Photo: kellinahandbasket/Flickr/Creative Commons License.
In partnership with Voice of San Diego: Voice of San Diego is a nonprofit provider of in-depth news and investigative reporting. We cover the issues that are crucial to the regions quality of life: its culture, politics, educational institutions, environment, housing and more.
Tommie Camarillo was under the San Diego-Coronado Bay Bridge in Barrio Logan in 1970, protesting for a dozen days with community members who occupied land that was about to become a California Highway Patrol station. Her 2-year-old daughter was there, too. A picture of her kid holding a shovel ran in the newspaper.
Camarillo put the news clip in a stack of papers documenting what it took to get the city to ditch the patrol station and build Chicano Park. She's kept track of everything that's gone on in the park -- the murals, the installation of a sculpture of Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata, the construction of a kiosk, its formal recognition on the National Register of Historic Places and more.
Walking into Tommie's house is like walking into a library, said Josephine Talamantez, who serves on the Chicano Park Steering Committee with Camarillo. She's got shelves and binders and binders and binders.
Talamantez is trying to get Camarillo's binders out of her home and into a proper museum and archival library. She's already got a website and a name, the Chicano Park Museum and Cultural Center, and now Talamantez and the board members of the nonprofit she helped start are working to lease a city-owned building that butts Chicano Park.
Neighborhood activists want the city to let the Chicano Park Museum and Cultural Center take over the building at 1960 National Ave. without opening it to other bids. | Photo: Kinsee Morlan.
--
--
The brick building at 1960 National Ave. was leased by San Diego Continuing Education, the San Diego Community College District's adult education arm, for almost four decades. Last fall, the district vacated the building for its new $49 million campus in Barrio Logan.
Talamantez said the city should turn the building over to her group without opening it to other bids.
That building was initially part of the whole negotiation for this land, Chicano Park, back on April 22, 1970, she said. We took over this land along with that building.
Talamantez said there were verbal agreements back then to turn the building into a community center. When the community college district wanted to lease the space, she said, community leaders agreed because the district said it would only be there a short time while it built a new campus.
We just didn't know it was going to take 37 years before they moved out, Talamantez said.
The group envisions the Chicano Park Museum and Cultural Center as a museum, archival library and community center that offers art exhibitions, cooking, language and science classes and meeting space. Talamantez estimates the building will need about $5 million worth of work to add things like climate control and open galleries. She said an architectural firm donated a design of the retrofit and now they're working on raising money to build out the space.
Barrio Logan community members protest under the San Diego-Coronado Bay Bridge -- in land that eventually became Chicano Park but was about to be transformed into a California Highway Patrol station in 1970. | Photo: Chicano Park Museum .
It's been a bit challenging, though, said Talamantez, since they don't yet have a lease on the building. She said she's worried the city will ignore its own policy that says it can, in certain limited situations, exclusively consider a single proposal when leasing city property, and instead put it out to public bid.
Councilman David Alvarez, who represents the district, said he'd like to see the Chicano Park Museum and Cultural Center take up residence in the building. He said the city's been discussing leasing information and insurance requirements with Talamantez and her group to get them ready to move in.
He stopped short of saying the city wouldn't let others bid on the space, but said he's confident either the Chicano Park Museum or another community-minded nonprofit would eventually go there.
The building was always meant to be returned back for community use, he said. But redevelopment dissolution meant big, long delays.
Photo: teddeady/Flickr/Creative Commons License.
He said he'd like to see the building relate more to Chicano Park and its history.
This is what we need to do for this wonderful park, he said. Because right now at Chicano Park there's no center of facility where visitors -- and we have thousands of visitors to that park; I mean, every time you go there there's a tour bus or something going on - and we don't have a welcome center that gives them the history and what's what.
Talamantez is glad to have Alvarez's support, but she's suspicious of the city.
And if it looks like the city isn't going to give the space back to the community, she thinks the community would step up like they did back in the '70s when they established Chicano Park in the first place.
Knowing my community, that's going to be our building no matter what, she said.
Photo: Nathan Gibbs/Flickr/Creative Commons License.
Photo: Patty Mooney/Flickr/Creative Commons License.
This article was originally published on Voice of San Diego.
Top image by Patty Mooney/Flickr/Creative Commons License.
Like this story? Sign up for our newsletter to get unique arts & culture stories and videos from across Southern California in your inbox. Also, follow Artbound on Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube.
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
06/12/2025
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. A new survey from Pixitmedia by Datacore revealed a major shift in the Media & Entertainment industry in media archiving, with 85% of resp...
06/12/2025
HACKENSACK, N.J. LiveU has announced that the national public broadcaster Czech Television has completed one of the largest LiveU live production deployments fo...
06/12/2025
NEW YORK The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) presented the Excellence in Production Technology Emmy Award to NASA+ and Dr. Tom Leight...
05/12/2025
2025 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame: Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nati...
05/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Veritone's Sean King on the Power of Mining Video, Audio DataThe company's Data Refinery offers users total control and governance over da...
05/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: Inside the Nashville Predators' Unified, Flexible, Sca...
05/12/2025
Netflix Reaches Agreement To Acquire Warner Bros. Following Planned WBD SplitThe deal does not include WBDs sports assets like TNT Sports (US, UK, LatAm), Euros...
05/12/2025
FOX Sports Returns to Indianapolis for Primetime Broadcast of Big Ten Championsh...
05/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Digital Engagement & Monetization Workshop Tackles the ...
05/12/2025
Atlanta United Lights Up New Emory Healthcare Studio With First Live Broadcast f...
05/12/2025
As Messi Takes the Pitch, MLS, Apple, NEP Roll Out Largest MLS Cup Production Ev...
05/12/2025
ESPN Enters College Football's Most Intense Month With Elevated Workflows fo...
05/12/2025
It's about that time! Awards season is in full swing, and the Film Independe...
05/12/2025
Every year, Spotify Wrapped offers a personalized look back at the audio that defined your year. It's a snapshot of your listening habits, designed to tell ...
05/12/2025
In 2025, Spotify's EQUAL, GLOW, and RADAR programs celebrated women, LGBTQIA , and emerging artists who turned moments into milestones. From breaking record...
05/12/2025
In our latest blog, we explain how Wi-Fi 7 rollouts can drive consumer loyalty with value-add services such as consumer cybersecurity. We also explore how this ...
05/12/2025
LOS ANGELES Netflix announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Nielsens Gracenote has launched Gracenote Content Connect, a new ad platform that provides agencies, brands, supply-side platforms (SSPs) and demand-si...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK In an most important update to the workings of deal-based programmatic advertising, IAB Tech Lab has released version 1.0 of its Deals API for public c...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Pass the turkey. Pass the stuffing. Pass the cranberry sauce. All are common requests of Americans celebrating Thanksgiving Day with family and f...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. Netflix announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has approved AT&T's $1.02 billion acquisition of spectrum from UScellular in a decision that was issued sho...
05/12/2025
The Best Coldplay Songs: 21 Tracks That Shoot for the Stars From Yellow to Viva La Vida, Fix You to Paradise, this playlist goes back to the start.
December ...
05/12/2025
Zafris Lecture Series Brings Nabil Ayers to Berklee The 32nd annual James G. Zafris Distinguished Lecture series was held on Thursday, November 13, with guest...
05/12/2025
Friday 5 December 2025
A new Game of Thrones Tale: Official trailer for Sky Exc...
05/12/2025
Back to All News
Don Lee, Lee Jin-uk, and Lalisa Manobal to Star in Netflix Act...
05/12/2025
Tis the season of giving once again and this year we've taken our Give Back Fridays' concept and turned it on its head.
In the autumn we were approach...
05/12/2025
Brayden Gogis doesn't remember a time when he wasn't completely fixated on games in all forms. In preschool, when they asked us to dress up as what we ...
05/12/2025
The Grinch steals the spotlight as the theme for The Late Late Toy Show 2025
Tune in tonight at 9:35pm on RT One and worldwide on RT Player
#LateLateToyShow...
05/12/2025
RT Announces New Presenters of Flagship News Programmes
New RT Six One News co-presenter Tommy Meskill
Sarah McInerney & Justin McCarthy join Morning Ir...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir Blackmagic Design HyperDeck Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & ...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir AJA Ki Pro Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & just:in linux
More Details:Starting with version 5.5, both just:in mac pro and just:in linux sol...
04/12/2025
Wangu Kanuri from Kenya and Godwin Asediba from Ghana are two of this years finalists for Thomsons Young Journalist of the Year Award. The pair are runners-up i...
04/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: ProximaVision's Claudio Lisman on Why Tethered Drones Could Be...
04/12/2025
SVG Campus Shot Callers: Imry Halevi, Senior Associate Director of Athletics, Co...
04/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: LiveU Lightweight Sports Production: A Step Change in Spor...
04/12/2025
London to Riyadh: DAZN brings the boxing glamour to new production levels for Be...
04/12/2025
Analysis: Paramount bets on the battering ram' with Champions League play By Callum McCarthy, Editor-at-Large
Tuesday, December 2, 2025 - 10:12
Print ...
04/12/2025
Space City Home Network Launches SCHN DTC App for Astros and RocketsThe Rockets and Astros were previously the lone NBA and MLB teams without a DTC appBy Jason...
04/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Content Workflows Workshop Spotlights Evolution of Spor...
04/12/2025
New Sponsor Spotlight: Geotech's Patrick Wambold On the Unreal Engine Revolu...
04/12/2025
Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nationally and RegionallyBy Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S.
Thursday, December 4, 2025 - 1:52 pm
Print This Sto...
04/12/2025
(L-R) Rebecca Lichtenfeld, Mohammadreza Eyni, Sara Khaki, and Judith Helfand att...
04/12/2025
SBS launches Future Frames initiative to support emerging First Nations video ed...
04/12/2025
Coronal mass ejections caused by eruptions on the surface of the sun can have fa...
04/12/2025
Gracenote Content Connect enables media ecosystem to precisely align ad campaigns and programming based on rich content signals
NEW YORK - December 4, 2025 - N...
Photo: kellinahandbasket/Flickr/Creative Commons License. 
