The other day I was driving down Echo Park Avenue, and I drove past a woman I recognized. She is Latina, on the short side, nice-looking, tidy-looking, with her hair pulled back, jeans, jeans jacket, walking with another woman. There was no reason to take notice, except that coincidentally I had met her near 8th and Bonnie Brae the day before (Thursday), and I had asked her a question that made her cry. When I met her we were in the offices of Centro Latino for Literacy, where I had gone because I was curious and because I had been told that the center had students from Echo Park; Centro Latino founder, Marcos Cajina, lives in Echo Park (he first taught literacy as a young man in Sandinista Nicaragua); he owns a tile company -- if you've been to Intelligentsia, the new coffee house in Silver Lake, you've seen his tile designs. Melanie Stephens, the center's director and co-founder, also lives in EP.