A People’s History of the Inland Empire Digital Archive

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  Raul Raya Interview July 2023

  This interview highlights the challenges of running a small business in San Bernardino, which Raul Raya and his family have done for several generations. Raya discusses Ybarra’s Market, the transformations he has seen in the city, and the impacts of freeway construction on both the business and the larger Westside San Bernardino community. He explains that due to the construction of the 215 freeway in the 1960s (originally named 395), and the placement of exits directing the flow of people away from the Westside, businesses like his declined. Mt. Vernon Avenue -- once the city’s commercial and business corridor along historic Route 66 -- became desolate in the years and decades following the freeway’s opening. The freeway blocked cross traffic. He mentions that before the freeway and before the closures of the Norton Air Force base and Kaiser Steel, his family-owned business was doing well. The loss of jobs due to those closures made it hard for families, and his shop, to survive economically. The interview also discusses the 10 Freeway, which was one of the only routes to San Bernardino, and the importance of Route 66 to the city. Raya says that as time passed after the freeways were completed, those businesses began to shut down and numerous small stores such as his own were forced to sell. Raya further discusses the amount of work and money that has been invested into the store to maintain and follow code enforcement, and how the low profit margins make it difficult. As the interview ends, Raya discusses his belief that the city did not think of them before the freeway construction nor did they after, and as a result, the local businesses declined with little chance to prosper.