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Hardly the picture of a church. East Oakland, CA, 30/03/2026

Oakland Shrooms Chapel

It’s a dreary Sunday afternoon and the clouds hang low over East Oakland, a neighbourhood that feels worn almost to the bone. Faded Queen Anne homes lean over the street with peeling paint and boarded windows. Weeds poke out of every pavement crevice, and chained guard dogs bark from behind rusted cross-hatched fences. Cars with cardboard “FOR SALE” signs seem frozen in time, and prostitutes line up down the street, approached by black SUVs with tinted windows. Tucked between

Oliver Dante Garcia

May 275 min read

The Mirage of Bombay Beach

Standing on the beachfront of the Salton Sea, the horizon vanishes. The sky fades into the water so perfectly the boundary between them dissolves. As hard as I squint, there is no clear line, just a hazy expanse where sky and sea become one, its edges only discernible by barren mountains with precipices as sharp as razor edges. Bombay Beach feels like a mirage. And in a way, that’s exactly what it is. We tried to build paradise in the desert, and Mother Nature turned it into

Oliver Dante Garcia

Apr 83 min read

The Costa Mesa Meetinghouse

An eager Mormon welcome by Bishop Wynn and Elder Parker. Costa Mesa, CA, 01/2026 For most, Genesis is a story about creation. Elder Parker thinks of it as a story about beginnings that don’t yet make sense. “Sometimes, the beginning is unclear,” he enthusiastically tells his Sunday School class that morning. “Before light, before order, there’s a lot of confusion.” It is the first Sunday School of the year at Costa Mesa Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which Parke

Oliver Dante Garcia

Mar 95 min read

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