KCRW’s Oral History Project Sonic Trace Presents Sonic Profiles

Tune into KCRW’s Morning Edition this holiday season for a series of short stories produced by the Sonic Trace team. Sonic Trace, the oral history project that begins in the heart of Los Angeles and crosses into Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras will air short features gathered from immigrants all over Los Angeles in La Burbuja or “The Bubble,” Sonic Trace’s portable sound booth.

The series begins on Monday, Dec. 24 and runs through Friday, Jan. 4. Each piece will air at 7:00am PST and can also be heard on the Sonic Trace Blog and the Sonic Trace SoundCloud page.

Sonic Profiles begins with 42-year-old Aldo Velasco who was born in Mexico. Aldo talks about having a ‘gringa’ mother and a Mexican father and he tells the tale of their impromptu departure of his home country.

Mercedes Moreno who emigrated from El Salvador to Los Angeles 36 years ago. She came working as a babysitter, and in the process became a mother. Mercedes is one of the hundred of thousands of Salvadoreans who fled a brutal civil war that killed 75,000 and displaced more than one million people. She shares her story of arrival.

These are just a few examples of stories audiences will hear over the next two weeks. See the full schedule below:

Dec. 26
Guest:  Octavio Oilvas
Description: Octavio Olivas is from Mexico City. His wife is American, and they live in LA. Before getting married, he got a taste of Texas hospitality on a trip into the US from Mexico.

Dec. 27
Guest: Norma Medina
Description: Silverlake resident Norma Medina talks about her picturesque childhood in Mexico, and the culture shock she experienced when she was taken to live with her Aunt and Uncle in their ‘Brady Bunch’ house in California.

Dec. 28
Guest: Eric Garcetti
Description: Fourth-generation Angeleno and City Councilman Eric Garcetti talks about growing up in Los Angeles, the ultimate mestizo culture.

Dec. 31
Guest: Gustavo Arellano
Description: OC Weekly editor and KCRW contributor Gustavo Arellano talks about the romanticism vs. the realism of the rancho.

Jan. 1
Guest: Paulina Lopez
Description: Being a teenager is hard enough, but for Paulina Lopez, it was especially hard. Her family moved from Oaxaca, Mexico to Los Angeles when she was 12, forcing her to learn a new language, new culture, and make new friends.

Jan. 2
Guest: Janet Lopez
Description: 35 -year-old Janet Lopez tells the unlikely story of how her parents met. “They were Match.com before Match.com existed.”

Jan. 3
Guest: Teresa de Jesus Rivera
Description: Teresa de Jesus Rivera was born in the small town in California. Her parents came to the US from Sinaloa, Mexico in the 1950’s. Their job? Picking produce in the fields of Delano, CA. Her family went on to make history in the early days of the United Farm Workers movement of the 1960s.

Jan. 4
Guest: Raul Campos
Description: KCRW DJ Raul Campos talks about his parents’ home in the Maravilla projects in East LA, and how many of his high school peers were phonetically challenged when it came to pronouncing his name.

Be sure to hear these stories and more from Sonic Trace. Sonic Trace is also part of Localore, a nationwide initiative of AIR, the Association of Independents in Radio, and funded by CPB. Interactive design is produced by Zeega.

For more information on Sonic Trace you can visit the Sonic Trace Blog. For more information on KCRW please visit www.kcrw.com.

KCRW Welcomes Gustavo Arellano

OC Weekly Editor Joins Station in New Role

SANTA MONICA, Ca. — KCRW (89.9FM and kcrw.com) is pleased to announce Gustavo Arellano as our newest weekly contributor to the station. Arellano has been a frequent guest on KCRW’s Good Food for over seven years. Now, in his new role, drawing on his work as Editor of the OC Weekly, Gustavo will offer his insight into the stories shaping Orange County.

Gustavo’s weekly feature, Orange County Line, will be heard on Monday afternoons starting December 10 at 4:44pm during KCRW’s All Things Considered.

“KCRW was looking for someone who could shine a bright light on this sprawling, diverse and vitally important region of Southern California, and we are happy to have Gustavo as a guide,” says Gary Scott, news program director at KCRW. “Gustavo is smart, he’s dogged, he’s funny … and he’s occasionally outrageous — but he’s more passionate and plugged in than just about anyone you’ll ever meet.”

“Orange County is virtually virgin territory in the Southern California media landscape, and my colleagues at the OC Weekly and I have been a lone voice in the wilderness proclaiming its glories and controversies for years,” said Gustavo Arellano. “I’m thrilled that KCRW has assigned me to be their guide to this strange land, especially after having collaborated with them for years on Good Food.”

KCRW and the OC Weekly also plan to hold regular events that highlight the cultural and political issues facing Orange County.

Arellano is the editor of OC Weekly, an alternative weekly newspaper in Orange County, CA, and the author of  a nationally syndicated column “¡Ask a Mexican!”, in which he answers any and all questions about America’s largest minority community. The column has a weekly circulation of over 2 million in 39 newspapers across the United States and won the 2006 and 2008 Association of Alternative Weeklies award for best column.

Gustavo is the author of two books, Orange County: A Personal History, and, most recently, Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America. He is a lecturer with the Chicana and Chicano Studies department at California State University, Fullerton.

For more information about KCRW and its programming, please visit www.kcrw.com.

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About KCRW
KCRW 89.9FM, licensed to Santa Monica College, is an NPR affiliate based in Southern California. The Santa Monica-based nonprofit represents cutting edge radio at its best, presenting an eclectic mix of independent music, news, talk and arts programming. The terrestrial signal serves Los Angeles, Orange, and Ventura Counties, as well as parts of San Diego, San Bernardino, Kern, and Santa Barbara Counties and the greater Palm Springs area. KCRW’s programming is internationally renowned and available worldwide via KCRW.com, including three streaming channels, 27 podcasts and archives of our locally-produced programs and live band performances. Hear KCRW music online, all the time, on the ALL music stream Eclectic24.

About Gustavo Arellano
Gustavo Arellano is the editor of OC Weekly, an alternative newspaper in Orange County, California, author of Orange County: A Personal History and Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America, and lecturer with the Chicana and Chicano Studies department at California State University, Fullerton. He writes “¡Ask a Mexican!,” a nationally syndicated column in which he answers any and all questions about America’s spiciest and largest minority. The column has a weekly circulation of over 2 million in 39 newspapers across the United States, won the 2006 and 2008 Association of Alternative Weeklies award for Best Column, and was published in book form by Scribner Press in May 2007. Arellano has been the subject of press coverage in national and international newspapers, The Today Show, Hannity, Nightline, Good Morning America, and The Colbert Report, and his commentaries regularly appear on Marketplace and the Los Angeles Times. Gustavo is the recipient of the Los Angeles Press Club’s 2007 President’s Award and an Impacto Award from the National Hispanic Media Coalition, and was recognized by the California Latino Legislative Caucus with a 2008 Spirit Award for his “exceptional vision, creativity, and work ethic.” Gustavo is a lifelong resident of Orange County and is the proud son of two Mexican immigrants, one whom was illegal.

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