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Chicano Park (1988) — Transcript

by Evan Apodaca · 6,813 words · 1,111 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:02[Music]
0:08San Diego USA California's Southern
0:12gate Navy town industry Border Lines
0:16factories Mexicans Americans highrise
0:19businessmen sun-washed beach sand
0:22tourist filled vacation lands growing
0:24building affluence Urban modern
0:27development
0:29[Music]
0:33that's San Diego today but it has not
0:36always
0:38been once this fine land was Mexican
0:42once it was Spanish once it was Indian
0:48and once in the time of myth and history
0:52San Diego like all the American
0:54southwest was called Aslan
1:03[Music]
1:18the ancient story of
1:21Aslan speaks of a people who hunted from
1:24the Pacific to the Rio Grande
1:30but their land became dry parched so
1:34they migrated South to the valley of
1:36meico they renamed themselves AA in
1:39honor of their original home
1:43Aslan and the last of their Emperors
1:45left a
1:47prophecy one day our Sky shall bloom in
1:51New Splendor and you my people shall
1:54rise up again like trotten grass to find
1:57Aslan
1:59once
2:07[Music]
2:24more this is the story of one piece of
2:28Aslan Reborn
2:31and how its people the chos rediscovered
2:34their culture and history by claiming
2:37their Destiny as a people and as a
2:41community this is the story of Cho Park
2:47[Music]
2:54[Music]
2:59[Laughter]
3:02[Music]
3:09sing it it began in
3:151970 under the Coronado Bridge
3:20[Music]
3:21andio in San
3:25Diego well my people
3:31begin to
3:33fight for
3:41[Music]
3:45CH every year there is a celebration of
3:48the anniversary of that day April 22nd
3:511970 when larasa took over this land and
3:54made Cho
3:57Park it's a very special day for lot of
4:00Cho in most of our lives this is
4:03probably the only time that we've ever
4:05had a voice uh a say and something that
4:09we wanted you know it's not much of a
4:11park but it's our Park you know it's in
4:13our
4:15style we shall continue to live my
4:18brother we shall continue to fight my
4:24friend under the bridge
4:30Park under the
4:35bridge Cho Park is four blocks from the
4:39bay in the community of bario Logan
4:43bario in Spanish it means neighborhood
4:46in English it means
4:51ghetto once bario Logan was the second
4:54largest Cho community on the west coast
4:56with a population of almost 20,000
4:59[Music]
5:02Park under the
5:05bridge bario Logan is the first
5:08neighborhood south of downtown San
5:12Diego squarely in the path of continued
5:19expansion chos have lived here for
5:22hundreds of years since before the US
5:24even existed
5:29today bario Logan is 17 mies from the
5:33border that line that guards the
5:36difference between cultures between
5:38languages between the United States and
5:56Mexico but once there was no border
6:00and people passed freely across this
6:02beautiful
6:07land my parents came in the turn of the
6:10century and I I don't remember a lot
6:13about that but I do remember that all my
6:16life I have lived in the
6:20bario my mother died when I was very
6:23young and my sister my brother and I
6:26lived with our father who was a blind
6:28man and so newspapers for a
6:31living and I guess we were very very
6:34poor but I remember being very
6:37happy all the children went to the same
6:39school we all knew each
6:42other we had everything
6:44[Music]
6:51here my great grandmother came at the
6:54turn of the century to San Diego and
6:56settled in Logan Heights because of uh
7:00all the community here many of them were
7:02from Baja
7:05California and she describes it as being
7:08wonderful in the sense that everything
7:10was
7:10[Music]
7:12there my father's family came by rail
7:15from
7:17Sonora there were a lot of families
7:19coming into this area and they were
7:21working as long shoreman um they were
7:24working in the counries and it became
7:26very convenient to just interact and
7:28live on both sides of the Border I mean
7:30there were no
7:31borders being on the border I don't ever
7:35remember any of my neighbors even
7:37mentioning it I had never we never heard
7:39the word undocumented alien illegal
7:41alien people went came and there was was
7:45just like you went across the street or
7:47went downtown or there was no big
7:54issue the Border chain and checkpoint
7:56were set up in 1924
7:59[Music]
8:02with the depression of 1929 Cho labor
8:05was no longer
8:08[Music]
8:09needed during the Depression people were
8:12just
8:13hurted they were rounded up given a
8:16certain date move out they packed their
8:19little
8:20belongings children that were born here
8:22of course had to go with their parents
8:24that weren't
8:27citizens and I remember that my
8:29neighbors and I used to go down here to
8:31the railroad and see the train that was
8:34taking them it was really very
8:39sad the depression weakened bario Logan
8:43and as many people were deported it
8:44became smaller in shape and in
8:47memory I remember sometimes you know I
8:49used to get in shouting matches with
8:51banglow or something and they used to be
8:53and they would tell you go back where
8:54you came from you know and one of the
8:56things that always stuck out of my mind
8:58was that here I would was you know like
9:00Jose Elio Gomez in San Diego and EST of
9:05California and I was being told by
9:07somebody named Smith or Johnson to go
9:09back where I came
9:14from as soldiers marched off to World
9:17War II mikanos were pulled into bario
9:20Logan to fill jobs created by the War
9:22Industry the
9:24shipyards by losing access to the coast
9:28the Logan was beginning to be boxed in
9:30but with jobs and Working Families the
9:33neighborhood blossomed
9:35again there had been like in San Diego a
9:39huge population explosion because of the
9:40aircraft industry and the Naval Station
9:42being established there and I was born
9:46in 1942 so was during the beginning of
9:49the war and uh I remember spending a lot
9:51of time in Logan Heights growing up
9:53there was a real sense of
9:57community there was a thought that next
9:59door to us where my best girlfriend
10:03lived and we used to play in the back
10:06growing up in Logan Heights I really
10:08didn't have to interact with angl
10:10everything we wanted was here I mean it
10:12was like being in the womb you went to
10:15the central to get your groceries you
10:17went down the street to get your
10:18tortillas at the tortilla you went to
10:20the pania to get your bread you didn't
10:22have to venture outside of Logan Heights
10:25I was very unaware as a youth of racism
10:29I accepted a lot of things as just being
10:32and that's the way it was you know like
10:34running around with my own people and I
10:36was a kid and everybody I knew spoke
10:39Spanish it was very rare that you saw
10:41anybody of another ethnic group I
10:45remember one time it was a guy that came
10:47walking down the sidewalk really light
10:50skinned bright red hair and I remember
10:52just kind of like everything stopped for
10:54me cuz I had never seen anybody with red
10:58hair I didn't even know it
11:00assisted at the heart of all Community
11:03activity was the neighborhood
11:06house the neighborhood house was great
11:08that was our one
11:10Recreation I met my husband there at a
11:12dance and I was 16 when I got married
11:15and I had my children four one right
11:18after the other I was just a mother and
11:20a wife and my whole life revolved around
11:22[Music]
11:26that by the 1950s the area many had
11:29called home had been
11:31rezoned the laws had been changed San
11:35Diego wanted a place to expand and
11:37relocate its
11:40industry they chose bario Logan when our
11:44um neighborhood was changed from
11:46residential to Industrial it was just
11:48changed no one knew anything no one knew
11:51that you could go to the city ccil and
11:53protest I didn't know any of those
11:55things there used to be houses all in
11:57here and then the junkyard started
11:58moving in and at that time people
12:01started to have to move out because the
12:02freeway started coming through the the
12:04cornado bridge junkyards industry
12:07everything started happening my
12:09community started kind of falling
12:12apart there was no talk of Community
12:15Development or neighborhood planning
12:18associations we had no idea of what
12:20those type of things actually were the
12:22pounding every day Clash smash
12:26smash our house is slowly cracking the
12:29the walls in our house the the paint
12:32pings falling off this used to be a very
12:35nice area at one time until somehow
12:38somebody said it' be a nice place to
12:40make
12:42junkyards they built the freeway five
12:47condemned a lot of houses many many
12:49families had to
12:50move they built the cornado bridge the
12:54same thing happened we lost a lot of our
12:56friends we just thought that that's the
12:58way things had to
13:01with Highway 5 going through and the
13:04Coronado onramp a lot of the families
13:07and the housing that existed before was
13:09totally gone the little Bas were gone
13:13the little Tas were
13:15gone abandoned houses abandoned
13:19storefronts it was very shocking and
13:21disturbing to
13:24me one day somebody came knocked at the
13:27door and told us that we had to leave
13:30because the state had bought the
13:33property and that uh we had to move
13:36because they were going to build a
13:37bridge
13:38there so it was rather a
13:42surprise I would walk up and down the
13:44street passing through and I'd see this
13:47desolate area of our community where the
13:50homes had always
13:52been nothing was there it was all
13:55destroyed and it was such a sad feeling
13:58to see this I thought what could change
14:01this if only something could change
14:04[Music]
14:09this so lo and behold the bridge was
14:13built and these great big huge massive
14:17columns were built there and the uh
14:22ideas began to evolve in my mind so I
14:25started sketching them and and sketching
14:27the uh the work that was taking place
14:39[Music]
14:48[Music]
15:01the' 60s marked an explosive moment in
15:04the world people dreamed and organized
15:07for a new Society free of Oppression
15:09civil rights and anti-vietnam War
15:11movements flourished challenging
15:13mainstream
15:14culture and chanos organized
15:19themselves the struggle to create a
15:21United farmw Workers Union sparked a
15:24fire that roused chos across the US
15:27self-determination for chos of people
15:29alternative institutions to meet the
15:31needs of an ignored
15:33minority now countless individual voices
15:36came together into the powerful chorus
15:39of el Mento The Cho
15:45movement social unrest was happening
15:49Cesar Chavez had just had the march from
15:51deleno to Sacramento and the movement
15:54was starting to develop there were
15:56organizations such as Maya and mea and
15:59there were all these Sons and Daughters
16:01of Farm Workers and cry workers and
16:03railroad workers all meeting together in
16:05college and it was a real Awakening to
16:08see other students with the same
16:10backgrounds or similar backgrounds as I
16:13[Music]
16:16had I walked into this Hall and there
16:20was the flag of the United Farm Workers
16:24and it was such a strong impact the
16:27colors and the image Tre that uh I
16:30adopted it in my own artw works and
16:33began exploring this particular
16:37[Music]
16:46power here we had the chance to actually
16:49like make images of ourselves and make
16:51images of ourselves the way we wanted to
16:53see ourselves my involvement as an
16:56artist was the fact that uh
17:00we started having art exhibits we
17:01started doing posters and when there was
17:04a March or a rally or something was
17:07happening politically we were able to do
17:09images that dealt with
17:18that I just like to think of myself as
17:22indigenous I wanted to give Pride uh and
17:25identity to my own people I wanted them
17:28to realize that they have roots in this
17:31[Music]
17:44continent the only history I that they
17:47were teaching was the California mission
17:49thing you know about the the Spaniards
17:52came with the priests and they had a
17:55idelic thing going with the Indians and
17:57I just couldn't relate to that
17:59As I Grew Older I kept looking and the
18:01only thing I kept finding in history
18:02books was things like Poncho was a
18:03bandit well I grew up believing Pono was
18:05a was a national hero uh that saata was
18:08a bandit and like I had grown up
18:10believing saata to be a hebo so right
18:13there you know I was complete odds with
18:15uh just about everything that they
18:16taught me in social studies or in
18:18history even though my parents always
18:20said you're meico and you'd be proud of
18:22what you are and which I was my attitude
18:25outside of Logan Heights was very very
18:27defensive going out side of here was
18:29very intimidating like I'm less because
18:31I was
18:32Mexico but when I went to Mexico or to
18:35Tijuana to visit my family I was POA you
18:39know which is Americanized or you're
18:42from the other side of the border so I
18:44didn't really fit on either side and it
18:46was it was pretty
18:53confusing it was considered polite to
18:56refer to someone like me are you Spanish
18:59rather than um use the Der what was then
19:02a derogatory term of
19:04Mexicans when I became a CH and I became
19:08a Cho artist and began to learn more
19:11about my history there was a whole
19:15revolutionary different way of looking
19:17at um myself as a woman and all of a
19:21sudden I looked at myself in the mirror
19:23and I said you know I'm not I'm not too
19:25bad
19:26looking I didn't feel awkward or somehow
19:30strange or that I didn't look right I
19:32felt somehow I looked at the way that I
19:34should look like this was natural and it
19:36was good and I looked at my mother and I
19:37looked at my grandmother and I said God
19:40they look good to me
19:45too in the late 60s artists throughout
19:48the Southwest set up centr culturales
19:51cultural centers for the artistic and
19:52political voice of the
19:54community all this created a new wave in
19:57poetry dance music and visual art many
20:00artists journeyed to Latin America and
20:02Mexico to immerse themselves in Aslan
20:05and returned with New Horizons for the
20:06Cho
20:08future I ended up going down into Mexico
20:11and we traveled down there for almost a
20:13month and during that time I would stop
20:16every place that I knew where there was
20:18some kind of monumental sculpture or
20:20mosaic or murals you could see
20:23everything the movement in it I became
20:25aware of the concept of mural painting
20:30that influenced me a lot I remember my
20:32work changing dramatically after seeing
20:34that so when I got back I went back to
20:37my drawings for the mural that I was
20:39working on and the images just begun to
20:43jump right out of
20:49it I think my purpose was to educate
20:52people as to the status of the society
20:55in the sense that of being a mechanized
20:58World half man half machine the
21:02pollution of the air War
21:06[Music]
21:11destruction I started looking at the
21:13kind of media images used within our own
21:15Cho Community movement as far as like
21:18positive role models as for women and
21:21the predominant image that was basically
21:24one was the Virgin of Guadalupe
21:26basically a passive image she's wrapped
21:29she can't even walk in the material that
21:30she's got so in my desire to create a
21:33positive images I used um my mother my
21:37grandmother and myself as prototypes
21:41since I was running at that point in my
21:42life I did myself as a runner and I
21:45threw up uh her dress cuz she's running
21:47I put sneakers on her as taking off
21:50exuberant full of life then I did my
21:53mother who worked at the naval training
21:55center for 30 years as a mistress
21:59sitting behind her industrial sewing
22:00machine making her own Cape of stars and
22:04my grandmother I saw his old woman very
22:07rarely do you see like the Virgin
22:08portrayed as an older woman I guess this
22:11has to do with with the sanctifying of
22:12her
22:15[Music]
22:17virginity in the 60s when the young
22:20people that had lived in this
22:22neighborhood and they went to college or
22:24they went in the service and they came
22:26back they woke everybody up that's the
22:29way I got
22:32involved he wanted to
22:36park there was a community council
22:38meeting at the school every month and we
22:40were told that we would get a park and
22:43these meetings went on for at least 3
22:45years and nothing ever happened no
22:49Park 1970 the city began construction of
22:52a highway patrol station on that same
22:55piece of land under the bridge the
22:56residents had wanted for a park
23:01no one in the community was
23:04consulted I was absolutely outraged
23:07because then I realized that they had
23:09just been lying to us and they had just
23:12decided it would be a Highway uh office
23:15at the highway patrol office and and
23:17that was it we needed no more police in
23:19our neighborhood we needed Social
23:22Services we needed human care services
23:24but we did not need any more police one
23:26day I was walking down
23:29Logan and Mario Solis came up to me he
23:32says guess what guess what he says
23:34they're going to build a highway patrol
23:36station down there I said where what
23:39what's happening he says they're going
23:40to build a highway patrol station down
23:42there where we want to park yeah they're
23:45already got the bulldozers down there
23:47and they're building fences and
23:49everything we were in our Cho Studies
23:51classes and I can just remember someone
23:53coming in and saying you know they're
23:55going to create uh a highway patrol
23:59station right in in the Vio and the next
24:01step was really fast everything just
24:03started going just like that we came
24:04down we came into the park we made human
24:07chains around the tractors I was going
24:10to the grocery store one morning and I
24:13saw many young people and they were in a
24:16circle holding hands so I flew over
24:20there to see what was happening so I
24:22joined in I never came back home from
24:23the store I just stayed there and from
24:26then on I was there every single day
24:29taking pots of food for the young people
24:31to eat and we were planting and digging
24:34and singing and
24:36[Music]
24:46[Applause]
24:47[Music]
24:50chanting in the year 1970 the city of
24:53San Diego under the cornado bridge light
24:55a little piece of land a piece of land
24:58that the community of Logan heids wanted
24:59to make into a park a park where all the
25:03chavalitos could come and play in so
25:05they wouldn't have to play in the street
25:06anymore and get run over by a car a park
25:09where all the Vitos could come and just
25:11sit down and watch the sun go down in
25:13the th a park where all the familias
25:17could come and just get together on a
25:19Sunday afternoon and celebrate the
25:21spirit of life
25:22itself but the city of San Diego said
25:25Char we're going to make a highway
25:27patrol substation here man so on April
25:31the 22nd 1970 the rasa of Logan Heights
25:35and other Cho communities of San Diego
25:37got together and they organized and they
25:39walked on the land and they took it over
25:41with their pigs and their shovels and
25:42they began to build their
25:44park and
25:47today that little piece of land under
25:49the cornado bridge is known to everybody
25:52as Cho Park
26:06[Music]
26:09he we shall continue to live my brother
26:13we shall continue to fight my friend we
26:16shall continue to live my brother we
26:19shall continue to fight my friend foro
26:24Park under the bridge
26:31it was the first time that we had all
26:33come together in a sense of unity for
26:36ourselves in our community other other
26:39than that it had been very isolated we
26:40believed it we said it we taught our
26:42children but we didn't vocally come out
26:44for the I think for the first time in my
26:46life I saw some people that were very
26:49you could see it in them DED dedicated
26:52committed believing in something and
26:54that really inspired me and made me say
26:56to myself inside you know I want to be
26:58part of this I want to be like these
27:01people I want to be able to feel
27:02dedicated and committed to something to
27:04a good cause and to me the issue of Cho
27:07Park was that cause that's the way we
27:10got it we wouldn't let the tractors work
27:12we just stood right there let them roll
27:14over us if they wanted
27:19[Music]
27:24to Cho Park marked The Rebirth of bar
27:29a small thing to some a little piece of
27:32land but to the Logan it was something
27:34of their
27:35own people remembered the voices of
27:38their ancestors fighting in the Mexican
27:39Revolution crying Li land and
27:44freedom
27:45land and
27:51[Music]
27:53freedom as the flag of Aslan was raised
27:56over the park a new rallying cry was
27:59born all the way to the Bay extend the
28:02park to the
28:04bay and reclaim the Waterfront from
28:11industry the ancient prophecy for a new
28:13Aslan was answered the trotten grass had
28:17risen up thirsty and drank the Sweet
28:20Water of Victory the park had been one
28:23now it would be made beautiful fill it
28:26with murales fill it with mural
28:28the empty pillars waited new Cho art was
28:32about to emerge for the world to
28:38see we organized ourselves to do the
28:41first murals in
28:431973
28:45um that uh that whole process of doing
28:48the murals and trying to get permission
28:50from the from the city was very
28:52difficult we had to do a lot of
28:54bureaucratic red tape there was a lot of
28:56paperwork every time we uh accomplished
28:58one step there was always another
29:01step but we did a lot of preparation
29:04putting the uh primer scaffolding paints
29:08brushes because permission or not we
29:10were going to paint the paints were all
29:12laid out and there's this gigantic wall
29:16there and uh all of us were just looking
29:19at this wall so we poured out the paint
29:23and took some rollers and some rollers
29:26and just attacked the wall
29:28the rollers and put color
29:31everywhere there was at least 2 300
29:35people that all of a sudden were all
29:37over the walls just the energy of all
29:39the people just just gathering over here
29:41grabbing brushes and going for it was
29:45done spontaneously we exploded on the
29:48walls whatever went on went on on the
29:51walls if we thought we had control we
29:53realized that we really didn't by the
29:56time everybody got done there was name
29:58names there was Donald Ducks there was
30:00Mickey Mouse uh there was all kinds of
30:02things all
30:03over and I was looking at it and about
30:06that time Jose comes walking up to me
30:08and he was really upset with me it's
30:10like if I was responsible for what had
30:12happened we really ruined it we really
30:14destroyed something that was possible
30:17and uh I can remember listening to him
30:20and I just kind of turned toward him and
30:22I says uh we haven't finished yet
30:27[Music]
30:32so for about four or five months there
30:34was about five or six of us that kept
30:36going back and working on those walls
30:40[Music]
31:00we thought it was very important that
31:02our community realized that we had very
31:05important people in our history and we
31:08did a series of portraits to have more
31:10Role Models or
31:16[Music]
31:18Heroes this was our first attempt to
31:22coordinate and to work a mural I had
31:26never seen murals in my life I thought
31:28they I think they're absolutely
31:30beautiful and I was
31:31just surprised no one in the community
31:34had ever seen them we had never even
31:36knew there was such a thing we had never
31:38learned about them in
31:43[Applause]
31:44[Music]
31:47school these were the first murals in
31:50the park a celebration of all the images
31:52from The Cho experience so there was so
31:55much to paint
31:59red and black the United Farm Workers
32:02flag black and red the Astic symbol of
32:05the four directions of Mother
32:08Earth ketal quatle The plumed Serpent of
32:12knowledge arching over the
32:15community the Kiosco a stylized Mayan
32:18pyramid to be built at the center of the
32:20park LTI the Mexican death skeleton
32:24reminding everyone of the Everlasting
32:26dance between life and death and death
32:30and
32:32life and the myso face symbol for the
32:35fusion of Indian Spanish and Cho
32:39cultures the murals reached
32:42back and then forward to the
32:45present and Beyond into the
32:50Future Park all the way to the Bay we
32:54will have Cho Park all the way to the
32:56Bay we're asking every everyone to
32:58please be down here on Tuesday April
33:0022nd at 12:00 noon to participate in the
33:03march to the Bay Cho Park was a
33:06flowering of Cho power and a challenge
33:08to those in San Diego who had planned
33:10for the bario to
33:12disappear yet the question lingered how
33:15to bring about change the park was such
33:18a great victory that almost all the
33:20people that uh were at the park takeover
33:23then we moved over to the neighborwood
33:24house and took that building over and
33:27and it was decided that it should be a
33:31free
33:33clinic and I thought well we do have
33:36some rights and we can speak up and
33:38change things uh we started with
33:41volunteer Doctors Volunteer nurses and
33:44it was just wonderful I was so
33:46apprehensive about the city council
33:48taking the building from us that I slept
33:50outside on the on the porch just to
33:54guard the place see that nobody took it
33:55away from us
33:59in the early '70s the bario strength was
34:01Rising other small volunteer self-help
34:04organizations sprang up Laquita a Cho
34:07free school the vario station a
34:09community Youth Center toas in Aslan an
34:12artist
34:14Collective it was a time of intense
34:16creativity and
34:18exuberance the Logan was in motion
34:21everything seemed possible at a moment's
34:24notice just almost like a snap of the
34:26finger we could have two 300 400 people
34:30uh marching and demonstrating in front
34:32of City Administration to uh to get our
34:35issues heard you had to fight for
34:37everything you wanted grass you wanted a
34:39faucet you wanted trash cans there were
34:42een meetings to ask for a lousy trash
34:46can then uh the Kiosco was another thing
34:49they didn't like the plans for it they
34:51didn't like it it looked like a pyramid
34:53they didn't like this they didn't like
34:54that so what wasn't going to be their
34:57park it was ours we wanted the the yosco
35:00the way it was uh had the blueprint and
35:02that's the way it
35:03[Music]
35:04was after the park takeover something
35:07really nice and beautiful started
35:10happening it wasn't just confined to the
35:12park though I mean uh the Centro famili
35:16was organizing the social workers the
35:19the artists were organizing the artist
35:21the teachers were organizing the
35:23teachers organizations a lot of movement
35:26was taking place Don
35:30mus all the Arts themselves were
35:32flourishing people were flourishing it
35:35was like as if the seed was finally
35:36getting watered and people started
35:38sprouting
35:52[Music]
36:07through Theo movement and through our
36:09own efforts especially through our music
36:11we began to learn more and more about
36:13where we came from and where we are
36:15going as a people
36:21[Music]
36:53oh
36:56[Music]
37:12this was the height of the movement
37:15politically and culturally Logan artists
37:18traveled to other communities to paint
37:20Cho artists from elsewhere traveled here
37:22to Cho
37:23park it was the time of the artistic
37:26collectives artists work together in
37:29groups sharing and reinforcing their
37:31ideas and styles a visual language for
37:35Cho art had developed anchored in the
37:37pre-colombian imagery of
37:39Aslan and inspired by the Mexican
37:41Masters Riva SOS Orosco and
37:50[Music]
37:52fredao Cho art chose its subject matter
37:55from the political issues of the day be
37:57it the farm worker
37:59struggle or
38:01laia my land Cho Park in 1975 uh we
38:08organized uh Invitational to uh to
38:12invite other mural groups from
38:13throughout the area the Roo Air Force
38:16was one that brought down a really good
38:18contention of artists the RCF was a
38:22group of uh artists in Sacramento some
38:25of us had been doing art for some time a
38:28lot of the people that started the group
38:31with us were our students so we went and
38:34we had N9 days to do
38:37it so the night that we arrived they
38:41wanted us to hit the sack and get up
38:43early and we said we we can't we don't
38:46we want to go right now we want to go
38:48and
38:49see what we're doing
38:52here so that we could get up in the
38:55morning and start painting as soon as we
38:57we said we can go right now you know
38:59kessle snaps his finger and lights go on
39:01and the scaffolding was there and we
39:03could actually go out there and and know
39:06at least how to grit our our cartoon how
39:10to make our
39:13preparations the rcaf women left here
39:17earlier they had already started their
39:19miral when we got there and I think the
39:22women messed up by jumping the gun see
39:24they took off without letting us know so
39:27it was a solo flight that usually in the
39:29rcaf you know it's a court Marshal man
39:32in which case they would have come back
39:33and say what are you talking about we
39:35know you guys too well again it's the
39:38old machismo coming
39:43out but they did a very beautiful
39:48[Music]
39:51pillar I maintain that there was enough
39:54in our Cho history that still hadn't
39:57been told so I thought someone is
40:01handling the images of CH and the VIN
40:04and
40:05sapata uh I'm going to concentrate on
40:07something that I've always done as my
40:10[Music]
40:16people having been brought up in the
40:19Fresno area sanen Valley after leaving
40:22New Mexico and being farmers in New
40:24Mexico it was like a natural
40:27so I did a farm worker
40:34family education jobs political power
40:38housing and healthc Care these were Elmo
40:40vento's National agenda issues that
40:43affected every Cho and Chana in the
40:45United States and in Cho Park local
40:48issues shared the center
40:51stage so come up here for those people
40:54who want to stay together down to the
40:56land
40:57on the
40:59waterfront bario Logan mobilized around
41:01the all the way to the Bay
41:04campaign and in a thousand City Council
41:06meetings San Diego resisted every step
41:09of the way we began to organize here in
41:12this particular Community to begin
41:15planning for our future because this was
41:17our right uh and it's important that
41:20every Community should plan for their
41:24future the dream was to free Logan from
41:26IND R and junkyards but did the bario
41:30have the strength to realize it or would
41:32San Diego Force families out of their
41:34homes like so many others that been
41:36forced out
41:38before when they built the freeway and
41:41then they built the bridge the residents
41:43here weren't recognized as being
41:45residents they were just recognized as
41:47people who hadn't gotten out of the way
41:48of the junkyards yet you know because
41:50they're coming the freeways and the
41:51bridge and these people haven't gotten
41:53out of the way but they'll be out of
41:54there in a few years well the whole area
41:57the whole V refused to just roll over
41:59and
42:06die here at the border that's how we say
42:09junkyards Y is
42:12no the mural vario yon no was part of
42:16the campaign to drive out the
42:21junkyards making this billboard was a
42:23moment of Harmony within the Cho
42:24movement artists and activists working
42:26together
42:27to Build a Better Community M Casas men
42:31yon more houses less
42:36junkyards I went to all the meetings
42:38with all these young people they all
42:40came after me and I went because I I
42:42guess they thought if they took an old
42:44lady along it would be
42:47respectful and we finally got some of
42:50the things we wanted
42:53[Music]
43:05bario Logan was
43:07rezoned junkyards began to move away it
43:11was a victory but not like the park
43:14takeover the politics of the Cho
43:16movement had changed less confrontation
43:19more meetings meetings and more
43:23meetings the all the way to the Bay
43:25campaign was being stalled by end less
43:27meetings with City attorneys city
43:29council the court
43:30Authority and the
43:33murals by the late '70s the period of
43:35spontaneous murals bursting onto the
43:37walls was coming to an end the community
43:40wanted input so the chano park steering
43:43committee began to set standards new
43:45artists would have to submit sketches
43:47and proposals for the artists this was
43:50limiting they yearned for the freedom
43:52they once had now everything was open to
43:54review and to question everybody had
43:57[Music]
44:11was a very heavy criticism uh from the
44:15vario uh the red star on the on the
44:19right hand you know are you preaching
44:21communism socialism uh haishi
44:25intertwined figures with to him was
44:28using the Ang notion to show a movement
44:31or the oen symbol the the
44:34interacting that was criticized for his
44:37nudity and uh Ste man a white lady with
44:42tattoos she intimidated the Logan
44:45probably more than uh any of the other
44:47things that were
44:48there if Ste had done an emerging M or
44:52woman and he did it all in white and it
44:55was not for the white woman or against
44:57the brown or the black woman that was
44:59the color that he thought best put
45:01across what he had in mind she was
45:05ascending into a new
45:09prominence by the late '70s the ongoing
45:12conflicts between male Cho artists and
45:14Cho women artists became public women
45:17had been encouraged by the activism
45:19around them now they reexamine their own
45:21lives and emerg to play a major role in
45:24the art movement when I approached the
45:26male art artist they didn't know quite
45:29what to make out of me here was a
45:30confident trained
45:33verbal um artist and who was a woman and
45:36yet were not relating them to them
45:38exactly like the typical male female
45:41relationship so most of my role was as a
45:44support
45:46person I was never invited to paint a
45:49mural with them and didn't really push
45:51it myself as
45:54well this young woman and her high
45:56school friend friends wanted to paint a
45:58mural and they showed me a drawing of
46:00themselves as coming out of these corn
46:03stocks so they saw themselves as little
46:04plants tender Little Sprouts the idea of
46:07working with young women was really
46:08thrilling to me and um so I said okay
46:12we'll do it we didn't have any money we
46:14didn't have a sponsor they told me later
46:17that they had approached some male
46:19artist and they had been turned down or
46:22ignored our enthusiasm for each other
46:24was really contagious
46:51I saw myself simply with them as a
46:54facilitator and and teacher I called
46:57myself a technical adviser I saw them as
47:00the
47:15artists so the murals portray Mexican
47:19history they portray Latin American
47:22history and they portray contemporary
47:24Cho history
47:27contemporary Cho history think about it
47:31things have changed chos can refuse to
47:33be an invisible people and can say with
47:36pride we write our history for ourselves
47:39and paint it on our
47:42murals yes things have
47:48changed not all the small alternative
47:51institutions started in the' 60s
47:53survived but some did become an
47:55established funded
47:59organization and the long-haired bario
48:01Warriors brushes in hand many left but
48:05others stayed and became painters and
48:07teachers of
48:08art and the park once's a Barren patch a
48:13pass overpiece of land now is green and
48:24beautiful Cho park has become a set of
48:27real life stories of a people's
48:29self-determination a message of
48:31creativity and struggle not just for the
48:34Sons and Daughters of Aslan but for all
48:36the people and all
48:38communities let Cho Park speak to those
48:41who dream of roses but swallow Thorns as
48:45a tale of Hope fulfilled
48:50[Music]
49:04into the80s the national Cho movement
49:06had fragmented in bario Logan activists
49:09focus on a single issue of enlarging the
49:11park to the
49:13Bay years of struggle had taken their
49:17toll organizations weakened some leaders
49:20left but others stayed since I began to
49:24work on the murals I've never let them
49:27I've always uh been restoring them a
49:30little bit here a little bit there I'm
49:32still involved every time there's a
49:35picket every time there's a March I'm
49:37there over the years I've been involved
49:40in the free clinic that has just grown
49:43tremendously and I never dreamed in my
49:46wildest dreams that it would be the way
49:48it is
49:51now I just got reelected as the chairman
49:53of the committee once again I'm back on
49:56for another
49:57ride I have mixed feelings about it over
50:00the years it's been like a roller
50:01coaster ride there's been times we've
50:03been riding high and times where we you
50:05know we' be riding low we've had
50:07problems within the organization
50:09problems sometimes with membership
50:12disagreements but um I've taken on the
50:14chairmanship here because by letting a
50:17lot of this division continue we are
50:19setting a bad example for our children
50:22because they're going to grow up and
50:23it's going to cause them the same
50:24problems that we had the same
50:26miscommunication that we
50:27[Music]
50:30had like so many times before the
50:33population of bario Logan is changing by
50:37the end of the 1980s bario Logan began
50:40to shrink again as San Diego continued
50:43to expand the growth of San Diego was
50:46accelerating the downtown was
50:47revitalized and a new convention complex
50:51installed San Diego is on the move and
50:54Logan is in its path for Cho Park the
50:57future is an open question it can be the
51:00symbol around which people can rally and
51:02defend their bario or it can be the last
51:04chano Island as families are forced from
51:07their homes by the pressure of San
51:08Diego's Urban
51:09Development it is a question that the
51:11future and the people of bario Logan
51:15will have to
51:16[Music]
51:18answer we are united we are not divided
51:23we are united
51:27we don't have to fall apart right now we
51:30have a a common
51:31[Music]
51:33goal in spite of all conflicts bario
51:35Logan moved forward in 1987 the
51:38community won a victory extending the
51:40park to the Bay acquiring three acres on
51:43the
51:44[Music]
51:46waterfront this took 17
51:52years even though the population around
51:55Cho Park is more
51:57scant every year people do use the park
52:00I mean and every year in Cho Park day
52:02there's there's a a celebration with
52:04thousands of
52:07people there's a greater meaning Beyond
52:10simply the neighborhood now in a sense
52:12it's almost a memorial to all the little
52:15BOS that exist across the country where
52:18Working Class People live but we're not
52:21going to go down easily
52:23[Applause]
52:28[Music]
52:42speee
52:44[Music]
52:46foree spee
52:52[Music]
52:58[Music]
53:08[Music]
53:17fore
53:27[Music]
53:30I never realized that I could do the
53:32things I did or had the strength or even
53:35had the the guts to do it you know and I
53:38thought you know here I am a housewife
53:41and a mother I've never done this and I
53:44just made me feel real good if I
53:45wouldn't have been involved in these
53:47things I would never have had the dreams
53:49to try to accomplish something I would
53:51have never even attempted it I would
53:53have never attempted to paint a mural we
53:55go to parades in areas of of San Diego
53:58where before would be full of
54:00intimidation and fear because we were
54:02mexicos and my children are going look
54:04at the chros mama Yoo look at the chros
54:08look at the Dan santes look at the FICO
54:10mama look at how Pride look at the low
54:12riders and people looking around at us
54:15like you know and my kids just saying it
54:18with pride and beauty and and I know
54:20that that's what that did for me
54:27I don't know of any other community that
54:29would fight for a park under a bridge
54:32where we get the fumes where we get the
54:35pigeon droppings but it's our park and
54:37we love
54:39it
54:41[Applause]
54:43Theo
54:45Park under the bridge
54:57[Music]
55:08[Music]
55:15we shall continue to live my brother we
55:18shall continue to fight my friend we
55:21shall continue to live my brother we
55:24shall continue to fight my
55:27friendo
55:29Park under the
55:33bridge
55:36Cho under the bridge
55:40[Music]
55:56n
55:58[Music]
56:36[Music]
56:46[Music]
56:53alici
57:00[Music]
57:13[Music]
57:19[Music]
57:25Mar for
57:29[Music]
58:23you
58:51am
59:25cig
59:26I
1:00:02for
1:00:26there
1:01:24AR
1:01:54e e
1:03:24for
1:03:54for for
1:04:55e

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