Terriquez Helps Spotlight Forgotten Latina Lesbian Activists in Groundbreaking L.A. Exhibit Terriquez, director of the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center and faculty at UCLA Luskin, supports powerful exhibition that brings long-overdue recognition to Latina lesbian activism in East Los Angeles.

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A new exhibition showcasing archival collections of prominent Latina lesbians and narrating their involvement in LGBTQ+, immigrant, labor, and housing justice movements, will be presented at the Vincent Price Art Museum at East Los Angeles College.

Veronica Terriquez, director of UCLA’s Chicano Studies Research Center (CSRC) and professor of urban planning, supported the curation of the “On the Side of Angels” exhibition, which features materials from the CSRC Library archives: photography, posters, magazines, and video footage from the collections of policy and civil rights advocate Laura Esquivel, tenant rights attorney Elena Popp, and former CSRC librarian Yolanda Retter Vargas. The exhibition was co-curated by Vanessa Esperanza Quintero and Jocelyne Sanchez and is on view through August 30.

“Our mission is to share with the public as much history as possible, including highlighting historical moments — and people — who tend to not receive all the attention or credit for their important work,” Terriquez said. “We are incredibly proud of this exhibition because it features women who championed immigrant rights, safer working conditions, and broader acceptance of LGBTQ and other marginalized communities — efforts that have paved the way for cross-movement solidarity in Los Angeles and beyond.”

Terriquez is co-founder of the Latina Futures 2050 Lab, an initiative focused on uplifting Latina leaders, scholars, and changemakers by producing research and storytelling that informs policy, empowers communities, and shapes a more inclusive future.

Her scholarship at UCLA Luskin centers on social movements, youth civic engagement, and intersectional equity, with a particular focus on low-income communities of color.

De Guzman on Extreme Heat Impact on Infrastructure

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Edith de Guzman of the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation, commented in an Axios story on the impact of extreme heat on infrastructure. While much of the nation has been under heat advisories for individuals, extreme heat also can affect vital infrastructure including energy, transportation, buildings, water and digital infrastructure, according to experts. De Guzman, a water policy specialist, said, “We have all this infrastructure that is meant to make us comfortable in the urban area, but not only is that infrastructure exacerbating the heat, the heat is actually deteriorating that infrastructure.” This includes increased energy demand on the power grid for cooling, deterioration and damage to roads and railways and equipment such as traffic signals, sensors and telecommunication that rely on the electrical infrastructure.

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Fernando Torres-Gil highlights systemic gaps in long-term elder Torres-Gil describes the U.S. long-term care system as “a huge for-profit industry."

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Fernando Torres-Gil, professor of social welfare and public policy at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs and director of the Center for Policy Research on Aging, was quoted in a recent Los Angeles Times article examining the rising costs of in-home elder care — which can reach up to $18,600 per month in Southern California. Torres-Gil described the U.S. long-term care system as “a huge for-profit industry,” emphasizing that America remains “behind the curve” compared to other countries that offer universal long-term care support. He described the American care system as “a huge for‑profit industry,” noting that unlike many other developed nations, the U.S. lacks universal long-term care financing—a failure that has left “Americans behind the curve.”

Terriquez Highlights Stark Latina Wage Gap in New Regional Study New research reveals significant wage gap for Latina workers in Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz and Ventura counties.

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Veronica Terriquez, a professor of Urban Planning and director of UCLA’s Chicano Studies Research Center, co-authored a recent UCLA-led study that reveals a stark wage disparity faced by Latina workers in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties. Despite making up nearly half of the female workforce in those regions, Latinas earn only 47–50 cents for every dollar earned by non-Hispanic white men — a gap Terriquez attributes to systemic barriers such as limited access to quality education and occupational segregation.

“Many Latinas are the primary earners in their households, and they contribute significantly as taxpayers and community members. When they are underpaid, the impact extends beyond individual workers, affecting families’ ability to access housing, education and health care and to plan for retirement,” the authors wrote in their analysis. “The consequences of their financial challenges ripple across the entire region.”

A Chicana sociologist and longtime advocate for social justice, Terriquez also co-founded the Latina Futures 2050 Lab, a CSRC initiative dedicated to advancing research and policies that promote equity and opportunity for Latina communities.

Read all Santa Cruz County reports here.

Turner on New Tool for Assessing Health Risks of Extreme Heat

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Kelly Turner, associate director of the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation (LCI), commented in an LAist story on a new tool to help people understand health risks they face from extreme heat. The California Communities Extreme Heat Scoring System, or CalHeatScore, is a pilot program that ranks risk from extreme heat by ZIP code into four categories — mild to severe. A ranking of “severe,” say the tool’s developers, could correspond with a higher temperature inland, as opposed to at the beach. “There’s so many mediating factors between a person, a hot day, and whether or not that person becomes ill,” said Turner, who is involved in evaluating the implementation of the tool. CalHeatScore is still in early stages of product development, but, said Turner, “It’s a stepping stone to the future in which heat warnings aren’t about the actual temperature threshold.” She explained, “They’re highly personalized — because exposure to heat and whether or not you get sick depends on factors that are more personal than universal.”

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Loukaitou-Sideris on Honolulu Public Transit Proposal

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Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris interim dean of UCLA Luskin, commented in a Honolulu Civil Beat story on proposed restrictions by the Honolulu City Council that would discourage people from sheltering in public transit. Under the proposal, the city and county’s bus system, TheBus, could prohibit people whose belongings emit noxious odors or who ride with no destination in mind. Loukaitou-Sideris, distinguished professor of urban planning, said that transit agencies often face a dilemma tailoring transportation services. For example, transit agencies aim to take cars off the road and promote sustainable transportation while providing transportation for people with no other options. Agencies are very concerned about what their regular transit riders were going to think and say,” Loukaitou-Sideris said. “But at the same time, you cannot exclude unhoused people. You really need to provide this service.” She noted, “We have started seeing some transit agencies partnering with social service agencies to tackle the issue in a more humane way, rather than you’re just kicking people out of your transit system.”

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Tilly on Impact of Immigration Raids on Local Business

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UCLA Luskin Urban Planning Professor Chris Tilly spoke to CBS Evening News in a broadcast about the economic impacts of ICE raids on businesses, workers and customers in Los Angeles. The news segment noted the visibly sharp decline in foot traffic and business activity in the normally active downtown Los Angeles area. While the city’s streets have remained relatively calm with overnight curfews in place, vendors and customers are staying home out of fear of detention and deportation, according to local business owners. “We’re talking many billions of dollars that are being lost if we continue this deportation nationwide,” said Tilly. He explained, “If you’re talking about five percent of the workforce, that is a large and important spending block and some of that gets spent in immigrant enclaves,” adding, “But, it definitely ripples out to the broad economy.”

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Zepeda-Millán on the Meaning of the Red, White and Green

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Chris Zepeda-Millán, Associate Professor of Public Policy at UCLA Luskin, is quoted in a number of media outlets, including the New York Times, about the presence and meaning of the Mexican flag at ongoing protests in downtown Los Angeles. Interpretations and characterizations vary depending on the source. The story notes that government officials have cast the Mexican flag and other Latin American flags as symbols of insurrection by “illegal foreign invaders,” implying that protesters are not U.S. citizens. “They’re the children and grandchildren of immigrants,” said Zepeda-Millán, who also serves as chair of UCLA’s labor studies program and holds appointments in Chicana/o studies and political science at UCLA. “They have no doubt in their own citizenship or their own belonging here, but they understand the racial undertones of the attacks on immigrants,” he said, adding, “So you’re getting this reaction of ‘We’re not going to let you make us be ashamed of where our parents and grandparents came from.’”

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Taylor on the Growth of L.A.’s Transportation Infrastructure

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Brian D. Taylor, Professor of Urban Planning and Public Policy and a Research Fellow in the Institute of Transportation Studies at UCLA Luskin, was a guest on The Climate Dispatch, a podcast launched by the Sierra Club Angeles Chapter. Episode 5 focused on how Los Angeles became the car-dependent city it is today as well as how the city could be better planned and built to serve people and promote a healthier environment. Taylor explained how cities, like Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and New York grew at various stages in their transportation evolution, often developing around the primary means of getting around, from foot traffic to trains and automobiles. “As we started to move out and use public transit, the city started to move out as well and grow. Rail transit often caused cities to develop in sort of a starfish pattern,” he said. “And then, as the automobile became the dominant mode, we saw more sprawling lower density development.”

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Manville on rent and transit ridership connection

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Michael Manville, professor and chair of Luskin urban planning, commented in a KQED story on the effects of gentrification in a South Los Angeles neighborhood on bus ridership. The story focuses on the northern tip of the Vermont Square neighborhood, where median incomes have risen markedly while the number of Black residents has declined. At the same time, new apartment buildings have been constructed in the area. A study co-authored by Manville also is cited which compared changes in transit ridership numbers to rental market trends in L.A. and Orange County neighborhoods. The UCLA study suggests that the state’s public transit issues reflect the state’s housing affordability crisis, according to the story. “The basic premise of the paper is, ‘Can rising rents help explain why you’re losing transit ridership?’ And it seems to be that they can, because they reduce the likelihood that very high transit riders will live near transit stops,” Manville said.

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