How are Latinos in the Southwest US doing this presidential election season?

S1: Hey there , San Diego , it's time for KPBS roundtable. I'm Andrew Bracken. Today we hear about one columnists road trip across America Southwest to connect with Latino communities across the political spectrum to hear about their concerns and views in an election year.

S2: I just think this assumption that there is a Latino vote and that Latinos are supposed to vote a certain way because they're Latinos , it's just very insulting on so many different levels.

S1: Los Angeles Times columnist Gustavo Arellano shares what he learned on his multi-state journey , and why it left him feeling optimistic. Plus , Dia de Muertos is almost here. We hear about the return of KPBS digital ofrenda to honor lost loved ones. That's all ahead on KPBS roundtable. On the cusp of a contentious presidential election , political pundits are at their peak , many overanalyzing and scrutinizing what the so-called quote unquote Latino vote might do in this year's election. But national politics don't always reflect what's happening on the ground in communities across the country. Rather than focus on the political horse race , Los Angeles Times columnist Gustavo Arellano chose to take a road trip across the American Southwest to learn more about the lives and concerns of Latinos from a wide range of perspectives and experiences , and to show what he says he already knew , quote , that Latinos are as American as anyone else , if not more so. His new ten story series is called Camino del southwest A Road Trip through Latino America. Gustavo , welcome to roundtable.

S2: That's for having. Me.

S1: Me. So , Camino still southwest. It's a series that you say you were initially resistant to doing.

S2: I found it too simplistic. As a Latino voter myself , and as a Latino who happens to work in journalism and especially has covered politics for a long time , I just think this assumption that there is a Latino vote and the Latinos are supposed to vote a certain way because they're Latinos. It's just very insulting on so many different levels. But it is an election year. It's a heck of an election year. And so I knew I needed to do something. So that's when I went back to my bosses and asked them , well , instead of going around the country , how about we just stick to the American Southwest ? This is where Latinos have been for over 425 years , and this is where the idea of Latinos as a threat first emerged. Number one , because it's right there on the US-Mexico border , the southwest and also the southwest used to be a part of Mexico until the United States took it over by conquest. And then finally , what I told them was like , there's so many great stories that I've wanted to tell from the southwest. Um , but I have never had the chance to , so might as well do it in an election year. Do these stories , and if people want to talk about politics , they will. And if they don't , they don't. But of course , it's a political year. So people had. Ideas.

S1: Ideas. And so you chose , you know , this idea of a road trip.

S2: And these are things that I had held in my proverbial pocket for years , you know ? And I never knew how to get them because it's like , how am I going to go to a small town in Colorado just for the heck of it ? My bosses are not going to allow me to do that , but with the road trip that I just connected the dots and literally it was seven days , seven states , nearly 3000 miles , and I somehow was able to just get all of these stories that I wanted to.

S1: I think you kind of mentioned in your series there and you know , you mentioned hitting Colorado , but before then you began your journey with what you say is a familiar trip for you. And that's from Orange County , where you live , to the US-Mexico border to the San Diego Tijuana border region where we are.

S2: I've done it hundreds of times. I mean , I'm old enough to remember that if you wanted to get Mexican soda , you had to go down to the Mercado Hidalgo and Tijuana , and the trip back across the border was only going to be like 30 , 40 minutes. So , yeah , you get on the five freeway , you take the 805 because , you know , going through downtown San Diego , there's always going to be more traffic. You pass through Pendleton , you pass through National City , Chula Vista , finally connect back and at the , you know , at the five Freeway in San Isidro. Then they just wave you across again and again and again. This time , though , I want to get to Friendship Park , which is split between the United States and Mexico , right at Imperial Beach , right on the Pacific Ocean. So I took the five freeway all the way , and I got off at an exit. I had never even seen Tokyo Avenue and Tokyo immediately. I know what it is Tokyo means , like your namesake. If , like I met another Gustavo , I'd say , hey , it doesn't mean Tokyo. Like , hey , like , you know , you have the same name as me , and we somehow have , because of that , a lifelong bond. Between that and as I mentioned in my story , it's like the United States and Mexico. We are Tokyo's , even though none of us will ever admit it.

S1: And you say , I mean , I think your father came from Mexico and , you know , and this visit to the San Diego Tijuana border there , you found a much different border than the one your father experienced when he crossed several decades ago.

S2: So the first time my dad came over to the United States illegally was in the trunk of a Chevy , but he went through all sorts of ways. I said that he treated the border like a preposition. He went over it , under it , threw it. Aside from it , everything. I ended up with an activist at Tijuana Valley Regional Park. I wanted to go to Border Field State Park , but it's closed right now because the pollution from the Tijuana River. So we took a hike for about 45 minutes. So on a hill I was able to see the two border walls , the 30 foot tall border walls that the Trump administration built , one right on the US-Mexico border , and then an interior wall. And I saw the Biden administration building up a bluff that's going to be topped with a 30 foot tall border wall that's going to connect to the Trump border wall. And so the activist I was with , Adriana Jasso , she sits with the Friends of Friendship Park Committee. And I'm , you know , I'm sure your listeners know about Friendship Park. It's like this binational space that for decades was a place where , you know , it was an interesting experiment. Yeah , a.

S1: Very important meeting place. There's a binational garden that was there for many years. But you're right that that's changed in recent years and become more difficult to access.

S2: And it's been closed since 2019 , so I hope to at least be able to see it from afar. But since Border Field State Park was closed the day I went , I couldn't even see that at all. And for me , that's such a metaphor , at least from the American side of what we think about Mexico and the immigrants that came through. Sure , there's always going to be a border , but at least there was some chance of Americans wanting people to come over , at least have some sense of familiarity. But nope , not at all. But yet people still come.

S1: So you then continued your road trip east through rural San Diego County and into Arizona , and that's where you explore the history of kind of this old West mining town. Tell us about what you saw there.

S2: One of the things that I always wanted to do was see where my maternal grandmother was born. She was born in a copper town called Metcalf that no longer exists. And it was right next to Clifton. And Clifton is right next to the Morenci Mine , when the largest copper fields in the world. So I want to go there , you know , just personal discovery. But also , you know , I was intrigued by the idea of mining Mexicans , like the Trump administration especially , has made so many overtures to coal miners. You know all about energy. Energy is such a huge topic in the United States today. But when we think about miners , we do think about white coal miners from Appalachia. We never think about Latino miners. So I met a council member there , uh , Jeanine Carrillo , and she had initially a biography. Like so many people from Clifton , they basically lived there , then leave forever. So a generation of Latino leaders in Southern California came from Copper Country in Arizona. But Carrillo moved back to Clifton. She only went to Phoenix , but then she moved back to Clifton. And now she's trying to figure out , how can I need to you know , she needs to plan for a future without the mine in Clifton. So she's trying to do that. And , you know , also , she's a she's a classic McCain Republican. She left the party because of Trump. She's voting for Kamala Harris in this election. But she's not a Democrat , and she actually feels that more Latinos in her particular area , Greenlee County , are going to vote more for Harris than Trump because the Trump administration talked a big talk about helping mining. But none of that money went to Clifton. The Biden administration , on the other hand , allowed for the mining company to apply for up to $80 million in grants to make their energy that they use to run the mine greener. And so that immediately told me that Latinos yes , you know , we're not going to be as partisan as some other folks , because what really matters to us from the federal government is what can you deliver to our specific communities. So some people might say , well , you know , that's not really principles , but most Latinos would say , well , you have to live and you have to better what's immediately in front of you because that's what you can take care of.

S1: And I think at this part of the trip , in your reporting series in Clifton , Arizona , where this recurring theme seems to emerge , where , you know , a lot of the people you meet. There may not be so focused on this presidential election , but more focused on local issues. Right ? I mean , I think you talk about the local sheriff election in in Clifton. Yeah.

S2: Yeah. Oh , I in fact , across the entire trip until I got to Las Vegas , Nevada , I saw all of one sign for Trump and all of one bumper sticker for Harris. And that's one of the things I asked Councilmember Carrillo like. And especially in Clifton , all around Greenlee County , there were so many signs for sheriff and council members and all of that. And she said , look , in a small little town like ours , population 4000 , you don't really want to broadcast stuff that might be politically divisive , at least on that national level. Like , you know , maybe you could do that in the big city. But in a small town like Clifton , we all have to get along. We all have to respect each other. And so people want to keep that to themselves. And she herself said even though she cannot stand Donald Trump , she said , whoever people want to vote for , that's their prerogative. And I think that was a really powerful message that I would hope most people would follow. And definitely of the Latinos that I talked to my trip , a lot of them definitely follow.

S1: Another stop on your trip was in El Paso , Texas. A city you write is , quote , a place so Mexican. It makes Los Angeles feel like Mission Viejo. Um , and El Paso and its neighbor Juarez share a border like San Diego and Tijuana.

S2: I look , I love San Diego and Tijuana , I love El Paso and Juarez , but the Texas side just is more familiar with it. And I think partly just because of history , because in the early 1900s , when Tijuana was even before it became a tourist haven , and San Diego , you know , it was mostly San Diego. Both Juarez and El Paso became this landing area for migrants , it became the Ellis Island of the American Southwest. My. My mom's side of the family went through El Paso before they ended up in Clifton. And before they went over to California , San Diego , or specifically Sunnyside. Little doesn't become a huge port of entry for Mexicans until about the 1960s or so. That's when my mom came to the United States legally. She went through San Diego. They were no longer going through El Paso. So I think that history in El Paso , it makes it more comfortable with it's , you know , they call themselves frontier resource like border people. I don't really hear people from San Diego or Tijuana Latinos calling themselves that while in El Paso and Juarez , whether you're Latino or not , you understand that. But even in El Paso , people are tiring of this new wave of migrants coming into the United States. And so when I went to El Paso is one of my favorite towns. It's just such an amazing city. I went there to pay respect to two memorials for the 2019 El Paso massacre , and I found a city that had moved on. And it's not that they're being callous or anything , but , you know , the massacre happened , it's sad and life moved on and but life had to move on. And for me , I just could not help but to think the rhetoric that Donald Trump and his party and his followers are using about migrants are poisoning the blood of this country and all sorts of nastiness. It sounded exactly like what motivated the killer at the El Paso massacre , where he said that he literally wanted to help stop the Latino vote , the Hispanic , as he would say , the Hispanic voting bloc. And sadly , that even that message that the eerie similarity in messages between that and Trump , that's not stopping more and more Latinos for wanting to side with Donald Trump , at least according to polls.

S1: And in El Paso , you kind of mentioned this. But the political effort to kind of , you know , reacting to some of the migration , can you talk more about that , particularly ? I think the mayor started a bussing program to move the migrants out of El Paso.

S2: I just know this from friends that I talk to and even people who are very friendly towards migrants. And just saying that's not other Latinos anymore. That's not even El Paso anymore. All this attention has been put on on Texas Governor Greg Abbott , uh , sending hundreds , like over 100,000 migrants from the border to Democrat run cities like Chicago , like New York and even Los Angeles. Well , El Paso as a city did that as well , and on a far smaller scale. But still , they said , we just cannot deal with all these people coming in anymore. Now , that was really over the past couple of years. Right now , these advocates for immigrants , for refugees are saying that that , you know , that so-called wave has slowed down to a trickle to use that overused , uh , metaphorical language because the Biden administration in June , they severely restricted how to apply for asylum. So even the Democrats in this country right now , they are not nearly the type of open border people that the Republicans have made them out to be , and especially Latinos. I earlier this year for the LA times , I did a column about how California Latino hesitation , to put it nicely to the issue of illegal immigration towards allowing more folks. It is at it's at its lowest ebb ever. In other words , Latinos are far more anti-illegal immigration than has ever been tracked , and a lot of people find that surprising , but I don't. As a child of a former illegal immigrant , I could tell you that when it was our aunts and uncles coming over , of course Mexicans would support them and go march on the street in support of amnesty. You're not seeing marches against amnesty anymore. Instead , you're seeing my dad's generation of immigrants , of illegal immigrants and their children saying , yeah , now that it's Venezuelans , Haitians and Chinese , keep them out , build the wall , kick them out. And it's sad.

S1: When roundtable returns. More on columnist Gustavo Arellano journey through America's southwest and what he learned along the way.

S2: My bigger takeaway about Latinos not caring , you know , not being so much part of the national rat race and the idea of you should care more about what's in front of you.

S1: That's ahead on roundtable. You're listening to KPBS roundtable. I'm Andrew Bracken. Today , we're speaking with LA times columnist Gustavo Arellano about his recent road trip across the southwest , where he spoke to Latinos in five different states regarding where they are in their lives ahead of the 2024 election. So after El Paso , you spent quite a bit of time in New Mexico. I think you visited four different cities there. Tell us about why you made that decision to to focus on New Mexico and what's unique about the Latino communities you found there.

S2: New Mexico is a state I have spent many a summer. There is , they call it the Land of Enchantment for a reason. But a lot of people don't know that the Latino population there , first and foremost , it's the largest Latino population , percentage wise of any state in the country there , like at 49%. And part of it is because Latinos have been there for over 400 years , and a lot of the Latinos there , they can trace their lineage back to the 16th and 17th century , uh , in their and so they call themselves Hispanos , uh , not Hispanic , but Hispanos. And they do think of themselves as a people apart from other Mexican Americans. And New Mexico is a rural state. So I had to check in on farmers. And also it was August. So that was the start of the chili season. The beloved tradition of roasting chilies and chopping them up and freezing them for , you know , for the rest of the year. So I went to a chili farm in New Mexico. The hatchet chili is the most famous chili from New Mexico. I went to another farm in Escondido , which is about two hours north of hatch , near the , uh , the city of Socorro. I went to , uh , manufacture a packer of chilies in Albuquerque , and I ended at a farm in Espanola , New Mexico. It's about an hour northwest of Santa Fe. And what I heard from there , I mean , these are issues that I knew were going to be affecting New Mexico , which is the lack of water , you know , and , and farming specifically , I wanted to focus on because it's such a great barometer of where people are because there's so many issues involved labor , immigration , climate change , um , just , you know , the inflation and all the farmers , they all had issues. One that I was very surprised was just the lack of labor that they could get legally. And also in dealing with undocumented people. How ? Like I talked to a farmer in hatch and she said , like here in the town , we're offering work to these Venezuelans that are coming through , but they don't want it. They do not want it. They are lazy. And this is a woman who was telling me this in Spanish , who grew up in Mexico , who even made an appeal to to sentiment , to feelings and saying that my dad was undocumented , her dad was undocumented , but that we , our parents , did it the right way. Even though how do you how do you do illegal immigration the right way ? And that we were different from the Venezuelans. And sadly , it's something that I have also heard in California as well.

S1: From there you went on to Colorado , Nevada before looping back to California's Inland Empire and finishing up your trip there.

S2: Been fighting for the rights of Latinos there Therefore , uh , the spinal sector , they call themselves Magneto's. They're since the 1900 to. From there to Colorado Springs to a brewery. They're a husband and wife couple who runs an amazing Latina themed brewery. They're becoming local leaders. Uh , they sadly became famous because of the club Q massacre. They were at the at the club , uh , that massacre in Colorado Springs that targeted an LGBTQ community. And so they get a lot of attention put on them because of this horrible day , but they're focused on just being good community leaders by being business people. From there go down to Las Vegas. I hung out with alumni from a Latino high school conference that happens every summer there at the University of Nevada , Las Vegas called the Latino Youth Leadership Conference. Conferences like this have been happening around the American Southwest for decades. I'm sure there's conferences like that down in San Diego. They're definitely around in California. And then I ended in San Bernardino and the Inland Empire. I wanted to go to the one of the oldest Mexican restaurants in the country just because I wanted tacos at that point. But it was closed. So instead I met the cousins who owned the restaurant to talk again about this idea of how national partisan politics are poisoning local politics , which are not supposed to be partisan at all , but nevertheless , talking to them and seeing how they're taking it upon themselves to try to better San Bernardino , a city that has seen better days. And just hearing all these other people just left me with optimism about what Latinos can do for this country and how , frankly , other people should follow the Latino way.

S1: I mean , I think you mentioned there some of your takeaways and including that sort of emphasis more on on local issues and not so much the sort of like national political horse race as we've been talking about.

S2: And so Rich told me about , you know , they get a lot of heat for being Latina run brewery that stands with the LGBTQ community in Colorado Springs , which historically has been very Republican , very evangelical Christian. But nevertheless , he had a taco truck , uh , that was run by a Trump supporter. And so some of his regulars , they had an issue with that. And he said , look , go eat tacos and then go talk to the guy like , we have to live together. Uh , like I mentioned earlier , Clifton , the idea that in a small town you should not allow bigger things to mess with the local stuff. So that's one thing just , you know , you have to bridge the partisan divide. Because if you don't , this is how your local community dies. The other thing that I was surprised by , there was not much enthusiasm for Harris. No one I talked to was going to vote for Trump. There was a lot of distaste for Trump , but there was this idea that Harris is not that she's not better than Trump , but like , you don't see the enthusiasm for Harris that you see among other Democrats , because at the end , it's not against her. It's just a general skepticism towards the federal government. They know that whoever's going to be in office , yeah , they're going to at the white House. There's going to be some big issues that they're in charge of , but most of what they're going to do is not really going to trickle down to these local communities. And even if things are horrible , if inflation is sky high , well , you still need to work with each other , you still need to fix your communities. And that's something that's a strain , at least among Latinos , that I call rancho libertarianism. This simultaneous rugged individualism pull yourself up by your bootstraps. But it's not about you. It's about bettering your entire community. But you cannot better your entire community unless you take care of yourself first.

S1:

S2: Go around the country and ask Latinos about whether they're going to vote for Trump or Harris. And they laugh. They thought it was a silly idea , and I laughed alongside with them , by the way. But then when I told them , like , I care about how you folks are 364 days of the year , not just on Election Day , that's when they definitely opened up. And a lot of them they said like , yeah , like who goes to Antonito , Colorado ? It's about three hours away from Denver. It is like in southern Colorado , really , really small. They were so happy to see me. The members of La Sociedad , they also call it they , you know , one of them , she told me , uh , we've been trying to get the Denver Post , the big newspaper in Colorado , to cover us down here , and they never come. Like , why does it take someone from the Los Angeles Times to come tell our stories ? So they weren't suspicious of me , per se , but they were very surprised. A lot of these people like one of the questions I always got like , how did you find out about me ? How did you why are you interested in coming here ? Because they're used to being ignored by the media. Or when it comes to depictions of Latinos , they know that the media too often reduces us into these tropes. The the poor immigrant , the criminal , the voter caring about actual stories. Very few people in the media , and especially in the national media , sadly do. And I was honored enough to be able to tell some of these stories. And the cool thing that , you know , we're talking a couple of weeks after the series came out. So I've heard feedback from the people I profiled , and they all loved it. They both love the fact that I , they , you know , I got their stories correct , which is cool. I didn't get any factual errors , but they also love to see themselves connected to these Latino communities. They did not feel alone , being ignored by the national media. And they also were proud that I was able to connect them to other great stories that happen to involve Latinos.

S1: And you mentioned some of the , you know , very small communities you chose to cover here. How did you pick the places you visited on this trip. It seemed to be , you know , you were pretty intentional with that.

S2: These were stories that I had known about forever , like La Sociedad , the , you know , the oldest Latino civil rights group in the country. I can't tell you when I found out about it , but when I did , I mean , this is years ago. I'm like , I have to get there someday. But my editors , you know , I cover Southern California. Uh , there was no reason , really , for me to ever go to southern Colorado just for that story. But since I had a bunch of them lined up , that was one of the reasons why. Then I got so excited to go on this road trip , because I could connect those proverbial dots and do them. And yeah , each chapter for me , it told a bigger story. Like in San Bernardino. Yeah. You tell the story of Meet La Cafe , this place that inspired Glen Bell to create Taco Bell. But I was also able to talk to , you know , two cousins. So cousins , lifers from that area who wanted to do good for their community , but they're getting beaten down by their own community.

S1:

S2: A lot of these small ones , you know , and also people and so people amazed at that , but also people liking my bigger takeaway about Latinos not caring , you know , not being so much part of the the national rat race and the idea of you should care more about what's in front of you. So that's sort of the biggest surprise. And it was a pleasant surprise. But even I guess on the smaller level , I mean , I was sad that the people that I wanted to talk to in El Paso , like activists and friends of mine , they didn't want to meet me at the memorials , which I understand I totally get. But I mean , El Paso has a story to tell , and I was able to talk to people. Sure. But , you know , I wish I could have talked to more people there. And then I guess the sunflowers. I had never noticed so many sunflowers in Colorado. And to be able to turn sunflowers into a metaphor for Latinos. Yes , it was me desperate to find a story. But you know what ? I'm proud of that particular chapter.

S1: Well , you know , in your story , I mean , it's centered on people and telling their stories , but the environment plays an important role here. And the foliage , like you mentioned , I mean , the plants and it really you paint a picture. There's also videos in the series.

S2: You can't just print words anymore. I mean , the words that I wrote , thank you for saying that. You know , I basically I was able to evoke the look and feel of the American Southwest because if not , then I did not do my job. But yeah , I had a video capability , so we had a GoPro camera , although most of that footage was not used because it turned out that the camera was smudged and I didn't have the wire to figure out that it was much. So there you go. That shows my experience with that. I if we still had a podcast at the Los Angeles Times , I'm sure there would have been a podcast component to it. And people do like the videos and all that , but I'm a print guy , I'm a writer. And so it's it's really about the writing for me , and that's what I'm most proud of. And that's what people seem to be reacting the most to.

S1: Well , and you've been writing for for many years , right ? Probably about 25 years. You were at the OC weekly for a long time , the ask a Mexican column , which was , you know , very famous around the region in Southern California. Now you're at the Los Angeles Times.

S2: When I started about almost 25 years ago at the OC weekly , I was the only person of color until about 2006 , so I had to be the token for all , uh , minority communities at the Los Angeles Times. Our owner signed a pledge to make the newsroom at least 25% Latino. He signed this in 2020 that within five years , it would be at least 25% Latino. We're about 20%. So we're not there just yet. And also , all of this is happening in a media landscape where there are layoffs. Too many of my colleagues got laid off earlier this year. It's a dire landscape for legacy publications. I mean , look , the L.A. times used to own the San Diego Union Tribune , and now we know who owns a Union tribune. And it's just very , very sad. And Latinos have to bear the brunt of all of this. All of that said , there are still so many stories to tell. There are more independent news outlets that want to tell these stories. There's influencers who on their own , also want to tell stories. I'm just for Latinos telling their own stories. I'm not against non-Latino telling Latino stories , but if you're going to tell them , at least take the time to go out there. I mean , look , I could have done this whole series just from the comfort of my house and just call people up , but that's no good. You have to go out and actually talk to folks , listen to them especially. It's going back to Latinos. We are coming from communities that historically have been denigrated , if not outright ignored by the national media. And by , you know , just media in general. And so I would urge other editors to listen specifically to their Latino reporters and say , look , if we're coming with stories about our community and if we're pushing back on what you think our community is , listen to us.

S1: I've been speaking with Gustavo Arellano. He's a columnist for the Los Angeles Times and the voice behind the ten part series Caminos del southwest , a road trip through Latino America. Gustavo , thanks so much for being here.

S2: Thank you again.

S1: Up next , we hear about KPBS digital community Ofrenda to celebrate day of the dead. And here's some of your memories of lost loved ones.

S3: Just really good memories. Really good laughs. We would always make each other laugh. Like uncontrollably falling on the ground , crying , coughing because we were laughing. So much.

UU: That's next on Round Table.

S1: You're listening to KPBS roundtable. I'm Andrew Bracken. It's time for our weekly roundup , where we discuss other stories we've been following for this week. And joining me , as usual , is KPBS web producer Laura McCaffrey. Hey , Laura.

S4: Hey , Andrew.

S1: Well , the big thing is for me , and I think for you too , is Halloween. We're big Halloween fans. Oh , yeah. Coming up.

S4: Great question. Um , well , as you know , resident book nerd , um , I want to be Hester Prynne from the Scarlet Letter , so I've , uh. I sewed myself a little pilgrim hat. I'm kind of proud of it. I'll have to show you a picture , but. Yeah , that's what I'm planning to do. Um , and I know you and your family are big Halloween people.

S1: I'm not partaking in that part , but there's a Winnie the Pooh kind of thing going on. I'm doing my own sort of 80s movie themed costume. I think if I pull it together from the action movie Die Hard. So we'll see. It's a work in progress.

S4: I'm excited to see it.

S1: Yeah , I'll show you a picture for sure. Uh , the first story I had I kind of wanted to bring up was , I don't know if you saw this , but Philip molnar from the Union Tribune covered this. Wall Street Journal covered it. This mega-mansion in La Jolla is on the market , and it's getting a lot of attention just to because of its scale. It's 13,000ft². It has a private beach with imported sand from Georgia. There's all sorts of stuff going on with this. It's owned by a billionaire , Darwyn Dyson , and it's kind of an homage to the the Versailles , the Palace of Versailles in France , I don't know , did you see any of the pictures ? Because it's pretty remarkable. The property.

S4: Oh , yeah. Yeah , in some pictures it looks like a like a sand castle mansion. Um , and that's the name of my style , but. Oh , okay. Well , that makes sense then.

S1: Yeah , it is called the Sand Castle Mansion. And yeah , I was going to ask you about the style because it was definitely not would go with my interior design sense , but I'm definitely not in that sort of scale anyway. So yeah.

S4: I don't think it would fit with my Ikea furniture. Um , but you know , to to each his own. Um , it kind of reminds me of the documentary the Queen of Her Size. Yeah , yeah , the owner of the the the Westgate Resorts , they started to create their own first size , like mansion. Um , just outside of Orlando. But then , uh , they couldn't finish it due to economic hardship , and they were trying to sell it , like , as is , but they just , like , could not sell it. And I'm not sure what came of it , but it kind of reminded me of that. And I , um , I saw the price tag on this thing. It's like over $100 million. So I'm wondering , um , who's going to buy that ? Are they going to have I mean , it's a finished house , unlike , you know , the West Gate people , but I , I wonder how that's going to go. Yeah.

S1: I think the list price they had was $108 million. So and it's it's his vacation home. It says to also kind of oh , okay. Pretty interesting. Uh , yeah. Reminded me of the Hearst Castle in San Simeon in central California. Oh , yes.

S4: Yep. La Jolla has a lot of mansions , but it also has a lot of sea lions. Um , and LA times did a deep dive into that. And why they seem to be always gathering on the beaches of La Jolla. So here's what they found. Um , they found that the sea lion population has increased , um , partly due to a 1972 law banning the hunting and killing of sea lions and other marine animals. Um , and then they're also running out of space on the Channel Islands. Um , a group of islands off the coast of Ventura. So , um , they need somewhere else to go and breed. But the L.A. times mentions it's kind of weird that they chose La Jolla because sea lions don't like being near people. I'm sure you've seen those social media videos of them chasing people , those close.

S1: Calls , and then people getting too close.

S4: Oh yes. Yeah. No , you should never do that. Just general PSA. Leave them alone. But they could be winding up in La Jolla. Due to El Nino events. Warm waters have killed fish , um , that sea lions normally eat. So they move to other places where they could get those fish. And sea lions could migrate to other beach towns. So get ready.

S1:

S4:

S1: So I want to turn our attention now , we were talking a little bit earlier about Halloween and also the Muertos. That's Friday , November 1st. And for the second year in a row , KPBS is returning with its digital ofrenda to celebrate. And here to tell us more about that project is KPBS South Bay engagement producer Mario Castellanos. Hey , Marty. Alana.

S5: Hi , Andrew. Thanks for having me here with you guys today. Oh , great to have you.

S1: So , can you tell us how did this project get started and tell us more about it ? Yeah.

S5: Um , well , it's a digital community altar that goes on the KPBS website , and anyone from the public is welcome to honor a lost loved one during day of the dead or the other Muertos. And we started last year. We had a few inspirations , um , one of them being the LA times newspaper , which did a digital altar on their website in 2021 , in response to the Covid outbreak. But we were also really inspired from San Diego in the community and all the different community celebrations that are held throughout the county. And we were trying to figure out new ways to connect through the website , and we thought that this could be a good way to provide a space for a deeper connection.

S4:

S5: Its roots go back to before the arrival of the Spanish to the indigenous peoples of Mexico , and they didn't believe in grieving when someone passed away. Instead , they believed in celebrating. And that tradition has been passed for generations , and it's still practiced today , not only in Mexico , but also in other Latin American countries. And the traditional way to honor someone that's no longer here is through an offering or building an altar , and it usually includes a photo of the person that you want to remember flowers , candles , food , and other things that you know meant a lot to that person. And here in San Diego , it's incredibly Popular. There's all kinds of events and communal ways to come together to celebrate day of the dead , and more and more people are getting into it. The city of Chula Vista is holding celebrations now. The city of Imperial Beach , Barrio Logan , Sherman Heights just had their 30th anniversary of holding day of the dead celebrations in Oceanside. They have great programming. They've been doing celebrations for more than 20 years now. Uh , even the old Globe Theater has celebrations as well. And of course , in Tijuana , there's a lot of events to. And still with all of that , you know , it inspires a lot of cultural pride. But there are others who do feel , you know , it's become a little too mainstream. Um , a few weeks ago , we were in Olive Wood Gardens in National City to learn a little bit more about the significance of marigolds. They're the popular flower that goes on the altars during day of the dead , and we spoke with some of the staff there and being there with them , it really reminded me of the tradition. And I spoke with Olive Wood Kitchen , Esta Rosa , Maria Barrientos , and she was sharing with me how she learned a lot of these traditions from her mother , and her mother learned them from her grandmother , and her grandmother learned them from her grandparents. And she just kind of really reminded me how the tradition was or has been passed down from different generations , which I thought was really beautiful. But then at the same time , you have something like , um , there's all these big companies like Adidas , Puma , a converse , they all have some really great looking tiny shoes for day of the dead , but that does show you kind of how the other side is and how it's gone mainstream.

S1: Well , and it kind of , as you mentioned there , I mean , it's really comes back to. To memories and people remembering their loved ones. And and I know you got a lot of submissions. Can you share ? You know , a few of those submissions ? Yes.

S5: Um , we had a lot of really great submissions and we've started putting them together and it's so emotional. Um , but here's here's one from Annette in Chula Vista honoring her best friend , Elizabeth Barlow. And it's an audio clip.

S3: My best friend Elizabeth passed away on December 13th , 2023. She was 38 years old. Me and Elizabeth met in the eighth grade , and we have been very close ever since then. And we have decades of memories and , um , just really good memories , really good laughs. We would always make each other laugh , like uncontrollably falling on the ground , crying , coughing Because we were laughing so much. Wow.

S1: Wow. I think that's just such a relatable experience and memory there for friendship.

S5: Yeah , it really is. And that's just a snippet. You know , she she goes on to talk about a memory of a time that they were trying to , uh , not be home and they tried to lie to their mom , but they got caught. And she goes on to talk about just how much they both laughed.

S1: And , oh , it's a really funny story.

S5: Oh , yeah.

S1: Blink 182 and them getting busted with caller ID by my friend's mom.

S6: By the. Mom.

S1: Mom.

S6: Really sweet. And that.

S5: Was just the start. Of.

S6: Of.

S5: Of a long friendship. And you know that that memory , it does really just kind of , um , bring a reminder of just how much a person can impact our lives. Um , here's another one. This one. It's not an audio. I'm just going to read what the dedication was. And it came from Sebastian Bustos to honor his grandparents , Maria Indonesia Bustos from Barrio Logan , and the dedication he submitted to to them to honor them. This is what he wrote. I miss your wisdom and love. I still feel you watching over me when I feel cold. I think and feel your love and feel better. Love you. I will never forget about you guys. And , um , here's one more that I wanted to share. Um , this one came from Grace Olivia Hicks , and she submitted to when to honor her father. And another one to honor a family , pet a dog. Tell a hick. So she says , you saved my life in more ways than one. You taught me how to care for someone else and in turn , how to care for myself. I would give anything to bury my face in your fur again , lay on the floor with you and have you lick my salty tears. I miss your fur. I miss your sleeping in the front of my door. I miss you. Writing in the center console , in the car. I'm glad you're with dad. I hope you can keep each other company and wait for me until it's my day to come to heaven and be with you.

S4: Oh , and then one last thing before you go , Madalena. Um. So how can people experience the digital ofrenda ? Like , how can they find it ? Um , what's going to be on it ? That sort of thing.

S5: The digital ofrenda will be up on the KPBS website starting this Sunday , and it's going to be on the entire week until next Saturday. And anyone can go on there and read through all of the beautiful submissions. And I'm super grateful to all the public that took the time to submit.

S1: Well , Maria Elena , thank you so much for sharing more about that and sharing some of the memories of the community. That's really , like you said , really beautiful. I've been speaking with KPBS South Bay engagement producer Maria Elena Castellanos , along with KPBS web producer Laura McCaffrey. Thank you so much for being here.

S4: Thanks , Andrew.

S5: Thank you.

S1: That's our show for today. Thanks so much for listening. You can listen to KPBS roundtable anytime as a podcast. Roundtable airs on KPBS FM at noon on Fridays and again Sundays at 6 a.m.. If you have any thoughts on today's show or ideas for a future one , you can always email us at roundtable at pbs.org or leave us a message at (619) 452-0228. Roundtable's technical producer this week was Brandon Truffaut. The show was produced by Jacob Air. Brooke Ruth is roundtable senior producer. I'm Andrew Bracken. Thanks so much for listening and have a great weekend.