(You can find all three of SBLA's SGV Connect interviews with Benito here.)
When Chris and I were packing up after our interview with Benito Flores and other members of the remaining Reclaimers earlier this month, I remarked to Chris that I hoped and I prayed that the next time we interviewed Benito, he still had a house over his head. The thought of Flores returning to the streets in his mid-70s a half-decade after he “reclaimed” a vacant Caltrans property was just too depressing.
It’s even more depressing to think that was his last interview.
Flores was found dead in the backyard of the house he was staying in, fighting against eviction over the weekend. Supporters of his efforts to fight not just for his own housing, but for a more just and equitable housing system, say he fell from the treehouse he built to escape to should the police arrive to evict him. The treehouse that he built himself, stood nearly thirty feet off the ground. In our last interview, Flores hoped that should he make it to the treehouse during an eviction so that nobody would get hurt trying to remove him. He also recounted that he had gotten hurt when his makeshift pulley system failed weeks earlier.
There has already been a lot written about Flores’ passing over the weekend, The Los Angeles Times was the first media outlet to report on the tragedy. The Solidarity Research Council has a touching memorial that includes a link to donate to support Flores’ funeral costs and to support the Reclaimer movement. The Reclaimers themselves posted a statement memorializing Benito and declaring that his death will not be in vain. “In Benito’s name, In our ancestors’ name, In the name of every displaced soul — We rise in solidarity with the unhoused and the housing-insecure peoples.”
We wish peace in this time for Benito and those who loved him. Rest in Power.
