A few rode bikes and scooters and stopped at intersections to help redirect traffic. They rode under highways, bridges and through residential neighborhoods with their horses galloping and dancing to the sounds of a tamborazo banda playing in the bed of a pickup truck.
VAZQUEZ SOUNDS CODE
Union de Ranchos, a collective representing the three unincorporated communities, said there is no clear county code policy on horse stalls and are asking for a better system for compliance. Nuisance abatement teams were going into homes without permission, and residents were unaware of their rights, they said. In one incident, a resident was told that his lot was 400 square feet too small for his four horses in South El Monte, an unincorporated area that is not an equestrian district, and recommended he buy a small property from a neighbor to get to code. This spring, Brown-Vazquez and Nayellie Díaz, another member of Avocado Heights helped start Union de Ranchos upon hearing stories of residents and horse keepers in Pellissier Village, South El Monte and Avocado Heights venting about perceived abuse of code enforcement. Avocado Heights is surrounded by the City of Industry. “We don’t want to reinforce the image of a lonesome cowboy out on the range, because at the root of our culture is community,” Brown-Vazquez said.Ī main goal for Avocado Heights is to stop Quemetco - a battery-recycling plant in the City of Industry - from expanding operations by 25%, which they believe will increase contamination in neighboring communities. With the slogan “In defense of water, air, and land,” the coalition - made up of horse riders, residents, educators and allies - is in favor of more green spaces and against development that can contribute to the displacement of working-class families living in the rural communities. With warehouses and luxury housing developments expanding farther east and away from the city of Los Angeles, they’re activating residents and horse lovers in South El Monte, Pellissier Village and Avocado Heights - which converge around the intersection of the 60 and 605 freeways.īrown-Vazquez started Avocado Heights in late 2020. Now, Brown-Vazquez, 35, is among a group of millennial activists who are embracing the vaquero lifestyle as a source of identity, and reclaiming it in a way that’s leading people to mobilize and fight the powers of expansion that threaten their agrarian way of life. While initially feeling like an outsider, Brown-Vazquez saw the residents and charros of Avocado Heights as local role models whom “I wanted to aspire to be like,” he said.
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