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Alicia Luna, 14, has endured a childhood marked by parental drug use, domestic violence and visits to her father in prison until his death in 1990. Alicia credits the ballet for positive changes in her life and has moved up from beginning level class…

Left, Gilbert Alvarez, 15, Alicia Luna's boyfriend, spends a Saturday evening with her at a Mecha Dance held at Tustin High School where Luna is a freshman.

In the face of domestic tragedies and a tough environment, Alicia Luna emerged with an iron will. She holds a photo of her father, Juan Carlos Manuel Luna, a heroin user and gang member who was killed in 1990, when she was 8.

The smoke of a building fire shrouds a row of boarded up hoses on the edge of LaVilla.

New California palm trees, street lights and side walks replace the turn-of-the-century homes that lined the street only months before.

Charles Fowler makes his way through LaVilla wit a load of aluminum roofing that he salvaged from boarded up houses in the neighborhood to sell for scrap.

With the city skyline as a backdrop, Shadale Walker and Tony Mims play in the mud and standing water left by demolition and street work in LaVilla.

major Edwards stands in the doorway of the pre-1885 house, the oldest in LaVilla, after a salvage crew broke down the door while he was legally living there.

Flames consume the insulation of a shopping cart full of copper wires scavenged from deserted homes in LaVilla. The salvaged copper will later be sold for scrap.

James Whitfield scavenges metal from an air duct in what remains of the once popular Pelican Bar in LaVilla.