The North County Cinco de Mayo Festival brought exuberant life to Grape Day Park in Escondido today. The annual event, produced by USA Multicultural, was said to be bigger than ever. And I believe it!
Those arriving from around San Diego’s North County enjoyed Mariachis, different groups of colorful folklórico dancers, great singers, and other (mostly) Mexican cultural entertainment.
And tons of food, of every description, everywhere! (I succumbed to the temptation of a scrumptious carne asada quesadilla.)
Nonprofit community organizations were also on hand, and more than a few artists were showing their work. Beautify Escondido was present, too. I’ll be blogging about their efforts next.
Enjoy this collection of photographs!
The 2024 North County Cinco de Mayo Festival gets started on a late Sunday afternoon at Escondido’s Grape Day Park.The National Anthems of both Mexico and the United States begin the Cinco de Mayo program.Mariachi Del Mar/Rio kick off the main stage entertainment.Mariachis perform at a second, smaller stage across the grass.The crowd grows as the Cinco de Mayo event continues.The House of Mexico had a smiling representative at the festival!Colorful art from Mexico’s state of Nayarit.Ms. USA Multicultural poses for a photo.Lots of cool art could be enjoyed courtesy of Beautify Escondido.Irma Gogova (@irmagogovatattoo_art) smiles near a cosmic work of art she created!Lots of diverse food to eat at the event.Loteria aprons! Awesome!Young people perform up on the festive stage.Young vaqueros dance on the main stage.
…
Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!
Four beautiful murals are part of a fence at the Second Chance Youth Garden in San Diego’s Encanto neighborhood. I spotted the artwork about a week ago during my walk down Imperial Avenue.
Second Chance Youth Garden describes itself as an 8-week program combining hands-on urban farming & classroom learning for low-income youth in San Diego.
These colorful murals are amazing! If you have more information concerning them, please leave a comment.
Enjoy a few photographs…
…
Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!
A good sized crowd came out today to Balboa Park’s WorldBeat Cultural Center. The public was invited to take part in the 32nd Annual Multi-Cultural Earth Day!
Visitors to this unique Earth Day festival were not only treated to colorful multi-cultural entertainment, but had the opportunity to learn about two issues in particular: the changing climate and food accessibility. Visitors could also support organizations and local businesses that are trying in their own unique way to improve education, sustainability, and protect the environment. Artists and more ordinary vendors were present, too.
Special activities included a seed swap, a lesson on how to create and maintain a worm farm, and compost workshops. Kids could color fun artwork, too!
For the hungry crowd gathered outside in the San Diego sunshine, ethnic and vegetarian food vendors offered their special menus to choose from.
As you can see from my photos, I watched Azteca dancers perform for the crowd. They followed an impassioned speech by a holy man who once met the Dalai Lama. We need to raise our consciousness was his message.
Inside the WorldBeat Cultural Center I watched and listened to the joyful music of San Diego Taiko. I personally love energetic taiko drumming!
Other performances during the event would include Middle Eastern belly dance, West African drum and dance, Brazilian samba, and Native American drumming.
There were also tours of the center’s lush garden. I’ll have to do that next time.
I loved these Hopi Kachina dolls, made of cottonwood. They were hand carved by Arizona-based artist Elroy Kewanyama…
The following two ladies explained how Green Pocket Forest has partnered with the WorldBeat Cultural Center to create a 320 square meters Children’s Nature Zone, designed with the innovative Miyawaki method to spotlight 1000 native plants, providing habitat for 20+ species of birds and insects. Wow!
The San Diego Audubon Society table had tons of information about their current activities, plus beautiful bird artwork and a mural coloring station. (I learned their Bird Festival this year was a big success!)
…
Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!
Old art panels along the median of Imperial Avenue in Encanto have been replaced! I noticed the vivid, new panels a couple days ago while riding the Orange Line trolley.
This artwork originated over 30 years ago as part of what was then called the Streetscape Art Project. Local artist Eddie L. Edwards contributed 24 colorful images that depict life and culture in diverse Encanto. When I took photographs of the aged panels four years ago, they were in very poor condition.
Look how sharp the restored artwork now appears! These colorful new panels, I was told, were put up in the latter part of 2023.
Here are half a dozen examples. Notice the overarching rainbows!
…
Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!
A new mural in City Heights was unveiled this evening. The intent of the mural is to raise awareness about tuberculosis in San Diego, Mexico, and our border region.
I haven’t had a chance to photograph the finished mural yet, but will try to swing by tomorrow to check it out.
The mural is titled Los Colores acTBistas.
Why has this artwork been painted in City Heights, on a wall at Super Cocina (where, incidentally, many other great murals can be found)?
The Americas TB Coalition will conduct an international ‘ArTBtour in the United States – Mexico Border’ from March 9th to 26th, 2024. The tour will include murals, talks, and interviews to raise awareness of tuberculosis, its comorbidities with HIV and diabetes, and its impact on migrant populations and at-risk communities in Tijuana, Mexicali, and San Diego. The initiative aims to promote collaboration and understanding among different communities and stakeholders to end TB in the US/Mexico border region.
The murals on both sides of the border will be created by Alan Vazquez, a highly acclaimed ecological artist designated by the Mexican Ministry of Health as an ambassador for the fight against tuberculosis in Mexico, with the participation of local artists and affected communities.
UPDATE!
Here are photographs of the finished mural!
(I spoke to a couple of people who’d parked nearby. They loved the art, but didn’t perceive the mural’s message concerning tuberculosis.)
ANOTHER UPDATE!
I’ve learned a plaque will be added to the mural, conveying important information about tuberculosis!
…
Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!
Several walls inside the San Diego History Center in Balboa Park now feature an exhibit that chronicles the fight for women’s equality, highlighting successes by women in music, entertainment, art, and society at large. The exhibit makes use of informative displays that originally appeared in 2015 at the Women’s Museum of California.
Stories of trailblazers in the popular culture are told. In the 1960s and 70s, Helen Ready, Aretha Franklin, Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, Carole King and others filled the airwaves with music that related the experience of women and furthered their empowerment. In television, the advancement of women could be followed in shows like That Girl and The Mary Tyler Moore Show. With the 1968 television show Julia,Diahann Carroll become the first African-American leading actor on a sitcom.
As one sign explains: During the resurgence of the larger women’s movement in the 1960s and 70s, women artists, writers, choreographers, actors, filmmakers and playwrights sought to create a new dialogue between the viewer and their art through the inclusion of women’s perspective.
Other displays in the History Center concern the historic struggle for equal rights, including the women’s right to vote, as you can see in my photographs.
A couple years ago the Women’s Museum of California moved their archives and administrative offices from their old museum at Liberty Station into the San Diego History Center. Their presence has been online.
I’m told that in the future, a special gallery inside the History Center will be set aside for Women’s Museum of California exhibits.
…
Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!
Numerous old photographs and historical documents tell the story of how a few African Americans pioneers first came to Coronado in the late 19th century, and how their numbers would greatly increase beginning in 1944, because of the Federal Housing Project. The island had more than twice the African American population in 1960 than Chula Vista, El Cajon, Escondido, Imperial Beach, Lemon Grove, La Mesa and Vista combined!
The exhibition features stories of families through many generations, telling of their struggles and triumphs.
Some of Coronado’s earliest African American pioneers migrated west looking for opportunity, following Elisha Babcock, who would develop the once-barren island and build the Hotel del Coronado. In its early years, Coronado was considered more accepting of African American residents and visitors than most San Diego neighborhoods.
Members of the segregated United States military would also settle in Coronado–Civil War veterans, Buffalo Soldiers, and veterans of the two World Wars.
The exhibition explains that many African Americans in those early years worked as maids, cooks, nurses, butlers, housekeepers, gardeners, laborers, coachmen and chauffeurs. The pay was low and life could be difficult–many residents of Coronado would persist in supporting segregation for decades. Surprisingly, Coronado’s local schools were integrated from the beginning.
Visitors to the museum will learn how African American graduates from Coronado High School during the Civil Rights Era went on to successful careers and achievements in the arts, military, private business, and government. That success in the community continues to this day.
If you ever find yourself in beautiful Coronado, head to the The Coronado Historical Association‘s free museum and experience An Island Looks Back: Uncovering Coronado’s Hidden African American History.
You will be inspired by the life stories and accomplishments of African Americans who’ve called Coronado home.
…
Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!
The 31st San Diego Latino Film Festival promises to be bigger and better than ever!
The increasingly popular film festival will be taking place from March 14 to March 24, 2024, at the AMC Theatres at Mission Valley mall. You can check out the event website, which includes the full film schedule, by clicking here.
I’ve learned film lovers will have plenty to sink their teeth into. Among 56 features and 79 shorts there is comedy and tragedy, fantasy and realism, and everything in between. Many diverse stories emerge from Latinx experience.
Established and emerging artists are represented. There is animation and there are documentaries. There are films concerning music, and films about dance. Some films are in English, while others have subtitles. There’s so much that audiences can enjoy!
This year there’s a special emphasis on Argentinian cinema, with ten award-winning films featured. In Argentina the film industry faces various challenges, including censorship.
Each curated film is celebrated for its creativity, authenticity and excellence.
There will be a closing night award ceremony and concert, where ticket holders can mingle with guest filmmakers and actors. There is also the opportunity during two closing night films to meet Cheech Marin!
You want to check this out! Go to the San Diego Latino Film Festival website for everything you need to know by clicking here.
…
Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!
A two-part mural titled Singing Patterns brightens a corner of Valencia Park in Southeast San Diego. The colorful public art decorates the west side of the Southeastern Live Well Center, which opened last year. Travel along Euclid Avenue near Market Street and you’ll see it!
Singing Patterns was created by artist, writer and activist Doris Bittar. Here’s her Instagram page where you’ll see photos of the mural panels being installed.
You can read about this installation and all the art inside and outside the Southeastern Live Well Center by clicking here. You’ll learn this outdoor mural honors the culture of San Diego’s dynamic and historic neighborhoods… The artwork metaphorically bridges regions, history and time together using patterns from all over the world.
The patterns are derived from Black, Latin, Syrian, Somali and Filipino culture.
Earlier this year, while walking in Valencia Park, I took photographs of other public art outside this large new San Diego County complex. See those photos here and here!
…
Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!
These photographs are from today’s 4th Annual City Heights Multi-Cultural Festival of Love. The event, which celebrates community unity and diversity around Valentine’s Day, was held in Officer Jeremy Henwood Memorial Park.
I arrived as the festival began, having followed a small but heart-filled parade down several streets in City Heights. See those fun photographs here!
Neighbors were gathering around 11 am to gaze at cool lowriders along Fairmount Avenue and enjoy multicultural entertainment that would include ballet, lion dances, drummers and the Fern Street Circus.
There was plenty of great food on hand. Community organizations caught the attention of visitors at booths around the grass. (See my photos of several flyers with really great information.) Odi the Coyote from the San Diego Library was greeting young and old. The Rad Hatter was there to help everyone create radical hats from paper bags. And there were other craft activities for families, including making puppet masks!
I lingered for a bit and listened to Mariachi Victoria performing on the outdoor stage.
…
Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!
Cool San Diego Sights! 