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The History of Neighborhood House in Logan Heights: Tulie’s Story

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How Neighborhood House helped to nurture an indomitable spirit

By Maria E. Garcia

Obdulia “Tulie” Trejo is the 91 year old sister of Armida Piña, one of the women who shared her Neighborhood House stories in the article “The Lives of Girls”. Tulie says that she raised her younger sister Armida. She invited me to her home in Chula Vista to show me her many baking trophies and to talk about her own memories of Neighborhood House.

Neighborhood House was a place where Tulie, a bright young girl in the 1930s, could learn and excel.   [Read more…]

The History of Neighborhood House in Logan Heights: Love and Marriage, 1940s

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Part II of the Lives of Girls

By Maria E. Garcia

Today’s article is a continuation of last week’s conversation with Amparo “Tuti” Zumaya, Consuelo Zumaya Lopez, Noralund Cook Zumaya, Rosa Zatarian Ramirez, Armida Piña, and Bertha Castro Zumaya. While hard economic times affected everyone, there were different societal expectations about what were considered appropriate activities for boys and girls during this time period. These women all provide rich details about the lives of girls who grew up during the war years.

Rosa Zatarian has her own memories about Neighborhood House and about Logan Heights. She and her sister would lay in bed on Friday night and listen to the Latest Hits program. This program came on at 9 p.m. every Friday and they couldn’t wait to listen to the music of the 1940s.

Rosa also remembered that when her family lived in El Paso and did not own a radio, a neighbor would place his radio in the window. Neighbors would then bring chairs and sit in the yard to listen to President Roosevelt’s fireside chat broadcasts. According to Rosa’s mother “Él nos quitó el hambre.” (He took our hunger away.) It seems that helping and supporting each other was a way of life all over our country.
  [Read more…]

The History of Neighborhood House in Logan Heights: The Lives of Girls

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By Maria E. Garcia

Families in Logan Heights faced grim financial hardship during the 1930’s and early 1940’s. Childhood entertainment and opportunities were limited. Neighborhood House provided classes, programs and outings that are remembered sixty and even seventy years later by the many people that I have interviewed.

While hard economic times affected everyone, there were different societal expectations about what were considered appropriate activities for boys and girls during this time period. Boys participated in the popular sports programs at Neighborhood House. Team members played in other parts of the city and even other parts of the country. Boys were also given a much greater freedom to explore their environs singly or with other boys.

Girls were raised in a socially conservative environment that emphasized marriage and raising a family. Their activities were often restricted or required a chaperone.   [Read more…]

The History of Neighborhood House in Logan Heights: Three Women Who Worked at Neighborhood House and Became Part of the Community

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Miss Gertrude Peifer, Mrs. Wilfreda Brackett and Miss Julie McClure

By Maria E Garcia

Last week I wrote about three women who shaped the direction of Neighborhood House from the 1920’s to World War II. The leadership of Mary Snyder, Rebecca Halley and Anita Jones reflected the influence of the newly recognized profession of social work and the progressive era’s spirit of social reform.

There are three more women during the same time period and into the early 1950’s who deserve recognition for their contributions to Neighborhood House and the Logan Heights community.   [Read more…]

The History of Neighborhood House in Logan Heights: Social Workers and the Progressive Era Spirit of Reform

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Mary Snyder, Rebecca Halley and Anita Jones, the early years

By Maria E. Garcia

Women had a great deal of influence and contributed to the work at Neighborhood House. A number of them did so as members of the newly recognized profession of social work. Settlement Houses originated in England and by the 1880’s they had become established in the United States. Neighborhood House came into being as part of the settlement house movement.

Settlement houses were usually established in poor urban areas and provided a variety of services to the community. Those services included cooking classes, adult education, craft and sewing classes. They also did crisis intervention and provided home health care and daycare for working mothers. The settlement house movement evolved in parallel with the social worker movement in this country. Both were unique agents of social reform during the Progressive Era from 1890-1920.   [Read more…]

The History of Neighborhood House in Logan Heights: Mary Barrios, Part II

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The War Years, Romance and Work

By Maria E. Garcia

Mary Barrios’ early years centered around the activities provided by Neighborhood House during the 1930’s. She learned to cook and sew and went to Camp Dehesa. Neighborhood House services took some of the stress off of struggling families like Mary’s during The Great Depression.

Her father and her mother were both widows and came to the marriage with children. They also had children together and at one point a woman that worked at the cannery gave her mother a baby boy. This woman felt she could not return to Mexico with a child born out of wedlock. This very big family lived at 1870 Newton Ave.   [Read more…]

The History of Neighborhood House in Logan Heights: Mary Barrios, Early Years

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By Maria E. Garcia

Mrs. Barrios was born in 1925. Her mother was very strict, and young Mary was not allowed to play with the neighborhood children. She says her only outings were to Our Lady of Guadalupe Church. Mary’s family was a blended family. Her father and her mother were both widows and came to the marriage with children. They also had children together and at one point a woman that worked at the cannery gave her mother a baby boy. This woman felt she could not return to Mexico with a child born out of wedlock. This very big family lived at 1870 Newton Ave.

At the age of 10 or 11 Mary was finally allowed to go to Neighborhood House. Her half bothers were allowed to go at a much earlier age. We have seen this double standard over and over again. Her older sister, to quote Mary, “brought English to the house.” She went to school and learned English and her young siblings learned English from her. In order to learn English her mother took night classes.   [Read more…]

The History of Neighborhood House in Logan Heights: Carmen, Mary and Richard Castillo

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By Maria E. Garcia

Mary and Richard Castillo met in 1956, at a dance at Neighborhood House. Mary was a member of the Drifters, a girl’s social club which was sponsoring the dance. When it came time for the Sadie Hawkins dance, Mary, like most girls her age did not want to ask one of the guys to dance. As Mary puts it “there was a group of guys holding up the wall.”

Finally she spotted a friend and felt comfortable enough asking him to dance. The young man was Reyes Chavez who refused the dance but offered his friend as a dance partner. That friend was Richard Castillo. Both Richard and Mary admit that he was not a good dancer then or now. His poor dancing however did not keep a romance from blossoming and the couple will soon celebrate 55 years of marriage.   [Read more…]

The History of Neighborhood House in Logan Heights: Viva Tortilla’s Army!

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Lasting friendships, family ties and community

By Maria E. Garcia

Tortilla’s Army was the spontaneous outgrowth of the ways World War II altered life in Logan Heights and its intersection with the charisma and leadership of  young Manuel “Tortilla” Ojeda.  A favorite game during wartime in Logan Heights was playing army.

By 1942 Tortilla had assembled his troop of kids as young as five and as old as fourteen.  He had pressed into service his younger cousins, neighborhood friends and his younger brother Nando. General Tortilla marched his growing ranks around the neighborhood to protect it and to be prepared to fight.

After the summer of 1942, the participation in Tortilla’s Army slowly died. …   [Read more…]

The History of Neighborhood House in Logan Heights: Tortilla’s Army – Defending Logan Heights

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The Summer of ’42, patriotism and childhood’s end

By Maria E. Garcia

San Diego in the 1940’s was alive with military action. Newspapers were full of stories about defending the home front, men were training for military duty and bunkers were being built on Point Loma. If my source is correct there is a bunker by Chavez Parkway and Main Street. The men from Logan Heights had left for Europe and the Western Pacific during War War II.

In Logan Heights a favorite game became playing army. Visualize looking across the bay to Coronado. You see ships leaving and preparing to go across the ocean to defend our country. Newspapers and the radio had constant reminders of the dangers of living in a military town on the western side of our country. In this atmosphere Tortilla’s Army was born.   [Read more…]

The History of Neighborhood House in Logan Heights: Lupita Evers and the Power of the Keys

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By Maria E. Garcia

The history of Neighborhood House would be incomplete without an article devoted to Lupita Evers.  She appears briefly but often in the interviews I have conducted.  Lupita is remembered for what made her different, for the qualities that set her apart from other people.

Lupita was born in Mexico on December 31, 1898. Her father, Herman Evers, was born in Germany. Her mother, Antonia Ochoa, was born in Mexico.  Lupita came to Logan Heights as a child and grew up there. Nothing about her family history was out of the ordinary at that time in Logan Heights. But Lupita came into the world as a little person–she was born with the genetic condition of dwarfism. This condition was viewed in a far different way than would be considered acceptable today.   [Read more…]

The History of Neighborhood House in Logan Heights: The Legacy of Laura Rodriguez

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By Maria E. Garcia

Last week’s article about Laura Rodriguez ended with the fearless, sixty-one year old grandmother turned barrio activist chained to the front door of Neighborhood House.  Earlier that October 1970 evening, the case had been made at the Barrio Logan Community Action Committee (CAC) meeting that Neighborhood House, which had been converted to administrative offices, must once again provide services to the community as it had for so many decades in the past.  Laura Rodriguez had been advocating for its use as a badly needed community health clinic.

The show down happened that very evening. …   [Read more…]

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