Joel Wigelsworth:
I’ve lived a lot of my life on or near West Central. I grew up near Five Points, but everything back then was at Central and Atrisco. As a little boy I remember driving by the bustling San Gabriel park on a summer Saturday night because my mom needed something from Anthony’s, where I coveted the Thriller jacket on the rack, knowing we could never afford it. In high school, West Central was a place for cruising and house parties. I met my wife in Old Town; proposed to her there; married her there. I have photographed up and down West Central, and had a life-changing experience teaching creative writing workshops at YDI’s GED program for a Chicano Studies class. I have laughed, loved, wept, and bled on West Central. I have walked, biked, driven, and bussed it. We only recently moved away from Westgate, but I still go back to support the businesses I grew to love. My friends are there; my family is there; my childhood and my 30s are there. West Central is where I learned community, and where community learned me.