Raíces — Our Story, Our Narrative
Two Flags, One Home
Two flags hung on his bedroom wall growing up, Mexican on one side, American on the other. Eddie García opens SVL's Hispanic Heritage Month series with a Sunday morning that never left him.
Eddie Garcia
Raíces — Our Story, Our Narrative
The Tech Museum and the Children's Discovery Museum Stand on the Ashes of La Colonia
Before the Tech Museum and the Children's Discovery Museum, there was La Colonia. Eddie García documents how San José's urban renewal policies demolished a thriving Mexican neighborhood. Part 6 of Raíces — Our Story, Our Narrative.
Raíces — Our Story, Our Narrative
The Dream: Four Decades of Fighting for a Space to Call Our Own
As early as 1952, San José's Mexican community was fighting for a cultural center. The city said no. Four decades of roadblocks and demolished plans. Eddie García documents the dream that refused to die. Part 7 of Raíces — Our Story, Our Narrative.
Raíces — Our Story, Our Narrative
Show Me the Money: How the Mexican Heritage Plaza Got Funded Against All Odds
$30,000 from a community appeal. Less than 3% of what was needed. Eddie García documents how community members with persistence, tenacity, and an unshakeable belief took the dream all the way to Congress. Part 9 of Raíces — Our Story, Our Narrative.
Raíces — Our Story, Our Narrative
¡Viva El Mariachi! How a Festival in a Cramped Office Became the Dream’s First Victory
Five people. One office. 1988. That is where the Mexican Heritage Plaza began. Eddie García documents how the Mexican Heritage Corporation turned four decades of rejection into a $153,000 mariachi festival victory. Part 8 of Raíces — Our Story, Our Narrative.
Raíces — Our Story, Our Narrative
In a Word — Hope: The Mexican Heritage Plaza and the Legacy That Refuses to Be Renamed
“This cultural center will offer, in a word — hope." Twelve chapters of forgotten San José history later, Eddie García closes the Raíces series with the legacy that refuses to be renamed, and a 94-year-old Blanca Alvarado having the last word.
Raíces — Our Story, Our Narrative
24,342 Acres. By 1865 His Family Had 2,200. The Difference Was the Law.
Eddie García tells the story of Antonio Chaboya, San José's largest private landowner, and the 1851 law that stripped 90% of his land from him and his fellow Californio ranchers.
Raíces — Our Story, Our Narrative
New Almaden Mines: How Mexican Labor Built Silicon Valley and Fought Back
Eddie García takes us underground into the New Almaden Mines, where Mexican miners on Cinnabar Hill sparked what may be the earliest ethnic Mexican-organized labor movement in U.S. history.
Raíces — Our Story, Our Narrative
The Founding of El Pueblo de San José: A 22-Day Journey Into History
Eddie García reconstructs the 22-day journey that 66 Mexican settlers took from San Francisco to found El Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe in 1777.
Raíces — Our Story, Our Narrative
The Mexicans: How San José's Founders Were Written Out of Their Own City's History
Historian Eddie García examines how San José's Mexican founders were systematically erased from the city's own historical record and who finally told the truth.
Raíces — Our Story, Our Narrative
Raíces | Vol. 1, Part 1 — The Prologue
Eddie García traces Mexican Heritage Plaza's story from San José's founding in 1777 to a cultural landmark that almost never got built.