I recently met on the phone with Bill Flores, a friend of Joe Cordero. Joe thought that Bill had a good understanding of a lawsuit filed by 3 minority-based organizations who had jointly filed suit against the County of San Diego. The suit alleged that blacks, Mexican Americans, Asians, and women were being discriminated against by the County of San Diego in terms of employment, job assignment, and promotion. The suit was filed in 1977 and a settlement was reached in 1978, where the County agreed to comply with several of the requirements including the three…

Show your support at the WE MADE SAN DIEGO Fundraiser! By B. Chayer & D. Sawicki   The stories in “We Made San Diego” by Maria E. Garcia continue to be told, in video format, because of your support! The “We Made San Diego” fundraiser took place on 📆 December 12, 2024, from 6:00 to 8:00 PM at 📍 Seven Mile Casino located at 285 Bay Blvd, Chula Vista, CA. Attendees connected with local voices in our community! We discussed further explorations into our short documentaries and podcasts in the days ahead. We also shared the news about our involvement in the San…

A place for kids and their parents to learn and share their history.

By Brayden Chayer & David Sawicki Preserving Latino, Chicano and Mexican-American history is a priority for the “We Made San Diego” Project. While recent successful sold-out screenings of the short documentary, “We Made San Diego- For All” made an impact on the audiences that attended, we’ve decided to try the podcast approach. What exactly is the difference between a documentary and podcasts? Let’s explore. Content: Documentaries are factual material that is interpreted and shaped for entertainment or education. Podcasts can be about a variety of topics,…

“We Made San Diego- For All” Shines a light on Untold Stories from the Latino Community SAN DIEGO – YoungPop announces their nomination for the 2024 San Diego Film Week. A documentary short, titled: “We Made San Diego- For All” was written and produced by David Sawicki and based on the Internationally-Award Winning book written by Maria E. Garcia. The documentary and future video podcast series features the untold stories of Latino men and women that shaped the culture and history of San Diego. “We Made San Diego” was written in hopes to renew a…

MAAC serves tens of thousands of San Diego every year — check them out, in this documentary short. Stay tuned for Part 2, coming soon! When you click the subscribe button, you will be notified, thank you.

We are excited to announce the “We Made San Diego” YouTube Web Series- episodes featuring Latinos that created a great impact on the San Diego region! The Series will launch with an overview of the project- why and how it will preserve and celebrate the accomplishments of Latinos in the Greater San Diego Region. Watch it on YouTube or follow the instructions below.  Scroll down to the video on this page and FIRST click the button in the lower right hand corner – it looks like a rectangle. Clicking that will make video fill your screen.  Now click the…

The Mural: “A Life of Activism” was unveiled at the MAAC Community Center on Thursday, May 2, 2024. Many of the community members that are featured on the mural were present.  Author Maria E. Garcia with a canvas reprint of the Mural

As a third grader, I did not know what the statistics were on Latinos in history books or about our drop-out rate. What I did know that as a little girl I did hang on to the first book I ever read about one Latino family. The book was fiction but there was a little Mexican girl and I read it several times. Even though I did not understand why I read it I now understand it was about people that are like me.  In college I used index cards to write facts that I was learning about Latinos. I would write about Dr. Julian Nava, Hector Garcia, Cesar Chavez, Dolores…

Why I wrote “We Made San Diego” Even as a third grader I would look for books that had someone that was Latino. In college I would write on index cards with facts about either historical facts or something I had learned about Mexicans or Mexican Americans. Sadly, our contributions to the United States have been minimized. In College I wrote a historical paper on the Neighborhood House that was located at 1809 National Ave. Later, I would take those interviews, add several more, and wrote a book about that settlement house that had meant so much to the…