Photo Essay: Former Union Swapmeet Vendors On Life After Being Displaced

Samanta Helou Hernandez visits former swap meet vendors to hear their reflections a year and a half after the market was demolished.

The swap meet is a mythic place in Los Angeles. In the ‘90s and early 2000s, it’s where kids in Black and Brown neighborhoods bought fits for school: Pro Club white tees, Dickies, Nike Cortezs, and gold nameplates. These in-door markets were a hangout very much like the malls of white America. 

Swap meets are much more than an affordable place to shop, t…