Shift in Balance: 51 Percent of Young Californians Are Latino

51 percent of Californians under 18 are now Latino, and for L.A. county the number is even higher (62 percent). These details of the 2010 census results were published this week. What does the shift in balance mean for the future of the golden state?

NPR's Morning Edition ran an interesting interview on the topic this morning. UC Irvine anthropologist Leo Chavez talks about white Californian people's fears, about how Latino immigrants add to the existing culture, about the economic challenges they face, and about possible changes in voting habits. To listen to the piece go to the NPR website and click on the link that reads: Hispanic Population Grows Dramatically in California.

More on the topic also in my previous post Diversity in Numbers: Defining the Angeleno Family and in the comments to it.

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Ban on Plastic Bags Bugs L.A. County

Paper or plastic? Bag from South Africa. My friend recently came back from a trip to South Africa and brought me a reusable grocery bag. It is from Woolworths, one of the largest retail chains in South Africa; it is made by a community project and serves as a symbol of the company's commitment to sustainability and social development. I will think of this whenever I use my new bag. Thank you, dear friend! The Woolworths bag is not my first reusable bag. I carry two baggies which fold up into packs smaller than a deck of cards in my purse and a bunch of bigger ones in the trunk of my car. To me this feels like an easy way of making a difference environmentally. Others seem to have a harder time. When the county of Los Angeles recently introduced a ban on plastic bags for its unincorporated areas the new ordinance was met with resistance. Shops bemoan that paper is more expensive than plastic. They charge customers ten cents for every paper bag. Shoppers complain about ...

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Lyman, Whitford, Reality Check: A Career in the West Wing?

On a chilly Sunday night in February two young girls in jeans and light blouses were standing in front of the artists' entrance of one of two local art theaters in Pasadena, California. The pathway beyond the barrier, an iron gate, was barely lit. It stayed empty for a long time while the girls, shifting weight from one foot to the other, chatted and giggled. After a while a figure emerged from the shadows. The girls fell silent but it was the wrong actor. When the right man, Bradley Whitford, finally appeared he was wearing a bicycle helmet pushed way up on his forehead. Whitford is best known for playing Josh Lyman in the TV series The West Wing but on that night he had performed in the Pasadena Playhouse's production of Yasmina Reza’s Art. The girls stopped the actor, told him about their social studies class and how the teacher would have them watch The West Wing. Whitford smiled, asked, "Which school is it?" and autographed the two print...

Across the Pond

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