0:01

Where I live in Southern

0:03

California, psychic shops are practically

0:06

as plentiful as coffee shops. They're

0:08

a part of the landscape. I know people

0:10

who have regular appointments with their psychic. It's

0:13

the kind of thing you can drop in casual

0:15

conversation, and no one bats an eye.

0:19

And I can understand why. People

0:21

want security. They want to know

0:24

what the future will hold. And

0:26

whether through tarot cards or a crystal

0:28

ball, the fortune teller will

0:31

hint at how your story

0:32

will play out. Let

0:35

me say up front that I don't know how this tale

0:37

will play out or how it will end. Because

0:41

in this story, the fortune teller

0:43

came to me.

0:45

At the very beginning of this podcast,

0:48

I never thought in a million

0:50

years it would turn

0:52

into what it is now.

0:54

My name is Faith Pinew, and I'm a reporter

0:57

at the Los Angeles Times. But

0:59

back in October 2019, I was

1:01

working at a small community newspaper in Orange

1:03

County called The Daily Pilot. And

1:06

that's where I first got a call from Paulina

1:08

Stevens. Paulina told me that

1:10

from the time she was a child, she was told

1:13

she would be a fortune teller, that

1:15

she came from a whole family of fortune

1:17

tellers. And then she mentioned

1:20

something that made my ears perk up.

1:22

It was a warning about a psychic shop in Orange

1:25

County. She told me that this

1:27

was the psychic shop that she had escaped.

1:30

I suggested we meet up in person at

1:32

a local cafe. I'm a little nervous. I'm sorry

1:34

for like, it's okay. I don't know. I'm

1:37

like kind of nervous, but I'm okay. Take

1:40

your time, whatever. Whatever

1:43

makes you

1:43

feel... Listen, people call reporters all the

1:45

time with salacious tips. But

1:47

when Paulina started talking, I felt like

1:49

I was drinking from a fire hose. What

1:53

do you do? You know what I'm saying?

1:56

What do you do? Paulina said she had

1:58

an arranged marriage with a distinct couple.

1:59

And at 12, it's like you're supposed

2:02

to know who you're getting married to, you know? That's like,

2:04

you're going through puberty, like I was getting too

2:06

old. That her parents shielded her from outsiders.

2:09

Any kind of outsiders was a big, like, no, no.

2:11

And then she was pulled out of school entirely,

2:13

at 12 years old. I was actually lucky,

2:16

like, I got to go to school up to sixth

2:18

grade.

2:21

At the time, I was used to writing stories

2:23

on city council meetings and town art shows.

2:26

So Paulina's story, it was totally

2:28

out of my wheelhouse. It seemed too big.

2:31

Because ultimately, Paulina kept

2:33

blaming her culture, her culture, her culture.

2:36

And if you disobey us, then

2:38

you disobey your culture. Paulina's

2:41

culture is Romany.

2:42

I don't think I had ever even heard the word Romany

2:45

before. And that's because Romany

2:47

people are often known by another

2:49

name, you know, a

2:50

gypsy. You're not going to hear

2:53

me throwing around the G word on this podcast.

2:55

Because for many in the community, it's a slur. Not

2:58

for outsiders like me to use. But

3:00

at the time, I had no idea.

3:03

Because even a pop star like Shakira

3:05

casually throws around the G word.

3:09

It's set against this catchy, poppy backdrop.

3:12

Like something you'd instinctively hum along to. If

3:14

you weren't paying attention, you'd never notice

3:17

the lyrics are actually overtly

3:19

offensive. Because I'm

3:20

a

3:20

gypsy. Are

3:23

you coming with me? I

3:25

might steal your clothes and wear the

3:27

mistase with me.

3:29

Once I started noticing it, I couldn't stop

3:32

seeing the G word everywhere. Clothing

3:34

brands and restaurant menus, surfboards

3:37

and teabags. It's become a shorthand

3:39

for something nomadic, wild,

3:42

deceitful, romantic. Something

3:45

exotic. A style anyone could put

3:47

on and wear like a costume.

3:49

And there are two stereotypes that always

3:51

come up. That Romany people

3:54

are fortune tellers and thieves.

3:56

But the thing was, Paulina and her family

3:59

were actually...

3:59

fortune tellers. And while

4:02

Paulina told me about her family and their

4:04

history, she also seemed

4:06

to be painting herself as those very stereotypes.

4:09

She seemed to want to shock me to get me to pay

4:11

attention. Like, the

4:13

rule is no stealing, only scamming.

4:17

Because people give you stuff so it's not considered

4:19

stealing. Paulina

4:21

seemed to be telling me, yes, fortune-telling

4:24

is a scam. I am

4:26

a scam artist, you know, born and bred.

4:29

That's

4:29

what I'm telling you. I just looked

4:32

at her like, what? You

4:34

know, you're sitting here with a reporter. Are you

4:36

turning yourself in? I didn't know what

4:39

to think. And honestly, it didn't

4:41

seem like Paulina did either. Gypsies

4:43

have a bad rep and

4:46

they should, I think. I don't know.

4:48

Not all of them. And then, Paulina

4:50

said, she had decided to leave.

4:53

Because when I left, I had no education,

4:56

I had two kids, no

4:59

driver's license, okay, no car.

5:01

You know what I'm saying? I had nothing. Nothing,

5:03

nothing, nothing.

5:05

The franticness in Paulina's voice suddenly

5:07

made sense. The unfiltered

5:09

panic and blurting out extreme claims.

5:13

It was the sound of someone stepping

5:15

out of one world and into another,

5:17

questioning everything she's ever learned.

5:20

And this was certainly part of why Paulina

5:22

said she had come to me. But

5:24

it wasn't just to tell her life story.

5:26

The real reason Paulina reached out to me

5:29

was, she needed help.

5:31

Paulina has two

5:33

little girls. And when she left her

5:35

community, she was at risk of losing

5:37

them. To fight to keep

5:40

her daughters, Paulina did the number one thing

5:42

people in her culture were taught not to

5:44

do.

5:45

She turned to the outside world.

5:47

She took her case to the American legal system.

5:50

And her custody hearing was coming soon.

5:54

By leaving her community, going to the courts

5:56

and talking to the press, Paulina was

5:58

opening up her life to a world of

5:59

of scrutiny and doubt.

6:01

Lots of things

6:04

are sad in the heat of a fight

6:08

to protect and to not lose

6:10

your children.

6:11

It's hard to me to support you if I don't know what the

6:13

f*** you're doing. Paulina was a diamond. Now

6:16

she's just a stone.

6:18

But Paulina and I kept talking. For

6:21

years. As Paulina and I got

6:23

to know each other, we peeled back layer

6:25

after layer together. Both of us

6:27

trying to get to the actual truth beneath

6:30

the surface.

6:31

To the place beyond the resentment and the

6:33

stereotypes. You

6:36

have to be exclusionist

6:38

in order to preserve identity.

6:43

You have to close ranks to

6:46

prevent infiltration

6:48

from outside. One

6:51

time during a session, she did

6:53

a healing bowl and it put

6:55

me in a complete trance. I

6:58

opened my eyes and the whole room

7:00

was like a white cloud and I could barely

7:03

see her. What we offer

7:05

is a spiritual

7:08

practice and

7:10

a spiritual, dare

7:14

I say it, business, right? Because

7:19

it's true of any community, of any

7:21

identity, that there are stereotypes

7:24

and there are truths. And

7:26

while sometimes they can overlap in superficial

7:29

ways, the whole and deep

7:31

story is so much richer and

7:33

more complicated than we could have ever predicted.

7:36

It's weird actually how I went from

7:39

loving it to absolutely hating

7:41

it and now missing it.

7:43

I'm Faith Pinew

7:45

from the Los Angeles Times. This is

7:47

FOUR-TOLED, coming April 11th. Listen

7:50

and follow FOUR-TOLED at LATimes.com

7:53

slash FOUR-TOLED or wherever you get

7:55

your podcasts. That's LATimes.com

7:58

slash FOUR-TOLED. you