jessstrobosh

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Tesimonios y Chisme

Tienda de Reyes Employees:

I spoke with the manager and an employee who are both Latinx. Both women shared their experiences and thoughts with me about the customers that come in, how they feel about the business being owned by white people who profit from their culture, and whether they feel appreciated or exploited. 

Both ladies stated that most of their customers are tourists who come from outside San Diego to visit the area, and that they both enjoy working there because they like to share their traditions and culture with others especially as it relates to celebrating Dia de los Muertos. The store has a lot of artwork and goods relating to Dia de los Muertos, and the ladies felt that it is most often misunderstood by people who have no cultural context of the holiday because of the skulls, and depiction of death. One of them said she had an interaction with one customer who just refused to accept that this holiday was something that should be celebrated because he thought it was “creepy”. She explained to me that some people come in just to ask questions to see what kind of response the employees will give, or cause a disruption like putting on a sombrero and galloping in place waving an invisible lasso over their head yelling “On-Duh-Layyy” while laughing, thinking they are a real comedian… and other customers genuinely want to learn about a new culture. She said those customers make up for the bad ones. 

The manager of Tienda de Reyes said she feels that the owners do care about their employees and the store, and are culturally sensitive. They have items from local Latinx artists for sale as well as small notes about the history or origin of an object like a serape, or a worry doll.

El Centro Artesano (pottery store) Employees:

On my second visit to the park, early on a Friday morning, I stopped into El Centro Artesano pottery store to look around at the colorful pots, tile and decor. As I was walking around enjoying the beautiful handmade artworks, carefully crafted, stacked, sets of pots painted with birds and flowers, music playing, enjoying the warm coffee i brought with me, a commercial begins over the radio… “This is United States Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem… This message is for the ILLEGAL immigrants hiding here in the United States. If you leave now on your own, there may be a way for you to come back, but you need to leave now. If you don’t, we will find you and make you leave.” I choked on my coffee. I got chills. My stomach turned. I obviously don’t listen to the radio enough, because I have never heard such a disgusting and abhorrent message broadcasted before. I looked around and the three other customers on the patio all met eyes with me individually, and I wondered what they thought looking back at my brown face. I’m not one to ever “complain” to a business, but while buying a little tile with a hummingbird on it, I mentioned to the employees at the register that the commercial was very disturbing and they both got red in the face. They both profusely apologized, and explained that it’s on every channel, and they have tried everything to avoid it, and are mortified because they have coworkers who cross the border to work with them, and on said, “It breaks my heart to have to look them in the eyes when that commercial plays because no one here feels that way about them. We love them, and want them here.” The other said, “Excuse my language, but the government is so fucked up right now. It’s so hard to be in San Diego, because Mexico is right there and it’s kind of part of who we are too. It didn't feel so separate.���

Jessica’s personal testimony:

Old Town always felt like a special place to me as a child, because I believed it to be an authentically old place. I was a child who was told that I was an “old soul” because I always put a great deal of importance on history and being respectful of culture and tradition and making sure I took time and paid attention to learn. I loved to spend time with, and pay such close attention to my grandfather while he was alive because he knew everything, especially about San Diego. However, the history I learned about Old Town was missing one KEY point. Most of what is “Old Town” is a reconstruction, and was built as a historical amusement park in 1968. Old Town still holds a special place in my heart, and maybe now more so, because I feel the need to uncover and share the true history of my city. My family has been in San Diego longer than it has been called San Diego. I feel the need to be a storyteller, and more importantly, a truth teller.

Photo of the squirrel I talked to on my second visit. I named him Benito. <3

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Mapping Old Town

This section was inspired by Jana Leo’s “Concept: City Reservoir” piece, specifically when she says, “Mapping is a tool for reflection and generation… Mapping recognizes existing gaps in the city and through filling these gaps with desires, create a new unknown.” I retrieved a map of the Old Town State Park from the information booth for the Old Town Trolley Tours stop, and decided to highlight the businesses that I could find information about online, regarding ownership. Most are restaurants, and the businesses that are Latinx-owned are small, new, and share space in the Old Town Urban Market, which is like a little food plaza with a variety of vendors that are all Mexican or Mexican-fusion food and drinks. It may be the most culturally-inspired part of the whole park. It shows the value of community, ability, versatility, and resilience of Latinx people.

Businesses selling Latinx cultural goods or food, with non-Latinx ownership that I visited for the research portion of this project, are outlined in Pink.

Businesses selling Latinx cultural goods or food, with non-Latinx ownership are outlined in Blue.

Businesses selling Latinx cultural goods or food, with partial-Latinx ownership are outlined in Orange.

Businesses selling Latinx cultural goods or food, with Latinx ownership are outlined in Yellow.

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Culture as a Costume

I visited Bazaar del Mundo in Old Town on two separate occasions. This store opened in 1971, and specializes in Latinx cultural goods - home decor, clothing, accessories, books, etc. The owner, Diane Powers, is an older white woman from Del Mar, who “credits her passion for Latin American color and culture to extensive travels throughout Mexico and many other South and Central American countries” per her biography on the store website. On both occasions that I visited the store, there were three women working, all White; two on the first floor, one on each side of the building, and one on the smaller upper floor. On my first visit, I was with my husband who is a tall, friendly white man, with a great smile and cheery demeanor. These older ladies loved him. Every single one of them chatted with him, asked how his day was going, what he was looking for, who he was with, and then saw me… and nothing. It was a strange moment of confused judgement. I didn’t know if they were judging me, or if they thought I was judging them. One of them nervously smiled, and said, “Oh, those ornaments are made in Oaxaca!” I just happened to be standing next to a display of tin ornaments. So I took a photo, and moved on. It was bizarre to me to have such an interaction with someone working in customer service. 

On my second visit, I was alone. Early in the morning, right as they opened. At first, I thought their lack of acknowledgement was because they had just opened so I wandered around the park for a while, sat on a bench and watched a squirrel in a tree, and said “bueno dias” to many friendly restaurant workers who were coming in to prepare for their day before heading back to Bazaar del Mundo. By now, there were a few other customers in the store, so I walked in, and made sure to pass by the register where the employee was standing. We made eye contact, I smiled, she looked at me and looked back down. Okay, maybe she’s having a rough morning. I walked upstairs. 

This time, I walk upstairs, this lady is folding tissue paper behind the register, so I say “good morning!” she replies with a “good morning” and nothing else. I continued browsing and taking photos of items. The woven and embroidered goods they have from Mexico and Guatemala are beautiful and intricately handcrafted, and I wish I knew more about the process and people who made them. So while holding a little coin pouch, I asked the staff member if she knew anything about where it was made, and she said, “All I know is that we buy them from a lady named Deborah who travels down there once a year to buy stuff, and she ships it back.” I asked if she knew if it maybe came from a co-op, because some of the items had tags that were marked “fair trade”, and she just shrugged her shoulders. It was like I was bothering her to inquire about how the items came to America, and who made them. I thanked her for her time, and even bought the little coin pouch. In Bazaar del Mundo specifically, I felt a strange sense of “otherness” that I didn’t feel anywhere else in the park. It was like this mask of a cultural savior complex. Like they were doing something great for these Latinx craftspeople who make these incredibly beautiful items only to have them sold at outrageous prices in America. All while the staff at this store ignores the people who look Latinx who walk into their shop. They use the culture for profit, but ignore the people. It’s all a costume for them. It’s a performance. This experience really pulled at my heart and reminded me of Gloria Anzaldua’s Borderlands, she writes, “Currently, Mexico and her eighty million citizens are almost completely dependent on the U.S. market.” These craftspeople have few options, and the best may be to sell their goods at low prices to the American buyers that go down there, but there is no morality in the American buyer knowing they are going to sell the item for 20x what they buy it for, to give the maker a better offer. Like Anzaldua said, “The Gringo, locked into the fiction of white superiority, seized complete (political) power, stripping Indians and Mexicans of their land while their feet were still rooted in it.”

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Cultural Tourism

The Old Town Trolley Tour company is something you see all over San Diego, but the first stop is in Old Town. I picked up brochures and the park map at their information booth on my second visit. The tour guides explain all the “fun facts” about San Diego they rehearse and recite on a daily basis as they drive bus loads of tourists around, taking photos and holding onto their hats in the open trolley car.

There were elementary school students on a field trip the morning of my second visit, who were running around in groups with a chaperone looking for items and completing tasks off a checklist the adult had on a clipboard. Some kids were more eager than others. Some kids were asking to buy little toys at the stands while they waited for instructions.

I appreciate the visibility of Latinx culture in the brochures, and the diversity shown in those appreciating cultural traditions in San Diego, because San Diego is a culturally diverse place, but I wonder if those that visit really care to understand, to learn, or just believe the “fun facts” they are told, eat the gringo tacos at Fred’s, and go home thinking that’s the “real San Diego”?

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OLD TOWN HISTORY

San Diego's first inhabitants were the Kumeyaay who lived in the area for thousands of years.

Spanish Colonial Era (1769) - The establishment of the first Spanish mission and fort in 1769 marked the beginning of Old Town’s development.

Mexican Period (1821-1846) - After Mexico’s independence from Spin, San Diego became part of Mexico and continued to grow as a vibrant community.

American Era (1848-1872) - With the Mexican-American War and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, California became part of the United States, and Old Town remained the heart of San Diego.

April 20, 1872 - Fire devastated the core of Old Town. It started in the courthouse-jail and tore through many homes and businesses. This devastation removes Old Town as the primary hub of San Diego and makes Alonzo Horton’s “New Town” (currently Downtown San Diego) the prominent place in the city.

1964 - City Planners propose “Old Town San Diego State Historic Park” to be dubbed the “Birthplace of California” and to “recreate San Diego’s Mexican and early-American period from 1821-1872.

This idea was sold to voters as a way to bring “state funds, tourist dollars and civic pride to the region.” Essentially, they wanted to create a state funded, historical amusement park.

There was a lot of political red tape, and accusations of unsavory dealings to get it passed, and businesses would have to move and relocate.

1968 - Old Town San Diego State Historic Park opens.

The history of Old Town seems very shady to me. Something doesn’t feel right about the fire in 1872 ,and then almost a 100 years later the politics around getting the park open recreating the “history” was very shady.

Let’s start at the beginning. Old Town was the primary hub of the city of San Diego. Alonzo Horton wanted his new little town to be, so he named it “New Town”...real original. Then, suddenly a fire breaks out in a courthouse-jail, in the middle of the night? Who’s in the courthouse in the middle of the night? No one. Oh, but whose town has a big “grand celebration” in June? Horton’s. Seems fishy.

Let’s move to 1964. The City Planner wants to bring money to the City, but there also seems to be lots of votes swinging his way, and none of the business owners seem to know where they are coming from. There are promises being made for land in other places for the businesses that need to move from Old Town to make room for the project and where is that money coming from, or is someone just signing over land? Shady. This political agenda of space and moving people reminded me of One Block in Bed-Stuy. The City got richer by forcing these business owners out, and I’m sure the planner that was “coming up with the votes” got a nice cut of the deal when it was all said and done. They didn’t care about people or their livelihood, they cared about how they could benefit from taking their space to make a profit.

Also, if the whole purpose of the Old Town State Park is to recreate the historical period leading up to the fire, why is there NO MENTION OF THE FIRE ANYWHERE IN THE PARK? For being a historical park, there’s not enough HISTORY being told.

[jessstrobosh]

Exploring Old Town San Diego

I have chosen Old Town Historical Park as my research site, specifically comparing two locations within the park. I compared Bazaar del Mundo gift shop and Tienda de Reyes in the Fiesta de Reyes plaza. Though both businesses are owned by white business owners who specialize in selling traditional Latinx cultural items, I am  comparing retail atmosphere, employee interaction and perspective as well as collected and personal testimony. The investigative questions that guided my work are:

How do the employees feel about the business’ presentation of Latinx culture and traditions?

Does the business appear to use the culture as a costume, or does it genuinely aim to share and educate tourists on the traditions?

Asking them to share their feelings about a specific object or retell an anecdote that illustrates how they feel.

I used both participant-observer and emic/etic perspectives as my ethnographic tactics to guide my research of the site. I spent over four hours in the Park in various locations observing the park visitors on two different occasions to see the different types of people visiting at different times/days. I have decided to break this project into mini-blogs for the viewer to choose their own path through my journey in Old Town because there is no right way to take it in, and I want you to feel both here and there.