When Oakland resident Eddie Velasquez was growing up, he was frequently taunted by his peers for being gay. They called him derogatory slurs and told him to be a “real man.” He was raised in a traditional Latino household, and his cultural identity made little room for homosexuality. To stop the bullying, Velasquez even dated a woman for a short period of time, but he knew he wasn’t being honest with himself, he said. Velasquez’s experience is representative of the…
Based out of Counter Culture Labs, a community-owned lab in Oakland, Real Vegan Cheese is working on making a cheese that would have less of an environmental effect than making traditional cheese, which requires collecting milk from cows. They are using yeast and E. Coli to create the cheese proteins. In this video, scientists at UC Berkeley discuss whether or not the lab-grown cheese will be sustainable and if people will want to eat it.
The city of Oakland implemented a new food vending program in 2017. But, how accessible is the industry to immigrant communities? And how does one family go about creating community through a food truck business?
Kindergarten teacher Lourdes Rivas wrote a children’s book, They Call Me Mix, to help teach their students why they use gender-neutral pronouns.
“The problem is not fatness, health, or fat phobia,” says Luna. “The problem is we place bodies on a hierarchy.”
By late Tuesday night, many of Oakland’s biggest ticket races remained uncalled, with the Alameda County Registrar of Voters’ having counted less than a fifth of all ballots.
In a packed home in the Grand Lake neighborhood, supporters of Mayor Libby Schaaf and her campaign’s volunteers nibbled on quesadillas and checked back and forth between CNN and the front door to see when the candidate would arrive. Everyone from Jon Sarriugarte, the artist who designed the now-famous snail car, to city hall officials like District 3 Councilmember Lynette Gibson McElhaney, waited under orange and blue streamers. Schaaf’s older sister, Chris Schaaf, even drove in from Castro Valley to…
According to the Pew Research Center, there are over 29.1 million Latinx voters registered to vote in the United States. Oakland North spoke with five local Latinx voters on Election Day and asked them how they are voting on issues like the mayoral race, rent control, and property taxes. Here’s what they said: Jose Lorenzana, 73 “I voted today because I like to fulfill my duties as a citizen. I vote every year. ” Aleah Rosario, 32 “One of the most…
Members of the Oakland Catholic Worker gather for a backyard Sunday mass to commemorate the Salvadoran archbishop’s canonization.
At Somos Familia, Latinx parents with queer or trans children meet together in a support group and share resources with one another.
Oakland’s Mam community, an indigenous group originally from Guatemala, celebrated their first cultural festival on September 15.
As the city and local volunteers rush to assist those displaced by an early morning fire at the East Oakland homeless encampment, questions and concerns about safe living spaces still remain.