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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…]

Restaurateur and Cartoonist Join Forces to Help Children of Deported Veterans, DREAMers, and Refugees

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Mark Lane of Poppa’s Fresh Fish and Lalo Alcaraz of La Cucaracha organize holiday toy drive this Friday in Logan Heights

By Brent E. Beltrán

Once again restaurant owner Mark Lane, the accidental activist, has stepped forward to help not only refugee children but the children of deported American veterans and children of deported DREAMer moms as well. He will be hosting a toy drive and presentation on Friday night at Poppa’s Fresh Fish featuring former Lemon Grove native and syndicated cartoonist Lalo Alcaraz.

Lalo, the creator of La Cucaracha and Pocho.com and writer and consulting producer for the soon-to-be aired Fox cartoon Bordertown will be giving a thirty minute presentation about his cartoons and art and will follow with a book, poster and 2015 Cartoon Calendar signing.

“We chose to work with Lalo Alcaraz, as he has been a tireless fighter for immigrant rights, using his forum as a syndicated cartoonist to fight. He is a hometown hero in my opinion,” wrote fellow Lemon Grove native and resident Mark Lane.   [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…]

The History of Neighborhood House in Logan Heights: Laura Rodriguez, the Family Matriarch Who Became Barrio Activist

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By Maria E. Garcia

On October 5, 1970, Logan Heights resident Laura Rodriguez chained herself to the Neighborhood House doors, setting in motion what has come to be known as The Occupation.  The fearless sixty-one year old grandmother chose this very public display of activism to force a decision on the future of Neighborhood House.

The services that Neighborhood House had provided to the community for decades were  reduced and eliminated as that location evolved in the mid-1960’s into an administrative office. Laura and Logan Heights activists would ultimately win this battle, with Neighborhood House becoming a Centro de Salud– health clinic– as the community had demanded.

I will describe in much more detail the actual occupation in a future article.  On this October anniversary, Laura Rodriguez deserves her own series of articles that traces her life from her Logan Heights beginnings to the years she lived at the Marston House and her return to Logan Heights.   [Read more…]

The History of Neighborhood House in Logan Heights: Mary Dora Garcia and the Lucky 13 Club

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By Maria E. Garcia

Lucky 13, June 1948

Mary Dora Hollman Garcia grew up on the 1800 block of Newton Avenue in Logan Heights and attended kindergarten at Neighborhood House during the 1930’s. In the days before Lowell Elementary School was built she attended Burbank School.

The walk to Burbank School was carried out under the watchful eyes of families and neighbors. Dora would leave her house with her aunt watching her walk down the street. She would walk two doors down, pick up a little friend there and then they would walk by Irene Mena’s house and pick her up.

With every person that was added to the group another neighbor or family member would take over the responsibility of watching the kids walk to school. The last stop brought the walking brigade to a total of eight children walking to Burbank School. …   [Read more…]

The History of Neighborhood House in Logan Heights: Sailors, Pachucos and Life In-Between

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Part III of the Not so Great Depression and World War II Come to Logan Heights

By Maria E. Garcia

World War II PosterThe Depression and the advent of World War II brought social and economic change to Logan Heights. Residents who lost their jobs and savings during the Depression found a scapegoat for their anger and fears in the form of their neighbors of Mexican descent.

These residents, many of whom who had been actively recruited by American business owners, ranchers and farmers in the early twentieth century were now seen as job stealers and a burden to the welfare system. They were denied employment, dropped from the welfare rolls and actively repatriated to Mexico. Sixty percent of the repatriated individuals were American citizens.

Several men that I have interviewed told of their mothers crying when they heard we were at war. Men were enlisting and being drafted. The whittling away of the Logan Heights population which first occurred during the repatriation, became even more apparent when so many of the men, often the household’s primary breadwinner, went off to war. An unprecedented number of women entered the workforce in the canneries and defense industry as a result.

But there was an influx of a new group in Logan Heights–sailors. …   [Read more…]

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