Tobar

Stories, Illustrations, Cartoons, Sketches and Things.

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Grocery workers ongoing campaign rally outside Ralphs in Burbank to protest Albertsons-Kroger merger

Workers with UFCW Local 770 hold signs during a protest against the ongoing Albertsons-Kroger merger deal outside a Ralphs in Burbank on Thursday, June 29, 2023. Story and photos by Jose Tobar Dozens of grocery workers rally outside a Ralphs in Burbank as part of a National Week of Action campaign by a coalition of over 100 organizations made up of workers, consumers, advocates and elected…

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Photo Essay: Pay phones and street vendors/brick & mortars

Photos & text by Jose Tobar On a busy corner of the Pico-Union district in Los Angeles stands what at first glance looks like an interactive conceptual art piece. Its make up consists of a stylized mural painted against the stuccoed wall of a one story commercial building not far from the Cuscatleca bakery and the 99 cent store, an assortment of used wares from a local street vendor and a pay…

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Photo Story: A sex worker’s New Year’s Eve celebration as the passage of SB 357 goes into effect at midnight

Photos and text by Jose Tobar The streets were unusually quiet-save for the pitter-pattering rain and the muffled traffic sound of vehicles traveling over the rain-slicked roads. A night that would otherwise end with a cacophony of exploding fireworks, instead sizzled with the drizzle.  At the annual New Year’s Eve Grand Park countdown the thousands expected to show up for the live music, food…

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Photos: ECC’s Veterans and Community Thanksgiving event - El Camino College The Union

Photos: ECC’s Veterans and Community Thanksgiving event – El Camino College The Union

On Wednesday, Nov. 17, El Camino College, along with L.A. County Supervisor Holly Mitchell’s office, Healing California and the Warrior Pantry hosted the Veterans and Community Thanksgiving event on-campus. During the event, veterans, ECC students and members of the community were invited to take advantage of a variety of resources and services provided for them… — Read on…

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Family and friends gather to remember ECC student's death one year later - El Camino College The Union

Family and friends gather to remember ECC student’s death one year later – El Camino College The Union

A year ago on Sept. 22, 2020, 21-year-old El Camino College student, Juan Carlos Hernandez was murdered sometime after his night shift inside a Los Angeles dispensary where he worked ended. Hernandez, better known to those closest to him as “Cookie,” was an engineering major while attending ECC. He had plans to transfer to USC… — Read on…

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Photo Essay: Women’s March for Rreproductive Rights, Los Angeles, 2021

On Saturday, Oct. 2, the Women’s March Action took to the streets of downtown Los Angeles marching from Pershing Square to City City Hall in what they called a March for Reproductive Rights. “We’re taking to the streets in response to Texas’ draconian six-week abortion ban, which allows individuals to sue abortion providers and patients,” a press release from the organization reads. Photo by Jose…

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Family and friends gather to remember ECC student's death one year later - El Camino College The Union

Family and friends gather to remember ECC student’s death one year later – El Camino College The Union

A year ago on Sept. 22, 2020, 21-year-old El Camino College student, Juan Carlos Hernandez was murdered sometime after his night shift inside a Los Angeles dispensary where he worked ended. Hernandez, better known to those closest to him as “Cookie,” was an engineering major while attending ECC. He had plans to transfer to USC… — Read on…

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As more and more people south of the border are displaced by social and economic factors this Indigenous based organization and its leaders gather as one ‘ancestral entity’ under newly formed CONPID council to draw attention to their work and their struggles. Read 🕶 more at the link in the bio ✌️above. https://www.instagram.com/p/COgJWUcAA8j/?igshid=1xws4gyhflrth

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Indigenous based organizations and leaders gather as one ‘ancestral entity’ under newly formed CONPID council

A detailed scene of a larger a mural in the MacArthur Park area illustrating the arrival of a European ship to the Americas. Photo by Jose Tobar Story by Jose Tobar The National Council of Indigenous Peoples in the Diaspora (CONPID), announced its official formation made up of a number of Central American indigenous governments, organizations, community representatives and individuals to…

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Two skate spots, one Love: An L.A. skate story amidst a pandemic...

Two skate spots, one Love: An L.A. skate story amidst a pandemic…

Jkwon, Fall 2020. (Photo by Jose Tobar) By Jose Tobar|Writer. -Los Angeles, Koreatown. Every Sunday morning “church” is in service outside the 11-storied office tower known as Wilshire Park Place in Liberty Park, an iconic Los Angeles skate spot dubbed under pandemic inspired reverberations by the skateboarding community:JKwon, L.A.’s LOVE Park. Skateboarders of all ages, shapes and sizes swarm…

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A Sean Feucht New Years Eve Gathering in Echo Park Amidst Pandemic

Photo by Jose Tobar. The weatherman on the radio had said that New Year’s Eve would end on a nice day. But for Christian singer, Sean Feucht’s “Let Us Worship” gathering at the Echo Park Lake on Thursday, things were anything but nice. The second of Feucht’s homeless outreach event in Los Angeles was met with resistance by homeless advocates and activists concerned that the typically unmasked…

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Amidst Pandemic Blues, an Open-Air Celebration for L.A.'s Guadalupana in Yaangna

Amidst Pandemic Blues, an Open-Air Celebration for L.A.’s Guadalupana in Yaangna

Roberto Bautista and Antonio Bautista, pose for a photo in front of the 35-year-old mural depicting the fabled Virgin Mary’s apparition before the Mexica Indian, Juan Diego, on Saturday, Dec. 19, 2020. Despite COVID-19 fears and their unrelated familial bonds, their shared devotion to the iconic figure brought them together at a moment’s notice to organize a last-minute festivity in her honor.…

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Notes From McArthur Park: Wednesday, April 22. Payphone(s). “In Pitch Dark...” #payphoneography #payphones #streetphotography #streetstories #LosAngeles

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A professor’s role in the movement that made surfing California’s official sport – El Camino College The Union

Photo by Jose Tobar

A professor’s role in the movement that made surfing California’s official sport – El Camino College The Union

By Jose Tobar

The half-mile stretch of beach bordered by the El Segundo Chevron oil refinery looms against the northern sky, extending out to the southern pier. Silhouetted figures of surfers scattered outside the beach break can be observed sitting atop their surfboards since the crack of dawn, idling over the swells of El Porto where the Manhattan… — Read on eccunion.com/features/2019/11/13/a-p…

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Review: Solo artists shine during Concert Jazz Band’s resounding performances – El Camino College The Union

Photo by Jose Tobar

Review: Solo artists shine during Concert Jazz Band’s resounding performances – El Camino College The Union

By Jose Tobar

The El Camino College Concert Jazz Band played a luminous set of classic jazz standards to a scarcely populated audience in Marsee Auditorium that nevertheless caused their ears to perk up on Wednesday, Nov. 20. Songs from jazz giants including Thelonious Monk, Horrace Silverman, Quincy Jones and local legend Gerald Wilson were brought to life… — Read on eccunion.com/arts/2019/11/21…

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El Camino College The Union | Bill that gives homeless students place to sleep is ‘weakened’ by amendment

By Jose Tobar

For 65-year-old El Camino College student Roxann Toshiko Tomiyasu, her car serves as the last refuge from the many dangers of being homeless and sleeping on the streets. After she received her associate degree in arts as an automotive technology major at ECC last spring, Roxann was allowed to sleep in her vehicle overnight in… — Read on eccunion.com/news/2019/09/11/bill-that-gives-h…

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Photo by Jose Tobar

“In The Image” by painter and sculptor Ed Massey, is a 7-foot-tall sculpture of a homeless man that stands outside the former Home Savings & Loan property in the city of Santa Monica, drawing attention to what 95% of Los Angeles County voters consider the biggest issue confronting the county, according to a recent poll conducted for the Los Angeles Times and the Los Angeles Business Council Institute.

The homeless population has nearly reached 60,000 in L.A. County, according to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA).