{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"SGV Connect 125: A Sweatshop Documentary Comic Strip","description":"This week Chris brings us a special feature interview with artist Isabel Pan. Pan is the artist in residence at C.A.S.A Zamora in El Monte. Her project has been a documentary-style, slice of life comic strip depicting the impact of sweatshop labor and refugee crises on the children of immigrants in the San Gabriel Valley.  Pan\u2019s subject is the son of a sweat shop worker, Denny. His parents came to El Monte in the late 70\u2019s, fleeing the Vietnam War. They endured the loss of family en route to America, and the struggle of working in the garment industry once here. Pan\u2019s comic strip is titled M\u00e1, which is what Denny calls his mother. M\u00e1 explores the generation gap and communication breakdown that Denny experienced growing up with parents who were traumatized by their escape from Vietnam and exploited by employers in Southern California. Denny\u2019s mother was a work-from-home seamstress, payed cents per piece, who provided a home for her children.  Pan - raised in part by working class grandparents - talks frankly with SBLA about the physical and emotional burden of this labor,  as well as the beauty of sharing these experiences with other Monteros. Her comic can be found at Matilija Lending Library in El Monte. Streetsblog\u2019s San Gabriel Valley coverage is supported by Foothill Transit, offering car-free travel throughout the San Gabriel Valley with connections to the Gold Line Stations across the Foothills and Commuter Express lines traveling into the heart of downtown L.A. To plan your trip, visit Foothill Transit. \u201cFoothill Transit. Going Good Places.\u201dSign-up for our SGV Connect Newsletter, coming to your inbox on Fridays! ","author_name":"SGV Connect","author_url":"http:\/\/damientalks.libsyn.com\/podcast","html":"