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Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Police Brutality, Corruption, and Systemic Racism
Healing, Progress, and Collective Consciousness
Justice, Perspective, and Ambiguity
Individuals vs. Institutions
Action vs. Symbolic Gesture
Summary
Analysis
Smith interviews Julio Menjivar, a lumber salesman and driver in his late 20s from El Salvador. They’re sitting in a covered patio near South Central Los Angeles. Menjivar describes seeing police pass through the neighborhood without attempting to stop any of the rioting. It was as though they were laughing, saying “Go for it, / it’s your neighborhood.” Menjivar recalls standing to the side, watching the chaos unfold around him when suddenly, the National Guard arrived in droves. The forced everyone to the ground. Menjivar was in the middle of a group, and a member of the Guard forced him up, berating and kicking him.
Menjivar’s account illustrates the bad policing that took place throughout the riots. First, Menjivar notes how the police did nothing to intervene in the violence, and even seemed to encourage rioters. Menjivar’s observations expand on those made by Captain Haywood in “A Badge of Courage.” More shocking is the National Guard’s unprovoked apprehension of Menjivar and other nonviolent residents.
Themes
Menjivar’s family saw what happened and tried to step in. Menjivar remembers how the National Guard were so angry they almost shot his mother and sister. He recalls one man crying because his handcuffs were too tight. Menjivar had never been arrested before, neither in the U.S. nor in El Salvador, and being in jail was a frightening experience for him. Now, he has a record, a $250 fine, and a three-year probation period.
Critics of the violence, such as Judith Tur in the scene “War Zone,” attribute destruction solely to the rioters. But Menjivar’s account shows that the rioters weren’t the only people to behave violently and hurt people: police and the National Guard harmed people and, as Menjivar implies, totally upended his life by arresting him for seemingly no reason.
Themes
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