The other day, Luca had a cool moment with a Street Roots customer.
“The reason why I’m doing this interview is because I met someone who read my poetry in the paper,” said Luca. “She said it helped make her happier and see things in a different light.
“Ever since then, I realized that I can make a difference. And that’s all I’ve wanted to do since I was little, just to help contribute to other people’s lives. I never saw an opportunity to do that. Street Roots has helped me reach out to different people that I would otherwise never meet before.”
Growing up around Powhattan, Kan., on the Kickapoo Reservation, Luca was an avid reader and dreamer and found it hard to find like-minded people in “a small town surrounded by small towns.”
For Luca, the options appeared to be either work for the casinos or get good enough grades to get out of there. Luca first worked at the Sac and Fox Casino and found that customers who came for the buffet were kind, but upset gamblers would ask, “Where’s the Indian food, boy?”
Soon Luca joined the Kansas National Guard to travel the world. But after finishing basic training out of state, Luca was back in Kansas and in the same rut.
Several tribe members went to protest the Dakota Access Pipeline in Standing Rock in 2016, and Luca joined them to help spotlight the threats to clean water and sacred burial grounds. People from all over the world flew their flags on the road to the camp. Behind the scenes, Luca showed new campers where to park and helped them set up their gear.
“I didn’t go to the front lines and verbally yell at the security,” Luca said. “I would go to a lot of sweat lodges. I helped pray for a lot of people. Not just for the water protectors – what we like to call ourselves. I never heard anybody else do it, but I also prayed for the security workers.”
Back in Kansas, too many National Guard drills were missed, and Luca received a general discharge. After that, Luca landed short-term jobs from working at greenhouses to lining up bratwurst in “little yellow trays,” but never permanent jobs.
“I realized I could go anywhere that I wanted to,” Luca said. “I’m not bound to Kansas anymore.”
Since last August, Luca has been in Portland.
Luca said it was an amazing moment “to walk across the Broadway Bridge. I’ve never been on a bridge that big before. And I got to see, left and right, the other bridges. It’s just something that I’ve only seen in magazines before. It’s a beautiful city.”
“I’d like to be contributing to Portland, Oregon, specifically,” said Luca.
To that end, Luca got online with WorkSource Oregon, attended a job fair and found a promising job through First Transit, a TriMet contractor that provides door-to-door transport services for the elderly and disabled.
“They saw something in me, despite carrying this big ol’ bag,” Luca said.
Luca likes that the job helps others, the staff gets along and the employees are union members. After completing orientation, videos and written tests, Luca has one more step to gain a permanent position: “I’m kind of stalled in my training, ever since I lost my birth certificate on one of these MAX trains.”
To Luca’s relief, the nonprofit Outside In is helping Luca get the identification paperwork and First Transit is willing to wait.
“I still have a future to look forward to,” Luca said.
In the meantime, Luca sleeps at the houseless encampment Right to Dream 2 near the Moda Center and sells Street Roots to earn money for presentable work clothes.
Community is becoming easier after Luca found “a group of geeks that play board games” and finding out “I can be myself in the sense of orientation.”
Luca felt it was important to say: “I’m glad to have been a part of Street Roots. Even if I’m no longer a vendor, I’ll always be a customer.”
As for writing poems? “I’m going to try to make them happier.”
Until the First Transit job begins full time, Luca will be selling Street Roots at the New Seasons Market at Northeast Fremont Street and North Williams Avenue on most Saturday and Sunday mornings.
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Street Roots is an award-winning, nonprofit, weekly newspaper focusing on economic, environmental and social justice issues. Our newspaper is sold in Portland, Oregon, by people experiencing homelessness and/or extreme poverty as means of earning an income with dignity. Learn more about Street Roots