The Travel Diary: A nostalgic stroll through the streets of LA
- Text by Lorena Endara
- Photography by Lorena Endara
Many poems, songs, and conversations are about having a sense of belonging, or not belonging. I usually felt alien to this concept since I had never felt a sense of belonging – and this didn’t really matter to me. Recently, I realised that not belonging and not caring to belong allowed me a false sense of freedom. After exploring my fears and the trauma behind it, I suddenly awoke in LA, California, about 6,646 km away from Panama, the place where I am from.
My name is Lorena, and on my first trip to Los Angeles, my partner took me to Lorena Street in Boyle Heights. Aside from showing me the neighbourhood where he grew up, he was already trying to make me feel at home in his beloved city. I simply loved seeing pharmacies, clinics, restaurants, and schools with my name on it. Since that day, we romanticised the idea of walking the 3.2-mile strip of concrete and taking photos along the way. After all, Lorena Street is Los Angeles in all its beauty and depth.
As you cross the street you find a running track around the historic nine-acre Evergreen Cemetery; diverse family-owned businesses; post-World War II housing projects smothered in murals; a beautiful 1920’s open arch bridge; and the Interstate Five Freeway which connects the US to Canada and Mexico. Lorena Street is also a ten-minute drive from Downtown LA. The signs of gentrification are already present in Boyle Heights, indicating that this Mexican American community will soon be displaced.
If the American dream is about the praise of monetary wealth and endless consumption, the Latin American dream is about the praise of spiritual wealth and endless production. As dreamers, we can pursue an abundance of truthful connections, limitless creativity and intimate communication. These photographs, LA (Latin America) Dreams, are about being awake but maintaining this dreamy vision. They are about hope, intimacy, a sense of presence – and how I found the right place to find myself.
See more of Lorena Endara’s work on her official website.
Enjoyed this article? Like Huck on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.
Latest on Huck
In Photos: A decade growing up in pre-gentrification Lower East Side
A new photobook provides an up-close-and-personal look at the life of a Puerto Rican family, documenting them growing up as the world changed around them.
Written by: Isaac Muk
This summer taught us everything is... marketing
Months of historic political violence, memes, auras, and, of course, ‘brat’ has newsletter columnist Emma Garland asking if anything is real anymore?
Written by: Emma Garland
Rick Castro’s intimate portraits of love and remembrance
Columbarium Continuum is an ongoing exhibition of photographs displayed inside the two-story art nouveau columbarium of the iconic Hollywood Forever cemetery.
Written by: Miss Rosen
The disabled Flâneur forcing us to rethink our cities
This perspective-shifting short film follows Phil Waterworth, the wheelchair-bound urban explorer confronting a lack of accessibility in cities like Sheffield.
Written by: Alex King
Chronicling conflict and survival in the Democratic Republic of Congo
A new photo exhibition documents how a brutal conflict on the eastern edge of the country continues to devastate the lives of civilians.
Written by: Miss Rosen
A playful look at Gen X teens coming of age in 1980s America
After fleeing Pinochet, Sergio Purtell created a photographic love letter to the people of his adopted home with the knowing eye of one who has seen their homeland fall to fascism.
Written by: Miss Rosen