Kamren Curiel

15 hours ago | boyleheightsbeat.com | Kamren Curiel

Josefina López was only 18 when she started working at her sister’s Boyle Heights sewing factory on Lorena and 8th streets in 1988 while awaiting amnesty as an undocumented immigrant. The budding writer bonded with seamstresses who spoke candidly about sex (or lack thereof) and crushed on local mechanics. “I was straight out of high school. I barely had a green card. I could only get a job at McDonald’s,” said López in an interview via Zoom. “I didn’t make a lot of money, but I learned a lot.

2 weeks ago | boyleheightsbeat.com | Kamren Curiel

A week after devastating fires left Los Angeles in shock and despair, El Sereno’s Eastside Café, like many grassroots organizations, transformed into a makeshift distribution center with water, diapers and other essential items at the ready. In between assisting volunteers dropping off donations and answering countless text threads, Angela Flores, co-founder of Eastside Café, described how, for the past 23 years, the space has fostered community resilience and self-sufficiency.

2 weeks ago | laist.com | Kamren Curiel

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2 weeks ago | laist.com | Kamren Curiel

Stepping inside the slender, pale yellow restaurant that is Otomisan, you’re instantly transported to a time when streetcars and Jewish delis lined a multicultural Boyle Heights. Four red booths and a Formica counter for five greet you as you enter this tiny time capsule, which has been a fixture on First Street for 69 years. “It’s a neighborhood institution,” said Carlos Lazatin, a regular customer who lives downtown and eats at the restaurant once a week. “Folks stop by just to say hi.

3 weeks ago | theeastsiderla.com | Kamren Curiel

This article was originally published by Boyle Heights Beat, a nonprofit newsroom of the L.A. Local News Initiative serving Boyle Heights and East L.A.Boyle Heights — Stepping inside the slender, pale yellow restaurant that is Otomisan, you’re instantly transported back to a time when streetcars and Jewish delis lined a multicultural Boyle Heights. Four red booths and a Formica counter for five greet you as you enter this tiny time capsule, which has been a fixture on 1st Street for 69 years.