Brian De Los Santos’ first selfie when he lands in Mexico in late February 2023. Brian, a DACA recipient, went to Mexico via the advance parole process.
(Brian De Los Santos
/
LAist )
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Remember when I wrote about how Brian De Los Santos, our How To LA podcast host, was preparing to visit Mexico for the first time since he was 2?
Finding Home: Part 1
Well, he did it.
And, he made it back — despite the fact that his Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival, or DACA, status doesn’t make it easy to travel outside the U.S. He qualified for advance parole, which allows DACA recipients to travel outside of the U.S. and come back lawfully. It’s a very tricky system, and it was not easy for him to make the journey back to the motherland.
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He had to find the right lawyer, apply for advance parole and learn the ins and outs of the whole process, as well as the risk. The advance parole application process alone took him a little over two months to complete.
In this special three-part series with the How To LA podcast, Brian opens up about what motivated him to begin this tedious process of going back to Mexico. You’ll hear from his dad, who traveled with him to visit his sick grandmother. You’ll also get to hear from experts who explain the stumbling blocks immigrants encounter navigating the U.S. immigration system.
Read Brian’s article and listen to today's podcast episode for the first part of his journey back home.
As always, stay happy and healthy, folks. There’s more news below — just keep reading.
The race for the next District 6 city councilmember is well underway, with Imelda Padilla leading the votes. My colleague Frank Stoltze has more on Padilla's campaign and the campaigns of three other candidates vying for second place in the special election.
You and I both know how expensive it is to buy a home in L.A. Well, a new report from the California Association of Realtors found that only 17% of L.A. County households earn enough to afford a home.
TLC told us to not chase waterfalls, but I don’t know if they ever saw the ones in L.A. right after months of record-breaking rainfall. My colleague Jessica Ogilvie has five flowing waterfalls you should check out. Make sure you wear hiking shoes!
There’s a potential Oscars eligibility rule change that could hurt small independent distributors. My colleague John Horn has more.
AirTalk’s Larry Mantle spoke with Southern California’s own Victor Glover, who will be the first Black man to go to the moon. Read more about what Glover has to say about getting prepared for this mission.
We’re leaving the celestial spaces and going to the deepest parts of the world, 27,000 feet down the deep blue sea. Scientists have captured images of an unknown snailfish species, the deepest fish we’ve seen so far.
Did you know that it is legal to lay off someone on leave? NPR’s Andrea Hsu reported on how employers can lay off their workers while on leave, and how doing so creates more stress on the newly jobless person.
*At LAist we will always bring you the news freely, but occasionally we do include links to other publications that may be behind a paywall. Thank you for understanding!
Wait... One More Thing
Eating Good In L.A. During The Festival Of Passover
Tannaz Sassoni, 45, begins making marzipan mulberries, a Persian sweet often eaten during Passover and Nowruz. The marzipan mulberries are a simple combination of almond flour, sugar, and rosewater, formed into the shape of a mulberry, topped with a “stem” shape made from a silver pistachio, then rolled by hand and covered in sugar.
It’s time to bring out the sous-vide brisket, matzo ball soup and potato kugel for our Jewish friends who are now observing Passover. Passover is the time to commemorate the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt thousands of years ago. L.A. has one of the largest populations of Jewish people in the U.S. And, depending on who you talk to, they could observe the holiday of Passover differently than the person right next to them.
Josh Heller wrote about how he and his family observe the holiday, and what yummy Passover-friendly food is out there for Jewish folks to eat. One thing I loved about reading Josh’s piece is that everything made is intentional. Everything has a meaning and story behind it, from the charoset to the name of a restaurant called Wise Sons.
Read more of Josh’s story about the various ways Jewish Angelenos commemorate Passover here.
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