ABSTRACT
Since the 1930s, street vending in Los Angeles has been classified as a misdemeanor, punishable by jail time and fines. The Los Angeles Street Vendor Campaign (LASVC)-a coalition of Brown and Black street vendors and social justice organizations-succeeded in decriminalizing street vending. Drawing on data collected from 2013 to 2020 and utilizing ethnographic and digital humanities methods, this paper spotlights fifteen Black and Brown street-vendor leaders of the LASVC. Combined street-vendor leader narratives reveal how laws and enforcement practices undermined their ability to stay free, remain housed, and keep families and vending communities together. This paper differentiates between state-sanctioned legal violence, which led to dispossession and family separation, and community-sanctioned legal violence to demonstrate how laws that criminalize street vendors make them targets for other forms of violence, namely surveillance by co-ethnics. Legal violence often occurs simultaneously and cumulatively adds extra levels of precarity for street vendors.
Desde la década de 1930, vender en la calle en Los Ángeles se ha clasificado como delito menor sancionable con pena de cárcel y multas. Con sus esfuerzos, la Los Angeles Street Vendor Campaign (LASVC), una coalición de vendedores ambulantes negros y de otros grupos racializados y organizaciones de justicia social, ha logrado descriminalizar la venta en la calle. Partiendo de datos recopilados entre 2013 y 2020 y usando métodos etnográficos y digitales de las humanidades, este trabajo destaca a quince líderes entre los vendedores de la calle negros y de otros grupos racializados de la coalición LASVC. Las narrativas combinadas de estos líderes revelan cómo las leyes y las prácticas policiacas minaron su capacidad de permanecer libres, con techo y con una unidad familiar y comunitaria. Este trabajo distingue la violencia legal sancionada por el estado que condujo a desposesión y separación familiar de la violencia legal sancionada por la comunidad para demostrar cómo las leyes que criminalizan a los vendedores ambulantes los convierte en blanco de otras formas de violencia, específicamente de vigilancia por personas de la misma etnia. La violencia legal a menudo ocurre simultáneamente y añade niveles acumulativos de precariedad para los vendedores de la calle.
ABSTRACT
The benefits of breastfeeding for mother and baby are strongly supported by research. However, lactating parents who return to school or work soon after delivery face many barriers to continued breastfeeding. This article presents a student-led initiative to support lactation at a large public university that emerged from advocacy efforts of student mothers of color. The socioecological model was used as a framework to understand and address the multifaceted influences on breastfeeding practices. Project activities included providing breastfeeding education to lactating parents and their partners, measuring availability and accessibility of lactation spaces, improving lactation spaces, connecting university stakeholders, and strengthening university lactation policies. The project achieved the following outcomes: formation of a stakeholder group with members across campus departments, improvement in accessibility and appropriateness of lactation spaces, provision of breastfeeding services through workshops and one-on-one appointments with lactation educators, and creation and dissemination of an online toolkit outlining parents' lactation rights and support available on campus. Comprehensive lactation support at universities is essential to enhance educational and professional equity for women and to promote postpartum and infant health. Throughout the project implementation, the team learned many lessons that can help guide similar university initiatives.
