Helping People Fix Bikes: Ramon Martinez Brings a New Bike Co-Op to Austin

Ramon Martinez, founder of Bici Lbre in Los Angeles
and HOPE Likes Bikes in Austin

Sometimes, you have to leave Austin to re-discover Austin. Last week, I flew back to Los Angeles for my little sister’s college graduation. (My own graduation happened fourteen years ago.) Even though the San Gabriel Valley, just east of the city, brings up stark visions of thick smog, stucco strip malls, and tangles of freeway overpasses, I was looking forward to a few days off and cooking by Mom.

My first day there, I had plans to hang out with my brother. I met him at Bici Libre in downtown Los Angeles, where he volunteers as a bike mechanic. Bici Libre is a community bike workshop space (or bike co-op) – with the help of volunteers they fix bikes and teach people how to fix their own, for a suggested donation.

Bici Libre also reclaims abandoned bicycles and redistributes them, as well as provides education workshops, to underserved communities throughout the L.A. County. This non-profit organization is a project of the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition (LACBC).

Read the rest of the article in Latinometro.

Returning the Farmers Market – El Mercado – to the Hispanic Community

Fresh vegetables at Mercado Hidalgo, Guanajuato, Mexico

Growing up in Los Angeles in the 1980s, my memory of grocery shopping with my mother was going to the Vons in South El Monte. It was sort of like Texas’ version of H-E-B, except with a more distinct Hispanic flair (in 1984, William Davila became the first Mexican American CEO of an American supermarket chain). Since then, that supermarket has been replaced by Superior Grocers, or “La Superior” as we call it in my old ‘hood.

But my first experience going to a farmers market wasn’t until the late 1980s, when I went on an 8th grade school field trip to Exposition Park to visit the great museums of Southern California. For lunch, they took us to the “original” Farmers Market in downtown Los Angeles, on 3rd and Fairfax, in operation since the mid-1930s.

Read the rest of the article in Latinometro.