Vickie Vértiz

Vickie Vértiz is a writer and educator from Bell Gardens. Her writing can be found in the New York Times magazine, the Los Angeles Review of Books and the San Francisco Chronicle.
Her book "Palm Frond with Its Throat Cut" won the 2018 PEN America literary prize in poetry. A graduate of Williams College, the University of Texas, Austin, and the University of California Riverside, she teaches in the Writing Program at UC-Santa Barbara. Follow her work at vickievertiz.com.

Beto RosSela makes his way into a SELA landscape. Paint a SELA landscape alongside him at the virtual fest. | Visual Eyes LA

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Southland Sessions

Stories in the Stream: Third Annual Southeast L.A. River Arts Festival Goes Virtual

For the community of Southeast Los Angeles, this homegrown arts festival and all of the people involved are a reminder to never give up and do it ourselves.

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The Right to Live: Southeast Los Angeles Life in Three Moments

Located 20 minutes from downtown, the southeast suffers from life-threatening pollution across the cities of Bell, Bell Gardens, Cudahy, Huntington Park, Lynwood, Maywood and Vernon.

[Left] "Santa Barbara Brown Berets aka Moratorium in Maravilla" 1970. | Photo: Oscar Castillo || [Right] "Not One More (Girl with Beret)" 2016. | Photo: Rafael Cardenas

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Artbound

Photos of Latino Youth Resistance, From the 1960s to Today

Protest photographs bridge Latino youth cultures across space and time. They remind us that Chicano youth continue to not only speak out about injustice but thrive despite it.

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Departures

How Bell Gardens is Banking on Bicycle Club Casino's Luxury Hotel

Though the extravagant casino stands in great contrast to the surrounding working class communities, its relationship to the city is complicated

Departures

How Bell Gardens is Banking on Bicycle Club Casino's Luxury Hotel

Though the extravagant casino in Bell Gardens stands in great contrast to the surrounding working-class communities, it is as intimately tied to the local economy,as it is insular.

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Departures

Cha Cha Economy and Alternative, Latina Business Models

Business is booming for Ana Guajardo and dozens of other local Latina and POC vendors.

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Departures

Worth Gold: Feminism and Leadership at the Miss Bell Gardens Pageant

Despite dwindling numbers, the Miss Bell Gardens pageant cultivates leadership from woman to woman.

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Departures

I Can Defend Myself: a Trans Teenager's Family Clears a Path for Trans Youth

"Just think: that baby that you covered when they were cold or fed when they were hungry, that is the same one that's telling you they're trans, or gay."

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Departures

The Time is Now for Chicas Rockeras in Southeast L.A.

The first-ever rock camp in Huntington Park hosted over 26 children ages 8-17, for a week of band practice and workshops that focused on local social and environmental issues to build critical thinking skills.

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Departures

Lost Girl: Tales about Loving and Leaving 1970s El Monte

El Monte has produced numerous writers, including Benita Morgan Bishop who documents 1970s El Monte through the wide-eyed perspective of her young narrator.

Rediscovering SoCal

L.A.’s Olympic Aspirations

KCET Cinema Series

Rediscovering SoCal

L.A.’s Olympic Aspirations

KCET Cinema Series

Vickie Vértiz