How Weddings and Hospitals Forge Familia
We Show Up for the People We Love—In Times of Joy or Sorrow, Often With Tortillas
“Hija, you have to go. You’re going to miss the wedding,” said my mom, weak but urgent …
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California’s Greatest Scourge? Camping
Bipartisan Leaders Are Bravely Going to War Against Unhoused People in Tents and Students in Sleeping Bags
Lock up your tents, California! Toss out your old camping gear! Hide your pillows and blankets where the …
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The Radical Act of Gardening Silicon Valley
Communities Are Nourishing Themselves—And a Movement to Transform Our Food System—By Planting in Unlikely Soil
Days start early in the garden. As the sun rises over the Santa Clara Valley’s …
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Can Knitting Help Teach Science?
A Cell Biologist Reflects on the Connections Between Stitches and STEM
When I was about 8 years old, my grandmother took me to a local fabric store to pick out a pattern for a dress we could sew together. Piecing together the brown pattern paper, cutting out fabric, and learning to pin and hem, I felt like I was solving the ultimate wearable puzzle.
What I didn’t know at the time was that I was also preparing for my PhD in cell biophysics—the study of how cells, and the structures within them, move and grow. Cells form, and interact with, the squishy, stretchy template of our tissues, where they are always jostling and vying for space. When one cell contracts and gets smaller, its neighbors get pulled along, expanding to fill the space …
The 2025 Zócalo Book Prize Explores Social Cohesion
For 15 Years, We’ve Honored Authors Who Dive Deep Into Community and Human Connectedness
Zócalo Public Square is proud to mark the 15th year of our annual book prize, which honors the U.S.-published nonfiction book that best enhances our understanding of community and the forces that strengthen or undermine human connectedness and social cohesion. Since 2011, we have honored authors who explore these important themes, which remain at the core of our mission of connecting people to ideas and each other.
Each year seems to present new threats to human connection—from political polarization and pandemic-enforced isolation to the siloes of our digital lives. And each year, a new crop of authors surprises and intrigues us with their incisive …
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My Late Uncle Jim’s Life of Tomorrows
He Found Meaning and Wisdom in Looking Ahead
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It’s the Best and Worst of Times in Oakland
As Presidential Hopeful Kamala Harris Reaches New Heights, Her Hometown Is Filled With Despair
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California Officials Can’t Build By Their Own Rules
An Addition to the Capitol Is Over Budget and Behind Schedule—While Sacramento Keeps Exempting Itself From State Law
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Who You Calling ‘NPC’?
‘Non-Player Character’ Has Become an Insult. But Its D&D Origins Tell a Different Story
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What the Wonkapocalypse Can Teach Us
An Immersive Experience Gone Wrong Shows Us the Perennial Emptiness of Carefully Curated Escapes from Reality
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Cowboy Boots Were Made for Everyone
For Over a Century and Half, the Footwear Has Carried the Story of a Nation
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Héctor Tobar Peers Deep Into 'Our Migrant Souls'
The 2024 Book Prize Event, “What Is a ‘Latino’?” Explored the Work and Struggle of Building Community in L.A. and America
The city of Los Angeles, the world’s most famous zócalo, and the word “Latino” are connected by a shared history—a history of people and cultures and languages colliding, explained journalist and novelist Héctor Tobar. Tobar is the winner of the 2024 Zócalo Public Square Book Prize for Our Migrant Souls: A Meditation on Race and the Meanings and Myths of …
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Where I Go: Reading Among Readers
In India, Weekly Reading Clubs Offer a Sense of Community and Belonging
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Where I Go: L.A.'s Oldest Standing Black-Owned Bar
I Didn’t Know How to Make a Cadillac Margarita. The Living Room Still Offered Me a Job—And a Community
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Where I Go: Redondo Beach Brings Me Back to Myself
I’m the Keeper of My Family’s Memories. My Hometown Is Where I Uncover the Layers of Our Past
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Puente News Collaborative Executive Editor Alfredo Corchado
I Would Have Loved to Be a Reporter Covering the Mexican Revolution
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ASU School of Transborder Studies Director Irasema Coronado
You Have to Make Enchiladas With Leftover Thanksgiving Turkey
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Sociologist Víctor Zúñiga
I’m Generally an Optimist
