Capturing the attention of the public and the news media, the Occupy L.A. protesters have joined a long, yet sometimes seemingly hidden, tradition of activists who have advocated publicly in Los Angeles for their vision of social justice.
"It thrills me to know that I'm part Apache, part Irish, part Ukrainian-Russian, part Mexican, and part American." Cal State L.A. student Lucas Benitez traces his family's varied history.
"Within my family's circle of friends alone, I knew of three different families that had the same model home within a 2-mile radius - no need to tell me where the bathroom is, because I already know the full layout of your house."
"My dad was a city rat, skinny dipping in the dirty blue river, and smoking in the cold gray alleys, but he was a dreamer. He ran away at seventeen to come to Los Angeles and become an engineer."
"During our escuela secundaria years along with a couple of friends we decided to put together a music band, that later on became very popular, under the name Arco Iris. It was a sort of South American Pink Floyd."
"My grandmother came out to California to work and then when my grandfather decided to come out, he walked into my grandmother's office with a bunch of rattlesnakes."
"I had a big goodbye party for all my friends and family and the next day got on a plane bound for Los Angeles - the city of my childhood dreams of sunshine and skateboard parks and where I believed the next big center of art would be."