Razish
by Tod Seelie
The town of Razish is located deep in the California desert, and is home to residents from various mostly Middle Eastern countries, plus the occasional bomb blast. The town is made of stacked shipping containers and plywood facades floating like a tiny beige garbage patch in an ocean of sand. There’s a street market, a mosque, and a burned-out car there. There’s a distinct ghost-town quality to the place... until the Marines roll in.
That’s because it isn’t really a town at all: Razish is part of the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, the main live-action training ground for the U.S. military. The “Middle Eastern” residents populating the faux streets and market peddling fake fruit and bread are actors, a mixture of immigrants from the region and locals from nearby desert towns. Once or twice a year it also entertains a small group of awestruck, nationalistic tourists.
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