Promoting Urban Social Justice through Engaged Communication Scholarship by George Villanueva

Author:George Villanueva [Villanueva, George]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781032016955
Google: Ocx-zgEACAAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2022-01-15T05:07:56+00:00

4 South L.A. Democratic Spaces

DOI: 10.4324/9781003179641-5

The complex racialized history of South L.A. contextualizes everyday life and the changes taking place in the area today. The community’s material and symbolic conditions have created a negative stigma due to real socioeconomic factors, but there are alternative stories of community building and social change efforts that are obscured by the enduring culture of fear about South L.A. This alternative story of promoting social justice on the ground involves organizers working for community-based groups and organizations that advocate for social change in South L.A.

In collaboration with community organizers, this chapter highlights an engaged communication scholarship project, called “South L.A. Democratic Spaces,” that worked against the negative mainstream narrative of that community as a disorderly and violence-prone place. The project built on the CAM approach to community capacities that was discussed in the previous chapter. In collaboration with 15 community organizers from various organizations that advocate for social change, the goal was to present an alternative social justice narrative of South L.A. by identifying spaces of democracy through the eyes of community organizers embedded in the everyday work of championing collective efficacy in the area (see Table 4.1).

For example, one promotora de salud (community health organizer) who participated in the South L.A. Democratic Spaces project identified the headquarters of Esperanza Community Housing Corporation (Esperanza), situated in Mercado La Paloma (Mercado), as a democratic space that was important to her organizing efforts. A comprehensive community development project of Esperanza, previously, the Mercado was a garment factory that transformed into a public market. Mercado is a democratic space in a transnational sense; it was born out of Esperanza’s 5-year community engagement process with immigrant residents in Esperanza’s affordable housing developments, who suggested that the old factory building could be converted into bustling public markets that they left in their home countries. Today, it meets the comprehensive community development mission of Esperanza and the humanistic vibrancy of a democratic space.

In my many visits to the Mercado, I witnessed multiple public uses that came to life in that space. On the basis of Esperanza’s strategy to build local economies and retain spending wealth in the neighborhood, the majority of food stalls and retail outlets are opportunities for entrepreneurs who cater to local needs of their communities. In addition to the offices of Esperanza, six other social justice nonprofit organizations are housed on the second floor. The Mercado also serves as an arts and culture space, hosting events for residents and visitors throughout the year. In fact, the Mercado was a gathering space for many of the engaged communication scholarship projects with which I was involved throughout my time in South L.A.

Table 4.1 Organizers, Their Organizations, and Their Identified Democratic Spaces in South L.A. Organizer Organization Organization Focus Democratic Space Identified Space Description

Trina Greene Peace Over Violence Domestic and Community Violence Reduction South L.A. Youth Council Youth leadership group

Pete White Los Angeles Community Action Network Poverty Elimination, Housing Rights, and Poor People Empowerment Los Angeles Community Action Network Community organization headquarters

Kelly

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