March 26, 2025 • 33 mins
In this episode, Diosa sits down with two women organizing mutual aid efforts in the wake of the Eaton Canyon fires that devastated Altadena, California. Diosa interviews Carola Secada, Director of People Opps at Revolve Impact. In addition to organizing, Carola and her family lost their home in the Eaton Fire. She shares her journey as someone impacted by the fires and as a community leader. Diosa also speaks with Shilpa Shah, a member of Colibrí Collective and the coordinator of DENA Heals' marketplace, which offers essential items at no cost to individuals and families affected by the Eaton Fire. Both Carola and Shilpa emphasize the importance of community collaboration, wellness spaces for fire victims, and providing service with dignity.
DENA HEALS is a groundbreaking recovery initiative coordinated by Revolve Impact to address the immediate and long-term needs of individuals and families affected by the Eaton fire.
Contribute to Carola's GofundMe here.
Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/locatora_productions
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Are your ears bored? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (00:05):
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Speaker 2 (00:17):
Look at Our Radio is a radiophonic novella, which is
just an extra way of saying a podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Season ten of Look At Thought Our Radio is totally nostalgic.
We're diving in with a four part series about the
Latinos who shaped pop culture in the early two thousands.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
But that's not all.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Season ten is also launching in the wake of LA
wildfires and a new Trump presidency. As always, we're leaning
into community by conducting critical interviews with people leading the
efforts to rebuild LA and fight back against oppression.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Tune in to Look at Our Radio Season ten. Now
that's what I call a podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Love with every listen right at your fingertips.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Loga l.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Ola, La Loka Morees. Welcome to season ten of Loka
to a Radio. I'm Theosa and I'm Mala. Loka to
a Radio is a podcast archiving are present and shifting
the culture forward. You're tuning in to Capitolo doos Row
twenty four.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Last time on Loca to a Radio. We spoke to
Maria Garcia about Selena's impact on the early two thousands.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
I do genuinely believe that Selena was sort of like
the the beta, like the first sort of like proto
artists that birthed what would be later, what would evolve
into like what we now know as modern Latinida.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
In today's episode of Loca to a Radio, we're going
to be talking about the communities of Altadina and Pasadena
who are rebuilding in the wake of really devastating wildfires
that just took over La at the top of twenty
twenty five. And the reason why this is important for
us to talk about as Angelino's but b also because
(02:15):
THEOSSA and I grew up in the area. I went
to high school in Pasadena. We lived in East Pasadena
at the beginning of my life, and Pasadena Altadena. We
always had my siblings and I friends, classmates, family, community
members who lived up in the hills and whose houses
(02:37):
we would visit. Dances were held at people's homes in
high school, so we were just like in the community.
And I haven't lived in Pasadena and in the San
Gabriel Valley for a very long time now, not since
like twenty fourteen, but I still love the community and
I still consider it to be my community.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Yeah, I love that. It feels like everyone that I've
talked to that has had either roots in Alsadina or
Pasadena like always considers that home. And for us, in
particular with my family, there is such a deep and
personal connection to Altadena because when my grandparents immigrated, they
(03:18):
immigrated to Texas and then ended up in Altadena, rented,
eventually bought a house on Harriet Street in Altadena, and
that was the family home until two thousand and three.
And it was because it was the family home, Grandma's house,
my Grandpa's house, It was where everybody lived at some point.
(03:39):
It was literally the safe haven. Anytime Mathias were going
through a divorce, they would go to Grandma's house and
Grandma Grandpa would you know, kind of mend, mend the family,
mend the heartbreak, take care of the kids. And so
that was definitely like such a special place for all
(04:00):
of us. It was where I grew up going and
until we moved to Southeast Dele like Altadena, Pasadena was
home for us, and my brothers went to high school
in Pasadena, my mom went to Blair High School, and
we are just felt feel still so rooted in the community,
even though we haven't lived there for over twenty years
(04:22):
at this point. And so when we heard that the
wildfires broke out, everyone in the family was like, what
about Grandma's house? Even though it's not Grandma's house anymore,
but it was still like, is her house still at
even though it hasn't been ours for so long? And so,
like you, I felt like that is still home even
(04:43):
though it hasn't been our home for so long. And
I think that a lot of people feel that way
because if you're not familiar with Altadena, it is a
black and brown neighborhood and it was a safe haven
for so many people, and I think that's why there's
a lot of grief. In addition to the physical homes
being lost, it's like the community that was lost as well.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Oh absolutely, And there's been I think more writing done
on this, but that Alta dina being a place where
working class black and brown families could buy homes and
like back in the day, like in the seventies, you know,
(05:27):
and we're able to like own property, own land.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
That's what my grandparents brought bought their house in the seventies.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Yeah, in a suburban environment. And something about la that
I think sometimes gets lost when we talk about la
is folks tend to like really hyper focus on like
East Los Angeles South Central as being the locations where
people of color live and exist, and we don't always
(05:56):
talk about the suburbs as being very sea heavy places
and places where people of color for many, many years
and for multiple generations have deep roots and entire like
like you've said, entire communities. And I think of the
San Gable Valley as being one of those places. Right,
Like our suburbs in La County are not necessarily all
(06:20):
white suburbs, right, That's just not the reality of the
County of Los Angeles, and Altadena has no exceptions. And
you actually went out into the field and you went
to the community to work being done out there in Pasadena, Altadena,
and you conducted an interview. Can you tell us more?
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Yeah, So recently I was able to connect with this project,
this mutual aid effort called Dina Heels in the city
of Pasadena on the historic Colorado Boulevard is the Paseo
in Outdoor Mall. If you're local, you probably know what
I'm talking about and surrounded by retail stores and restaurants,
(06:59):
is Dina Heels, a marketplace and wellness center imagined by
Revolve Impact, the Bito Coffee, Colibri Collective, and Homeboy Industries.
Dina Heels is a mutual aid site offering a unique
shopping and holistic experience for community members specifically affected by
(07:19):
the Eden Canyon fires. In this interview, I speak with
Carola Secata and Shieldba Shaw about their mutual aid efforts
and what they're doing to help the folks recovering from
the wildfires. Here's my interview.
Speaker 4 (07:38):
My name is Carola Secada she Ada pronouns. I am
director's people of at Revolve Impact with Social Impact Creative Agency,
and we are now at the space that we have
named Dina Heels. That was an immediate response of a
coalition that was built in response to the Eaton fire.
Speaker 5 (08:02):
And tell me about the space, Dina Heels. What kind
of programming are you doing? Tell me about the space itself.
It's multi use, it's very large, walk.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Us through it.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
So Dina Heels. It was started as a little spark,
so I was also I'm a team member of the
Revolved team, but also I was impacted by the fires
and lost my home, one of our cars, and all
of our possessions, and so I took a couple of
weeks off work and then when I came back, my
team said, Hey, Corolla, we're actually going to meet.
Speaker 5 (08:33):
At this space.
Speaker 4 (08:35):
And I came and it was Dina Heels. So our team,
in collaboration with Homeboy Industries, the city of Pasadena really
came Antipedo Coffee came together to like it was like
truly like old school Black Panther mutual aid style, like
what are we all going to do? How are we
going to show up? And so in working with the Paseo,
(08:59):
they gave us two retail spots that had no cost
through April. So one we made a mutual land marketplace
with three Well we have a lot of relationships with
a lot of values aligned brands and so they were
able to donate thousands of clothinges. And across the way
is the Wellness Center where we just provide healing centered activities,
(09:22):
community building activities like healing circles, sound baths, one on
one therapy, no cost of the community for fire impact
of people.
Speaker 5 (09:34):
How does it feel to be working in this neutual
laid effort while also being directly impacted.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
It's overwhelming. Number One, the generosity of our community in Altadina.
I loved Altadina's the first community where I haven't had
to hide any part of my identity. Right, I'm a
first gen Peruvian queer mama, and I can be all
that in Altadenas. So when this happened, the our put
of love was just so overwhelming. And it still is.
(10:04):
The generosity of everybody that I've had to really decide.
Am I a participant in Dina heels or am I
the organizer representing revoll Field?
Speaker 5 (10:15):
And how do you choose which god all lives showing
up today?
Speaker 4 (10:21):
I really think that I have to ground myself and
really be honest with myself. Do I need to be
held or can I hold? And that's how I decide
how my day goes these days.
Speaker 5 (10:32):
It's so important. And I want to go back to
what you said about mutual aid. Can you define mutual
aid for us? And how maybe Revolved is using mutually
as an effort to assist the local community.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
Yeah, well, mutually comes as just like community members coming
together to meet the needs are most vulnerable, right, And ideally,
no strings attached, no political transactions, nothing is just it's
kind of like a fellowship of the rings. Everybody comes
with their own gifts and like revolves the L's and
(11:06):
colib recollective. Who is running our mutual aid marketplace comes
with that knowledge and that gift of running a storefront.
Speaker 5 (11:14):
Who would you say, are the folks that are coming in?
Obviously they've been impacted, but if you could maybe give
us a profile.
Speaker 4 (11:23):
So we've had from families that had six homes, actual
structures that lost them all, to a single parent with
a child, to today. We had a person that was
a musician and had lived in her house for thirty
years and lost all her instruments and lives by herself
(11:47):
and because of insurance bs was had to live in
her car for a couple of weeks because they were
writing insurance was putting the wrong name on her chast.
So it is really a white spectrum of folks, but
it's very much a mare of Altadena.
Speaker 6 (12:06):
Yeah, the start of the fires are the onset, and
even in the immediate weeks of the aftermath, we saw
droves of people volunteering.
Speaker 5 (12:17):
We saw a lot of mutual aid, monetary aid, it's
been a couple of months. It's been about two months
at least since the initial fires started. Do you think
people are still showing up the same? Is there still energy?
Could as a broader LA community be doing more? What's
your temperature on that?
Speaker 4 (12:38):
I feel like the intensity of how people show up
is the same. I think the numbers might have dwindled
a little bit. But also it's funny because now after
two months, people are starting to realize and know that
Dina Heels is here at this shopping So we're seeing
like now in upswing of people. So for example the marketplace,
(13:00):
it's just by word of mouth and there's like five
hundred people on the list waiting to shop. Our process,
coly recollective process is very dignified. So it's you fill
out this form and then you make an appointment. So
each family has their own shopping appointment. We welcome them,
give them coffee, give them a meal, and they have
(13:21):
a shopper that helps them curate the stuff that they
need and so so it's just their time, which just
from an impacted person who I've been to donation centers
where it feels like everybody's just kind of rushing it
feels like a Black Friday energy because they feel like
they just lost so much and so they feel like
they have to grab quick. But then there's a los
(13:45):
sense that your neighbors right next so you also needed
to grab stuff, you know. So so yeah, so I
think it's it's funny because I think that the key
players are coming in for the long term, and so
we're starting to see that.
Speaker 5 (14:03):
So there's a lot of wellness happening clearly at the
wellness space from yoga, and I also know there's healing circles.
Can you tell me about some of the healing circles
that are taking place here in this space.
Speaker 4 (14:15):
Every other Thursday there is a men's healing circle and
it's led by Mariela Rochell Signo Lessons and also in
partnership with yanc from Hands and Soil, and it's been
from what I hear, it's been very fruitful, very healing,
very vulnerable space and starting in a couple of weeks
the alternate Thursday, we're gonna lead a women's circle like
(14:39):
a mother's led circle.
Speaker 5 (14:40):
And you mentioned there being very targeted efforts to let
the community know that this exists. What are ways that
you're letting them know. Is it word of mouth? Is
it social? How are you reaching the folks that really
need this mutual aid?
Speaker 4 (14:56):
That is a continual effort and we're learning every day
and so we also have a very diverse So there's
the blocks that we're encountering our language right, digital literacy
access into a generational issues that elders might not be
so equipped to just navigate digitally. So we are really
(15:22):
leaning on the community orgs to let us know what
is the best way to communicate. Is it a flyer?
Is it an in person presentation? Do we also sign it?
We have a partnership with Ultimate. They have promo dodas promotes.
Do we use them to let folks know that we're here.
So we're using like all grassoms, organizing all the digital media,
(15:46):
and every day we learn a little bit more about
how we can emphasize this.
Speaker 5 (15:50):
It sounds very collaborative, which is the nature of Revolved
and they'll do and the partners that y'all have. Do
you think that do you feels can be a potential
model for mutual late efforts in LA and beyond?
Speaker 4 (16:05):
I mean absolutely, I really we're trying to make the
case that we need to be here for at least
two to three years. That is at the minimum, what
this rebuild is going to take. And yes, we're as
a revolve, we're trying to capture the model, trying to
make a blueprint of this is what it takes. These
are the values that everybody has to agree with. These
(16:27):
are the conscious relationship agreements that each org and each
partner has to come in and being unapologetic about and
also coming in with enough I don't know what I
don't know to be able to learn, and that I
think when we find people, especially now in the political
climate that there's so much distrust even within movements, I
(16:48):
think we have to be very clear on those things,
on those values so we can make this flow.
Speaker 5 (16:56):
And you mentioned that you have this space until March,
I'm sorry, until April. The April and you want us.
You're making the case that you should be here longer.
So what can we expect for the next couple of months.
If anyone is listening and in.
Speaker 4 (17:10):
The area, you got to sign up to Dina Hills
dot com and we have a weekly newsletter of all
the events that are going Our partners are now giving
us information so we can populate that that newsletter as well,
from like legal aid to any healthcare stuff to housing,
even renters' rights, whatever you need. We're trying to just
(17:30):
compile all the information because there is an access and
overwhelmness of.
Speaker 5 (17:37):
Go to this source, go to this source.
Speaker 4 (17:39):
It's just that itself is overwhelming. So do that also
our Instagram, we have stories and we're just uh and
our events that are coming up from the protections themselves
so they can explain to the folks what they're what
they're experiencing. And just a lot more like partners and
brands the mutually marketplace. We're getting a lot of tractions
(18:02):
in terms of donation from some bomb and do fashion
brands and I just keep an eye.
Speaker 5 (18:08):
Out, amazing, what do you want people or anyone listening
to know, as someone that was impacted, if you could
put that hat on for us and let the audience
know what they should know and how maybe they can
just show up.
Speaker 4 (18:24):
That grief is like the ocean, and sometimes it lulls,
sometimes it's tsunamis And after two months, barely our shock
is wearing off, or adrenaline is wearing off, and grief
is barely starting to set in. So to really just
remember that advocacy for systems change to make sure that
(18:47):
we're made whole is important as well as the healing,
the community, building, the proximity, the joy. It needs to
be equally as important.
Speaker 5 (18:59):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
If everything else you want, the.
Speaker 4 (19:01):
Ship got the radio for president? Look at that radio
for president.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
Test.
Speaker 5 (19:16):
My name is Sheelda shaw A. Working on a fire
relief project and this has taken taken on an epic
proportion of its own. But so we founded an organization
called the Galibi Collective and it is working with Dina
Heels to provide a marketplace to provide goods for Bamient
(19:36):
members and households that have lost their home. Tell me
more about the collective. Yeah, we originally started out the
entire organization was really by the seat of our pants.
We saw a need, we filled it, saw another need
started feeling that and people felt very called to this
mission and we were just we threw up a pseudo name.
(19:58):
We just put Eaten Fire Support Roo. You're running it
very quickly, just focusing on execution, and over time there
were the same ten women twelve women that kept coming
back and there was this beautiful energy. The place would
hump and I think that positivity of women working together,
(20:20):
inspired by something just coming from all different walks of
life joining together and then collective really resonated with us.
And so we started to look at real names, and
Glibri felts very appropriate because Galibris and Latin culture represents
strength and resilience, especially after trauma or grief, and so
(20:40):
seeing one, it's like a symbol of renewal or resurgence, revival,
and it's exactly what we were doing, and it felt
very attuned to the mission and the women and the
energy that we were celebrating. Tell me about the marketplace
that you're running and how you got involved with that.
Background is in retail and fashion from a brand perspective,
(21:04):
and so I ran I ran called Viana for thirteen years.
I was the co founder alongside Carla Gargo, and so
she's continued to run the brand, and I, you know,
as with the fires on January seventh, felt very called
to contribute and I felt like I was uniquely positioned
to do certain things. I knew a lot of brand
(21:25):
founders I could reach out to that to get donations.
I knew I have a user's center background, so I
knew I could ask families what they needed, and what
I really we really started with was a lot of
people were jumping in for donations, which was incredible, but
very few people were stopping to ask the families what
would actually be useful or supportive. So we started there
(21:47):
with the form and just gathering needs and then sourcing donations.
We started packing care packages out of Finance Intervention program
in Lincoln Heights and so we were running a full
distribution center making it very easy for volunteers to shop
a pack for families. We're able to do twenty twenty
five famals a day at the height of the center,
(22:08):
and our whole goal was to really start to get
to phase two of this project, which we jokingly call
let me choose my own underwear, to really empower our
families more so, our whole vision with all that background
is to say, we challenge ourselves to think, could we
create an experience that gave these families the respect and
(22:31):
dag maybe they deserved right these households, to give them
a sense of normalcy that they could actually choose their
own items. Try it on, get a coffee right for
just a few you know, like a few hours in
that day shop and like we used to, right like
(22:51):
they used to, And so that's what we did. So
we created an entire storefront. We have a full back
of house with everything bend to organized. We have a
full front of house, the floor. We're offering everything for men's, women's,
and child. Who are the types of people that are
coming in and are shopping at the marketplace? Actually, I
could give you a very strong demographic profile because we
(23:11):
were very intentional, intentional about who we went after in
the beginning. And when I say when we went after,
I mean who did we want a service from our mission?
So we primarily targeted marginalized communities of the Eton fire
only people of color. We went through all the gofundmes,
the African American list, the Filipino list, the disabled lists,
(23:34):
the LATINX list, and we basically actually even went to
the ones that were most underserved. So on the go fundme,
for example, I said twenty five percent filled, but it's
a two hundred and fifty thousand dollars raise. That was
not necessarily who we were targeting. We were going after
the families that only asked for five you know, and
(23:54):
had one hundred percent lost everything and didn't have insurance,
so we started there and then we partnered with a
lot of group some community centers in Outstema directly, and
then from there we went word of mouth. So anyone
who came to pick up a package, do you have
a neighbor who's elderly that hasn't been able to complete afore?
Do you know someone else that you want to compete
this for? So it was a very word of my mouth.
(24:15):
We potentially did not rely on social media so we
could attract the same population and it's been really amazing
to see that these people know each other and there
they're in each other's neighbors. What is the shopping experience? Like,
(24:38):
I know that you have your intake arms and there's appointments,
but if you cole walk us through what Clobal shopping
experience looks like. We designed the shopping experience and flow
and process to be the most empowering for households when
they come. So the first step is to fill out
the form. We get all your hushole information. We understand
where you're at, what your other needs, so do you
(25:01):
Our whole mission, just to back up real quick, is
to provide something that's efficient, curated and safe, and the
safe for it is why I wanted to highlight that
safety for us from the beginning was is it a
suitcase if I deliver it to convention center? Do they
have a way to move it? Arount?
Speaker 4 (25:20):
Right?
Speaker 5 (25:21):
Is it bad to give them new products when they
might pick target on their back right? So it was
always about creating safety, adding dignity, making it efficient, and
making it curated. And so safety to us in this
context with the store is to create opportunities for them
to shop in a relaxed way. So we don't want
(25:42):
it to be too crovid. So once they fill the form,
we make sure that we have the sizes for what
they've requested. I don't want them to show up and
not have things for them, so we make sure that
we have the things to meet their household needs. We
run the list every night, so it takes us about
an hour an hour and a half to run the
list for twenty to twenty five that are coming the
next day, So there's two households that are invited for
(26:03):
half hour and then when they get there the hot hours.
Really for us to control the inflow, there are a
lot of day as long as they walk, we have coffee.
They're given a wagon, there's people to pull sizes for them,
help them shop for their households. Like there was a
man yester was shopping for a family four, but he
didn't know what his wife liked. Right, So we help them,
(26:24):
We help them with that process. They're encouraged to try on.
We have dressing rooms. They some people stay two to
three hours. Some people weave in forty fives. Right, So
the entire process is to really just give them as
much of a human experience as possible. We have food,
we give lots of hugs, We spend time connecting on
their stories. So for that reason, it's a little slower,
(26:45):
but the day is designed so that the family with
the families in mine with the most respective attention. I
want to bring up in this word danity. You used
it a couple of times to describe the type of
work that you're doing and wanting.
Speaker 7 (26:59):
To give family dignity they deserve. How would you define
dignity in this context and why maybe that's something we
should consider when where maybe volunteering or want to connect
with an organization that's doing work and having dignity at
top of mind.
Speaker 5 (27:13):
Yeah, it's the it is and I'm glad you picked
up am. That is the real central driving value of
all of this, the volunteer effort, the outpouring of donations,
the outpouring of money and love in Los Angeles has
(27:34):
been unreal. Like I've heard from friends who have said
they thought La didn't have a soul. Their transplants from
New York and they are blown away and they take
back their words, like they understand what Los Angeles is
about because of how the community has come together. That said,
people don't always know how to direct that love. And
(27:57):
so what we've seen pop up are a lot of
experiences that require family members to drive places when they
don't have time, to wait at super long lines to enter,
to not have the items that they need to have
to sift through bins of used clothing, and so everything
in the store is brand new, and we ensure that
(28:18):
they don't have to wait when they get here. Those
kinds of things really give them that dignity back. And
the main thing that we do that we spend hundreds
of hours doing, like hundreds of hours, is it takes
a lot of work to revenue tail right. And so
in these donation center it's an event or a pop
(28:40):
up where they're doing it for three days, one day,
six hours. The packing, sorting, displaying, you're doing the best
you can. You're putting it in bins. You're kind of
sorting it enough. Oh extra small, small can go together.
We can put three decks and fours and five excel
in one bin. Not really going to resonate when you're shopping.
(29:01):
When you're shopping in a store, you know where your
size is. It's all presented to you. So we've spent
extra time most of the time again, hours and hours
to make sure it's that kind of shopping experience. Two
months ago. They never would have even imagined where they were,
so to give them any kind of dignified shopping experience,
that's where the dignity is. It's in those little details
(29:23):
that people don't even realize that their things are hung
on a rack, there's a size label, right, there's a
nice white bin in which it's displayed. It's on a shelf. Right.
They don't have to reach down and go through something
on the floor, those kinds of things. It's those little details.
I'm sure there's also families like you mentioned that never
could have imagined that this is what would have happened,
(29:44):
and there's so much vulnerability in that there's only really
asking for help. And what are the kind of feedback
You've been getting from members of the community that I've
come by and gone through the shopping experience. The feedback
has been real. Like they say, it's the first time
they felt normal. It's the it's like a very human
(30:07):
experience that it you know, for a few hours of
the day. It was what brought them joy that they
were able to just they felt like themselves again. That's
why we do it, that's why we pour I mean
on paper, you know, this is a lot of people
are playing a numbers game, right on paper. We have
(30:29):
already serviced over three hundred families roughly at five to
six members per HOUSELD. Right, so that's you know, close
to fifteen hundred people roughly. I'm not counting that to
that level. But we gave fifteen hundred people I dignified
shopping experience, do you know what I mean? And that's
(30:51):
that took hundreds and thousands of hours to produce.
Speaker 3 (30:56):
Right.
Speaker 5 (30:56):
We put up a store in one week and it
took so many hands on deck to do it right.
And in partnership with community and so I think that's
the part that I want people to really walk away with.
It's in those little things that make something takes it
from a Okay I helped to like I serviced.
Speaker 4 (31:18):
Talk about that.
Speaker 7 (31:19):
What's the difference between helping and being of service?
Speaker 5 (31:23):
We've seen we've been calling it kind of in the community.
It's doctor astrod Hager. Violence intervention programs use these words
that her father used to tell her when she was little,
about this concept of cheap grace. And it's where you're
kind of just you're sending a few dollars, you're asking people, oh,
(31:44):
I checked in with someone so, and look, I think
that any grace in the situation is appreciated. But there's
something difference between being in service to someone versus just helping.
And to me, a lot of the help I've seen
majority has been cheap grace, a lot of words. You know,
a little bit of volunteer time here and there, which
(32:06):
all of it is necessary to need that stuff, but
to really help build back the whole community, you need
to be in service, and you need to sit with
them and you need to hold their hand. And what
we tell them all the time is that we cannot
bring back their home. We cannot bring back their memories,
(32:26):
We cannot take away this streak, but for a brief moment,
we can walk alongside them and be in service. And
I'm gonna help share that.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
For more information about Dina Heels, head to Dinahels dot com. Also,
if you'd like to contribute directly to carolaz Gofundmes she
and her family rebuilt, We're going to link that in
the show notes. Thank you for listening.
Speaker 3 (32:51):
I See Those.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
Look At Radio is executive produced by VIOSFM and Mala Munio.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
Stephanie Franco is our producer.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
Story editing by Me diosa.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
Creative direction by me Mala.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
Lokata Radio is a part of iHeartRadio's Michael Dura podcast Network.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
You can listen to Lokata Radio on the iHeartRadio app
or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
Leave us a review and share with your Prima or
share with your homegirl.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
And thank you to our local motives, to our listeners
for tuning in each and every week.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
Besitos look Alia
Are your ears bored? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Are you looking for a new podcast that will make
you laugh, learn, and say get.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Yeah, Then tune in to Look At Though Our Radio
Season ten Today, Okay.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Look at Our Radio is a radiophonic novella, which is
just an extra way of saying a podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Season ten of Look At Thought Our Radio is totally nostalgic.
We're diving in with a four part series about the
Latinos who shaped pop culture in the early two thousands.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
But that's not all.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Season ten is also launching in the wake of LA
wildfires and a new Trump presidency. As always, we're leaning
into community by conducting critical interviews with people leading the
efforts to rebuild LA and fight back against oppression.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Tune in to Look at Our Radio Season ten. Now
that's what I call a podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Love with every listen right at your fingertips.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Loga l.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Ola, La Loka Morees. Welcome to season ten of Loka
to a Radio. I'm Theosa and I'm Mala. Loka to
a Radio is a podcast archiving are present and shifting
the culture forward. You're tuning in to Capitolo doos Row
twenty four.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Last time on Loca to a Radio. We spoke to
Maria Garcia about Selena's impact on the early two thousands.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
I do genuinely believe that Selena was sort of like
the the beta, like the first sort of like proto
artists that birthed what would be later, what would evolve
into like what we now know as modern Latinida.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
In today's episode of Loca to a Radio, we're going
to be talking about the communities of Altadina and Pasadena
who are rebuilding in the wake of really devastating wildfires
that just took over La at the top of twenty
twenty five. And the reason why this is important for
us to talk about as Angelino's but b also because
(02:15):
THEOSSA and I grew up in the area. I went
to high school in Pasadena. We lived in East Pasadena
at the beginning of my life, and Pasadena Altadena. We
always had my siblings and I friends, classmates, family, community
members who lived up in the hills and whose houses
(02:37):
we would visit. Dances were held at people's homes in
high school, so we were just like in the community.
And I haven't lived in Pasadena and in the San
Gabriel Valley for a very long time now, not since
like twenty fourteen, but I still love the community and
I still consider it to be my community.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Yeah, I love that. It feels like everyone that I've
talked to that has had either roots in Alsadina or
Pasadena like always considers that home. And for us, in
particular with my family, there is such a deep and
personal connection to Altadena because when my grandparents immigrated, they
(03:18):
immigrated to Texas and then ended up in Altadena, rented,
eventually bought a house on Harriet Street in Altadena, and
that was the family home until two thousand and three.
And it was because it was the family home, Grandma's house,
my Grandpa's house, It was where everybody lived at some point.
(03:39):
It was literally the safe haven. Anytime Mathias were going
through a divorce, they would go to Grandma's house and
Grandma Grandpa would you know, kind of mend, mend the family,
mend the heartbreak, take care of the kids. And so
that was definitely like such a special place for all
(04:00):
of us. It was where I grew up going and
until we moved to Southeast Dele like Altadena, Pasadena was
home for us, and my brothers went to high school
in Pasadena, my mom went to Blair High School, and
we are just felt feel still so rooted in the community,
even though we haven't lived there for over twenty years
(04:22):
at this point. And so when we heard that the
wildfires broke out, everyone in the family was like, what
about Grandma's house? Even though it's not Grandma's house anymore,
but it was still like, is her house still at
even though it hasn't been ours for so long? And so,
like you, I felt like that is still home even
(04:43):
though it hasn't been our home for so long. And
I think that a lot of people feel that way
because if you're not familiar with Altadena, it is a
black and brown neighborhood and it was a safe haven
for so many people, and I think that's why there's
a lot of grief. In addition to the physical homes
being lost, it's like the community that was lost as well.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Oh absolutely, And there's been I think more writing done
on this, but that Alta dina being a place where
working class black and brown families could buy homes and
like back in the day, like in the seventies, you know,
(05:27):
and we're able to like own property, own land.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
That's what my grandparents brought bought their house in the seventies.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Yeah, in a suburban environment. And something about la that
I think sometimes gets lost when we talk about la
is folks tend to like really hyper focus on like
East Los Angeles South Central as being the locations where
people of color live and exist, and we don't always
(05:56):
talk about the suburbs as being very sea heavy places
and places where people of color for many, many years
and for multiple generations have deep roots and entire like
like you've said, entire communities. And I think of the
San Gable Valley as being one of those places. Right,
Like our suburbs in La County are not necessarily all
(06:20):
white suburbs, right, That's just not the reality of the
County of Los Angeles, and Altadena has no exceptions. And
you actually went out into the field and you went
to the community to work being done out there in Pasadena, Altadena,
and you conducted an interview. Can you tell us more?
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Yeah, So recently I was able to connect with this project,
this mutual aid effort called Dina Heels in the city
of Pasadena on the historic Colorado Boulevard is the Paseo
in Outdoor Mall. If you're local, you probably know what
I'm talking about and surrounded by retail stores and restaurants,
(06:59):
is Dina Heels, a marketplace and wellness center imagined by
Revolve Impact, the Bito Coffee, Colibri Collective, and Homeboy Industries.
Dina Heels is a mutual aid site offering a unique
shopping and holistic experience for community members specifically affected by
(07:19):
the Eden Canyon fires. In this interview, I speak with
Carola Secata and Shieldba Shaw about their mutual aid efforts
and what they're doing to help the folks recovering from
the wildfires. Here's my interview.
Speaker 4 (07:38):
My name is Carola Secada she Ada pronouns. I am
director's people of at Revolve Impact with Social Impact Creative Agency,
and we are now at the space that we have
named Dina Heels. That was an immediate response of a
coalition that was built in response to the Eaton fire.
Speaker 5 (08:02):
And tell me about the space, Dina Heels. What kind
of programming are you doing? Tell me about the space itself.
It's multi use, it's very large, walk.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Us through it.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
So Dina Heels. It was started as a little spark,
so I was also I'm a team member of the
Revolved team, but also I was impacted by the fires
and lost my home, one of our cars, and all
of our possessions, and so I took a couple of
weeks off work and then when I came back, my
team said, Hey, Corolla, we're actually going to meet.
Speaker 5 (08:33):
At this space.
Speaker 4 (08:35):
And I came and it was Dina Heels. So our team,
in collaboration with Homeboy Industries, the city of Pasadena really
came Antipedo Coffee came together to like it was like
truly like old school Black Panther mutual aid style, like
what are we all going to do? How are we
going to show up? And so in working with the Paseo,
(08:59):
they gave us two retail spots that had no cost
through April. So one we made a mutual land marketplace
with three Well we have a lot of relationships with
a lot of values aligned brands and so they were
able to donate thousands of clothinges. And across the way
is the Wellness Center where we just provide healing centered activities,
(09:22):
community building activities like healing circles, sound baths, one on
one therapy, no cost of the community for fire impact
of people.
Speaker 5 (09:34):
How does it feel to be working in this neutual
laid effort while also being directly impacted.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
It's overwhelming. Number One, the generosity of our community in Altadina.
I loved Altadina's the first community where I haven't had
to hide any part of my identity. Right, I'm a
first gen Peruvian queer mama, and I can be all
that in Altadenas. So when this happened, the our put
of love was just so overwhelming. And it still is.
(10:04):
The generosity of everybody that I've had to really decide.
Am I a participant in Dina heels or am I
the organizer representing revoll Field?
Speaker 5 (10:15):
And how do you choose which god all lives showing
up today?
Speaker 4 (10:21):
I really think that I have to ground myself and
really be honest with myself. Do I need to be
held or can I hold? And that's how I decide
how my day goes these days.
Speaker 5 (10:32):
It's so important. And I want to go back to
what you said about mutual aid. Can you define mutual
aid for us? And how maybe Revolved is using mutually
as an effort to assist the local community.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
Yeah, well, mutually comes as just like community members coming
together to meet the needs are most vulnerable, right, And ideally,
no strings attached, no political transactions, nothing is just it's
kind of like a fellowship of the rings. Everybody comes
with their own gifts and like revolves the L's and
(11:06):
colib recollective. Who is running our mutual aid marketplace comes
with that knowledge and that gift of running a storefront.
Speaker 5 (11:14):
Who would you say, are the folks that are coming in?
Obviously they've been impacted, but if you could maybe give
us a profile.
Speaker 4 (11:23):
So we've had from families that had six homes, actual
structures that lost them all, to a single parent with
a child, to today. We had a person that was
a musician and had lived in her house for thirty
years and lost all her instruments and lives by herself
(11:47):
and because of insurance bs was had to live in
her car for a couple of weeks because they were
writing insurance was putting the wrong name on her chast.
So it is really a white spectrum of folks, but
it's very much a mare of Altadena.
Speaker 6 (12:06):
Yeah, the start of the fires are the onset, and
even in the immediate weeks of the aftermath, we saw
droves of people volunteering.
Speaker 5 (12:17):
We saw a lot of mutual aid, monetary aid, it's
been a couple of months. It's been about two months
at least since the initial fires started. Do you think
people are still showing up the same? Is there still energy?
Could as a broader LA community be doing more? What's
your temperature on that?
Speaker 4 (12:38):
I feel like the intensity of how people show up
is the same. I think the numbers might have dwindled
a little bit. But also it's funny because now after
two months, people are starting to realize and know that
Dina Heels is here at this shopping So we're seeing
like now in upswing of people. So for example the marketplace,
(13:00):
it's just by word of mouth and there's like five
hundred people on the list waiting to shop. Our process,
coly recollective process is very dignified. So it's you fill
out this form and then you make an appointment. So
each family has their own shopping appointment. We welcome them,
give them coffee, give them a meal, and they have
(13:21):
a shopper that helps them curate the stuff that they
need and so so it's just their time, which just
from an impacted person who I've been to donation centers
where it feels like everybody's just kind of rushing it
feels like a Black Friday energy because they feel like
they just lost so much and so they feel like
they have to grab quick. But then there's a los
(13:45):
sense that your neighbors right next so you also needed
to grab stuff, you know. So so yeah, so I
think it's it's funny because I think that the key
players are coming in for the long term, and so
we're starting to see that.
Speaker 5 (14:03):
So there's a lot of wellness happening clearly at the
wellness space from yoga, and I also know there's healing circles.
Can you tell me about some of the healing circles
that are taking place here in this space.
Speaker 4 (14:15):
Every other Thursday there is a men's healing circle and
it's led by Mariela Rochell Signo Lessons and also in
partnership with yanc from Hands and Soil, and it's been
from what I hear, it's been very fruitful, very healing,
very vulnerable space and starting in a couple of weeks
the alternate Thursday, we're gonna lead a women's circle like
(14:39):
a mother's led circle.
Speaker 5 (14:40):
And you mentioned there being very targeted efforts to let
the community know that this exists. What are ways that
you're letting them know. Is it word of mouth? Is
it social? How are you reaching the folks that really
need this mutual aid?
Speaker 4 (14:56):
That is a continual effort and we're learning every day
and so we also have a very diverse So there's
the blocks that we're encountering our language right, digital literacy
access into a generational issues that elders might not be
so equipped to just navigate digitally. So we are really
(15:22):
leaning on the community orgs to let us know what
is the best way to communicate. Is it a flyer?
Is it an in person presentation? Do we also sign it?
We have a partnership with Ultimate. They have promo dodas promotes.
Do we use them to let folks know that we're here.
So we're using like all grassoms, organizing all the digital media,
(15:46):
and every day we learn a little bit more about
how we can emphasize this.
Speaker 5 (15:50):
It sounds very collaborative, which is the nature of Revolved
and they'll do and the partners that y'all have. Do
you think that do you feels can be a potential
model for mutual late efforts in LA and beyond?
Speaker 4 (16:05):
I mean absolutely, I really we're trying to make the
case that we need to be here for at least
two to three years. That is at the minimum, what
this rebuild is going to take. And yes, we're as
a revolve, we're trying to capture the model, trying to
make a blueprint of this is what it takes. These
are the values that everybody has to agree with. These
(16:27):
are the conscious relationship agreements that each org and each
partner has to come in and being unapologetic about and
also coming in with enough I don't know what I
don't know to be able to learn, and that I
think when we find people, especially now in the political
climate that there's so much distrust even within movements, I
(16:48):
think we have to be very clear on those things,
on those values so we can make this flow.
Speaker 5 (16:56):
And you mentioned that you have this space until March,
I'm sorry, until April. The April and you want us.
You're making the case that you should be here longer.
So what can we expect for the next couple of months.
If anyone is listening and in.
Speaker 4 (17:10):
The area, you got to sign up to Dina Hills
dot com and we have a weekly newsletter of all
the events that are going Our partners are now giving
us information so we can populate that that newsletter as well,
from like legal aid to any healthcare stuff to housing,
even renters' rights, whatever you need. We're trying to just
(17:30):
compile all the information because there is an access and
overwhelmness of.
Speaker 5 (17:37):
Go to this source, go to this source.
Speaker 4 (17:39):
It's just that itself is overwhelming. So do that also
our Instagram, we have stories and we're just uh and
our events that are coming up from the protections themselves
so they can explain to the folks what they're what
they're experiencing. And just a lot more like partners and
brands the mutually marketplace. We're getting a lot of tractions
(18:02):
in terms of donation from some bomb and do fashion
brands and I just keep an eye.
Speaker 5 (18:08):
Out, amazing, what do you want people or anyone listening
to know, as someone that was impacted, if you could
put that hat on for us and let the audience
know what they should know and how maybe they can
just show up.
Speaker 4 (18:24):
That grief is like the ocean, and sometimes it lulls,
sometimes it's tsunamis And after two months, barely our shock
is wearing off, or adrenaline is wearing off, and grief
is barely starting to set in. So to really just
remember that advocacy for systems change to make sure that
(18:47):
we're made whole is important as well as the healing,
the community, building, the proximity, the joy. It needs to
be equally as important.
Speaker 5 (18:59):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
If everything else you want, the.
Speaker 4 (19:01):
Ship got the radio for president? Look at that radio
for president.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
Test.
Speaker 5 (19:16):
My name is Sheelda shaw A. Working on a fire
relief project and this has taken taken on an epic
proportion of its own. But so we founded an organization
called the Galibi Collective and it is working with Dina
Heels to provide a marketplace to provide goods for Bamient
(19:36):
members and households that have lost their home. Tell me
more about the collective. Yeah, we originally started out the
entire organization was really by the seat of our pants.
We saw a need, we filled it, saw another need
started feeling that and people felt very called to this
mission and we were just we threw up a pseudo name.
(19:58):
We just put Eaten Fire Support Roo. You're running it
very quickly, just focusing on execution, and over time there
were the same ten women twelve women that kept coming
back and there was this beautiful energy. The place would
hump and I think that positivity of women working together,
(20:20):
inspired by something just coming from all different walks of
life joining together and then collective really resonated with us.
And so we started to look at real names, and
Glibri felts very appropriate because Galibris and Latin culture represents
strength and resilience, especially after trauma or grief, and so
(20:40):
seeing one, it's like a symbol of renewal or resurgence, revival,
and it's exactly what we were doing, and it felt
very attuned to the mission and the women and the
energy that we were celebrating. Tell me about the marketplace
that you're running and how you got involved with that.
Background is in retail and fashion from a brand perspective,
(21:04):
and so I ran I ran called Viana for thirteen years.
I was the co founder alongside Carla Gargo, and so
she's continued to run the brand, and I, you know,
as with the fires on January seventh, felt very called
to contribute and I felt like I was uniquely positioned
to do certain things. I knew a lot of brand
(21:25):
founders I could reach out to that to get donations.
I knew I have a user's center background, so I
knew I could ask families what they needed, and what
I really we really started with was a lot of
people were jumping in for donations, which was incredible, but
very few people were stopping to ask the families what
would actually be useful or supportive. So we started there
(21:47):
with the form and just gathering needs and then sourcing donations.
We started packing care packages out of Finance Intervention program
in Lincoln Heights and so we were running a full
distribution center making it very easy for volunteers to shop
a pack for families. We're able to do twenty twenty
five famals a day at the height of the center,
(22:08):
and our whole goal was to really start to get
to phase two of this project, which we jokingly call
let me choose my own underwear, to really empower our
families more so, our whole vision with all that background
is to say, we challenge ourselves to think, could we
create an experience that gave these families the respect and
(22:31):
dag maybe they deserved right these households, to give them
a sense of normalcy that they could actually choose their
own items. Try it on, get a coffee right for
just a few you know, like a few hours in
that day shop and like we used to, right like
(22:51):
they used to, And so that's what we did. So
we created an entire storefront. We have a full back
of house with everything bend to organized. We have a
full front of house, the floor. We're offering everything for men's, women's,
and child. Who are the types of people that are
coming in and are shopping at the marketplace? Actually, I
could give you a very strong demographic profile because we
(23:11):
were very intentional, intentional about who we went after in
the beginning. And when I say when we went after,
I mean who did we want a service from our mission?
So we primarily targeted marginalized communities of the Eton fire
only people of color. We went through all the gofundmes,
the African American list, the Filipino list, the disabled lists,
(23:34):
the LATINX list, and we basically actually even went to
the ones that were most underserved. So on the go fundme,
for example, I said twenty five percent filled, but it's
a two hundred and fifty thousand dollars raise. That was
not necessarily who we were targeting. We were going after
the families that only asked for five you know, and
(23:54):
had one hundred percent lost everything and didn't have insurance,
so we started there and then we partnered with a
lot of group some community centers in Outstema directly, and
then from there we went word of mouth. So anyone
who came to pick up a package, do you have
a neighbor who's elderly that hasn't been able to complete afore?
Do you know someone else that you want to compete
this for? So it was a very word of my mouth.
(24:15):
We potentially did not rely on social media so we
could attract the same population and it's been really amazing
to see that these people know each other and there
they're in each other's neighbors. What is the shopping experience? Like,
(24:38):
I know that you have your intake arms and there's appointments,
but if you cole walk us through what Clobal shopping
experience looks like. We designed the shopping experience and flow
and process to be the most empowering for households when
they come. So the first step is to fill out
the form. We get all your hushole information. We understand
where you're at, what your other needs, so do you
(25:01):
Our whole mission, just to back up real quick, is
to provide something that's efficient, curated and safe, and the
safe for it is why I wanted to highlight that
safety for us from the beginning was is it a
suitcase if I deliver it to convention center? Do they
have a way to move it? Arount?
Speaker 4 (25:20):
Right?
Speaker 5 (25:21):
Is it bad to give them new products when they
might pick target on their back right? So it was
always about creating safety, adding dignity, making it efficient, and
making it curated. And so safety to us in this
context with the store is to create opportunities for them
to shop in a relaxed way. So we don't want
(25:42):
it to be too crovid. So once they fill the form,
we make sure that we have the sizes for what
they've requested. I don't want them to show up and
not have things for them, so we make sure that
we have the things to meet their household needs. We
run the list every night, so it takes us about
an hour an hour and a half to run the
list for twenty to twenty five that are coming the
next day, So there's two households that are invited for
(26:03):
half hour and then when they get there the hot hours.
Really for us to control the inflow, there are a
lot of day as long as they walk, we have coffee.
They're given a wagon, there's people to pull sizes for them,
help them shop for their households. Like there was a
man yester was shopping for a family four, but he
didn't know what his wife liked. Right, So we help them,
(26:24):
We help them with that process. They're encouraged to try on.
We have dressing rooms. They some people stay two to
three hours. Some people weave in forty fives. Right, So
the entire process is to really just give them as
much of a human experience as possible. We have food,
we give lots of hugs, We spend time connecting on
their stories. So for that reason, it's a little slower,
(26:45):
but the day is designed so that the family with
the families in mine with the most respective attention. I
want to bring up in this word danity. You used
it a couple of times to describe the type of
work that you're doing and wanting.
Speaker 7 (26:59):
To give family dignity they deserve. How would you define
dignity in this context and why maybe that's something we
should consider when where maybe volunteering or want to connect
with an organization that's doing work and having dignity at
top of mind.
Speaker 5 (27:13):
Yeah, it's the it is and I'm glad you picked
up am. That is the real central driving value of
all of this, the volunteer effort, the outpouring of donations,
the outpouring of money and love in Los Angeles has
(27:34):
been unreal. Like I've heard from friends who have said
they thought La didn't have a soul. Their transplants from
New York and they are blown away and they take
back their words, like they understand what Los Angeles is
about because of how the community has come together. That said,
people don't always know how to direct that love. And
(27:57):
so what we've seen pop up are a lot of
experiences that require family members to drive places when they
don't have time, to wait at super long lines to enter,
to not have the items that they need to have
to sift through bins of used clothing, and so everything
in the store is brand new, and we ensure that
(28:18):
they don't have to wait when they get here. Those
kinds of things really give them that dignity back. And
the main thing that we do that we spend hundreds
of hours doing, like hundreds of hours, is it takes
a lot of work to revenue tail right. And so
in these donation center it's an event or a pop
(28:40):
up where they're doing it for three days, one day,
six hours. The packing, sorting, displaying, you're doing the best
you can. You're putting it in bins. You're kind of
sorting it enough. Oh extra small, small can go together.
We can put three decks and fours and five excel
in one bin. Not really going to resonate when you're shopping.
(29:01):
When you're shopping in a store, you know where your
size is. It's all presented to you. So we've spent
extra time most of the time again, hours and hours
to make sure it's that kind of shopping experience. Two
months ago. They never would have even imagined where they were,
so to give them any kind of dignified shopping experience,
that's where the dignity is. It's in those little details
(29:23):
that people don't even realize that their things are hung
on a rack, there's a size label, right, there's a
nice white bin in which it's displayed. It's on a shelf. Right.
They don't have to reach down and go through something
on the floor, those kinds of things. It's those little details.
I'm sure there's also families like you mentioned that never
could have imagined that this is what would have happened,
(29:44):
and there's so much vulnerability in that there's only really
asking for help. And what are the kind of feedback
You've been getting from members of the community that I've
come by and gone through the shopping experience. The feedback
has been real. Like they say, it's the first time
they felt normal. It's the it's like a very human
(30:07):
experience that it you know, for a few hours of
the day. It was what brought them joy that they
were able to just they felt like themselves again. That's
why we do it, that's why we pour I mean
on paper, you know, this is a lot of people
are playing a numbers game, right on paper. We have
(30:29):
already serviced over three hundred families roughly at five to
six members per HOUSELD. Right, so that's you know, close
to fifteen hundred people roughly. I'm not counting that to
that level. But we gave fifteen hundred people I dignified
shopping experience, do you know what I mean? And that's
(30:51):
that took hundreds and thousands of hours to produce.
Speaker 3 (30:56):
Right.
Speaker 5 (30:56):
We put up a store in one week and it
took so many hands on deck to do it right.
And in partnership with community and so I think that's
the part that I want people to really walk away with.
It's in those little things that make something takes it
from a Okay I helped to like I serviced.
Speaker 4 (31:18):
Talk about that.
Speaker 7 (31:19):
What's the difference between helping and being of service?
Speaker 5 (31:23):
We've seen we've been calling it kind of in the community.
It's doctor astrod Hager. Violence intervention programs use these words
that her father used to tell her when she was little,
about this concept of cheap grace. And it's where you're
kind of just you're sending a few dollars, you're asking people, oh,
(31:44):
I checked in with someone so, and look, I think
that any grace in the situation is appreciated. But there's
something difference between being in service to someone versus just helping.
And to me, a lot of the help I've seen
majority has been cheap grace, a lot of words. You know,
a little bit of volunteer time here and there, which
(32:06):
all of it is necessary to need that stuff, but
to really help build back the whole community, you need
to be in service, and you need to sit with
them and you need to hold their hand. And what
we tell them all the time is that we cannot
bring back their home. We cannot bring back their memories,
(32:26):
We cannot take away this streak, but for a brief moment,
we can walk alongside them and be in service. And
I'm gonna help share that.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
For more information about Dina Heels, head to Dinahels dot com. Also,
if you'd like to contribute directly to carolaz Gofundmes she
and her family rebuilt, We're going to link that in
the show notes. Thank you for listening.
Speaker 3 (32:51):
I See Those.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
Look At Radio is executive produced by VIOSFM and Mala Munio.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
Stephanie Franco is our producer.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
Story editing by Me diosa.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
Creative direction by me Mala.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
Lokata Radio is a part of iHeartRadio's Michael Dura podcast Network.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
You can listen to Lokata Radio on the iHeartRadio app
or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
Leave us a review and share with your Prima or
share with your homegirl.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
And thank you to our local motives, to our listeners
for tuning in each and every week.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
Besitos look Alia
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