Take Two translates the day’s headlines for Southern California, making sense of the news and cultural events that affect our lives. Produced by Southern California Public Radio and broadcast from October 2012 – June 2021. Hosted by A Martinez.
I moved [here] in 1987 to go to school, but the primary reason was to escape winter and just kind of going along like you do when you're young – trying to figure out what you're doing with your life.
But then in 1992, the L.A. riots happened.
I had been at work. I knew there was something going on.
But I didn't really quite know. I was poor at the time, so I just had a teeny television that was barely black-and-white. It was mostly static, kind of trying to watch this to figure out what was going on.
I thought, you know, I'm going to drive up to Mulholland. There's a nice view of the city from up there and kind of see what's going on.
There was a whole crowd of people up there just watching the city burn.
And I just felt so sad. I get choked up now even talking about it so many years later.
I grew up in Minnesota, but I never felt like home.
Los Angeles didn't really feel like home until the L.A. riots.
That was kind of when I realized that this is my city, that I was actually a part of it, a part of something, a part of a community.
What are we doing to each other?