Rey

The below interview is with Rey, one of the volunteers at the Westlake Community Table.

Rey-So this is, you know, really brief. I’m not there. I was more active and going in person earlier on. I’ve been low-key burnt out <laughs>, so I haven’t been as active anywhere. But my understanding is that they have a bunch of stuff going on; I originally signed up because I wanted to be involved in their tutoring program. I’m not entirely sure if that’s active; I don’t think it is. But there are a lot of different things in the works that community members bring up as a cool project, and then depending if there are enough volunteers interested in supporting, then those projects take off. So real quickly: the main operation, I think, is the mutual aid grocery store type-deal that they have going on at the physical place. I think they get the food from donations from like supermarkets--it’s almost going bad or it’s like ugly vegetables or whatever that are fine but they don’t want to sell at the supermarket. So, I’m pretty sure that volunteers will go to these supermarkets, pick it up and bring it back to MALA where it gets sorted and displayed for people to buy at low cost, right? The other stuff is… I know they have soap--like local artisans making soap--as a subscription type thing. People I’ve mainly seen doing it are female artisans that are able to support MALA that way. There’s been a Sunday produce box there, which is where if they go to the park and they have produce boxes for people in the neighborhood to come by and pick it up. It’s pretty cool. And then back to the food stuff at the grocery stores: if it goes bad or something, there are a few community gardens that they will donate that food waste to for composting. What else? I think they are also doing meal deliveries for people, to respond to covid, but I’m not entirely sure how that’s organized. But yeah. The main thing, I think, that sets them apart is that it’s people in the community. A lot of elders that are really important that have built up MALA, so they’ve been doing it for twenty-something years, I think, so a lot of them are ingrained in the community and it’s a really supportive space for people in the area. I think it’s pretty unique.

Ed-Yeah. I mean like--damn. All that said about the programs out right now. You were saying that they had tutoring going on? I looked on that. It stopped, right? Around covid. What was that about?

Rey-Yeah, I don’t know. I signed up; that’s what I wanted to do at MALA. But when I started--I got started in late October to November?--it wasn’t going on at that type. So that was the main thing I wanted to, but I helped out sometimes at the produce place, but I was like, “Oh…” <laughs> In my opinion, I do enough mutual aid, and I want to do other stuff too.

Ed-Mm.

Rey-At this point, I’m holding on that hopefully the tutoring gets started, because I want to do that. I think one of the other volunteers there is organizing harm reduction stuff, and they’re like an actual Pharm D--a pharmaceutical doctor or something--they’re like an expert and are organizing most of that. That’s also coming out. But yeah, I’m vaguely involved. There’s not too much more I can contribute, because they are literally a professional.

Ed-What was the tutoring about? What is tutoring offered for free, or--?

Rey-I think that;s the idea, but I never experienced it. That’s why I got involved, and yeah, I don’t know. It’s very flexible, you know? Some projects, I don’t know. I don’t know how it works. It’s pretty chaotic at time, honestly.

Ed-Mm. Yeah, I guess that leads me to my next question: Who exactly volunteers at MALA? The community? Or is it just like… You were talking about that there were elders, too. From what I heard about MALA was that it used to be an organization called something like Revolutionary--

Rey-Yeah, RAC? Autonomous Communities.

Ed-Yeah.

Rey-I think it still exists. It’s confusing. I think RAC is still active, but I’m not entirely sure. So, communications within the group aren’t consolidated; there’s a small signal but that’s only like for newer volunteers and for volunteers that are tech savvy and volunteers that are younger. I don’t really know how all the other people stay connected. There are also email threads. So, there are two kinds of volunteers: the newer and I feel like younger people who have gotten involved recently, and the established people who have been there for years. And I think Mauricio is the person that’s the bridge between the two groups, but he’s very busy, so… I don’t know. The only times I would talk with the elders is when I was there at the space, but besides that there was no channel--at least that I know of--to contact.

Ed-I don’t think I actually interviewed Mauricio. It was another volunteer, an older guy. I need to go back to the recording. Linh did say that MAuricio wasn’t there. She said he’s like the property manager and the person running the operations.

Rey-Right.

Ed-I’m trying to find out a little history of when MALA started and who’s been running that. Do you know a little about that?

Rey-Not too much, I think. Honestly, I don’t know. For our orientation, I signed up through their online form, and then one of the organizers reached out to me. I showed up to the space. Mauricio and I spoke for 15-20 minutes and he told me about MALA all at once, right there. So it was a lot. I couldn’t retain most of it.

Ed-<laughs>

Rey-And just with all the communication… I still don’t really know. I think it’s a space where you really have to be there physically to really be super involved or have a stake, because I’ve been trying to support from outside or just waiting for opportunities to pop up--and there are, there’s definitely some--but I feel a little not super well-connected.

Ed-Mmhm. I guess that makes sense. It sounds like MALA keeps its operations very on the ground. There’s coordination, but it doesn’t seem to extend much into the online sphere. But since you were there for a little bit: in your own words, what do you think the intention of MALA is? What are they trying to do? Is it politically motivated, or is it more mutual aid?

Rey-Yeah, I think it is politically motivated, at least in its mission and core values. I think their main goal is part of the RAC thing--revolutionary autonomous communities--being a resource for the community because it’s… it’s kind of like discriminated against and left out of city programs and planning because of language and racism (at least my understanding), so I think MALA is this huge project that’s trying to fill in the gaps that are left by the city and the government. So, they have a lot going on.

Ed-It seems cool. It sounds like the MALA is focusing more on trying to be a stable source of survival aid for their community. Like getting resources--food and necessities. But what about all the books and the clothes and stuff? Those are all donations too?

Rey-Right. Those are all donations. People can pay what they want for them, or have them for free if they just ask. Yeah. The clothes are good. When I was volunteering there, there was someone who came in that was just released from prison, and they were like, “I have a job interview and I need to get some clothes so I can go to the interview.” And they were like “Take whatever you want” and someone fixed him up a produce box. He found dress clothes so he could go to the interview. So it’s there for people if they need things, so it’s a part of the same thing. It’s a miscellaneous shop kind of thing.

Ed-Oh, shit. Yeah. I remember when I went I got like 3 books for 2 dollars.

Rey-Yeah, I don’t know what the price thing is. It’s random. You just got to ask somebody in there and they’re like, “Yeah, two bucks,” whatever, you know?

Ed-Ye-yeah.

Rey-When I was a volunteer, when you’re talking to people when they come in, you always try to give them something a little extra--for free or something. It would be some random thing; it’s just part of the model <laughs>: be there for people and also try to do a little extra, just because.

Ed-I like that. It makes sense. I guess the last thing I was curious to ask you, because I know you’ve been hooked up with different organizing efforts between MALA and the Table: what are your thoughts on the table? --from what I can understand from talking to you, you do come from an extensive background in organizing with mutual groups. Good things about it? Critiques?

Rey-Um, I just feel like things could be more efficient. I don’t even really know. It’s just--for me--there’s a lot of questions when thinking about the group and the purpose and stuff, and it’s gotten a little bit better, but I’m starting to feel as I felt before the retreat when we were able to organize a little bit tighter. But we’ll see, yeah. I don’t really know, I don’t really know!

Ed-Ye-yeah. That’s fine. Right now, in the article, I interviewed everyone who was at the table who’s helping out, and I guess in the writing process I’m trying to frame the table for what it is: the table that is trying to build up its own local initiative and trying to build up more services. But I’m with you there too. I do like the work and the coordination that CJ is putting in--fixing up stuff--

Rey-Right.

Ed-Which is really nice. I think it really comes down to: I think we really got to try to coordinate like a physical meeting where we can all be present.

Rey-Yeah. I think that’s… That would be really helpful, I think. Because Zoom is chill but unless they’re really into it--because Zooms are everywhere--and some volunteers might tune in and treat it like a normal Zoom meeting, but we need people to actively participate. When there’s more than a few people--yourself, me, Linh, CJ, Michelle--when it’s just us talking… I would like to see more people that are willing to step up and share their ideas; that’s the main thing. So when that doesn’t happen it de-motivates me.

Ed-Yeah, it’s tricky. Hopefully from the last meeting we had--it definitely built more of a direction. Because the thing we need to start figuring out is putting down programs and teams. Getting those people hooked up in there.

Rey-Right.

Ed-And really trying to talk about what that means. Because I don’t like the whole nomination thing, like, “Oh I want this person,”and it’’s like “Well, I don’t want that.” I think it’s better for us to talk as a group--what we want to do, what are the skills and resources we want to offer, or can offer, and talk like, “Yeah, you want to do this; maybe you can do this with this person” and coordinate like that.

Rey-I agree. Are we still going with nominations, then? I thought we put a pause on that one. I agree. I don’t really like nominations either. I think people should step up and do it if they’re interested, because I’m always fighting being burnt out and I would just like somebody actually show that they’re interested in harm reduction and stuff so I can share these limited things that I’ve learned and grow things instead of sitting. I’d like to share knowledge and work with somebody rather than feeling isolated, in a way.

But the last meeting was good, for sure. And we did get the budget--the grant--so that’s cool.

Ed-Yeah, amazing!

Rey-So we’ll see.

Ed-Right now I’m transcribing recordings, because I kind of interviewed too many people for myself. My friend is helping transcribing, so hopefully I’ll be done and get it out by next week.

Rey-That sounds dope… I was going to say… MY las thing: I feel like with the stipend--the stipend is chill--but I also feel like if we’re asking people, we should be doing a living wage type thing instead of a thirty dollar stipend, even though it’s not that much different, since 3 hours times 15 is 45 dollars versus…