Honestly, it’s not the same anymore, so I stopped going, she said as she took another sip of her tamarindo.
What do you mean? he asked her.
Gabriela ripped off a chunk of pupusa, crammed it into her mouth and swallowed.
It’s like… that feeling you get when you go to city walk or the mall. You’re surrounded by restaurants, stores & brightly lit bars. That Latin cultura vibe is basically gone… AND to top it all off there’s only one frutero left… you know that big stand en medio del Grand Central that was also a small marketa? They’re like one of the last latinx owned businesses there now. It just makes me feel some typa way, she explained.
Gentrification is spreading everywhere in LA. People are getting kicked out of their businesses & their homes, it’s fucked up. It’s like colonization all over again, the brown, black & poor just get erased from their neighborhoods & their lands like they never existed there at all. It’s become a fad too, he replied.
It’s really sad. Just makes me not want to visit anymore. It’s not at all like what I remember as a child. The whole thing just seems superficial.
They ate their last bites, paid & walked out of the restaurant towards Normandie Avenue.
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