Show Search Search Query Submit Search Don't Miss Print My father was working as a forklift operator at a Los Angeles factory five decades ago when a trucker from out of state began to insult him though that’s not what the trucker called him It was a thing that would inspire many law-abiding red-blooded Americans to at least ponder the possibility of punching someone’s lights out.  And my old man would have decked “Big Bad John” on principle but he had an Achilles’ heel: He had young children to feed and he was in the country illegally Then his boss showed up and ripped into the trucker telling him to take his cargo and never come back My father was like so many immigrants of his generation from Mexico: Coming north looking for work and a better life for their families my father and people like him were demonized by those who felt they were ruining California and praised by others who believed their work ethic and labor were a boon to the state thanks to a Mexico whose stamina for relentlessly poor governance and knack for driving out its citizens was impressive to get his high school degree soon after his arrival Rafael Becerra as a teenager in Zapotlan del Rey (Becerra family) My father read Dostoevsky Steinbeck and Melville from our childhood porch in Boyle Heights In spiral notebooks he composed verses to Mexican songs about his hometown in Jalisco state like the one he first penned as a teenager just a few years after his father died when he was 12 — and just a few years before he crossed into the U.S and no longer had to worry about being caught in a work raid.  Naturally intelligent and curious about language Though my father had a distinct Mexican accent that accent flagged him as Mexican to people like the trucker We bought him subscriptions to “National Geographic,” reading being about the only way he traversed the wide world other than a trip he took to a frigid Detroit for his machinist job in Orange County with its 12-hour shifts and six days of work I took a 2,100-mile trip to Nashville to intern for the Tennessean newspaper My father eagerly volunteered to take a few days off from work to help me drive there He portrayed it as just being a helpful dad He showed a child-like awe as we drove east on Interstate 40 where my 1989 Ford Escort threatened to hydroplane as we drove through a powerful storm; in the blinding rain unable to appreciate the great vistas that passed through my car window The Ozarks and Waffle House were all the same to me But my father’s eyes widened as he veered into English and exclaimed: “Jiminy Cricket! Look at that my youngest sister turned in an essay for her high school Spanish class "My dad has said that I'm his favorite,” Michelle wrote in one passage Always a book in hand and an idea in my head." My father chauffeured his youngest from middle school in Boyle Heights to UCLA sometimes after completing a long graveyard shift He said seeing her walk onto the Westwood campus her blond hair in a bun and lugging a large backpack was like watching a baby turtle crawling on the sand into the vastness of the ocean She was 22 years old and just about to graduate when she died in 2005 Rafael Becerra and his wife with the reporter’s older brother and sister in the mid-1960s my father sat on the porch and recounted a dream he had about Michelle He’s walking with her on a teeming street in a massive city She walks faster and faster and soon he can’t keep up She disappears and he spends the day looking for her — finally returning to the loneliness of a hotel room as night descends.  not unlike those he scribbled on his entire life: Me adelanté I visited my parents in Boyle Heights and sat down with my father on the porch He asked me to administer a practice U.S We had been nagging him on and off for years to become a citizen telling him we would pay the costs and that he would ace the exam Soon the cancer he had lived with for more than a decade crept into his bones It seemed to be working until it no longer did Confined to a bed during a large family gathering, he apologized to me for not having bought us a larger home leaving in his wake children and grandchildren who had opportunities he never had I think about what I told him the day he breezed through that practice U.S It was my only half-serious attempt to scare him you never know how the mood of the country could change,” I said. “How people will feel about immigrants Twitter: @hbecerraLATimes hector.becerra@latimes.com A changing border: Barricades won’t solve tough new challenges at the Southwest frontier Dozens of migrants braved jungles, seas and bandits to reach the U.S. Then they were sent home Traversing the Rio Suchiate: Between Africa and the U.S., an illicit river crossing in Latin America California Subscribe for unlimited accessSite Map This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page Tequila has a moderate level of seismic activity Based on data from the past 55 years and our earthquake archive back to 1900 there are about 13.8 quakes on average per year in or near Tequila Tequila has had at least 3 quakes above magnitude 6 since 1900 which suggests that larger earthquakes of this size occur infrequently probably on average approximately every 40 to 45 years The quake had a very shallow depth of 32 km (20 mi) and was reported felt by some people near the epicenter Tequila has had 40 quakes of magnitude 4.0 or above and 206 quakes between 3.0 and 4.0 1998 at 2.04 pm local time (America/Mexico City GMT -6) The quake had a very shallow depth of 33 km (21 mi) and was not felt (or at least not reported so) Zapopan has a moderate level of seismic activity there are about 12.1 quakes on average per year in or near Zapopan Zapopan has had at least 2 quakes above magnitude 6 since 1900 probably on average approximately every 60 to 65 years Zapopan was shaken by 1 quake of magnitude 4.0 2024 at 11.20 pm local time (America/Mexico City GMT -6) The quake had a very shallow depth of 15 km (9 mi) and was reported felt by some people near the epicenter.