Salvador Torres works on his drawings at a local San Diego cafe in October. at that time. Instead, the area was going to be transformed into a Highway Patrol parking lot. Soon, members of the community and the San Diego City College student body went to the area, took it over, and fought the bulldozers to start what today is Chicano Park. The construction of the parking lot was called off, and for days community members and city officials held meetings to negotiate the creation of the park. In one of those meetings an artist shared his vision of adorning the freeway pylons with art and make the park a beautiful place. The architect of the dream, Salvador Roberto Torres, advocated his vision. The very same day of the take over, people started Chicano Park, little by little. “Chicano Park was established by the students ... they
Photo by ANDREW HAHN
walked out of San Diego High School, they walked out of City College, they walked out of Memorial, they walked out of Grammar School, to create the park. It was the students, it was the nameless students that felt that they need it a park ... so, when we decided to build a park, [we were told] no, we don’t have no funds for you to build a park ... we said, okay, we’ll build our own recreation, we’ll have tires, and we’ll have wooden things there, and they saw that we were serious ... and so right away they started raising money for the this and that for the park, a bathroom, (which is still not right), and then children play areas,” Torres said. Finally, a few months after the takeover, a budget was allocated for the development of the land. Torres did not let the freeway nor bridge intimidate him. Instead, he saw an opportunity to do something remarkable. Winter - Spring 2014 | Legend
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