LA sank them into debt. Will this family find a better life in rural California?
LOS ANGELES — Luz Puebla began the long drive north, her three younger children piled into their old minivan.
Ahead, her husband and oldest son led the way in a U-Haul, 10 years of their lives packed inside.
On the Golden State Freeway, Puebla glanced at the downtown Los Angeles skyline.
“Look,” she said. “It might be the last time you see the city in some time.” There was no response from her kids, who had nodded off to sleep.
They drove through the Tejon Pass, through miles of valleys, then orchards sprinkled with fruit trees and “Recall Newsom” signs.
Like so many immigrants before her, Puebla had come to Los Angeles with little more than a change of clothes and a vision of a grand, wealthy place where her dreams could come true.
But in recent years, it seemed as though she and her husband, Eliazar Cabrera, couldn’t get ahead.
The rent on their South Gate apartment was set to increase. In the COVID-19 pandemic, Cabrera’s hours as a maintenance man
