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Journalist Ruben Martinez on Becoming the Other

Martinez was born of Mexican-Salvadoran parents and raised in Los Angeles. His new book, "The Other Side," is a collection of reports, interviews, diary entries, photographs and poems that reflect living on the border between the "first world" of Los Angeles and the "third world" of El Salvador. He speaks with guerrillas in exile, earthquake survivors, war orphans and linerationist priests, which he juxtaposes with accounts of racial tension in the schools, Latino Graffiti art, and hip hop.

14:12
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Other segments from the episode on September 9, 1992

Fresh Air with Terry Gross, September 9, 1992: Interview with Dorothy Allison; Interview with Ruben Martinez; Review of Sonic Youth's album "Dirty."
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23:18

A Novelist and Survivor on the Lasting Effects of Child Abuse

Writer Dorothy Allison's new novel is called "Bastard Out of Carolina." It's about a poor South Carolina family's history of violence and incest, and is largely autobiographical. She says that she doesn't like most abuse literature out today because it tends to eroticize abuse. Allison has also written a book of short stories called "Trash" and a book of poems called "The Women Who Hate Me."

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Latinx Issues in the Delaware Valley.

Juan Gonzalez has just returned to the Philadelphia Daily News after taking a year's leave to found and serve as the first president of the National Congress of Puerto Rican Rights. Enrique Arroyo is the director of the Puerto Rican Congress of New Jersey. They join the show to discuss Latino issues in the Delaware Valley.

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Walking Into the Heart of the Los Angeles Riots.

Gregory Alan-WIilliams, Emmy Award winning actor, author and playwright. He has written "A Gathering of Heroes, Reflections on Rage and Responsibility," a memoir of the Los Angeles Riots (Academy Chicago Publishers). On April 29, 1992, Alan-WIilliams, an African American, heard that violence had erupted in South Central L.A. and chose to walk into the heart of the riot. He ended up risking his own life to rescue a Japanese American man who was being brutally beaten by some in the angry crowd.

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Filming the Aftermath of the Los Angeles Riots.

Documentary filmmaker Jim Chambers, who put together the new film "112th and Central: Through the Eyes of the Children", a documentary about the effects of the Los Angeles riots on the young people who lived through them. The film is put together from interviews of friends and family filmed by the children themselves, including 12 year old Cleophas Jackson whom Marty also interviews. (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)

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