Alex Zaragoza

Photo courtesy of Wiki Commons
When I was a teenager, a dance teacher called me blasphemous. There I was, doing my step-ball-change and box-stepping my little heart out in preparation for my high school’s production of Oliver! when the dance instructor walked up to me, pointed her finger at my jacket and let me have it.
“That’s blasphemous,” she muttered flatly, as though she finally saw an example for a word she recently learned. It was like when a baby sees a ball and says “ball,” or when a...

It's a blustery day in the border town of Mexicali in Baja California, Mexico, and five men are huddled inside a makeshift encampment covered with protest signs outside the city's government offices. The intense wind makes the tarps serving as walls flap loudly, like Batman's cape as he propels down a building. And just like Batman, they say they're there for justice.
Jesus Galaz Duarte, Mauricio Villa, Alberto Salcido, Francisco Javier Trujillo and Jorge Benitez all form part of Mexicali Res...

Cultural appropriation has become a hot-button issue in the last few years, especially as social media has empowered communities of color to hold individuals accountable for these offenses.
Last year, Jenny Niezgoda, a white woman, caused a major backlash after she attempted to open a “modern fruteria” in a historically Chicano community in San Diego, using Mexican culture as the aesthetic backdrop and inspiration for her project. Now, an online seller of traditional Mexican goods has come un...

As a Mexican American woman raised on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, I fear that fully assimilating into an American lifestyle will mean forgoing my family’s culture. This cuts especially deep on the topic of food. I shudder to think that my mom’s caldo de res could be lost when she leaves this earth.
There’s a dietary movement that suggests going back to our roots isn’t just an emotional salve for worries like mine, but actually wise eating. The Decolonized Diet, coined in 2003 by Dev...

Late at night, a lovesick Monica Robles would lay on her bed and stare up at the ceiling, her phone pressed tightly to her ear. Her other hand held her radio up against the receiver so she and the boy on the other end could listen to the voices floating harmoniously through the radio waves, soundtracking the flight of the butterflies in her stomach.
The phone’s cord stretched tightly across the room, making any sort of movement difficult. Her ear would ache and the romance of those moments wo...

The strings of the mariachi’s violins began to play the opening notes of “Amor Eterno,” and my arms were immediately covered in goosebumps. I began to cry. I tried to stifle my sobs with my hand, but there was no holding them back.
I looked around and saw my friend Priscilla was doing the same, and like a domino effect, the rest of our group began to well up with tears.
A couple of years ago, eight of my girlfriends and I took a trip to Mexico City. While there was plenty of good times had, t...

Jenny Niezgoda clearly didn’t do her homework. The travel blogger and self-proclaimed “barefoot bohemian” released a now-canceled Kickstarter campaign and accompanying video for her next passion project – a “plant-based cocina” and “modern fruteria” she was calling La Gracia. And she would be opening this business in the center of Barrio Logan, a historically Mexican-American and Chicano neighborhood in San Diego with a long history of grassroots activism and fighting gentrification.
The back...

Angel Flores recalls looking up at the televisions, watching Hurricane Harvey wreck everything in its path. His home city of Houston was being hit hard, leaving a trail of damage and death behind it, and all he can think of was his wife and children. He hadn’t seen them in days.
“It hurts me to talk about this,” says Flores. “My family was at home, and I was here. It was something so hard. I yearned for them so much.”
Flores has been a janitor at the city of Houston’s transport building for 1...

Donald Trump has worked steadily to realize his promise of building a bigger, more enforced wall along every state that borders the U.S. and Mexico. The biggest step in this plan has been the construction of eight border wall prototypes, erected in San Diego and built by contractors from around the country hoping to win government contracts for the project. The prototypes, which are 30 feet by 18 feet big, cost between $300,000 and $500,000 to build.
A group of artists and immigration rights ...

In honor of Labor Day, mitú is running a short series highlighting childcare providers in California and those affected by struggles with childcare. One in three providers in California are Latina. They and others are fighting for a fairer wage, collective bargaining within the government and many other issues.
Ramona Duran’s house in Long Beach is pretty typical from the outside. But if you walk beyond the peach stucco façade and small garden in the front yard, there’s a flurry of activity. ...

In honor of Labor Day, mitú is running a short series highlighting childcare providers in California and those affected by struggles with childcare. One in three providers in California are Latina. They and others are fighting for a fairer wage, collective bargaining within the government and many other issues.
It’s a cool Friday evening at a Ramona Duran’s house in Long Beach, California, where in her back room she runs Ramona’s Daycare. The daycare serves 14 children from the community, wit...

In honor of Labor Day, mitú is running a short series highlighting childcare providers in California and those affected by struggles with childcare. More than half of licensed providers are women of color. One in three providers in California are Latina. They and others are fighting for a fairer wage, collective bargaining within the government and many other issues. The final story in the series focuses on the parents struggling with accessing childcare.
Jillian Parker sits at a small school...

As the accusations of sexual harassment, assault and rape have piled up against Hollywood power exec Harvey Weinstein, women in the film industry, including actors like Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie and Ashley Judd, have come forward with their own horrific stories. Also among that list is Rose McGowan, known for her roles in movies like “Jawbreaker” and the TV show “Charmed.”
McGowan has accused Weinstein of raping her and says he later paid her $100,000 to stay silent. She’s since broken ...