, the CDC used that term only in reference to narrow circumstances, like whether a person in a monogamous relationship needed the HPV vaccine, which prevents a sexually transmitted infection and certain cancers.

The CDC's new approach doesn't line up with the science because of the proven protective benefit the vaccines have for the vast majority of the population, Handy said.

In their report justifying the changes, HHS officials Tracy Beth Høeg and Martin Kulldorff said the U.S. vaccination system requires more safety research and more parental choice. Eroding trust in public health caused in part by an overly large vaccine schedule had led more parents to shun vaccination against major threats like measles, they said.

The vaccines on the schedule that the CDC has altered were backed up by extensive safety research when they were evaluated and approved by the FDA.

"They're held to a safety standard higher than any other medical intervention that we have," Handy said. "The value of routine recommendations is that it really helps the public understand that this has been vetted upside down and backwards in every which way."

Eric Ball, a pediatrician in Orange County, Calif., said the change in guidance will cause more confusion among parents who think it means a vaccine's safety is in question.

"It is critical for public health that recommendations for vaccines are very clear and concise," Ball said. "Anything to muddy the water is just going to lead to more children getting sick."

Ball said that instead of focusing on a child's individual health needs, he often has to spend limited clinic time reassuring parents that vaccines are safe. A "shared clinical decision-making" status for a vaccine has no relationship to safety concerns, but parents may think it does.

HHS' changes do not affect state vaccination laws and therefore should allow prudent medical practitioners to carry on as before, said Richard Hughes IV, an attorney and a George Washington University lecturer who is leading litigation against Kennedy over vaccine changes.

"You could expect that any pediatrician is going to follow sound evidence and recommend that their patients be vaccinated," he said. The law protects providers who follow professional care guidelines, he said, and "RSV, meningococcal, and hepatitis remain serious health threats for children in this country."

This story comes from NPR's health reporting partnership with KFF Health News, a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. KFF Health News is one of the core operating programs at KFF, the independent source for health policy research, polling, and journalism.

The National Park Service has updated its policy to discourage visitors from defacing a picture of President Donald Trump on this year's pass.

The use of an image of Trump on the 2026 pass — rather than the usual picture of nature — has sparked a backlash, sticker protests, and a lawsuit from a conservation group.

The $80 annual America the Beautiful pass gives visitors access to more than 2,000 federal recreation sites. Since 2004, the pass has typically showcased sweeping landscapes or iconic wildlife, selected through a public photo contest. Past winners have featured places like Arches National Park in Utah and images of bison roaming the plains.

Instead, of a picture of nature, this year's design shows side-by-side portraits of Presidents George Washington and Trump. The new design has drawn criticism from parkgoers and ignited a wave of "do-it-yourself" resistance.

Photos circulating online show that many national park cardholders have covered the image of Trump's face with stickers of wildlife, landscapes, and yellow smiley faces, while some have completely blocked out the whole card. The backlash has also inspired a growing sticker campaign.

Jenny McCarty, a longtime park volunteer and graphic designer, began selling custom stickers meant to fit directly over Trump's face — with 100% of proceeds going to conservation nonprofits.

"We made our first donation of $16,000 in December," McCarty said. "The power of community is incredible."

McCarty says the sticker movement is less about politics and more about preserving the neutrality of public lands. "The Interior's new guidance only shows they continue to disregard how strongly people feel about keeping politics out of national parks," she said.

The National Park Service card policy was updated this week to say that passes may no longer be valid if they've been "defaced or altered." The change, which was revealed in an internal email to National Park Service staff obtained by SFGATE, comes just as the sticker movement has gained traction across social media.

In a statement to NPR, the Interior Department said there was no new policy. Interagency passes have always been void if altered, as stated on the card itself. The agency said the recent update was meant to clarify that rule and help staff deal with confusion from visitors.

The Park Service has long said passes can be voided if the signature strip is altered, but the updated guidance now explicitly includes stickers or markings on the front of the card.

It will be left to the discretion of park service officials to determine whether a pass has been "defaced" or not. The update means park officials now have the leeway to reject a pass if a sticker leaves behind residue, even if the image underneath is intact.

In December, conservation group the Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit in Washington, D.C., opposing the new pass design.

The group argues that the image violates a federal requirement that the annual America the Beautiful pass display a winning photograph from a national parks photo contest. The 2026 winning image was a picture of Glacier National Park.

"This is part of a larger pattern of Trump branding government materials with his name and image," Kierán Suckling, the executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity, told NPR. "But this kind of cartoonish authoritarianism won't fly in the United States."

The lawsuit asks a federal court to pull the current pass design and replace it with the original contest winner — the Glacier National Park image. It also seeks to block the government from featuring a president's face on future passes.

Not everyone sees a problem with the new design. Vince Vanata, the GOP chairman of Park County, Wyoming, told the Cowboy State Daily that Trump detractors should "suck it up" and accept the park passes, saying they are a fitting tribute to America's 250th birthday this July 4.

"The 250th anniversary of our country only comes once. This pass is showing the first president of the United States and the current president of the United States," Vanata said.

But for many longtime visitors, the backlash goes beyond design.

Erin Quinn Gery, who buys an annual pass each year, compared the image to "a mug shot slapped onto natural beauty."

She also likened the decision to self-glorification.

"It's akin to throwing yourself a parade or putting yourself on currency," she said. "Let someone else tell you you're great — or worth celebrating and commemorating."

When asked if she plans to remove her protest sticker, Gery replied: "I'll take the sticker off my pass after Trump takes his name off the Kennedy Center."

The 83rd annual Golden Globe Awards take place Sunday evening beginning at 5 p.m. at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, and that means parking restrictions and street closures in the city.

Here are places to avoid, as well as some alternative routes:

North Santa Monica Boulevard:

• Westbound lane closures: Complete lane closures, from Wilshire Boulevard to Century Park East through 6 a.m. Monday.
  
• Eastbound lane closures: Complete lane closures, from Century Park East to Wilshire Boulevard from 2 p.m. Saturday through 6 a.m. Monday. 

The city suggests using South Santa Monica Boulevard, which will remain open in both directions. There also are alternative east-west routes such as Olympic, Sunset and Pico boulevards.

Wilshire Boulevard:

• Eastbound/Westbound lane reduction: Lane reductions are in effect and will last through 9 p.m. Wednesday.
  
• Eastbound/Westbound full closure: All of Wilshire Boulevard between Comstock Avenue and North Santa Monica Boulevard will be closed from 10 p.m. Saturday through 6 a.m. Monday.
  
• Eastbound lanes of Wilshire Boulevard: An eastbound closure from Comstock to North Santa Monica Boulevard will occur between 10 p.m. Monday through 6 a.m. Tuesday.

Other streets:

Several other streets like Whittier Drive, Carmelita Avenue, Elevado Avenue and Lomitas Avenue, as well as Trenton Drive and adjacent alleys will have limited closures with local access available only to residents. Closures begin at 10 p.m. Saturday and last through 6 a.m. Monday.

Parking notices:

Residential streets surrounding the venue will be completely restricted, no exceptions made, from 6 a.m. Sunday until 6 a.m. Monday on the following streets:

• Whittier Drive — from Wilshire Boulevard to Elevado Avenue
• Carmelita Avenue — from Wilshire Boulevard to Walden Drive
• Elevado Avenue — from Wilshire Boulevard to Walden Drive
• Trenton Drive — from Whittier Drive to Wilshire Boulevard
• Walden Drive — from Santa Monica Boulevard to Elevado Avenue
• Lomitas Avenue — from Wilshire Boulevard to Walden Drive

Residents without permit parking can obtain parking exemptions by contacting the city of Beverly Hills’ parking exemption line at (310) 285-2548 or online at beverlyhills.org/parkingexemptions.

Demonstrations against this week’s deadly ICE shooting in Minneapolis are planned this weekend across Los Angeles. The protests are being organized by the “ICE Out For Good Coalition” — a network of several groups including the ACLU and 50501.

Here are a some of the planned actions across the city:

Saturday

• Pasadena: Noon to 2 p.m. at Garfield and Colorado Boulevard, across from the Paseo Mall
• Eagle Rock: 1 to 2 p.m. at Colorado and Eagle Rock boulevards
• City of Los Angeles: 2 to 4:30 p.m. in Pershing Square

Sunday

• West Hollywood: 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 647 N. San Vicente Blvd., across from the Pacific Design Center.
• City of Los Angeles: Noon to 2 p.m. at The Home Depot on 2055 N. Figueroa St.
• Beverly Hills: 2 and 4 p.m. at 9439 Santa Monica Blvd., between Beverly and Canon drives