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People thought she would end up poor or locked up. She proved them wrong.
Liliana Flores at a park in the San Fernando Valley. "They had this image of me — and the people who are incarcerated — [that] they are just bad people," she said. "It pissed me off." After years of cycling in and out of juvenile detention, she decided to turn her life around.
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Annie Gilbertson/KPCC
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People thought she would end up poor or locked up. She proved them wrong.
Lilana Flores had the bad luck of being born into poverty and violence. She sensed people expected little of her, and as a teenager ended up in the hands of L.A. County's beleaguered foster care and probation agencies. Ultimately, Liliana decided to turn her life around.
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You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
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