damian trujillo: hello, and welcome to "comunidad del valle." i'm damian trujillo, and, today, a low rider car blessing on your "comunidad del valle." ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ damian: we begin with some big changes in the alum rock school

district of san jose. and, kind enough to join us today from her car because she's very busy these days, is corina herrera-loera, the president of the board of trustees of alum rock. corina, thank you so much for joining us. we know you're busy, but thank you for taking the time. corina herrera-loera: thank you for having me here. damian: thank you. well, we're not gonna get into the reasons why the contract of superintendent dr. hilaria bauer was terminated. we wanna move forward on what's next. so what can you tell us about what's next here as far as the district and the future leadership there? corina: yeah, so we're really excited to have brought on dr. imee almazan who is our current interim superintendent and has graciously took on the role of superintendent and has been doing an amazing job. so, she started as of tuesday, march 26, and, you know, will be our interim superintendent until we hire our new superintendent

for alum rock. damian: so, tell us about her for those--a lot of anxious parents and families and students, i guess, tell us about ms. almazan, and what can we expect from her interim leadership? corina: yeah, so she's been with our district for approx--i know, over 18 years, for sure. she has been more recently leading our academic services, student wellness. she comes with us with a lot of experience and not necessarily comes with us, has been a part of our district for many years. so she knows our needs, she knows our students. she was a principal at fisher in the past. and, you know, we move forward here in our district with somebody who has the experience of working within our schools, with our students, with our families. and also ensuring the well being of our students. so we're excited to have her here, with her experience and

also ensuring that, you know, our district continues as usual, business as usual in the classrooms, with our principles, with the leadership and support that all of our staff also needs in order to continue to do their job in alum rock. damian: all right, well, and for the record, we wanna thank dr. hilaria bauer for what she did, not only for her district but also being very accessible to us here, both on nbc bay area telemundo and "comunidad del valle," and what she did for the students there. so, thank you to dr. bauer. and, again, we're moving forward here. now, is it my understanding that the interim superintendent would not be in, or throw her hat in a race to qualify for the permanent job? corina: correct. so, in her role as interim, we will be opening up that position, we will be discussing, you know, in our next board member--board meetings that we have coming up as to what the

process will be. will we hire an outside firm? you know, how we will take those steps, and we do encourage our community to be involved, to listen in, to let us know your opinions and your thoughts. and, you know, most importantly, as stakeholders in our community, to give your input as to who should be our next superintendent. how should they be, what kind of experience should they have? it is important to hear, not just from the five board members who will be overseeing, you know, our next, our superintendent, but most importantly from our community, who will be benefiting from our next superintendent as well. damian: and, real quickly, will there be, i don't know, i know parents are wanting meetings on their own schools to--with the board members, to talk about what they're looking for. i know we probably haven't ironed out all the details, but outreach is gonna be crucial here i bet? corina: exactly, and so i know that we--it's one of the items on our next board meeting agenda. so we will be discussing it as we go.

again, i am one of five. so, you know, as five of us, we will be making sure that we move together as we move forward to hire our next superintendent. but there will be decisions as we go that will include all five of us. and so it's important to tune in, come to our meetings, we wanna hear from you. we wanna make sure that all of our stakeholders, but most importantly, you know, as a parent, you know, i think it's important for me to hear from the parents, especially as to who we want, you know, what leader, what kind of leader do we want leading our district? and i'm in agreement with you, you know, i also want to thank dr. hilaria bauer for her ten years of service here in alum rock. and, as you mentioned now in moving forward, continuing to, you know, improve the good things happening in our districts like, as we've discussed, like our workforce housing, our teacher workforce housing, we're continuing that. most recently, we received a $3,555,000 grant to improve our

student wellness, especially within our middle schools. and so we have, a lot of exciting new things happening at our district that we wanna continue to move forward and continue to grow for our alum rock school district community. damian: all right, i wanna get a little bit more into that. you're gracious enough to join us for one more segment. i do wanna ask you just about the challenges that might be lying ahead fiscally because there are challenges. there is the website for the alum rock school district. we'll be back with the president of the board of trustees when we continue here on "comunidad del valle." ♪♪♪

damian: and we're back here on "comunidad del valle" with corina herrera-loera, the president of the board of trustees in the alum rock school district. like many districts around the state and the country, corina, there are some fiscal challenges ahead, and there are some tough decisions that are also facing alum rock in the near future. corina: absolutely, and we know living in the silicon valley,

you know, in addition to all the things we're dealing with across the state, you know, many of our families cannot stay here, you know, and live here. and so, after the pandemic, we saw many of our families leave, our san jose especially, you know, affecting alum rock. and so, when a student leaves, you know, unfortunately, that also means less funding for our district. and so we've seen our numbers go down tremendously, you know. facts speak louder than words, you know, really, it's our students who have had to move out of san jose, specifically in the east side of san jose. and so we're feeling that, at alum rock. damian: and, i mean, you have schools now that maybe have half the capacity of what it-- what the capacity is. you can't operate a school with half the capacity. corina: exactly, and so that's what we're up, you know, against, one of the many things in regards to making tough choices in the future as to, you know, keeping schools open with

half the capacity. are we able to do that, you know, financially? and so the reality is we're not going to be able to do that for much longer. we've been able to hold on. many of our surrounding districts have been able to close down, you know, they made that decision, they've closed down schools. and so we still haven't, as alum rock, we've been able to just hold on up until now. but, moving forward, we will be making some tough decisions around that. again, i'm one of five, and so, you know, it really is going to take our board, where, you know, a lot of times it's good things, but a lot of these times it's not easy decisions, that we get to make easy votes. but, in order to have an alum rock union elementary school district in the next ten years, you know, we will need to make those tough decisions coming up here, so-- damian: and, no, and they are tough decisions. i'm a former parent in alum rock. you have your foot in that door, as well, as a parent. what can you--how can you put parents and students at ease, if

you can? and, again, i know that they are tumultuous times because of the financial aspect of it. but what can you say to put the those folks at ease? corina: absolutely. you know, we had a board meeting where, you know, we had a lot of parent discussion, and we listened to our parents, and, you know, unfortunately, even after we listen to, we will make those tough decisions. but, you know, i encourage our parents to get involved. we asked our staff to make sure that we get, you know, input from families such as, right, like even how will our parents be affected, our students, you know, where do siblings go to school, are we able to, you know, take into consideration and putting siblings together and ensuring, you know, i know, a lot of our parents also work, you know, and it's hard to, you know, count on having your student at one school, and the

next year find out that your student might be going to another school. and so it's just important to communicate with, you know, our staff will be doing surveys coming up. please make sure to respond, be involved as much as you can. any of our town halls that we have, any opportunities to give feedback to our board, it will be important to hear you so that we can move forward as we make those tough decisions, not, you know, there will be some people that will not be happy. i get it. but know that we as board members will do all that we can in order to involve the input from our families. and also take in consideration your, you know, your specific situation to hopefully support our families best, you know, and it might mean, you know, bus passes, it might mean, i mean, i know we all really count on that continuous routines that we have as parents.

i'm a parent, as you mentioned, myself. and so i know it's important. so how can we better support without having an interruption in our families's lives? how can we minimize that interruption? so, we're gonna do our best. we're gonna move forward to, and, you know, know, that as your board president, we wanna hear, i wanna hear, and we as the trustees want to hear, from our community. damian: and we have about 15 seconds left, corina. are we envisioning maybe a permanent superintendent by the beginning of the next school year? or is it too soon to tell? corina: it's too soon to tell. we will be discussing that in our, you know, regularly scheduled board meeting to discuss, you know, are we gonna hire firms? are we gonna--we wanna make sure also to involve our community. so i don't wanna rush the process. i wanna--but i wanna make sure that, you know, we have somebody good. so, with that, please get involved. you know, we will be moving forward together, and i wanna make sure that we hire somebody that we can all trust and know that will continue to take our district forward. damian: all right, corina herrera-loera, the president of the board of trustees of the

alum rock school district, from her car. thank you so much, corina, for being with us. corina: thank you, damian. damian: all right. again, if you want more information on the alum rock school district, that's where they have all their meetings right there on gay avenue. there is their website for more information. up next here on "comunidad del valle," a low rider car blessing. you don't wanna miss it. stay with us.

damian: it's a low rider car blessing, among other things, big festivities in san jose. with me is pastor dr. sonny lara, here on "comunidad del valle." and also with us is pastor martin cantu who is a former band leader or lead singer for the group malo. welcome to the show, folks. martin cantu: how you doing? god bless. sonny lara: it's our honor to be here, and thank you for your time. damian: thank you for being here. well, we'll start with you, dr. sonny lara. tell us, you have a great, some great festivities happening here coming up. sonny: yes, this saturday at, from 12 noon to 4 p.m.,

everything is free, free, free. that's the word, gratis, gratis, free food, music, entertainment for the children, face painting, jumper, snow cone, popcorn, sodas, hot dogs, pizza, and some great music like artists like martin cantu. also, we're gonna do a car blessing there. and sal rodriguez, who still plays with war, will be there. and one of the songs he'll be doing is low rider. so, so we're gonna be--and we have cars coming out. it's not a car show, it's a car blessing, and they actually got excited about it. damian: what's the importance of that, pastor martin, what, the car blessing aspect of it. tell us about it. and then also tell us why you decided this was a no brainer for you to get involved? martin: well, i've been, i was with malo from 1993 to '97. i went on to co-write their last couple of albums, and i started serving the lord back in 1997.

but since then i've been doing stuff like pastor sonny is doing today, going out to different events and outreaches. a lot of us, we have--a lot of people have faith, but it takes an outreach to bring everybody together, amen? and so that's what we're doing this coming saturday is bringing the community together and lighting the wick for folks to be blessed and to bless their vehicles and to let them know that, whenever they get into their vehicles, that they're surrounded by a blessing to keep them safe, to keep them on track. and there's just a lot, like pastor sonny said, they're even gonna have prayer tents and stuff like that. so, if anyone needs prayer, you know, they can do it without fear, amen. they're gonna be surrounded around all walks of life, all nationalities, amen, and we're just there to plant a seed and to bring a little bit of hope to the hopeless. damian: what's the end result that you wish for, dr. sonny, at the end of the day? sonny: well, we would like to pray for a lot of them, you know, damian, a lot of them are still hurt beyond the pandemic.

they lost loved ones. you know, i can think of like five people, remember richard nichols? he passed. came to see me, next day hospital, gone. you know what i mean? tony menjivar, the congero from malo. i just talked to him earlier that day. his wife was going to pick him up. massive heart attack, died. you know, many people that we knew we lost during the pandemic, and their families are hurting right now. there's no explanation and-- the word of god says, "the joy of the lord is our strength." proverbs 17:22 says, "the word of god is like medicine." we just want to bring healing, joy, laughter, and it don't cost you nothing out of your pocket. it just costs you time to put a smile on your face. our church has changed. we have african-americans, filipinos, vietnamese. they will all be there. we have a speaker from san francisco, the president of the united playaz, rudy corpuz, which i oversee that church in

san francisco now with them. all filipinos, african-american, we're seeing the dynamics of people coming together, and we need to bring healing, and joy and laughter brings that. damian: all right. well, we're gonna keep you for one more short segment after this. but, again, this is a great car blessing and festivities, if you will, because they really are festivities. again, that happened over at 175 bernal road, in san jose, it was their easter outreach today on easter sunday. so there is their information. we'll be back with pastor sonny and pastor martin here on "comunidad del valle," stay with us. ♪♪♪

damian: and we're back with dr. pastor sonny lara here on "comunidad del valle," and pastor martin cantu, the former lead singer of malo, joining us on the show. give us a sense right now, pastor sonny, what is your feeling on how the streets are right now, that, as far as our

young men and women and getting involved in hopefully good stuff? sonny: the number one thing we got to work on is that fentanyl, man, it's killing these guys, younger and younger. we're dealing with kids, 13, 14 years old, that are addicted to fentanyl. you know, the last one we--you seen the shooting and all that on white road right there by san jose blue jeans. that guy was only 22 years old and faded out with fentanyl. and then there was a shooting that topped that off over there. so we are working with some of the victims of the people that were involved in that big old mess. we're peacemakers. the bible says, "blessed are the peacemakers." so we get out there, and we shake the bush, see how we get help, how do we bring it down? you know what i mean? and san jose has been doing pretty good. our homicide is really low for this time of the year already. so i'm proud of what's happening out there. we still go to city hall and pray, for 15 years. we were just there on monday night. you know what i mean? we get out there and continue to keyboard.

i still work with angel rios, deputy city manager angel rios. i'm working with a lady who's running for a congresswoman, just won her primaries. her name is anita chen, and she'll be out there with us on saturday, damian, i mean domingo, who used to work for senator beall, he'll be out there from district 8. we just want to bring people together, how we can bring and go into their areas, and just keep doing, having a domino effect, you know what i mean? damian: yeah, no, i know, i know that you've always said that, sometimes some of these kids, their flame is burning really high. your job is kind of, lower that flame a little bit and get them under control. what about, what are your thoughts before we let you go, pastor martin? martin: well, we've been doing outreaches many, many years. and that's our calling, to go into the highways and byways and preach the good news, gospel to every person that has ears to hear and a heart to receive, amen. and so, i always tell even our congregation, you can't just went, you gotta be sent. and this was a calling that god had placed in each one of

our hearts. so that's our job is to go out and just plant the message of love, faith, and hope, amen. even if it's through music, i've been doing music for a long time. i was touring the world with malo, and we were bringing people out to stadiums and arenas, and now we're doing it for the glory of god, amen. and so i've been blessed to release multiple latin soul gospel cds, people from all over the nation who follow our music, amen. we just go out there, and we use the music to draw and and to bless them. amen, and to make sure that they leave different from the way they came. so it's all, as pastor sonny said, it's all about bringing hope into the heart, amen. damian: all right. well, thank you both for the work that you're doing, specifically out on the streets and trying to lower that flame, if you will. thank you for being on the show. martin: thank you for having us. sonny: yeah, thank you, damian, for everything. god bless you, and, god, if you, anyone that comes out, you're

gonna have a fantastic time. i could tell you that. damian: all right. thank you so much. pastor sonny lara, dr. sonny lara, and also pastor martin cantu. thank you for being on the show. again, we're gonna show you their information. this is the church that the pastor sonny is talking about. it's over on bernal road in san jose. again, it happened yesterday and today is easter sunday. and so we're--thank all of you for joining in that low rider car blessing. but if you want to get a hold of us here on "comunidad del valle," you can follow me on instagram, my handle is @newsdamiantrujillo. and there is my email address as well. we thank you so much for sharing your easter sunday with us on "comunidad del valle." we're gonna leave you now with some more danza azteca. we'll see you next week. speaker: in the morning, yeah, we had some huayquis, which means like, you know, brother, you know what i mean, homie, you know what i mean, the huayquis. they're from tahuantinsuyo, south america, peruanos, you know, quechua, [speaking in foreign language] you know, they speak their language, they came and offered their song. you got a place here too, you know what i mean, we recognize you for having your culture, you know.

come and share it, you know. share your way, share your traditions, you know. so our relatives, the totonacas, are from veracruz, mexico, the state of mexico, and they brought the danza de los huahuas. go on this indigenous ferris wheel. four guys get on there, and they spin around 13 times, you know. our calendar, 52 year count, 13 times 4, you know, so those 4 individuals are representing, and they spin around 13 time, represent that count. and so that's what that, that's what that dance represents, to request fertility. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ speaker: how can we expand and how can we make better relations with the other california tribes? you know, how can we build on this? and we sat down at raso's house and had a conversation about the possibilities of doing this cali native night here.

we're about bringing our people together, and it's the providing medicine for each other, but also providing medicine for the people. we want our community to see this. once again, when the spanish arrived, you know, they were coming, you know, making their way towards the valley of mexico from the coast. and, you know, they came over a mountain, and they were hearing like a buzzing sound. they're like, they're hearing all this noise, like, what is that? they looked over the valley, and they've seen a big market. well, one of the biggest market in the world. in our language, we call tianguiztli. tianguiz, our ancestors, trade is part of our culture. we're creating that economy to where now all these artists or these small businesses are able to be sustainable where they can have an economy. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪

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