A People’s History of the Inland Empire Digital Archive

Items

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  Frank Acosta Oral History

  Frank Acosta is a retired educator who worked as a junior high teacher for 41 years within the Colton Unified School District. He now serves as a member of the board at the Colton Area Museum, and as one of the three members of the South Colton Oral History Project. Frank grew up in City Terrace, East Los Angeles and moved to the Inland Empire to attend UC Riverside for college. In his interview, Frank shares his experience as an educator in the Colton School District, racial segregation in schools, and the impacts social and environmental impacts of the development of the railroad and later the freeways through the area.
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  Oscar Colunga Oral History

  Oscar Colunga shares his life story, starting from his birth during an unexpected snowstorm in San Bernardino, California in 1949. He delves into his family history, especially his parents’ life after the Second World War and their emigration to South Colton. He describes his childhood in a Mexican American neighborhood and the culture and society of the 1950s and 1960s. He reflects on his school days, recreational activities, and integration, especially during high school, and his participation in different activities outside school. He addresses aspects of his relatives work in the Colton Cement Plant (California Portland), the explosions at the mines he could hear and see from his house, and the ways the dust got into everything and worsened the air quality. Colunga makes keen points about the ways the dust caused health problems among family members, and the respiratory issues they faced. Colunga also talks about the progression of his career, resulting in his decision to move to Solvang, CA. Looking back at the changes in the decades he has been away, he explains how he wants to retire back to his hometown.
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  Ramona Arranda Genamaras Oral History

  In her oral history interview, Ramona Arranda Genamaras shares the story of how her parents immigrated to the United States due to the expanding railroad in Southern California and job opportunities it presented. Ramona is the first born of her siblings, born in San Bernardino, CA, where they lived a few years before moving to South Colton. She recalls growing up in South Colton, attending segregated primary and elementary schools. While she spoke Spanish and English at home, she was expected to only speak English at school, something she remembers understanding without needing to be told. Throughout her years in school, some of her happiest years she recalls, she was very involved in activities and was often asked by her teachers to speak or perform at school events. She remained active in her children’s lives by joining the PTA and organizing the first Halloween carnival, where she sewed costumes for her children. Ramona worked in the garment industry for 15 years as a seamstress, a skill she picked up from her mother who sewed all of her and her siblings’ clothes. This was a practice Ramona herself continued with her own four daughters and one son. Ramona shares the lives of her parents, children, her love for baseball, celebrating her 99th birthday, and community life in South Colton, CA.
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  Raul Raya Oral History 2024

  Two part interview with Anthony Vasquez and Raul Raya in 2024. In the first half, Raul recounts when he came to the United States with his aunts and uncles from Guanajuato, Mexico to San Bernardino, California. Raul's family owned a grocery store. He describes how the city used to look, and how the railroad tracks separated the white neighborhoods from the communities of color. Raul discusses working in the grocery shop, working on an apricot farm, and ultimately working as a chef for 50 years. The second half of the interview includes Raul's daughter, Lydia Raya. They discuss the future of Ybarra's Market, a small grocery store owned and operated by Raul Raya's family, once Raul retires. He is 84 years old at the time of the recording of the interview, and is recovering from some health complications. Raul and Lydia discuss the family, the grandchildren and what kinds of specialty goods people come to Ybarra's Market for.
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  Bernard De La Garza Oral History

  Bernard De La Garza guides the interviewer to the site that was once his family home prior to the development and expansion of BSNF Railorad company in San Barnardino, California. De La Garza describes watching the houses in his neighborhood disappear as the railroad company purchased more and more of the land on his street and demolished the homes of his former neighbors that he grew up with. He states that the houses that have remained in the neighborhood look out their windows to see industrial sized concrete cylinders. The railroad company put up a wall in between the neighborhood and the railroad tracks, and De La Garza tells the interviewer how that disrupted he and his brother's on-foot travel.
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  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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  Margaret Razo Oral History

  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 Oral History 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 Scott Melba Oral History

  Longtime Eastside Riverside residents Suzie Medina and Scott Melba 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.