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Our next guest is author Barrio Rising.
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Maria Dolores Aguila. Welcome,
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welcome. Thank you for joining us.
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Thank you for having me.
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Oh, yeah, of course.
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I mean, we want to talk about your book obviously and
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get people on it too as well.
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So help spread the word right of the book is amazing.
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Obviously, we love the illustrations and it's a good show.
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I can do children's book,
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you know, but it didn't just cover regular topics that you
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see in children's book.
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It covers a little bit more than that.
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Can you tell us like the what your book is about as
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well as why it stuck with you specifically?
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So what body of Rising is at its heart is about community
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And I think that's really important because we live in
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a time where the way that things are going to get done
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the way that things are going to change in the right
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direction is by coming together and working together toward a focused goal
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right? So that's why I wanted to write Bar of
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Rising and have it focused on community because I feel like that's
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so important. Do you mind elaborate a little bit more on
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the history of Chicano Park.
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So Chicano Park is in Barrio Logan.
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Barrio Logan was the largest Mexican community in California at the time
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when it was established.
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But as time went on,
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things started happening. they lost the beach in Bayfront access
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to the San Diego Bay.
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Their neighborhood was changed from residential to industrial without their knowledge.
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And when that happened,
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junkyards and heavy industry moved in right next to homes and schools
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And so expansion of freeway five,
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they were forced to move about 5000 homes and businesses from Barrio
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Logan and it actually fractured.
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The neighborhood in half,
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there became Barrio Logan and then there was on the other side
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of the freeway Logan Heights.
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So it went from this huge vibrant community to something very small
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and fractured. And so the residents just wanted a green space
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That's all they wanted.
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And they had been asking for a small space underneath the Coronado
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Bridge for some time and years passed and it didn't come and
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one day out of nowhere underneath the bridge,
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a bunch of bulldozers show up and they're like,
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oh my gosh, we're finally going to get our park.
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This is it. And so everybody's super excited.
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And one of the residents,
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his name was Mario Solis.
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He went down there and he talked to them and they're like
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oh no, this is not going to be a park
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this is going to be ach P substation,
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a police station and they were like what?
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And so Mario goes from house to business,
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he goes to Aida and he tells you got to get to
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the park, they're building a police station.
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And so the entire community converges on the site and it was
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just this natural protest that just happened and they stayed there for
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12 days and it wasn't just like single people or young men
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or young women, it was entire families,
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it was Children and then all the surrounding barrios came in and
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helped them as well.
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So it was really an active community that had Chicano Park came
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to be. And we live in interesting times.
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I feel like, you know,
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there's a lot of change and then there's a lot of people
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still pushing back. So why is learning about these kinds of
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stories is important for kids,
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specifically for kids specifically?
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I think this is important because we live in a time where
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knowledge is kind of being threatened with book bands and stuff like
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that. People don't want to let us show our history to
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know that our community has come together to accomplish amazing things.
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I always feel like if someone wants to hide something,
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it's like why, you know,
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we need to find out exactly what's going on here.
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And I mean, there's such a powerful lesson in coming together
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that I think that this is something that kids,
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especially Jen Alpha and Jen X are so community focused.
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I think more than the rest of us.
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And I mean, I just think it's something that they would
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enjoy from start to finish.
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How is the process of making the book?
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For me. So when I first learned about Chicano Park
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I had to find out every single thing I could about the
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park because I've always lived next to Chicano Park and I've always
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passed by it. I saw the murals,
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but I never connected in my head like how they got there
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And so when I found out what it was,
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I tracked down everything I could,
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I read articles, I read books,
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newspapers, watched media.
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So that was about five years of me just absorbing all the
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information. And then at the end,
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I was like, oh my gosh,
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I have to write this story.
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And then that was kind of the easy part writing.
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It was the hard part.
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I wrote a few different iterations and I was kind of rejected
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But yeah, I just kept going and finally I connected with
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an agent who was like,
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I can't stop thinking about this.
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Let's connect. So I worked with her and then we got
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book offers and here we are now.
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So the whole process all in all 10 years.
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all the time and wet and tear that goes into these books
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is crazy. And as a fellow pocho,
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I can help but notice that there's an English and a Spanish
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version of the book.
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Yes. And that was so important to me.
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I had to go with someone who was going to publish the
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book both in English and Spanish.
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But at the last minute,
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I kind of chickened out of translating it.
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You know, my whole life,
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everybody called me a Pacha or they made fun of my Spanish
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I'll conjugate a verb wrong here and there,
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you know what I mean?
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And so I got nervous to translate it and he's a very
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popular Chicano author. His name is David Bowles.
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He's amazing. He has some amazing books and I was so
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honored that he agreed to translate it.
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because like you said,
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there's some words that it's Spanglish and some that's actual Spanish.
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You know, I think that's why.
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So that's awesome. But at least again,
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you can go back and forth with your kids,
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especially if they're bilingual.
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You know, you can get both versions.
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When can people buy your book?
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Like when is it available?
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So Baro Raising and El Barrio Sele comes out on June 18th
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they're going to be simultaneously published and they will be available
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wherever books are sold and then on social where can people find
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you and keep up with your you can follow me on
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Instagram at Maria dot D Aguila and you can go to my
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website at Maria Dolores aguila.com.
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Thank you. There you go guys.
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Check out Mario rising by Maria Dores Aguila coming out June 18th
Series