The United States women’s national soccer team defeated Canada’s team to win the CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying Tournament on Sunday, February 9th, 2020 at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California. The Americans were already qualified to the 2020 Japan Summer Olympics after defeating Mexico’s national team on Friday, February 7th, 2020. The Americans dominated both games in Carson as most writers expected they would.

Rosarito, Baja California, Mexico- The second annual Baja Beach Fest was held from Friday, August 16th to Saturday August 17th, 2019 just meters from the crashing waves of Rosarito Beach. The lineup for Friday included:  Ozuna, J Balvin, Brytiago, Cazzu, Dj Luian, Jowell y Randy, Natalia & Esther, AJ Kallejero, DJ C, DJ Africa, DJ Freddy Fresco, and DJ Dynamiq. The Saturday lineup included: Bad Bunny, Nicky Jam, Becky G, Alex Rose, Amenazzy, De La Ghetto, Lyanno, Sergio Elias, Dynamik, AMPZ, Dj Nano, DJ Freddy Fresco, and DJ Susie. The tens of thousands of fans who attended shared the excitement from great performances by the most popular artists in music and other emerging ones. The Baja California sun and the constant ocean breeze combined to create an ideal backdrop for the Latin trap and reggaeton thundering from the stage.

Goldenvoice produced an impressive Latino celebration with their Dale Fuego Music Festival on Saturday August 10th, 2019 on the Queen Mary Events Park in Long Beach, California. The lineup included Malu Trevejo, Lary Over, Rauw Alejandro, DJ Alex Sensation, Anitta, and Ozuna.  This group of artists represented Puerto Rico, Cuba, Colombia, Brazil, Spain, and the United States.

Rey Vargas successfully defended his WBC super bantamweight title against Tomoki Kameda on Saturday July 14th, 2019 in Carson, California at the Dignity Health Sports Park. Tomoki “El Mexicanito” Kameda is from Japan but has trained in Mexico since the age of fifteen. The champion Rey Vargas is from Mexico and trains with the legendary Nacho Berestain. The fans, fighters, and some in the media joked that the real Mexican would be the boxer that emerged victorious.  The fight was ugly throughout because Rey Vargas’ length and boxing ability allowed him to keep Tomoki Kameda too far for Kameda to inflict substantial damage. The judges ruled unanimously 117-110 for Rey Vargas.

Club Atletico River Plate defeated Chivas de Guadalajara in front of several thousand fans on Friday, June 28th in San Diego, California at SDCC Stadium. This was the inaugural match for the Colossus Cup. The tournament consists of four friendly matches between the two most popular teams from Mexico (Club America and Chivas de Guadalajara) and the two most popular teams from Argentina (Club Atletico Boca Juniors and Club Atletico River Plate).  River Plate dominated throughout the entire match and the 5-1 score reflected that.

https://colossuscup.com/

Jennifer DeLia is an American film director. She wrote and directed Why Not Choose Love: A Mary Pickford Manifesto. We interviewed her at the film’s debut in The Theatre at Ace Hotel (the original United Artists theatre) on June 12th, 2019. The debut marked the inaugural launch event to the Hollywood Women's Film Institute’s 2019 International Film Festival.

Adam Fergus is an actor from Ireland. He plays Owen Moore in Jennifer DeLia’s Why Not Choose Love: A Mary Pickford Manifesto. We interviewed him at the film’s debut in The Theatre at Ace Hotel (the original United Artists theatre) on June 12th, 2019. The debut marked the inaugural launch event to the Hollywood Women's Film Institute’s 2019 International Film Festival.

WE RISE is a project of the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health. It is located at 1262 Palmetto Street in Los Angeles, California and will be open through May 27th, 2019. According to their website, “WE RISE is a 10-day pop-up immersive experience that brings together LA’s diverse community to explore our collective power to live lives of purpose and engagement. Through powerful programming, performances, immersive workshops, and a world-class art exhibition, we seek to embolden individuals and families to find help, reach out to help others and demand systemic change in order to address the critical need for early intervention, treatment and care for mental wellbeing.” We attended the WE RISE opening night celebration and spoke with several artists who will have their work displayed.

https://werise.la/

The Ukranian Vasiliy “No Mas” Lomachenko successfully defended his WBA and WBO World Titles with a fourth round knockout of Englishman Anthony Crolla in front of thousands at The Staples Center in Los Angeles, California on Friday, April 12th, 2019. Both boxers wore gold colors on their trunks as acknowledgement of fighting in the home of the Los Angeles Lakers; Lomachenko complemented the gold with purple while Crolla wore black.

We interviewed Salvador Santana in his home studio in Los Angeles, California. Salvador Santana is a Grammy Award winning musician who describes his music genre as “Life.” His father is the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Carlos Santana. We discussed music, his father, and his new single, Panic Mode.

Jose Ramirez successfully defended his WBC Junior Welterweight Championship belt against Jose Zepeda in front of over 14,000 boxing fans on Sunday, February 10th, 2019 in the Save Mart Center of Fresno, California.  Jose Ramirez did not only fight against his opponent, he also fought for the Community Cancer Institute of Clovis, California.  Ramirez’s fight attire was auctioned and a portion of ticket sales were donated for the benefit of the institute.  Jose Ramirez continues to be a favorite of California’s Central Valley because of his continued victories and support for the community (water rights, immigration issues, and now the Cancer Institute).

Founders Matt Zingler and Tariq Cherif brought their Rolling Loud musical festival to the Banc of California Stadium Grounds and Exposition Park in south Los Angeles, California. The two-day festival started Friday, December 14th, 2018 and ended late into the night of Saturday, December 15th, 2018. The relatively cold LA temperature did not keep the sold-out crowd away. The crowd, primarily young fans, kept coming onto the stadium grounds all night, with many of them sprinting toward one of the two stages for a better view.  

http://www.rollingloud.com/

Mateo Berry hosted a launch party for “THE SOUND THAT WAS NEVER HEARD” from his Reserved Essential clothing brand on Wednesday, December 12th, 2019. “THE SOUND THAT WAS NEVER HEARD” is the autumn and winter collection for the brand. The party was held at RSVP Gallery in downtown Los Angeles, California. Mateo Berry’s signature color is named “Reserved Gold” and can be seen on much of his clothing line.

http://reservedessential.com/

Rafael Navarro is an American illustrator, animator, and comic book author. He is the winner of a Daytime Emmy award and has recently completed Guns A’ Blazin!, a comic book series, in collaboration with Mike Wellman. Additionally, he is the creator of the Xeric Foundation Award winning Sonambulo comic book series. We interviewed Rafael Navarro at Long Beach Comic Con 2018.

Lucha VaVoom performed their “Circo de Vampiros” show the nights of Wednesday, October 24th and Thursday, October 25th, 2018 at the Mayan Theatre in downtown Los Angeles, California. “Circo de Vampiros” was produced by Rita D’Albert and Liz Fairbairn, directed by Angie Scarpa, and hosted by Blaine Capatch and Jeff Davis. The announcer was Javier Robles and Dana Gould was a guest performer. We attended the first show and were impressed with the entire performance. The artists and wrestlers are representative of the diversity of the Los Angeles community. They entertained with their distinct use of “sex and violence.” The show consists of burlesque, comedy, and lucha libre.

http://luchavavoom.com/

Dr. Hayes-Bautista is currently Professor of Medicine and Director of the Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture at the School of Medicine, UCLA. He graduated from UC Berkeley and completed his MA and PhD in Medical Sociology at the University of California Medical Center, San Francisco. Dr. Hayes-Bautista's research focuses on the dynamics and processes of the health of the Latino population using both quantitative data sets and qualitative observations.