#olverastreet

Olvera street // Tropicalia Festival Day 1

The Midas touch. 💲☠️✝️🌹💲🤚🏽💀💰💎

On these days, we celebrate not the death of our loved ones but the lives they've lived.

The old style of LA building when brick wasn’t used because it was cute but because it was the only thing that wouldn’t burn down over and over again. #losangeles #lahistory #la #history #dtla #olverastreet #brick #la_meekly (at Chinese American Museum) https://www.instagram.com/la_meekly/p/BtyrX-3h3Ue/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=cfmhk88ss3gl

The procession... #diadelosmuertos #olverastreet https://www.instagram.com/p/BplJUiYAGkZ/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=pfnp7hw2kmf6

(About to get a little tl;dr here, fair warning) Visiting Olvera St was very important to me on this visit, for a few reasons. One of them being that I had not been back since I was a very young child with my family, when I was probably too young to appreciate it really, & the second being that for me, it was a first real step for me to connect with a part of myself I haven’t been able to for many years. I am part Latina on my father’s side, which has been extremely difficult to embrace due to years of mental + emotional abuse from him. I’d mostly locked that part of myself outside, largely due to that + not having any other cultural influences / touchstones other than him in my life. This isn’t a magickally happy ending story, not one where I suddenly reconnect with my father, happily forgive him, & embrace my heritage after long fireside talks, mind you - forgiveness is difficult for me, & I choose not to see him because of how difficult & abusive he still is. It’s my choice & my path, no one else’s. What HAS changed are the people + influences in my life. I find myself surrounded by amazing Latinx / Chicanx artists, both locally & online - strong personalities full of love, life, acceptance, & also dealing with issues I can relate to, on many levels, ones I never learnt how to deal with or even understood that I was experiencing as a child. I’m taking steps to learn about what is indeed a part of me, what I feel like I am coming to finally embrace after a lifetime of being unwilling / unable to do so. No one’s perfect & I will always have a long way to go, & there will always be mistakes to be made. But the effort & intent, & the personal meaning are more important than those fears or anxieties. Again, my choices & my paths to take. 💖 . . . . . . . . #reallydeepthoughts #olverastreet #losangeles (at Olvera Street Plaza) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bpt_I8LADoy/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1maas96vz0tcp

In a land that they stole from us, we dance on street corners, centers, on concrete for our gentrified people. Instead of our home, on dirt roads, in front of homes for our ancestors.