The audio that played from Torres\u2019 double-screen computer and smart phone as he reviewed the evidence on the day I visited contained snippets of the Southland\u2019s sad soundtrack under what he continually calls the \u201csiege\u201d of ICE<\/a>. Men pleading to la migra to stop hurting them. Activists cursing out agents. Whistles, screams, honks and sirens. Sobbing family members.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I wanted to cry, I don\u2019t think that I could,\u201d Torres said when I asked how he coped with seeing such videos ad nauseum. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not healthy, I know. It\u2019s not mature. But what I go through is nothing like what the people I\u2019m seeing are going through … Today was hard, though,\u201d he continued, pounding his hand with his fist. \u201cThey went … extra hard today. They\u2019re starting to get worse. Numbers that used to be a week\u2019s worth of abductions are now a day.\u201d<\/p>\n He sighed. His deep-set eyes were bleary. Reading glasses did nothing to help with 12 hours of staring at screens. Torres wiped his hands over his face as if washing off the horrors of the day and pressed the record button.<\/p>\n \u201cToday, Border Patrol targeted Long Beach, swarming the streets again and taking gardeners, old men and a 12-pack of beer that they had,\u201d he began. He talked over footage of masked men piling on top of a gardener at a Polly\u2019s Pie in Long Beach as a police officer looked on with hands in pockets and a deer-in-headlights look.<\/p>\n In another clip, federal agents detained an elderly man sitting on the sidewalk near a liquor store, \u201cmaking sure to put a handcuff on his hand as they helped him up.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cRemember to stay safe and stay vigilant, folks,\u201d Torres concluded.<\/p>\n He turned off the camera, blasted hardcore punk and began to splice his reel together.<\/p>\n \u201cDaily Memo\u201d has become the diary Los Angeles never asked for but which is now indispensable, documenting in real time one of the most terrifying chapters in the region\u2019s history<\/a>. Filling the camera frame with his broad shoulders, full beard and a baritone that alternates between wry, angry, calm and reassuring, Torres has been described by fans as the Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite of L.A.\u2019s deportation days \u2014 legendary broadcasters he acknowledges never having heard of until recently.<\/p>\n L.A. Taco staffer Memo Torres, right, presents Victor Villa as L.A. Taco\u2019s Taco Madness 2024 winner in an impromptu ceremony outside the Highland Park restaurant in 2024.<\/p>\n (Stephanie Breijo \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you\u2019re in the midst of everything, you forget someone has to keep an archive so we can go back to reference, and you think, \u2018Damn is someone is doing that?\u2019 Yeah, Memo is doing that,\u201d Sherman Austin said. The Long Beach-based activist runs the Stop ICE Raids Alert Network, which sends out text alerts with the locations of raids to more than half a million people nationwide. \u201cMemo puts a human face to what\u2019s happening, and that resonates with people in a different way.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s a neighborhood hero,\u201d said Rebecca Brown, supervising attorney for the Immigrants\u2019 Rights Project of Public Counsel. The public interest law firm has filed or joined multiple lawsuits against the federal government this year over its deportation agenda<\/a>. \u201cA lot of these stories of people who are getting picked up can fall through the cracks. But their voices are getting captured by his recording.\u201d<\/p>\n While \u201cDaily Memo\u201d is chronicling a city under attack, it\u2019s also bringing comfort to an unexpected person: Torres.<\/p>\n The son of a Mexican immigrant from Zacatecas who came to this country without papers, Torres never had a full-time journalism job until this year, living a \u201cForrest Gump kind of life.\u201d He estimates he has worked in at least 25 different trades, from butcher to taquero to sound engineer, social media manager and nonprofit worker, none really fitting his life\u2019s goal to do something \u201cmeaningful.\u201d <\/p>\n Nothing lasted longer than landscaping. A third-generation jardinero \u2014 his grandfather also worked in the U.S. \u2014 he at one point employed 28 workers and had contracts across the city, with Hollywood studios among his biggest clients.<\/p>\n Torres, who has two college-age children, sold the business in March to focus on journalism for good. <\/p>\n \u201cMy life has prepared me for this s\u2014. There\u2019s nothing that scares me anymore,\u201d Torres said as he began to layer video clips over his \u201cDaily Memo\u201d narration. \u201cSo I bury my head into work. My escapism is the cruel reality of the city right now.\u201d<\/p>\n Torres grew up in Culver City and Inglewood. At Loyola High he absorbed the Jesuit maxim of being a man for others. But after graduating from UC Berkeley with a sociology degree, Torres found himself back in the family business, unable to find a job that satisfied him. <\/p>\n \u201cRelatives would make fun of me by saying, \u2018There he goes with a degree and a lawnmower in the back of a truck,\u201d he said. \u201cI hated it, but I was good at it.\u201d<\/p>\n His landscaping routes across Southern California inadvertently prepared him for journalism. He started an Instagram account, El Trag\u00f3n de Los Angeles<\/a> (The Glutton from Los Angeles), to share his eating adventures. That caught the attention of L.A. Taco in 2018, which was revamping at a time when the city\u2019s indie publications were shuttering or faltering<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cTheir mission of street-level reporting called to me,\u201d Torres said. He volunteered to connect L.A. Taco to local restaurants so the publication\u2019s members could score free food and discounts. He soon became director of partnerships, then took over L.A. Taco\u2019s social media accounts, then started to write articles and shoot videos \u2014 mostly for free.<\/p>\n \u201cI call him the Mexican Swiss Army knife \u2014 and not those small ones but the big ones with all the weird things,\u201d L.A. Taco publisher Alex Blazedale said as he and Torres smoked outside during a short break. \u201cMemo could literally do anything we asked him to, and he wanted to do it and followed through.\u201d<\/p>\n L.A. Taco staffer Memo Torres edits video clips from daily ICE raids which he puts together with narration on an Instagram reel inside L.A. Taco\u2019s studio in Chinatown.<\/p>\n (Gina Ferazzi\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n Torres\u2019 taco knowledge earned him appearances on the Netflix show \u201cThe Taco Chronicles\u201d<\/a> and a regular slot on KCRW\u2019s \u201cGood Food with Evan Kleiman.\u201d Blazedale suggested this year that he do a daily news recap under the \u201cDaily Memo\u201d banner. But Torres found the title \u201ccheesy and didn\u2019t know what it was for.\u201d<\/p>\n Then came the raids. <\/p>\n \u201cI grew up on the History Channel,\u201d Torres said. \u201cThey would always have these documentaries where they said they were finding new footage that had been thought lost. That\u2019s what\u2019s happening right now. So much stuff is being put up that quickly goes down. We need to document it for history.\u201d<\/p>\n L.A. Taco editor Javier Cabral<\/a> credits \u201cDaily Memo\u201d with bringing in so many new members that the publication is now financially sustainable. <\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s not your average aspirational journalist who is either a hobbyist who wants to write more or someone who just got out of [journalism] school,\u201d Cabral said. \u201cHe\u2019s just a real paisa\u201d \u2014 a working-class guy.<\/p>\n While Cabral finds Torres\u2019 lack of reporting experience \u201crefreshing,\u201d he sometimes has to remind Torres not to editorialize too much. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s that \u2018Show, don\u2019t tell\u2019 thing in journalism, you know? But then I had to just check in with myself \u2014 am I being jealous by power-tripping at him?\u201d Cabral said. \u201cIt was a hard conversation to have, but Memo took it [on] the chin and raised it up.\u201d<\/p>\n Blazedale and Cabral believe so much in Torres that they recently hired a part-time assistant for \u201cDaily Memo\u201d and plan to turn an office at their headquarters into a proper studio. They got Torres a video editor, but the person quit after five minutes of viewing deportation footage \u2014 so Torres continues to put together the final product. <\/p>\n \u201cWe just can\u2019t have Memo burn out,\u201d Cabral said. \u201cHe\u2019s too important to have that happen.\u201d<\/p>\n Torres is unfazed, for now. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just like when I mowed lawns \u2014 let\u2019s seize the day and make it your routine,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Besides, swimming in the chaos of the times is how Torres has dealt with a tough personal year. He sold his landscaping company, not just because of his increased L.A. Taco duties \u2014 he\u2019s officially the publication\u2019s director of engagement \u2014 but because the Hollywood writer\u2019s strike<\/a> and Trump\u2019s deportations<\/a> decimated his business. Two of his former gardeners have since been deported.<\/p>\n Torres started smoking again \u201cto deal with all this.\u201d He recently broke off an engagement after a 10-year-relationship with a woman whose family members were avid Trump supporters. On Election Night, Torres said, one of them told him to go back to Mexico. The couple\u2019s Glendale home recently sold for far less than they paid. Soon, Torres plans to declare bankruptcy.<\/p>\n L.A. Taco\u2019s offices are filled with boxes of his mementos as he settles into a new apartment. One is a laminated La Opini\u00f3n story about him trying to recruit more Latino students to Berkeley after affirmative action ended.<\/p>\n \u201cI always envisioned I would be useful for something,\u201d he said before mentioning a letter from his mother he unearthed during his move. She died of cancer in 2006. <\/p>\n \u201cShe said, \u2018I\u2019m so proud of you. You\u2019re trying to fight for what\u2019s right. Don\u2019t forget it.\u2019 She saw it in me way back then.\u201d<\/p>\n Torres uploaded his finished reel to L.A. Taco\u2019s social media accounts. It was 10 p.m. \u2014 early for him. Outside the rain was pouring down harder than ever. <\/p>\n \u201cI hope I can go back to writing about tacos,\u201d Torres said with a laugh that betrayed he knew it wouldn\u2019t happen for a while. \u201cJust give me a break from reporting on the trauma and tragedy. But who knows if the future needs me? Maybe I\u2019m just good for this moment, and I\u2019m good with that.\u201d<\/p>\n He stepped into the storm. Eight hours later, he would be back.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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