The Mariachi Rent Strike
This Is Uncomfortable
Marketplace
4.6 • 3.6K Ratings
🗓️ 16 December 2021
⏱️ 34 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles has historically been home to tightknit immigrant communities. Francisco Gonzalez had lived in an apartment a block away from the neighborhood’s Mariachi Plaza for a decade when the building was sold, and the new owner nearly doubled his rent. Several of Gonzalez’s neighbors got rent hikes too. At first, Gonzalez figured he had no choice but to get out, but then he learned about another option. On this week’s show, the last of our fifth season, we’ll follow Gonzalez and his neighbors through a rent strike — involving lawyers, protests, tense sit-downs and, maybe, a way to stay in their homes.
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“This Is Uncomfortable” is Reema Khrais, Donna Tam, Megan Detrie, Peter Balonon-Rosen, Camila Kerwin, Phoebe Unterman, Marque Greene and Serena Chow.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | When Francisco Gonzales makes up his mind that he wants to do something, he does it. |
| 0:08.4 | You know, I'm not into that traditional ways of doing things. |
| 0:14.4 | Like in his early 20s, he decided that he wanted to move to a bigger city, to finally live |
| 0:18.3 | on his own for the first time. |
| 0:20.0 | He'd be the first person in his family to ever leave Tucson. |
| 0:23.4 | When Francisco told his mom that he wanted to move to Los Angeles, he knew she tried |
| 0:27.4 | to stop him. |
| 0:28.4 | But, of course, he didn't. |
| 0:31.4 | She said, of course not. |
| 0:33.4 | And I said, oh no, I'm not negotiating. |
| 0:36.5 | I'm leaving. |
| 0:38.0 | So in 2006, he packed up his grey sedan and drove to Los Angeles. |
| 0:42.5 | He took over a distant relative's lease and moved into a one-bedroom apartment in a |
| 0:46.3 | neighborhood called Boyle Heights. |
| 0:49.2 | Boyle Heights looked and felt to work in class. |
| 0:51.8 | There's a big Mexican immigrant community there. |
| 0:53.9 | The streets were lined with vendors, ice cream trucks, and family-owned businesses. |
| 1:01.3 | And at the center of it all is Mediací Faza. |
| 1:03.6 | It's this public square where you'll sometimes hear Mediací musicians playing for crowds |
| 1:08.2 | and picking up gigs. |
| 1:12.4 | Francisco had moved to block away into this three-story building that kind of gives him |
| 1:16.2 | a tell vibe. |
... |
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