Alhambra, CA.

This photo embodies to me how it felt growing up in Alhambra. This image is from my self portrait series, to see the others visit my website link above.
I remember many long rides in my dad's car.

"Abuelita Lolita" Grandma Dolores is now living with my parents.


My father would spend a lot of time in the bathroom washing his hands and attending to his general hygiene. He also cleaned doorknobs with alcohol, washed money, avoided public restrooms, and never shared food or drinks with anyone. While looking up the proper spelling of Mysophobia- "Fear of germs", I discovered other phobias that I found funny or could relate to:

Misophobia or Mysophobia- Fear of being contaminated with dirt or germs.
Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia- Fear of long words.
Apeirophobia- Fear of infinity.
Agoraphobia- Fear of open spaces or of being in crowded, public places like markets. Fear of leaving a safe place.
Ouranophobia or Uranophobia- Fear of heaven.
Deipnophobia- Fear of dining or dinner conversations.
Syngenesophobia- Fear of relatives.
Teutophobia- Fear of German or German things.
Thanatophobia or Thantophobia- Fear of death or dying
Topophobia- Fear of certain places or situations, such as stage
Uranophobia or Ouranophobia- Fear of heaven.
Spacephobia- Fear of outer space.
Pupaphobia - Fear of puppets.
Patroiophobia- Fear of heredity.
Melophobia- Fear or hatred of music
Chronophobia- Fear of time.

FROM A MOVING CAR

I’m not sure if it’s growing up in Los Angeles or the fact that we’re in the age of the car as our main means of transportation, or a combination of things, that had lead me to feel that in modernity we have a very displaced relationship to our environment. Our experience of our landscape is usually through a car window, viewing scapes that commonly are not even accessible to a pedestrian. Here are some views from a moving car's window.

Farmer Johns Factory in the City of Vermin, I mean the City of Vernon. (is that Don Bolles?)The City of Vernon “has the smallest population of any incorporated city in Southern California; most of the city's land area is occupied by industrial facilities” like Farmer Johns slaughterhouse/meat packaging.

Thinking about what goes on beyond the painted façade makes me want to hurl. I thank god that I haven’t eaten red meat since I was eight. The smell of it cooking disgusts me.



A break from the visual overload.

The High Desert

Can you see them.
6th St. Bridge Downtown Los Angeles.



"Constructed in 1932, the 6th Street Bridge is an important engineering landmark in the City of Los Angeles. It is one of a set of twelve historic Los Angeles River bridges. With an overall length of 3,500 ft. it is considered the longest bridge span crossing the L.A. River. It is a critical east-west transportation link between Downtown Los Angeles and Boyle Heights and it under consideration for the National Register. The concrete in the 6th Street Viaduct has been subject to a chemical reaction, known as Alkai Silica Reaction (ASR) causing significant deterioration of the structure."