On the Front Porch with Oakland Activist David Peters An Interview by Dr. Gregory Downs On the front porch of his house in West Oakland’s Hoover-Foster neighborhood, across the street from one of the elementary schools that define the neighborhood, David Peters knows everybody, whether he’s met them or not. Animated, boisterous, and always busy ..read more

By: David Goldblatt Indeed I live in the dark ages!A guileless word is an absurdity. A smooth forehead betokensA hard heart. He who laughsHas not yet heardThe terrible tidings. Ah, what an age it isWhen to speak of trees is almost a crimeFor it is a kind of silence about injustice!And he who walks calmly ..read more

This Land is Their Land  However polite its title, the 1891 “Petition to the Senators and Representatives of the Congress of the United States in the Behalf of the Remnants of the former Tribes of the Yosemite Indians Praying for Aid and Assistance” was anything but deferential.  The petition offered a blunt critique of the mostly ..read more

Kettlemen City: Case Study of Community Activism in Changing Times Excerpted from Evolution of a Movement: Four Decades of California Environmental Justice Activism by Tracy Perkins, published by the University of California Press. © 2022 by Tracy Perkins.  Many Californians who recognize the name “Kettleman City” do so because it is a good place to stop for ..read more

By Christina Heatherton Excerpted from Arise!: Global Radicalism in the Era of the Mexican Revolution by Christina Heatherton, published by the University of California Press. © 2022 How to Make a Map Small Shareholders and Global Radicals in Revolutionary Mexico  In the age of the New Imperialism, the world was turned inside out. The dark slumbering core of the ..read more

As long-time readers of Boom California, it has been an honor to work with artists, writers, poets, student interns, and scholars to think deeply about California’s past, present, and future. Raised East of East Los Angeles to migrant parents from neighboring colonias in Guadalajara (via neighboring ranchos in Zacatecas), we worked hard to center overlooked ..read more

Text by Daniel Talamantes, photos by Jesús Romo Taking Shape of the River “In it, you realize the river has no shape,” reflects Jesús Romo on his photo, “Riding in the River.” The photo depicts a pair of vaqueros wading through a tributary in Whittier Narrows. Above the horses’ cannon, water splashes above their knees ..read more

Karl Kullmann An imaginative form of protest took place on the other side of the world in 2017 as some Australians took to rolling down grassy slopes at the heart of the nation’s capital of Canberra.[1] Although it appeared lighthearted, the motivations of these tumbling citizens were quite serious. They were rolling down Parliament Hill ..read more

Tracy Perkins             Drivers passing through the Salinas Valley from the San Francisco Bay Area to San Louis Obispo, Santa Barbara and points further south see a visually beautiful landscape. Strawberries, lettuce or artichokes stretch in neat rows to the base of steep hills blanketed with grasses that, depending on season, are colored alternately emerald ..read more

Brenda Nicolas The following article references the exhibition and programming series Boom Oaxaca. Presented by Arte Américas and the Centro Binacional para el Desarollo Indígena Oaxaqueño, “Boom Oaxaca: Conversaciones de Campo a Campo” is an invitation to participate in local and transnational conversations around food sovereignty and Indigenous sovereignty as issues that uniquely converge in ..read more