Leslie Berestein Rojas
My focus is on our coverage of L.A.’s communities of color and immigrant diasporas. Before this, I spent 10 years covering immigrant communities for KPCC.
When I was a kid, my family left Cuba and landed in Huntington Park. I grew up there, speaking Spanish at home and steeped in Southeast L.A.’s beautiful Latinidad. I love telling the stories of L.A. and its people. Now, I get to help shape those stories and work with talented reporters to hone their craft.
I’ve also covered immigration on the U.S.-Mexico border, reported stories in Mexico and other parts of Latin America, and done lots more for large newspapers and national magazines.
Among the things I love about L.A.: family, food from everywhere, signs in dozens of languages, the smells of chaparral and dusty freeways, the downtown skyline as you cross a bridge from the east. Mostly, I love that it’s home.
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The Ridna Shkola of Los Angeles teaches Ukrainian culture and language to the children of L.A.’s Ukrainian diaspora. Now it’s seeing lots of new students who fled Russia’s invasion. -
Naasón Joaquín García, leader of the Mexico-based La Luz Del Mundo megachurch, is in prison after pleading guilty to fewer sexual abuse charges than he was to stand trial for; the suit is a chance for victims to “really achieve justice,” their lawyer says.
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Gov. Newsom has until the end of the month to sign a bill that would update the state’s retail food code, making it easier for street vendors to obtain health permits with small carts.
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SB 972 seeks to make the California Retail Food Code friendlier to street food vendors, and ease obstacles to obtaining health permits for pushcart vendors.
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The Anaheim City Council voted Tuesday night to formally designate a stretch of Brookhurst Street as “Little Arabia,” after years of lobbying from the community.
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Community advocates and merchants along the Brookhurst Street strip known as Little Arabia have long lobbied the city for an official designation. Now, a motion to designate the neighborhood as a “little” is on Tuesday’s agenda.
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Advocates say most Afghan families who arrived in Southern California have settled into permanent housing and jobs, although some are still being housed in hotels, and their long-term immigration status remains in limbo.
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It’s been more than a month since the Supreme Court said the Biden administration may end a Trump-era program that forced asylum seekers to wait in Mexico as their cases go through U.S. immigration court. If and when it ends, many are expected to come to the L.A. area.
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A proposal for a Santa Ana charter amendment that would let non-citizens vote in the city’s elections won’t be on the November ballot, but it’s part of a trend that’s drawn its share of legal challenges.
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Last year, a federal judge in Texas said DACA was unlawful. As the Biden administration appeals, some California DACA recipients who joined the lawsuit will be at the hearing, helping defend the lives they’ve built in the U.S.
