Ruby Woo, 33, Unincorporated East Los Angeles
What 250 years means: 250 years of America is joy, devastation, pain, suffering, growing pains, heartache, injustices, tears, happiness, growth, homesteading lifestyle, culture. I recognize the fact that we’re currently standing on the oldest street in all of Los Angeles. This is the birthplace of the city, and I know that this was a land of the natives, the Tongva. I recognize that, recognize them, recognize that this was Mexico, not too long ago, 250 years ago.
My hope for this country: That the future holds more joy, more opportunity for growth, less injustices for all, recognition of past faults, and denouncing said faults.
Kevin Gonzalez, 30, Chinatown
What 250 years means: America means freedom, an opportunity. I’m originally from Mexico, and when you come here, really feel like everybody has opportunity to really just fulfill whatever dream or whatever purpose God has for you. I feel free when I’m out here.
My hope for this country: I see so much pain on the streets, and for me, being familiar with pain, nobody deserves that. What I want is something that is gonna take a lot of work… I don’t want people to feel pain, you know. There’s so much brokenness, there’s so many lost people that it just breaks my heart.
Fernando Carmona, 46, West Covina
What 250 years means: America is a great, great place, strong, and that’s why we can keep going and get more, more time, more years…we have a great opportunities for my family, my people, and all people.
My hope for this country: I hope we don’t have war, no violence in the streets, and a very good economy.
Tony King, 39, Glassell Park
What 250 years means: Being from England, I think it’s rather new. There’s a lot of good energy here. There’s a lot of different energy here than where I’m from. People are out here going, getting things, and I think you can feel the frontier… people will celebrate success, whereas where I’m from, they don’t, and they kind of kind of get stuck in their way.
My hope for this country: In smaller and more rural communities, everyone helps each other out, and it’s weird that in a larger place, where there’s a lot more people, people are a lot more disconnected. I think we should all be giving to our community, and they’ll have a knock on a ripple effect, and we can all start looking after each other.
Edmond Bilbasoo, 45, Glassell Park
What 250 years means: It means opportunity and growth. I’m an immigrant. I was born in Iran, and came here in 1982. So, for me, it was everything my parents sacrificed, everything to bring me over here to give me a better life, and because of their sacrifices, I was able to go to school here, be educated here, and eventually open up my own business.
My hope for this country: I hope that cooler heads will prevail in general in terms of socioeconomic diversity within America, and I would hope that we can all be unified in a certain way, because division is the downfall of empires, and rather than be divided, we’d be so much better off if we were united. I’m an immigrant, I had to struggle and go through all the difficulties of being here, but I wouldn’t change anything. I’m happy to be a part of this country, and I would just hope that we could all continue to grow together.
Thomas Graf, 38, Echo Park
What 250 years means: I was born in Germany. My mom’s from Colorado, so I have kind of a split view on what it is, but that being said, I am grateful to be here. I think United States, with all of its faults, is still home. I get to walk my dog, I get to play music, I get to do things on my own terms.”
My hope for this country: I really hope people can align and see, what we’re really meant for is community and celebrating each other and our differences and loving everybody.
Vanessa Lengies, 40, Los Angeles
What 250 years means: I have lived here for over 20 years. I moved here in 2002 from Canada, and this represents my whole career. My whole career and life has been in the United States. I got married here, and started a family, and had my child here. He’s nine months, so to me it stands for my whole adult life opportunity.
My hope for this country: I hope for women to get in touch with their bodies and intuition and start leading and saying what they see and saying what they think in a way that leaves us in a world that feels more loving and more maternal.
Jada O’Conner, 21, South Bay
What 250 years means: I think that with every year that passes, it’s important to do things differently, so that you can see how change can come about. Sometimes doing things the same doesn’t always work in our favor.
My hope for this country: More fun, that’s it. More fun.
Rumi Fujimoto, 55, Little Tokyo
What 250 years means: It’s great, it’s a great landmark in time, we’ve made it this far, we have become that much greater country, but with that, we also have greater problems. I believe in this country. I’m sure we’ll be able to get through. I’m very proud to be American. I just wish that we could get along better right now.
My hope for this country: There’s not as much division, so to speak, where people aren’t so stuck in their political beliefs or religious beliefs, and we can just kind of let that go and just remind each other that, we’re all somebody’s mom, somebody’s brother, somebody’s sister at the end of the day.
Stephanie Disla, 34, Downtown
What 250 years means: America is where dreams come true, and where you can work hard and be part of the contribution of the country.
My hope for this country: I hope for more humanity, peace and love. Love for those people that are on the street to get a good place, and everybody working together like good people.
Lok Cheng, 36, Chinatown
What 250 years means: America used to stand for hope and dreams, and I feel like we need to keep that moving forward, bringing people together is one thing. Unity is so important. We need that more than ever nowadays.
My hope for this country: Unity and community. If we stand strong together, we stand stronger as a nation, and for the betterment of our children and our future leaders.
Teresa Grimes, 64, Bunker Hill
What 250 years means: Not enough time. I don’t think that we have achieved our goals… the Constitution, the Bill of Rights. I think the country has a lot more work to achieve a more perfect Union.
My hope for this country: “That we get back to our original goals, everybody being created equally.”
Eliana Peretz, 22, Fairfax
What 250 years means: I’m proud that we could become a nation that’s bigger than what our founders envisioned, that we could expand from their vision and build upon those initial values of freedom and things, and see that expanded for all groups and all people, like women, people of color. All these people were not included in America’s original vision, but that doesn’t mean that the people who have fought so hard to include them aren’t Americans, and I’m really proud that we could be able to build such a great nation.
My hope for this country: My hope for the future of the country is unity, kind of growing beyond party politics and seeing what makes us so great as America. My hope is that each and every American and everyone who resides in our great country will all get the same level of freedom and opportunities, and everyone can have a chance at the American dream.
Andrew Guevara, 18, Rosemead
What 250 years means: That means to me it was a land built for opportunity, and we have a lot of opportunity after 250 years. I believe that our founding fathers and our ancestors would be proud of what we’ve achieved.
My hope for this country: I hope for the future that it could stay the same, and that housing situations for people do get better. That’s one thing, because that is a problem, but other than that, not much.
Reuben Marin, 26, San Fernando Valley
What 250 years means: I think it’s impressive it’s endured this long. I got my problems with the country, but I like it here… I guess it speaks to it being a resilient place? Despite all its problems, I still think that it’s got a lot of appeal…people like the culture that we cultivate here.
My hope for this country: I very much hope that culturally we cut out a lot of the bigotry that we have here. I’m very accepting of all kinds of people and everything, and I would like to see more of that. We were on a big upswing for that for a while, and then it just kind of went south real bad. But aside that, I really hope that things get easier for the average person… Living in California, it’s pretty hard to live out here.
Billy Alch, 66, Skid Row
What 250 years means: We were founded on ‘Give me liberty or give me death,’ and everyone will give up all their liberties because they’re told so. So, I think our country, until we learn to stand up for ourselves and be honest, our country’s going downward.
My hope for this country: People learn to tell the truth to each other rather than pretend they like each other.
Tzipi, 38, Los Angeles
What 250 years means: 250 years of racial capitalism, a trash heap. Early onset fascism would not even begin to describe where we are today at 250 years.
My hope for this country: Revolution, liberation, abolition, community care, mutual aid, public services that actually allow people to thrive instead of like constant competition.
Sydney Miller, 12, Pacific Palisades
What 250 years means: I feel like it means growth… it represents that we’ve kept it going, and we as people have evolved and been able to work together without too much war, and how we’ve been all working together without too much trouble.
My hope for this country: I hope that we can all continue working in peace, and even more so, for like my generation and younger generations to all have futures that are good and that everybody is equal and it’s all fair.
Claire Hsieh, 23, Westwood
What 250 years means: Freedom. I think it’s like one of the longest running democracies, something like that, and I feel like it’s almost a turning point, like human history, where people are becoming more democratic, more free, like recognizing that everyone has rights and liberties and stuff like that.”
My hope for this country: That we keep democracy running, and that Trump doesn’t turn it into autocratic dictatorship.
Riva Lewis, 6, Santa Monica
What 250 years means: People have been here a long time, and they’ve been well, they’ve been moving to lots of places in different areas… it kind of makes me feel like I’m in my home, because my home is in Los Angeles.
My hope for this country: I hope for the future that people get along more.
Ryan Payne, 49, Brentwood
What 250 years means: I think we have a long storied and troubled history that we should acknowledge, and I hope that this is one more episode of trouble in something that we move beyond.
My hope for this country: Maturity. You know, it sounds funny to say that with 250 years that we’re looking for maturity, but I’m looking for maturity and leadership.
Fidel De La Torre, 16, Santa Monica
What 250 years means: 250 years of America means to me a melting pot of different cultures, like America’s very diverse… I feel like that’s the strength in the country.
My hope for this country: I hope in the future we move towards more inclusivity and more equity, because I know right now there’s things happening like ICE raids, where they’re separating families, and I feel like there’s a notion about immigrants that they’re criminals or dangerous, but in reality they’re just people trying to make a living.
Ricardo Smith, 27, Long Beach
What 250 years means: Just work in progress and more to come, you know, 250 years of work… it’s a place where everybody’s welcome to come, come together, and build their dream, whatever their dream may be.
My hope for this country: Just health, wealth, and just more life for everyone.
Christal Joanne Stubblefield, 30, Venice
What 250 years means: More trees… more relaxation… it means peace.
My hope for this country: To be in peaceful unity.
Basil Hennessey, 32, Santa Monica
What 250 years means: 250 years of American means to me specifically, as an Angeleno, that we reached the goldmine, we reached the West Coast, that was Manifest Destiny. We got to where we wanted to go, and this is the final destination. As of now, this is probably the best location that I could think of in America, weather wise, culture wise. Just everything about LA feels like home. This feels like the place to be.”
My hope for this country: I just hope that we don’t want to just accept good enough. , We got to continue to improve, do better, see a better future.
Santos Silva, 35, Mid City
What 250 years means: I have mixed feelings, in a sense, where there’s a lot of triumph, yet a lot of struggle, a lot of adversity, and a lot of reparations, but this still is a country that I’m proud to live in. I’m proud to be an American, and I’m proud to be involved in a fight of unity and togetherness.
My hope for this country: More expression, more being the leaders of new developments, and bringing back style, love, fun, color, and identity in the world that was more than just power.
Artist JennEm (Jennifer Malsch), 35, Marina Del Rey
What 250 years means: I think, when I look back on 250 years of American history, much of which is very tumultuous and painful for many groups, the best thing that you can do is look at the progress that we’ve made, and how far we’ve come, and if you look at it with an optimistic lens, it makes me hopeful for what we can accomplish in the next 250 years.
My hope for this country: I hope that we can find some way to turn around this pattern of increasing inequality and find some way to level it out to help most Americans who I think are struggling right now, but again we’ve made strides before and I think you know there are pockets of light happening right now in the country.,
Eric Skotnes, 45, Sherman Oaks
What 250 years means: For me, America just represents a mixture, we welcome everybody, we’re a melting pot. My experience comes from Los Angeles, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. We’re just surrounded by every culture that you can think of, and it’s just a place of growth. Not sure if this would be possible what I do anywhere else in the world, it’s very cool. It’s amazing.”
My hope for this country: That we can all start to come together and not have all this infighting, because I feel like we’re a stronger country when we got each other’s backs, and not a bunch of hating going on.
David Alcaraz, 56, Venice
What 250 years means: Freedom, liberty, all of the above, life, love, everything. It’s so good here in the U.S. I’ve been other places, and there’s nothing like the U.S., let alone L.A., California.
My hope for this country: That people will realize that things are much easier than they want them to be. Basically, God is good, and things can be better. Just people got to realize that. That’s all.
Darshon Smith, 33, Pasadena
What 250 years means: 250 years means thriving, then thrive, we survive. 250 years, and we’re here.
My hope for this country: I hope we can spread more love out here, man, and everybody can get along and increase the peace, man. Stop the war.
Ki’Jhon Combs, 30, Pasadena
What 250 years means: 250 years of America means strength, growth, harmony, understanding and love.
My hope for this country: Just spread some love, man, spread some joy, some health, some wealth, and everybody is just kumbaya, most definitely.
Michael Stanford, 30, Pasadena
What 250 years means: Money, ladies, marijuana.
My hope for this country: The inflation go down, the gas prices go down, and all that.
David Friend, 28, Calabasas
What 250 years means: It means that it’s still one of the youngest countries in the world, so anything’s possible. Obviously, there’s a lot of dark sides to the states, but one of the special things is because it’s such a new country built on so many different cultures, even 250 years, another 250 that’s supposed to be completely different. If you walk around, like, a half a mile radius, you’ll see completely different worlds, no matter what direction you go, especially in L.A.
My hope for this country: I hope that we can stop being so divided, and that it doesn’t just feel so black and white, and that there can be more gray.
Jess Harshbarger, 29, Koreatown
What 250 years means: It means 250 years of perseverance against all odds. It’s the perseverance of an idea and an ideal that you should be free in your homeland to do what you like, believe what you like, and live how you like, as long as you’re not hurting anybody else.
My hope for this country: To see the melting pot of culture that is LA to be everywhere. This country is at its best when it is prioritizing its freedom and its multiculturalism. Those are our strengths, and I think we need to lean into that now more than ever. We’re all Americans, no matter where we’re from.”
Saira Sanchez, 36, Boyle Heights
What 250 years means: Well, for me and my family, it represents years of hard work and achievement; like so many immigrants, we came here to fulfill our dreams. In my case, it means seeing my sisters become educated individuals with their own goals and aspirations in this country. We are grateful for the opportunities provided to us, opportunities that foster our personal growth and motivate us to move forward and build a better life. Above all.
My hope for this country: “We hope that we immigrants will be given more opportunities and the chance to remain in this country, since many of us want to get ahead and build a better future, not only for ourselves but also for the new generations growing up here.
Translated from Spanish
Ava Lemons, 40, Echo Park
What 250 years means: I feel like with everything that’s kind of happened post Covid that we’re going backwards, and so my hope is that this is a time to celebrate progress that could be made, and actually work towards making that progress.
My hope for this country: My dreams for the future is genuine equality, and not just putting a bandaid on things, but actually, everyone having equality and housing, food on the table. Just a basic good standard of life.
Andrew Loberg, 37, Cypress Park
What 250 years means: We’ve had a lot of turbulent times recently, and I feel like it’s a good time for us to pause and sort of see how we can reflect on those more turbulent times and sort of make it better for the future.”
My hope for this country: I think we just need to be much more equitable, much more sympathetic to everybody, to people of all backgrounds and income levels and races, wherever they’re from, however much money they make, I feel like we all need to sort of support one another.”
Maribel Estevez, 49, Boyle Heights
What 250 years means: Well, I just love this country. I don’t know history, there’s a lot of things to do here…being here, everything is close to me, like downtown, everything, Anaheim, everything. I just love it, the weather, everything… I just love everything here.
My hope for this country: I love the President… Hopefully we have Karen Bass make changes this time, for better, like homeless people, you know, get a home, make changes, and everything.
Christine Medrano, 50, Littlerock
What 250 years means: 250, I don’t know if I use the word solidarity, I mean it’s that’s a pretty solid number right there, where it just keeps going and moving, and maybe not as fast as we’d like it to, the progression, but I think it’s something solid that it’s gonna keep going.
My hope for this country: I want everybody to be prosperous. I want everybody, to be a little bit more tolerant of everybody, and just to kind of grow, and not have so many people be in fear of doing something different or something new. You know, if everybody has the same idea and the same belief, we’re never going to learn anything, we’re never going to be enlightened to anything beyond ourselves.
Izzy Hernandez, 31, Long Beach
What 250 years means: It means not so much freedom. I wish there was more. I wish they took care of homelessness, but there’s also love in the air, I guess.
My hope for this country: A more livable wage, I would say that for sure. More public beaches too.
Yoshi Masuda, 39, Koreatown
What 250 years means: I come from Japan, so 250 years is really not very long in terms of the country’s existence. So, well done. That’s great. Glad you made it so far. For me, as an immigrant, even after 15 years of being in this country, I still feel this is a land of opportunities. There’s not that many countries that still gives us those kind of opportunities. I think it’s a wonderful place, and long live another 250 years.”
My hope for this country: As a musician, all we try to do is to empathize with our audience and the composers, and so I think just more empathy.”
Mark Villan, 36, San Gabriel
What 250 years means: The first thought that comes to my mind is liberty and freedom, and that’s what was taught to me… Now it’s just very divided. I’d have to say right now, more than anything, more than any time in my lifetime, it’s been the most divided right now.
My hope for this country: I hope that people can kind of learn to work together and come find some common ground, on where they stand, and their values, so that we can move forward and not just fight against each other needlessly.
Kin Chohan, 42, Sherman Oaks
What 250 years means: It means freedom and to achieve your dreams… I think the Americans are more accepting than they realize, and because it’s such a young country, things move very fast.
My hope for this country: Just to keep progressing and making opportunities for people, and allowing people to come here and achieve their dreams.
Mike McClellan Jr., 39, Koreatown
What 250 years means: It means the world to me, and I’m happy to be American. I love LA, I love California, hell, I love the United States. But it’s an honor to be a part of this and to be alive and to be functioning and remembering, and it’s a moment of history.
My hope for this country: To be a part of it in all aspects, whether if it’s I’m making a difference as a voter, resident, or even, just nationality. I just want to be a part of it.
Liz Aladana, 21, South Central
What 250 years means: I would have a different perspective than the average American being a Latina woman. I feel like 250 years… it’s like us having our equality and freedom, what we’re supposed to have, and I feel like each and every day we’re still striving and fighting for that, and we keep facing adversity.
My hope for this country: Just for more peace and more love, and for people just to be more compassionate. I feel like a lot of people nowadays lack a lot of empathy and compassion… I feel like people don’t see each other as human. You get what I’m saying. So, just more peace and love, literally sounds probably very cliche, but peace and love.
Kye Paysinger, 22, South Central
What 250 years means: To me, it means that we’re still here, we’re living, we’re breathing… The blacks and browns, you know, us sticking together, I feel like we accomplished a lot in 250 years. What do I feel like we accomplished? Pride Month, Pride Month, Black History Month. We have a whole month, not a week, not a day, a whole month.”
My hope for this country: I hope that we don’t have robots taking over our jobs… I just hope everybody finds love and love within themselves, not from anyone else. I just hope the future is positive.
Hether Grey, 39, Los Feliz
What 250 years means: It means that we’ve seen a lot of changes… progress with a lot of hiccups.
My hope for this country: I hope we get away from everything being about what our jobs are, and not needing to live our lives for money, so that we can live a little more self-actualized.
Aubrey Iwamoto, 40, Silverlake
What 250 years means: I think it means we need to do better as far as equality, equal rights, equal pay, getting more people of color and diversity into positions of power, so that those communities can get the resources that they need and not be so underserved.
My hope for this country: I hope that we can reconstruct the systems that are in charge of people’s everyday lives and well-being to be more equitable, less for profit, and more for the health and good and well-being of the people, so that everybody can thrive.
Bill Zsunkan, 38, Silver Lake
What 250 years means: There’s some sort of Winston Churchill quote where he says… it’s the worst system, except for all the others. I am constantly thinking, like, what a dumb country. We seem to be leading ourselves around by the id for the last like 70 years, basically since Nixon, and like the whole silent majority thing. I’m ambivalent on the subject.
My hope for this country: An ambitious strategy towards reconciling ourselves to the planet. If we can be good to the planet, I think it will stand to mean for a lot of other things. I always say you could tell a lot about a person by the way they treat animals. I think as a country you will be able to tell a lot about us by the way we treat the planet. Stop fracking, maybe.
Victor Chavez, 20, Santa Monica
What 250 years means: I’m surprised it lasted this long.
My hope for this country: I hope for inclusion, equality for everybody. I know right now it’s not as inclusive as America can be. There’s a lot of prejudice, stereotypes going around, especially with the current administration, so just having more inclusion and equal opportunities for everybody, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation.
Carlos Gonzalez, 56, Pasadena
What 250 years means: It’s an exciting date. Glad to be part of this era.
My hope for this country: I just hope that everything that’s going on right now solves promptly, and then the world becomes a better place to be.
Manroop Kaur Turna, 21, Westwood
What 250 years means: 250 years of America means 250 years of freedom and the right to the American dream.
My hope for this country: I think promoting equality for everyone who steps into the country.
Jay Ann Kan, 21, Westwood
What 250 years means: I think it’s more about recognizing all the accomplishments that we’ve already had, but also recognizing that there is always room for improvement, and just approaching those things with more of a sense of community.
My hope for this country: People being more united rather than divided, and just everyone approaching life and people with kindness and more empathy… just more united voices and just more representation of different people, like different races, people with disabilities, and just having those voices shape how we implement changes in the country.
Christopher Persaud, 47, Winnetka
What 250 years means: It means that we had a vision for the world when we started, that it could be different from the kind of world that existed in 1776 for most people, and we’ve gradually been getting better since then to try to create a world with more opportunity for everyone and more justice for everyone.
My hope for this country: I’m hoping that we will have enough opportunity for everyone, that people would be able to afford to own their place to live and have a car and be able to get education for their children. I’m hoping also that we will be able in both the physical environment and the international environment to change, that we’ll be able to change in a way that makes sense.
Poet Ramos, 32, San Fernando Valley
What 250 years means: It means a continuous flow of beautiful people that are born and living and get to experience great dreams in America every single day for today and all of the future.
My hope for this country: If we can form peace, more peace, more unity, less violence, more call to action. Keep up with the arts, keep up with the love, and share a plate of food with your neighbor.
Ethan Chen, 24, Northridge
What 250 years means: I think 250 years of this country, it means a lot for progress. I think we had a rocky start. We’ve become a long way in terms of unity and equality. I think I want to see more with that in the future. I think we still have a long way to go in terms of bettering ourselves, but we’ve come a long way from the beginning.”
My hope for this country: I’m hoping things get cheaper, but I’m hoping we fight less. I want people to try and agree on more things, I know that in terms of politics and stuff, people are kind of at each other’s heads, and it doesn’t always have to be two extremes, that they can come together and try and better the country in ways that benefit all of us.
Don Sorapuru, 67, Lake Balboa
What 250 years means: 250 years means they’ve had a lot of progress from when I was born to now. When I came up, there was no internet, and you had to answer the phones, and you have to be home. So the progress is so much. 250 years, I guess it’s just going to keep going.
My hope for this country: Peace everywhere. Peace, love and let Jesus, let his light shine.
Sylvia Katz, 86, Lake Balboa
What 250 years means: That the country is still stable, despite everything that’s going on, and it means a lot to me. I was born here, and I love this country, and God bless us is all I can say. I hope California gets a little better than it is right now, but I still love this state.
My hope for this country: I hope that we are at peace, and that none of our boys have to go to war, and this country will continue to grow and be loved by the world.
The post Faces and voices of Angelenos on America’s 250th appeared first on Los Angeles Times.
