Raíces documents the places, people, and histories that prove Latino presence in this country has always been here. Volume 1, by historian Eddie García, traces the four-decade fight to build San José's Mexican Heritage Plaza. Volume 2, by author Salomón Quintero, journeys into Mexica civilization through his novel Flight of the Hummingbird. Two writers. One conviction: historical memory shapes what we believe we're capable of.
Raíces — Our Story, Our Narrative
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
A new volume of Raíces begins. Volume 1 gave our history a place. Volume 2 gives it a voice. Salomón Quintero, UC Berkeley Chicano movement veteran and 45-year attorney, on the questions that led him from the picket line to writing Flight of the Hummingbird.
Raíces — Our Story, Our Narrative
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
$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
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
“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
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
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
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
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
Eddie García traces Mexican Heritage Plaza's story from San José's founding in 1777 to a cultural landmark that almost never got built.