One of the most common misunderstandings about democracy—whether in East L.A. or Eastern Europe—is the belief that is defined solely by voting. It doesn’t.
Voting is like picking a restaurant and thinking your work is done. Like a restaurant, real democracy means you still have to show up, place your order, eat the meal, pay the bill, and decide whether you’ll come back.
In that sense, voting is just the appetizer in a long, messy, participatory meal.
Governments – from local city councils to the halls of Congress – prefer it when we vote and then stay quiet, out of the way. They hand us an “I Voted” sticker and hope we shut up for several years. That’s not empowerment – it’s pacification. And for communities like ours, it keeps power far from our neighborhoods.
Which brings us to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Some will argue that the Dodgers are just a private enterprise – simply minding their own business, so to speak. But the history of Los Angeles tells a more painful truth. The Dodgers and their stadium were built on the bulldozed backs of Mexican families in Chávez Ravine. Entire communities were displaced, as Mexicans and Chicanos were dragged from their homes and their neighborhoods erased. The black-and-white photographs of those forced removals eerily mirror today’s images of ICE raids – Brown bodies torn from the only homes they’ve ever known.