New at Zócalo
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Essay
Why Is the Latinx Debate So Fierce?
Gender, Language, and Identity Are Complicated. But Inclusivity Doesn’t Have to Be
In 2018, I was interviewed for Univision’s morning talk show ¡Despierta América! (Wake up, America!) to discuss the meaning of the identity label Latinx. I was nervous because I had …
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Connecting California
The Colorado? Call It the California River
The Golden State’s Power Should Be Used Not to Protect Its Water, But to Solve Western Water Problems
Why do we still call it the Colorado?
Sure, the river begins in the Colorado Rockies. But in law and practice, the waterway making headlines is clearly the California River. And …
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Essay
Who Should Put a Ring on It?
A Modest Proposal for Rethinking ‘Will You Marry Me?’—And What True Egalitarianism Might Look Like
Over 20 years ago, I covered my face with my hands and shyly told my (now) husband, “I’m moving away for graduate school and I’d love you to go with …
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The Takeaway
Art Opens a Portal to Curiosity
We Should Measure Its Value Not in Dollar Signs But in Question Marks
“L.A. is one of the largest creative economies in the world but artists here are low-wage workers. So do we even value art at all?”
Artist Joel Garcia asked the pointed …
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Culture Class
‘Let Your Loneliness Make You Brave’
Take It From Carly Rae Jepsen (and a Bunch of Scholars): This Ordinary Emotion Can Be a Beautiful Thing
Can the 21st century forge a better relationship with loneliness?
It’s a question that feels especially appropriate on Valentine’s Day, the holiday most linked to the lonely-hearted.
Over two decades since Robert …
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Essay
The Art World I Want My Students to Inherit
For Young Artists, Money Matters. Ethos, Vision, and Impact Should Too
All artists exist within a larger ecosystem of creativity. Artist Ward Shelley’s timeline-inspired paintings and prints of interrelated people, places, facts, and events visualize this ever-evolving cultural milieu on mylar. …
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Connecting California
How California Made a Polish Poet Great
Exiled to Berkeley, Czesław Miłosz Explored the Margins of Alienation, the Horrors of His Past, and Visions of the Future
Want to become a signature voice of your troubled nation? Perhaps you need a decades-long exile in California.
It worked for Czesław Miłosz, who entered the pantheon of Polish poets thanks …
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Essay
A New Border Wall Draws from an Old American Playbook
At the Poland-Belarus Borderland, a California-Based Immigration Attorney Finds an Eerily Familiar Scene
At long last, we reached the wall. Its glinting metal and sharp wire stood in stark contrast to the greens and golds of the Polish forest in autumn. And its …