Kimberly Espinosa, Koreatown Storytelling Program
Kimberly tells Jimmy how growing up in Koreatown—spending weekends at the park with family, volunteering, and connecting to peers from different backgrounds—inspires her to show up for her community.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Photos provided by Kimberly Espinosa.
Jimmy: Okay, very cool. And, yeah, I have some pretty simple questions because we want to keep our project as accessible as possible... And so, first, I want to thank you for taking the time to chat with me this morning. I really appreciate you're working with us on this, because I'm excited to get your story and your voice out there, and this is how that happens.
Kimberly: Yeah, thank you for having this space, it's really nice to have. I've been thinking about this lately, about how much I've been talking about Koreatown. But it's definitely nice to have more platforms where I can share my story and the community that I've been in, that I've been a part of. So, yeah, just thank you for having this.
Jimmy: Yeah, and I have to tell you, I'm really excited about your voice on this platform, because your story in K-Town is so unique at the same time that it's so relatable for so many people who may or may not be aware of that yet. So I'm excited about what this platform and your voice together can do to bring people around this neighborhood and its challenges and all of its unmet potential that we're slowly but surely uplifting here...
Kimberly: Yeah, I think Koreatown has a lot to share so I'm excited to be part of that, too.
Jimmy: So what I'll ask you to begin with is, essentially, what K-Town is to you? If you were explaining this to a stranger or somebody who you were meeting for the first time, what would you say about Koreatown in Los Angeles?
Kimberly: I think my short answer is that Koreatown is home. Like, that's the first thing I would say in a natural conversation. If I were to unpack that, though… I also recently had an interview with someone about what Koreatown represented for them because I do interviews as an intern for the Koreatown Storytelling Program, and something stuck with me and resonates with me is that there's the symbolic representation of Koreatown and then there's the physical community. And so I think about those two things a lot and how they make this unique experience for my family and I.
I think it's interesting how it's developed, like the way that my connection with Koreatown has developed, because I don't think the symbolic representation that I'm kind of talking about was as present in my mind, or that I wasn't as conscious of it when I was growing up…at least not until I was in middle or high school. And that's just because you know, when you're just a kid, you don't really think about things like that. So, for me, Koreatown has always been the place that I've been in. Like, this is where I was raised, this is where I went to school, and this is where I hung out with my friends.
But now, of course, there's that cultural aspect that I talk about in regards to Koreatown, and for me that's something very special and something that I think, even if I go to other parts of L.A., is not the same. It's very unique to Koreatown. Like, the Oaxacan community here is so vibrant, and so culturally rich through physical and non-physical traits.
Again, going back to the physical aspect of Koreatown, there's so many places here where you can see the Oaxacan community, like the presence. And so for me, that's something that's very special because maybe not until I recently went to Mexico was it that I realized how Koreatown is like an extension of our family's hometown in a way; you know, there's the eight *regiones* of Oaxaca, but to me, there's another *region* of Oaxaca right in K-Town, if that makes sense.
It's Oaxacalifornia, right? A lot of people talk about that experience. So for me, I find my home in Koreatown. Growing up here, you get to know a lot of people, and sometimes it doesn't make sense how everyone is kind of like your family, right? Like, you have so much family here. But, yeah, I guess that's me unpacking what Koreatown means to me. Of course, there's a lot more, but that's a little bit of what Koreatown means to me.
Jimmy: Of course. I really appreciate this response, and I think it is so much to unpack, just as you put it. And so for that reason, I'm only more excited to ask you about what one of your earliest memories of K-Town might be, especially given that this is home, that this is this place you've known for so long. I am definitely interested in hearing about what one of your earliest memories of Koreatown might be.
Kimberly: So this actually came to mind recently. I was thinking about our weekends in Koreatown, and what that looks like. And the truth is, it doesn't look the same every time. There's always something happening, and it can look very different. For example, one of my early memories of Koreatown is going out with my family—my mom and my dad—to Shatto Park on Sundays.
There is a group of relatives, some uncles and cousins from our family's hometown, that would play volleyball there every Sunday. I think they still play there every Sunday, I think at noon. Then afterwards, everyone hangs out, chatting and catching up. Because you don't really get to do that throughout the week, because everyone's working. I have a lot of memories but that's a very significant one that just came to mind recently.
Jimmy: Definitely, I recall our earlier conversation too where you mentioned the importance of more green space in K-Town. It's interesting that, of course, in this example, you're citing a mix of exactly those things, a mix of K-Town, as well as the green space, the space for recreation and activity that involves you and your family, you and your community. So I think it goes a long way in showing just how much green space as a safe space and as space for the community can and tends to do.
Kimberly: Yeah, I think Koreatown and green space is something that I don't–or at least not before as much as now, I didn't—really connect those two together. Just because, you know, you go outside, you see construction happening, and it kind of seems like green spaces aren't really possible in a neighborhood like this just because of how everything in the neighborhood is spaced out.
It's very inaccessible and I think a lot of what I think about Koreatown now connects back to my relation with KYCC, the Koreatown Youth and Community Center. I feel a lot of their work makes me think about my experiences growing up in Koreatown and think about it in a different way.
Like, one of the things that they've recently focused on is mobility access and green spaces, and so that's something that comes to mind. And just thinking about how I've had a few friends that are not from Koreatown come over, and one of the things that they ask me is, "So what do you do for fun here? Like, what's the thing to do in Koreatown?" But other than going to school, going to the mercados and stuff like that, you don't really have a place, like a green space, like a park to go to. I mean, there's Seoul International Park, there's Shatto Park, there's Lafayette, but Lafayette isn't really in Koreatown… They're just on the outskirts of Koreatown that are inaccessible to folks.
And so with this heatwave happening right now, I just think about that a lot, how I wish that our neighborhood had access to more spaces like this. You know, going back to Mexico, and seeing how important nature is in day-to-day life there, it kind of makes me sad that that isn't something that I can necessarily have here. I mean, you can go to Griffith Park and stuff like that, like you're in L.A., but I don't think it necessarily should be that way.
I feel every neighborhood deserves green spaces and safe spaces to be in community, so that's kind of one of the things that I wish we're a little bit different about Koreatown.
Jimmy: Yeah, I think that says a lot because you're thinking, both in terms of real assets in Koreatown, including these families, these workers, these people who brighten the community, and who actually maintain it day by day, and then you're also thinking about time after that, where if they would like to spend more time with their people, with their community, there should be a place for that. Every neighborhood, wherever it may be, sort of deserves that, and I think you very much are aware of that and you're increasingly aware of it given your work at KYCC. So for a moment, could you tell me a little more about how you first got involved with the Koreatown Youth Community Center (KYCC)?
Kimberly: Yeah, so KYCC. My relationship with the org, I think, really starts with my mom. My mom has always been a very active member of the community and because she wasn't able to work for a very long time given an injury in her workplace, she started reaching out to folks and seeing where she could show up for the community. And so one of those places was Best Start Metro L.A., and for me, that was very interesting too, because I was the youngest child. And if you know Best Start Metro L.A., you know that they focus specifically on working with younger kids.
But my mom, of course, wasn't necessarily like, "Oh, I don't have younger kids, I'm not going to be part of this." It was more like, "I want to be part of the community, so I'm going to join this group." And so that's how she started becoming involved. And then KYCC was one of the community partners that they were in touch with. And so at one of their events focused on culture of respect—it's an annual event that they had with several organizations in Koreatown—I started volunteering with that. I was only 13 or 14 years old, probably a little bit younger. And so I just started volunteering with that, and then afterwards my own journey with KYCC kind of started in high school when I started volunteering with the Bridge Program. It's a tutoring program for Koreatown kids or kids around the area. And so I became very involved in that, I participated in that until my senior year. Throughout that time, as well, I became involved in the Koreatown Storytelling Program (KSP), which was a new program that was started within KYCC.
And so the cool thing about KYCC is that they offer various programs. It's not just educational, or it's not just housing, it's environmental services, clinical services, and other very important things to the neighborhood. So I was part of both of those programs about the same time and I really liked that I started connecting with a lot more Koreatown youth during that time. Because before that, I was mostly connected with everyone from my high school, that was where I knew everyone, basically.
But once I started participating in KYCC, I really started connecting with students from Fairfax, John Marshall, and other high schools around the area. That was a very cool experience, getting to know the youth in Koreatown with different backgrounds, in the sense that their high schools and demographics or high school experiences were different from mine. And so right now, I'm back at KYCC as a KSP intern, which is full circle for me because I kind of grew up with KYCC. Once you’re a student or a part of the staff here, you’re like part of the family. It's kind of like the folks here are my aunts and uncles.
Jimmy: That's really powerful. And I want to ask you for someone that may not be familiar with KYCC… You mentioned this story and getting to know the community there. And what I'd like to ask then is if KYCC is focused solely on, say, the Korean American community, or if it's focused on the broader K-Town community, meaning services and programs for anyone who happens to reside in K-Town? Can you clarify that for us?
Kimberly: Yeah, so I'm like a history person. So I know a little bit of KYCC's history. KYCC originally started as the Korean Youth Center but it developed into KYCC given the demographics and just the culture here in Koreatown, which is not just the Korean population. So it's very important to be aware of that history. Because I do feel sometimes folks may be a little bit scared to reach out since they're thinking maybe it's only Korean-serving, or Korean-American-serving. But the truth is that KYCC is open to all families in Koreatown... I would also say even the outskirts of Koreatown. I've seen the impact of their work. It's very cool to see just how much KYCC is invested in the community.
I see KYCC everywhere. I see their trucks outside sometimes for environmental services and it just makes me really happy that KYCC is a place where these different communities within Koreatown get to connect. Like KSP, it focuses on the multiple communities living within Koreatown. And that means interviewing folks that are Korean, but also who are Oaxacan, but that also are Bengali, right? Because Koreatown, it's just… there's so much to it. Now there's Little Bangladesh, which I feel we can talk a little bit more about but, yeah, I'm just really glad that KYCC, the Koreatown Youth Community Center, has opened its doors for all the families, as far as I know, in Koreatown. So that just makes me really happy.
Jimmy: Yeah, and I really look forward to the discussion on Little Bangladesh soon as well. I think it's a rich discussion that so many folks would benefit from participating in. And with respect to these communities, with respect to services, with respect to representation and so on, I want to ask you if or when you became aware of these leaked recordings at L.A. City Hall on K-Town and about the people of K-Town, on who or what K-Town is. I want to ask you if that came to your attention at some point last year when the recordings first got out? Because you're also a college student, and you're a student out-of-state just as well, so I wonder a little bit about how that news made its way to your attention or not.
Kimberly: Yeah, so I wasn't in K-Town, I was away. I was at Northwestern when I heard the news. The news actually got to me, I would say, through multiple ways. I, of course, saw it through Instagram and folks posting about it. But I also think I received a message about a press conference or press release kind of thing from one of our relatives. But, yeah, I got that news and I was very frustrated. There are so many feelings that came to me during that time.
The frustration, of course, of not even being able to be here in Koreatown, and show up for what was happening. And of course, where I was, no one was talking about it, at least not like many folks at home were talking about it, just because it's a very different place. I mean, I don't know if it's because it's college, or I don't know what it is, but people weren't really talking about it there. So the folks that I could talk with were folks that were from L.A. and folks on Instagram, and my mom too. I was calling her during that time, and I'm just on the phone telling her how I felt. It's obviously very shocking, but at the same time, it's not. It's, like, you know, it kind of happens internally at city government-level, but to see it or to hear it just play out.. It's a whole thing of its own.
I think my frustration also came just from the fact that I’ve seen our community in conversations with politicians. I remember Gil Cedillo would have these different community events, including with one of the organizations that my mom had support from. They would actually get a lot of support from them; and I was always very iffy about politicians and what their interest is when they show up to events like that, given past experiences.
It's always "Oh, we care about community, we care about this, we're interested in this, please let us know how to help in this." And then it's just… I don't know how to explain it. You're showing up in these community events presenting as if you care about the community when, in reality, when you should be showing up for community, you're dissing this community. And so, for that reason, I think it was frustrating. But also I was kind of thinking, oh, what can we really expect from these politicians? So, that's kind of how it came to me at that time. And when I was back, of course everything had died down a little bit in terms of the coverage of Koreatown because, you know, during that time, everyone's posting about Koreatown, posting about what politicians said and whatnot, but after that, the L.A. Times and other major news outlets didn't talk about it as much. It all kind of just died down from there.
Jimmy: I think that's such an important perspective to keep in mind, and that's why I'm happy to create this space and share it with folks because I think what you're describing is something that our sort of media coverage has a tendency to look at very fleetingly, very momentarily, very much for the spectacle, for the sport of it, only to walk away, and only to have things return to the same shape they were before, more or less.
And so what I think we’re doing is creating space to hone in on this, to analyze exactly what this means to us, and how we move forward as a range of communities in K-Town and so on, so I really do appreciate that perspective. And I want to ask you, in turn, how it is that you found out about K-Town Is OK storytelling series, that me and my colleague have been up to. Could you tell us a little bit about that connection?
Kimberly: I spend quite some time on Instagram, so that's where I found out about K-Town is OK. I saw Melly post about it, and we're really close. I'm a big fan of Melly, so I'm always keeping up with her work, and she shares a bunch of cool resources for the community. So that's how I found out about K-Town Is OK. But then I also saw that Steve from KYCC was a part of it, so that was really cool too.
Jimmy: So just on that note, I want to ask you about what K-Town is OK might bring to the table. Do you think that K-Town Is Oaxacan Korean…that concept, does it somehow take away from what K-Town is? Or does it maybe distort what K-Town is? Or does it contribute to the idea of K-Town, and what K-Town may still be?
Kimberly: I think what I really appreciate about K-Town is OK and other programs like KSP is that folks are really getting to tell their own story through them. It's not large newspapers, corporations or groups that take over the narrative when it’s convenient. It’s that we’re doing this work and it's really folks from the community telling their own stories.
And that's what I think is most important in sharing what Koreatown is because, of course, Koreatown is different for every person and every community. Just because you're living or working here or you're from Koreatown doesn't necessarily mean you'll have the same experience as someone else. You can have very common experiences and I think that's what connects a lot of folks here, especially given that a lot of us are from the working class.
But, at the same time, it's important to acknowledge that we have different experiences, we have different interests, different things that make us unique and shape our reality here. So I think, in that sense, I do think K-Town is OK contributes to what Koreatown is and can be and has been just generally. It's not this monolithic experience of growing up in Koreatown. I guess, because you have a lot of spaces that tend to just become very popular or very common for folks, you may share that experience or common experience, but again, ultimately, everyone has different reasons for showing up in a place, and who you show up with. So I think that's what makes us different and alike at the same time.
Jimmy: That's so cool, Kimberly, and I'm so glad to have become connected. Shout out to Melly as well, for helping us create awareness for this project. I can't wait to share more space together. I can't wait for us to see these stories fly and make their rounds because it's so crucial. And we're really just getting started. So you're very much a part of the basis and very much a part of building a foundation. So there's nothing but respect and gratitude on my part for your time and your voice and everything that you shared with us just today. What an interesting world that you've described for us, and I'm so happy to be in community with that world through you and your voice.
Kimberly: Thank you, thank you. Again, I'm really glad to be part of this because I've had multiple conversations about Koreatown recently, and I feel every time I kind of unlock something different or something new. And it's not that it's something that was just created, but it's something I have to go back to my memory and really, you know, remember things that have happened. So, I'm just glad to be a part of this again, and thank you for hosting.
Jimmy: Absolutely, yeah. And on that note, I really love this as a moment in time, as a slice of time that we're capturing because later when you come back and you're ready to take part in only more leadership for either KYCC or K-Town as a whole, here is a slice of time for you to look back on and remember as a part of that, so by all means. My final question is, if I can just take a screenshot of us during this zoom interview for reference.
Kimberly: Yeah.
Jimmy: Okay, sweet. Okay, uno, dos, tres. Yeah. Okay, let me make sure I got that. Okay, perfect.
