Jhovanny and Maria with their children

Maria heard about the Kite Festival and made sure to stop on their way to a wedding. She lives in Commerce and makes the drive to LA State Historic Park frequently. “There are some parks around my neighborhood, and I do go to them, but there’s nothing like here where he [my son] can just run and run without me having to worry about him being too close to the street,” she said. She belongs to the group Running Mommies which meets at the park to run and walk together.

“We’ve been coming to the park since he was a baby. He has grown up here. He already knows that every time we arrive he gets to run around with his scooter. The whole time that I was pregnant with her [my daughter], I would come here maybe every weekend to walk with her, and he would run around. The park also makes you realize how much LA has changed. A lot of people are leaving and it makes me concerned. A lot of the community members that live here are being threatened by the economy. Even in my neighborhood, prices are rising, rent is increasing. I feel like all of us feel it. I want my kids to grow up in LA and for them to be able to come to this park for many years.”