I was born in Los Angeles. My mother was born here. Her father and grandfather were born here. Four generations of my family have called this city home. We are Los Angeles.
And now I see soldiers on our streets. ICE vans in our neighborhoods. Federal agents in unmarked cars are seizing citizens and activists in broad daylight. Marines and the National Guard are deployed not to protect, but to control. The city that raised me—this dazzling, sprawling place of freedom and invention—is under siege.
Los Angeles has always been more than a city. It is the great experiment of America itself: the most diverse county in the nation, home to immigrants from every corner of the world, more than 200 languages spoken on its streets, with one of the largest LGBTQ+ communities in the country. Its economy is vast, its cultural power unmatched. It is a place where reinvention has always been possible—where anyone, no matter their past, can become someone new.