An Afro-Mexicano from East Oakland forges a new direction in the League, and shows up where it counts
Mexico isn’t the same continent that U.S. citizens wake up on. I mean, it’s in North America, sure — but take a few steps across the border and it’ll quickly feel like you’re on a faraway planet. That’s because if you grew up in the States — like I did — there will always be a protective wall separating you and life in the south.
I know, since I’ve tried it. I quit my job in California, lived with my abuelo down in Veracruz, traveled around Oaxaca, Jalisco, San Luis, and Queretaro as a dual-citizen, and soaked it all up…
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How murals help to keep Oakland’s history — and current fights for social justice — visible
In Oakland, the revolution is being muralized. For weeks, local artists and activists have united in a takeover of Oakland’s downtown streets to deploy vibrantly-charged murals that encourage viewers to reimagine what safety in the community should look like.
It shouldn’t be a surprise that the East Bay’s hub — long known for a legacy of art and resistance — has taken center stage in the dismantling of police brutality, systemic injustice, and anti-Blackness.
In a city that already boasts over 1,000 murals, Oakland is a poetic location for these colorful acts of solidarity, which loudly declare: “WE GOT US.”
Conflict between street artists reveals deep tension in a changing city
If you’ve lived in San Francisco in recent years, you know about the honey bear. These cute, stenciled icons are smattered on building exteriors throughout the city. Sometimes, the honey bear wears a cozy beanie. Other times, it’s disguised with 3D goggles and popcorn. Recently, it’s been spotted wearing a Black Lives Matter sweatshirt and mask in response to Covid-19.
For many, the honey bears are a harmless, fun splash of pop art — a symbol of San Francisco’s quirky art scene and the city’s playful appeal. The artist behind the bears, who remains anonymous and is known simply as…
Corner Store Chronicles
This San Pablo market and liquor store is vital to the immigrant community it serves
When 2020 is said and done, it’ll likely become known as the year of massive uncertainty. But with so much instability (from Covid-19 to crimson skies on the West Coast), corner store culture remains familiar. LEVEL’s Corner Store Chronicles series pays homage to the power of the store that delivers the warmth and care that ACME will never replicate. Whether known as bodegas, tienditas, or another term of endearment where you’re from, our hoods would be nothing without them.
I can’t see him smiling beneath his face mask, but I know Yusuf is happy.
The enthusiastic 23-year-old Yemeni immigrant works…
At the same time, we’re needed more than ever
I had never taught Tatiana before. Yet, after a Latinx student meeting in Oakland, the 12th grader unexpectedly embraced me, crying: “You’re the first Mexican teacher I’ve seen at this school; I just wanted to say thank you.”
Translation: I’ve never seen someone like you in a position of academic importance.
I understood Tatiana. In my years as a student in Bay Area schools from kindergarten through high school, I only had one male teacher of color amid a stampede of mostly white women. This isn’t just a Bay Area problem, of course. My nine-year teaching career has allowed me…
Two childhood friends — one in the Bay Area and one in Mexico City— reflect on their differences of citizenship and privilege in quarantine
This side
I’m currently writing this from my house in the East Bay Area. But when Covid-19 hit, I was nearly eight months into living with my family on the other side of the U.S-Mexico border — and I was unsure about returning.
First, some context: Mexico isn’t the paradise or warzone that the U.S. media constantly simplifies it as. It has elements of paradise and warfare, like most nations, but it’s much more complex than what the news regularly portrays. Like most Latin American nations, it contains extreme wealth along with rampant poverty, privilege underpinning political corruption, indigenous traditions balanced by…
50 States of Thoughts from a U.S. Citizen After Seeing 384 Detained Immigrants Pressed Inside A Cage
Regardless of which state you’re from or what political affiliation you claim, you can’t be proud about how the U.S. is treating our immigrants; the situation is more horrifying than you think
1) People are being held inside of caged areas without the proper food, water, toothbrushes, or places to sleep.
2) Just because someone isn’t white, doesn’t mean they are a foreign immigrant. And even if they are white, they can still be a foreigner or immigrant.
3) Just because someone is foreign or an immigrant, doesn’t mean they are somehow less worthy.
4) Dehumanization is the process whereby you treat a person as if they were no longer a person.
5) Doesn’t every individual deserve basic consideration, regardless of skin tone or nationality?
6) Citizenship should not determine anything more…
Investigating the overlooked legacy of Denise Long, the first woman drafted to the NBA
First Quarter
In the summer of 1969, the Milwaukee Bucks chose Lew Alcindor with the number one NBA draft pick. He later changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, won six championships, and entered the Basketball Hall of Fame. As the best player of his generation, he still holds the record for the most points ever scored by a single human in hoops history.
An unstoppable 7'2" force, Abdul-Jabbar became a giant figure on and off the court by voicing his opinions on racial justice and social equity, though he would fall short in breaking the NBA’s most unbreakable barrier: gender.
But this…
Rex Chapman’s unexpected transformation from NBA sharpshooter to social media lovable
Let’s get one thing straight. Rex Chapman isn’t from Phoenix. He’s from Bowling Green, Kentucky. But how weird does “From Bowling Green With Love” sound as a title? It’s reminiscent of what an all-white ’70s bluegrass band would call themselves. But I’m not writing about bluegrass or Bowling Green. I’m writing about Rex fuckin’ Chapman. And since my earliest memory is of watching him ball out in Phoenix when I was a kid, that’s where I’ll start.
When he joined the Suns in ‘96 — one of the hottest teams in the League back then, pun very seriously intended —…
Growing up in a diverse community taught me these lessons on diasporic solidarity
The first apartment I remember living in was a small two-room unit in the South Bay Area. My family — me, my older brother, and our single immigrant dad — lived on the edge of downtown Mountain View, a mixed, middle-class suburb on the San Francisco Peninsula. And though it didn’t mean much to me as a child in the mid-1990s, it forever shaped me.
The whole time, we were the only Mexican family in the apartments; all of our neighbors were Chinese or Vietnamese. Every day, my brother and I would cross the hallways and kick it with our…
Alan Chazaro
Bay Area writer, blogger, teacher. Books: Piñata Theory (2020); This Is Not a Frank Ocean Cover Album (2019). Twitter + IG: @alan_chazaro
