On the night that I escaped from my abuser, a five-letter word broke his spell, helping to set me free. My abuser had stalked me to the safehouse where a
the Rumpus l September 1, 2023
Writing
LA Times l August 10, 2023
The Edgar is all the rage among foos
Texas naysayers who found the Edgar troubling tried outlawing it. At an El Paso high school in 2021, these activists circulated a petition calling for the prohibition of “Edgar Cuts,”
LA Times l May 17, 2023
A Witch Goes to a Strip Mall and…
The last time she’d heard glass break, her head had been used to shatter it. He — she hated to even think his name — had slammed her head into
Tropics of Meta l April 3, 2023
Pendeja, You Ain’t Steinbeck
“The first time Jeanine and I ever talked on the phone,” the publisher gushed, “she said migrants at the Mexican border were being portrayed as a ‘faceless brown mass.’ She
Tasteful Rude l March 14, 2023
Beautifully Ruined: Kate Braverman’s Lithium for Medea
The last time I visited Venice Beach, I made one of my wildest teen fantasies come true. At one of the many beachfront stores where bathing suits cost five times
LA Times l October 10, 2022
The agony and ecstasy (and hidden beauty) of L.A. parking garages
Memories are made in Los Angeles parking garages. Some inspire electrifying nostalgia and even more electrifying storytelling. First blunt smoked … First hand job given or received … The survival,
Tasteful Rude l June 30, 2022
The Doctor’s Tongue
My sexual miseducation took place in California. It often happened at school. I was twelve years old and gluing paper to paper. Collaging. A classmate said that she’d met her
New York Times l April 28, 2022
Former police officer Don Jackson helped reveal the brutal reality of policing for Southern California’s Black citizens
Before George Holliday caught the L.A.P.D.’s beating of Rodney King on camera, the former police officer Don Jackson helped reveal the brutal reality of policing for Southern California’s Black citizens.
The night of Jan. 14, 1989, Don Jackson, a police officer turned activist, arrived in Long Beach, Calif., riding in the passenger seat of a rental car driven by Jeffrey Hill, another activist and an off-duty state corrections officer. Both men wore plain clothes, and clandestine chaperones escorted their Buick. A van carrying a television crew tailed the rental car.
Tasteful Rude l January 21, 2022
Julian
About the existence of cats, our father encouraged us to ask, “Why?”
He couldn’t stand them.
Cats annoyed and disgusted him and because of these effects, they also annoyed and disgusted my mother. Rarely did Mom or Dad simply utter gato. Gato always traveled alongside cochino.
Gatos cochinos.
I never asked Dad about his anti-catness. He did once mumble something about cats’ historic ties to the devil, but the comment didn’t explain his unique distaste. His grudge seemed personal, not infernal.
Tasteful Rude l November 11, 2021
Honoring Our Literary Ancestors: On Arcelia
In the days leading up to my grandmother’s death, my eyes lingered on her ninety-year-old hands. As a little tomboy, Arcelia’s hands had mesmerized me. I watched them feed cookies
Nat. Catholic Reporter l November 1, 2021
Death Becomes Us
My mother was raised near the second-oldest cemetery in Guadalajara, Panteón de Mezquitán. Established in 1896, murals cover the high walls surrounding its terrain. Some of these artworks feature incarnations of Death herself, and, depending on the weather, one can find Mezquitán’s graveyard dogs sunbathing, hiding from the rain or scratching mosquito bites. During my grandmother Arcelia’s funeral procession, a yellow canine appeared beside her coffin. My mother nudged me.
“It’s your grandfather,” she whispered. “He’s accompanying my mother.”
Tasteful Rude l October 8, 2021
The Word You May Be Looking For is “Stalking”
In “Bad Art Friend,” The New York Times framed a story with a clear pattern of stalking, replete with vexatious litigation, as a quest for justice. The Daily Beast published a story about a fatal