JOSHUA WOLF SHENK: In our next segment, Black Mountain Radio’s Vera Blossom invites Las Vegas residents to help us understand their experience of one of the most misunderstood places on earth. Vera did this by asking the same five questions of each person—and while she was at it, she also turned the mic on herself.

 

VARIOUS VOICES: Where is home? What do you think the future of this place looks like? What is the most difficult part of living here? How long do you plan to stay? How has living here encouraged you to grow?  

 

SHENK: We hear from a transplant… 

 

[Marta Meana introduces herself]

 

SARA ORTIZ: … a nomad…

[Sreshtha Sen introduces themself]

 

SHENK: … an indigenous person… [Jonnette Pady introduces herself] 

 

ORTIZ: …a first-generation Las Vegan…[Vera Blossom introduces herself]

 

SHENK: and a fourth-generation Las Vegan.

 

[Mikayla Whitmore introduces themself]

ORTIZ: Here’s 5 by 5.

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5 X 5

MARTA MEANA:  You know, that's a really complicated question for me, because I'm an immigrant twice over–I was born in Madrid, Spain, and my parents immigrated to Canada, to Montreal. And then I immigrated from Montreal to Las Vegas. So the truth is that there is no one place that is completely home for me. It's a little bit Las Vegas, it's a little bit Montreal, and it's a little bit Madrid.

On the other hand, no one of those places is a hundred percent home the way I imagine it might be for someone who grew up and stayed in one place.

When I came 23 years ago, the reason I decided to stay and to choose this over other opportunities is precisely because I thought there were so many opportunities for growth. And of course, when you connect to opportunities for growth in a place you have to grow along with it. So, I still think this is an incredible place in terms of the openness to doing things differently that you don't find in more established towns that are steeped in that intellectual tradition.

Each place has kind of grown a part of me. What Las Vegas has grown is really an openness to reconfigurations of how things are done and how things are created. 

There is so much talk about diversifying the economy. There's so much talk about trying to re-envision urban planning. You know, there's a part of me that's lost a little bit of faith in any of those things happening because I've been hearing that for 23 years. I can't say that I see this becoming a walkable city, à la New York or San Francisco anytime soon. 

On the other hand, what we have that those cities don't have, is that within 10 minutes you're in this gorgeous desert with this big sky and you're completely alone, surrounded by gorgeous vegetation. So, I'm not sure how this is going to look in the future. My guess is: not very different.

When I first came, I thought, okay, we'll do this for two or three years, and I'll get this whole sun-desert thing out of my system. Well it looks like I’m here for good because I’ve been here for 23 years. [laughs] But it really has become an integral part of me. I love this landscape. 

SRESHTHA SEN: I'm from India. So I guess I will always call Dehli my home, if they'll allow it. I've kind of grown up all over the place in India, and I've lived in New York before this, and that city shaped me in more ways than I can even begin to count. These are all the places I'll list when someone asks me, “Where is home?”

And to be honest, to be completely upfront, I've been having trouble envisioning any thoughts of future possibilities—not just of Vegas. You know, I think we're living in a time where it's so easy to be exhausted, to be resigned, to be present and not think about, a future of any sorts. In both horrible and not horrible ways. 

[laughs] I really want to say something hopeful.

I will say this: I'm teaching creative writing this semester and my students, who are undergrads, constantly surprise me and make me so, so glad to be with them right now. They're so tired and so bright all at once and they're making the best of it. They're struggling, like the city is struggling right now. And in some ways, they are the place for me, they are Vegas for me. And so the future, I would say, looks like them.

Right now, I don't think I can live the life of someone who can plan their arrival and departure in this country. [laughs] There is an expiration date on my VISA right now. 

JONNETTE PADDY: That's such a complex question. If I would have to say one place, it has to be the house I grew up in North Las Vegas. When I think of home and when I close my eyes and I imagine a place where I'm the most comfortable, that's it.

Cause you have to be comfortable to grow. You have to feel safe and be around familiarity. And so that's kind of how it allows me to grow, making me feel like I have a safe place to be, to try new things and to really kind of venture out.

[quiet electric buzz of neon]

Especially during the summer, I think about how unnatural it is for so many people to be living here, and all the water that's wasted, all the electricity that gets wasted, and how Vegas is kind of bad for the environment. It's definitely unnatural; all these people living here and it's unfortunate. But it's also so beautiful.

The future of Las Vegas looks different from the future of any other city. We shouldn't be looking at the future of this city to be like New York or LA, because the city is completely different.  

I do see Las Vegas becoming more diverse in the economy, because I know that coronavirus definitely opened a lot of people's eyes as to how dependent we are on the hospitality industry in the city. And how, if that one thing falls, the whole city can fall.

I actually have plans to move from Las Vegas in a few months. But, I am Navajo and something that I've always been taught as a Navajoman, is that you go off and you learn different things. You travel, you build yourself up as a person, and then you go back to your home and you bring all those experiences and all those teachings that you had, that you learned, and you use them for your home to make your home a better place.

In the end game, I definitely see myself coming back to Vegas and retiring here and getting old here. Cause it is home. [laughs]

VERA BLOSSOM: I always felt that home was somewhere else. I don't know if that was because I missed being by the water, or if it's because I resented my parents and I just thought home was not where my parents were.

I actually frequently had daydreams about the smell of the ocean while I was walking from home to school. If you listen to palm trees waving in the wind, it can sound like water crashing. That made me really homesick. 

I think at some point I felt that Las Vegas had left its mark on me and I started considering this place my home.

The things that encouraged me to grow were all of the adversities that growing up here gave to me. The lack of resources here, the lack of infrastructure, the lack of places to go as a young person—Las Vegas is built for people who are 21 and up who want to play hard. I, as a 16 year old did not like parties and I just wanted a place to feel safe. And I don't think I had that, so I had to find out how to make myself feel safe in places that felt hostile and in places that felt indifferent towards me. I had to get really comfortable with myself. 

[laughs] Yeah, Las Vegas definitely gave me some tough love. The desert makes me feel so exposed. It feels impossible to hide from other people or from yourself. 

The most difficult part of living here is that it's hard to think of yourself as someone who is trying to live a sustainable life, and who wants to connect with your community when the community is spread like really thin butter over the whole Valley. Urban sprawl just keeps crawling out.

I think I feel a sense of guilt for living here. I feel a motivation to leave because I feel like staying here might be contributing to an unhealthy relationship that this city has with the land it's on. 

MIKAYLA WHITMORE: I'm living in my childhood home. The same home that I've lived in essentially my whole life.  

It's interesting because I was never really aware of how special growing up in Las Vegas was when I was growing up in it. I knew that something was unique about it, but I couldn't quite understand it until I got a little bit older. And that that was interesting ‘cause we're such a small town. So like, feeling both sides of that coin. 

We're like a mirage in the middle of the desert.

I think that was a very big part of my upbringing, escaping to the desert. And feeling the most safe actually, when I was in the desert.

Growing up and living here, one of the most difficult parts was being subjected to seeing the perception of Las Vegas, and the perception of who lives here on the national and global scale and how that comes back into our physical landscape, and then alters the way people treat and respect us.

I think on a grander scale, what was difficult about it was just this kind of widespread perception that our existence as a town was to serve as a tourist attraction on a national level. So no matter what, we're always having to sacrifice our wellbeing and say "yes" in order to provide just for our basic needs of life. 

I would love to see a future Las Vegas that really is a safe space for all of its inhabitants, allowing people the freedom to live and enjoy some form of their life. Las Vegas is such a beautiful and special environment.  I always wanna be here. This is my home. Even if I left it, this is my home, this would be a homebase. This is somewhere I’m always going to have a tie, connection, and interest in protecting.

As long as there’s water, I will be here.

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ORTIZ: If you call the Las Vegas Valley home, we want to hear your answers to these questions. You can find them posted on blackmountainradio.org, where you can leave us a voicemail or a written message. P.S. We love postcards.