As the method to “reimagine” San Jose’s Columbus Park continues, 5 selections have emerged as the highest contenders to rename the open house close to Mineta San Jose Worldwide Airport.
A.P. Giannini Park, Muwekma Ohlone Park, Walnut Avenue Park, Taylor Avenue Park and Janet Grey Hayes Park had the best scores in a ranked-choice survey held final month. Giannini was a San Jose native who based Financial institution of America, the Muwekma Ohlone are the indigenous individuals who lived within the space earlier than European settlers, and Janet Grey Hayes was San Jose’s mayor from 1975-83, the primary lady elected to that place in a significant U.S. metropolis.
Two Latino activists, Sofia Mendoza and Ernesto Galarza, completed sixth and seventh among the many 780 responses.
One other ranked-choice survey is open till Aug. 14. It's out there in each English and Spanish at bit.ly/ColumbusPark3. After that survey closes, the Parks and Recreation Fee will think about the top-ranked selections and the present Columbus Park title earlier than making a advice to the San Jose Metropolis Council, which has the ultimate name.
CENTENARIANS CELEBRATE SPIRIT OF ’45: San Jose residents Ysidor Sanchez and Thelda Kothe turned 100 this yr and each will probably be at Historical past Park in San Jose on Aug. 13 to have a good time the annual “Spirit of ’45” occasion, marking the top of World Struggle II — a battle that touched them each.
Sanchez got here to america from Mexico when he was 6 months previous, went to San Jose Excessive College and labored as a pot washer at Wilson’s Bakery in Santa Clara. He was drafted in 1942 and served within the thirtieth Infantry Division in Europe, the place he was wounded twice earlier than returning residence in 1945. The next yr, he turned a naturalized citizen. Sanchez, who lives in San Jose’s Berryessa neighborhood, nonetheless has a bit of shrapnel lodged in his shoulder.
Kothe was working as a riveter for the Douglas Plane Firm in Santa Monica in 1942 when she met and married Ray Kothe, who was drafted a couple of months later and served within the Pacific. Within the early ’50s, the couple moved to San Jose and raised eight kids in the home close to Winchester Boulevard and Williams Highway the place she nonetheless lives. She credit her longevity to her love of dancing, and the large band music and swing dancing are causes she has gone to each Spirit of ’45 occasion for almost 15 years.
“I like this occasion,” she informed organizer Robert Corpus. “It jogs my memory of my engagement to Ray and the way head over heels in love we have been.”
Saturday’s Dwelling Historical past Day and Swing Dance begins at 3 p.m. and goes on till 10 p.m. with reside Nineteen Forties music, a World Struggle II tent metropolis, trolley rides and swing dance classes to a 19-piece large band. Tickets are $5-$25, and you should purchase admission for the Dwelling Historical past Day and seven p.m. Swing Dance Social gathering collectively or individually. There’s even a swing dance particular with a desk for six and VIP parking for $190. Go to historysanjose.org for particulars and tickets.
FORGOTTEN LINK TO CHAVEZ: Robert Wright, who lives in San Jose’s Naglee Park neighborhood, identified one other historic location in San Jose moreover the Cesar Chavez household residence on Scharff Avenue linked to the legendary labor chief. The United Farm Staff’ San Jose headquarters was housed in a historic constructing at 227 N. First St.
Wright was the workplace supervisor there within the late Sixties through the UFW’s grape boycott, sustaining a Rolodex to verify there have been individuals on the picket traces and answering questions from reporters and college students writing time period papers. He additionally took down testimony from individuals struck by police throughout a conflict between cops and Chicano protesters through the Fiesta de las Rosas parade in 1969. The workplace, he recalled, was subsequent door to the San Jose Peace Middle and panicked younger males would come into the UFW workplace begging for assist with the Vietnam Struggle draft.
“I listened to them with empathy, however then needed to inform them they wished the following door over,” stated Wright, who went on to a protracted instructing profession in San Jose.
Wright says he had no actual management function on the UFW workplace — a part of his job was to open the workplace up each morning and put out chairs for conferences — however he nonetheless remembers a proud second. “At one assembly, Dolores Huerta appeared exasperated and was scolding all people to work longer and tougher. Then she pointed to me and stated, ‘All we have now to do is figure as exhausting as this younger man and we'll win,’ ” he stated. “Evidently, that will probably be a second I’ll always remember.”
The constructing, most not too long ago the legislation places of work for Robinson & Wooden, is slated to turn into a part of Hillbrook College’s new highschool campus in downtown San Jose. Wright hopes that in the future a plaque might be positioned there to recollect its function within the UFW’s work.