A People’s History of the Inland Empire Digital Archive

Items

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  2024.006.006 Jenny Ybarra Oral History

  Jenny Ybarra reflects on the rich history of her family’s ownership of Ybarra’s Market and their experiences living in Westside San Bernardino from the 1920s to the time of this interview. Jenny’s parents migrated from Guanajato, Mexico and established themselves in San Bernardino in April of 1927. In 1946 they bought Ybarra’s Market and ran it until Raul Raya took it over; he sold it in 2023. During their time owning Ybarra’s Market, it was more than a business; it was a lifeline to the Westside community. Ybarra’s Market allowed customers to shop on credit, allowing families to put food on the table when they needed it the most. This trust would go on to build customer loyalty and would keep customers coming back to the market, even when the 215 freeway isolated Ybarra’s Market from the community. Jenny emphasizes her gratitude to loyal customers and to members of the community who still remember their time at Ybarra’s Market. She also ends the interview with a heartfelt message about her parents and their impact on Westside.
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  Anthony Victoria

  Margaret Razo is a longtime Bloomington, California resident who moved to the area in 1973 from Riverside. She narrates her family history and experiences in the originally rural area with tight-knit neighbors. She describes her upbringing and community involvement due to her father’s emphasis on making everyone feel included. Kessler Park was a staple of her childhood as she mentions get togethers and baseball games there. Over the years, industrialization begins to impact the once peaceful and simple area with an influx of warehouses and infrastructures that begin to displace lifelong residents, forcing them to relocate. Her concerns reveal the effects of warehouse and other industrial growth on well-established communities and the rural environment.
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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.
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  Suzie Medina and Melba Scott Oral History

  Longtime Eastside Riverside residents Suzie Medina and Melba Scott discuss their life experiences growing up in the Eastside community and its changing nature today. They begin by first detailing their family histories of moving to Eastside before discussing school degradation in Riverside public schools and the Freedom Schools they attended as children. They discuss the racism and discrimination they experienced during this time, but highlight the strong multiracial community support and solidarity networks that Eastside experienced. Later on they detail the changes that took place in the Eastside community, with many new residents moving in without connection to the community and its support system, in addition to the growth of gang activity. Further, they discuss the failures of nonprofits and other outside organizations to support the Eastside in their refusal to listen to resident needs. They also highlight the role of Lincoln Park as a central Eastside community site for celebrations and activities throughout the oral history. They discuss Eastside locations such as the Eastside bungalows, Hollows and Green Hollows, and March Air Force base’s and other industries’ roles in the area. In closing, they conclude by sharing stories of racial segregation and discrimination at Riverside’s Mission Inn.