A Letter to the People of East LA and Boyle Heights from the Year 2040 Christopher Cruz Follow Apr 19 · 4 min read

Dear Gente and People of East Los Angeles and Boyle Heights:

I am writing you this letter from the year 2040. Not much time has passed, only twenty short years in fact but much has drastically changed.

Let me start off by telling you that El Mercadito is no more. That place sold its last equite in 2030 to a nice couple who had just arrived from New York City. Those gringos bought the entire building and now every weekend hundreds flock from the Westside for the finest tequila tasting and tamarindo infused craft beer. These days even your bougie primos and primas who grew up in Whittier and Pasadena manage to find themselves on the corner of 1st and Lorena. That’s because in the year 2040 it’s just a quick 15-minute trip to Boyle Heights and Los thanks to the new Metro Goldline extension. Now everyone can experience Boyle Heights! No excuses now for not paying your abuela a visit. Except that the apartment she was renting off Wabash exists only in photos and memories. What about your abuela you ask, well she now lives somewhere out in Bakersfield with your Tia where the rent’s cheap and the heat and stench of baked cow shit is inescapable.

You see change is rarely sudden and the most drastic change goes unnoticed by those living through it. Think about it this way; how many times have you re-visited an old school you previously attended or visited your family in another state, or country and immediately you notice the numerous ways in which that school or community has transformed over time. Whether you find them good or bad these changes cannot help but jump out at you. You’re surprised by these changes but when you bring up what you’ve noticed with your friends or relatives you find that it falls on deaf ears. This is because some change is often minor, and rarely does it significantly affect the day to day livelihood of the local people. Sure businesses come and go, and community demographics change but I write to you with deep concern for what is happening in our community and to tell you that what is transpiring is not a natural process or what some might brush off as “business-as-usual”.

Let us continue.

El Mercadito isn’t the only staple to have fallen. Los Cinco Puntos now serves “the best vegan tacos in all of LA” as christened by the LA Weekly. That’s right, completely vegan. Vegan “carnita” tacos, tacos “chicharrones”, burritos de “carne asada”. Most people can’t tell that it’s all made from cauliflower and before you ask, yes it’s Latinx owned. Adjusted for inflation you can get two tacos for $14 in 2020 money. Very affordable for anyone visiting from the Westside.

How did this all happen you ask?

Well you see much of the original and generational clientele for Los Cinco Puntos and El Mercadito were chased out of Boyle Heights and East Los Angeles by rising rents. The lack of any real rent control protections left this historically working-class community with no choice but to pack up and leave. Miraculously a few privileged families did manage to remain intact despite the city’s gang injunctions, harsh policing, and its never-ending ICE raids. However, these few families eventually all sold their abuela’s home to eager out of state house flippers when the market was hot and now live in Downey.

Understand that these changes have been taking place long before 2020. Some will tell you that there are many layers to what contributed to this mass exodus of working-class people while others will keep it short and point to the workings of Capitalism and the profit driven motive of the housing market. All I have to say to you is that the soul of our community has been gutted. All that remains is a Disney-esque Latinx fantasy for gringos and people of color who on the weekends can step down from their middle-class living and get the “Eastside Experience”.

You want even more concrete evidence? Just look to your past and see what happened to the communities of Echo Park, Silver Lake, and Highland Park since the 1980’s as some of the more recent examples of what gentrification and gentefication truly yields.

I’d like to end this letter on a positive note and tell you that there is hope and there are many things you can do to keep yourself and your community in their homes and the gentrifiers out. If you are a tenant then I urge you to join your local tenant’s union. Talk with your neighbors about each other’s struggle as renters. Ask yourself whether these trendy coffee shops and galleries have done anything to lower your rent or raise your wage. Question all development projects taking place in your community. Lastly, when a housing project guarantees that a percentage of rental units will be allocated specifically for low-income residents ask yourself “what about households that fall under the very low and extremely low-income brackets?” In Boyle Heights alone roughly 40% of households bring in less than $20,000 annually. An amount which falls outside the “low income” bracket.

Well I have to go now. I understand that you are living through the not-so-great Corona Crisis of 2020 and that traditional methods of community organizing are limited. Read up and join the #RentStrike. You will get through this!

With high hopes,

C. Cruz