hello come to "comunidad del valle." i'm damian trujillo and from east side heroes on your "comunidad del valle." >> nbc bay area presented "comunidad del valle" with damian trujillo. >> we begin with the consul general of mexico, alejandra bologna is my best. welcome back to the show, consul. >> hello. how are you. it is very good to be here with you. >> thank you. it's nice to have you back. let's talk about what happened in mexico this week and we had a big earthquake and fortunately, not a lot of damage, from what i

hear. >> yes, we have yesterday a 7.5 magnitude of this earth quake. it was centered in oaxaca, santa cruz, and unfortunately, was there a life lost in oaxaca and damages were really, really minor damage. you know, we have had a lot of recent earthquakes and we have developed through civil protection really concern with the society what to do when there is an earthquake and that helps a lot, but people, they have an alarm and it sounds about ten minutes before parts

of the earthquake so people know what to do, and go out and try to keep safe during the movement. so that has been a very extraordinary experience and has a lot to prevent more in case of a tragedy and a problem as an earthquake. >> i was there during the last earthquake when the buildings fell in condesa and the other parts of the city, you get an alert on the phone so that's got to help tremendously. >> it's also old buildings and in the streets there's this alarm sound, so that gave us the opportunity to move fast and try to keep safe. >> all right. well done. goode bless the people of mexico and hopefully everybody will be

okay. let's talk about what's happening here in your office because you're open again. everything is open, but there's a new way for people to come. >> yes. we are open and we are continuing with the recommendations of distance. also use masks and -- [ indiscernible ] . as you know, we continue with the applicants for passports and those documents of people need to do the legal interest in mexico and what they need to do is call a phone number. it's 408-294-3414, extension 150 and 119. so we can proceed by phone, the

main part of the document to understand what they need to review their document. so they can come and be sure that they are going to get the document in the less time than normal coming here. >> is what happened with coronavirus has affected everybody, and i'm sure that you, like many offices, are trying to adapt and make sure they're accommodating your co-nacionales. >> ooh tit's the need of the pe. they need their documents and we know it's an essential activity in one sense and we're trying to, you know, we were about two months without possibly giving appointments to our community. so we know that they have a need. we are trying also to open and

next week we are going to -- and they reveled with the people that work at the consulate and try to help and to attend as much as possible, keeping the distances and that's the question. we have the area and we need to continue giving love and the same amount of appointments because we need to be sure about safe and it's safe for the people that are coming and it's safe for the people that come here and the people at the consulate. >> you have to be sa to coronavirus. it is amazing you will be opening on sundays and i can understand a lot of people have a lot of documentation that needs to be processed.

[ speaking foreign language ] we'll be back to talk about other important, as we continu stay with us. we then focused our five-star level of service to all who needed it. we made improvements to people's lives. we strove to be better and we made people happy. this closure may have temporarily taken us out of wynn and encore, but it couldn't take the wynn and encore out of us. and now, we are proud to welcome you back.

we're back with the consul general of san jose alejandra bologna. you are offering free covid testing at the consulado. >> we are doing it since the 19th of june for all of people to come and have the test. it's free. it is very easy. it doesn't take too much time and it's no pain, and i think that it's important to us to know i did it and it's a way to feel safe that the things that we are doing are okay and in

that sense, we are not going to spread the virus to other persons. >> and you serve such an important population and the farmworker population. they're essential workers and they've been hit hard and so that's an important opportunity that they have to come to come to the consulado and get the test that they need. >> yes. they receive the information if someone is positive and i know that there is a lot of spread in our community about doing tests and the result is positive, and i think it's fortunate to know on time and it can make the difference to save lives and be protected and protect the whole family and we are going to announce, and we will have it.

>> keep us posted and we'll have you back to talk about that. a couple of more topics we want to talk about and one is the contest, the june 29 is going to be the deadline for presenting. mexico has organized almost more than 15 years ago these mexican contests, international mexican contests, this is my mexico and it's a way that children can express how they feel about mexico with a different substance this year. in this case we will have alebrijes. they are brightly-colored and fantastic -- that blend different animals.

they have already work shops about how to do an alebrije and people can visit theunday to wo >> and we will have the website where they can log on and get more information with the segment, as well and ails, we had javier gutierrez here last week. he's the new president and ceo of the arizona coyotes and the hockey sobre hielo team and he talks about the empredimiento, and and how to become business owners and you have work shops on how to do it now. >> we have the covid-19 also, and it could be also an

opportunity and an opportunity for doing something else, something different, and in this case, we are working with some -- and they go to the consulate and we will have it starting on july 3rd and with the entrepreneurship and different -- it's like how to create the small business, and we will have some people that already have the startups that are very successful and we will have about eight different seminars that will give a lot of information. so people could know what different companies, and they can find investments and what they can do and we will have the performers and we have founders and other different people that are giving some solutions here

at the consulate. we will do the internet, and the new way to communicate during covid-19. >> yes. i'm looking at the list of those who will be speaking and you have the assesora independente, and how to work for yourself and become your own boss and own your own business. great information. any final thoughts, i asked a lot of questions and i want to make sure you get your message across? >> well, first of all, it will them that to the consolation is opening slowly. they will have a derifferent phe so you can call if you have an emergency.

we hope in a couple of to be that we can come back the same and just to continue at internet, the consulate and you will have a lot of information about the different activities that we will have, and keep safe. >> keep safe is right. thank you so much. consul alejandra bologna, be safe and we'll see you next month. >> thank you so much. >> thank you. >> up next on "comunidad del valle," enrique flores has his new book. stay with us. ♪ ♪

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"comunidad del valle" by my enr. >> thank you, damian. >> we have solo cholo university. tell us about that. >> it was resurrected and edited and modified. so originally when i was 18 years old i put it together, and at age 20 i completed it and it was entitled from essj and back to santa clara university and back, but now it's published. so my wife's rebranded it and it's solo cholo university and it's a workbook for young people and high school and middle school. >> if you can, because it's virtual, and hold your phone hatady that way we can get a means to you, enrique and some

see it as a positive and some may see it as a negative. tell us how you see it as. >> sort of like the word east side. in 2003 when i started east side heroes non-profit people asked why east side because at that time it had a negative connotation. it was only seen as gang-related or something of that nature, but i wanted to -- kind of redefine the word. it's more than just a negative connotation, right? there's education can come out of the east side, a lot of leaders can come out of the east side, et cetera. now with cholo it's more of a sub culture and more of a style, hairstyle, clothes style and lingual a little bit and it doesn't necessarily have to be any type of violence or anything of that nature. >> and talk about your

trajectory. again, you mentioned it a little bit, but you went from east side and santa clara u. and you're working as an aide to supervisor dave cortez. talk about full circle. tell us about your trajectory there. >> growing up in the neighborhood of east south bay, the first on my family tree to ever graduate from a university here in the united states. so i had to rely on mentors and one of those mentors was bob muniz and so many others that have kind of guided me throughout my journey, and being able to -- i feel blessed and if you're blessed heavily you need to give heavily, so i've dedicated my life to teaching pt i learned in terms of classroom management and et cetera, and not through my writings. i've had three published books and barrio side hero, my memoir. it is seen as a novel, kind of a

sci-fi novel and solo cholo university is a work book. now i work for the county of santa clara and being able to impact the families on a larger macro level scale. >> what would you tell those fire ago on i'm going to call them cholitos, if you will. what advice can you give them maybe for those who have taken the word into the negative connotation and what would you tell them to follow in the footsteps of enrique flores? >> oftentimes, i think for a long time the word cholo or the way people saw me was always looked down upon, frowned upon, judged and i always felt like, man, i need to change who i am. i tried changing my dress style, my hairstyle and people just still saw me the way i am. so i finally just accepted whatever made me feel comfortable as long as i'm not promoting violence or hate or

division, that i can maintain the style of maybe i like bigger clothing or more sagging or a shaved head, for example, or whatever the cholo subculture is defined upon, but spreading cholitos who feel like that's their style, it should be a clothing style and to kind of show their identity, but it shouldn't go, in my opinion there should be more options on lifestyle in terms of a career choice, education choice and other choices in life like your external shift ought to match historically that the cholo subculture is immersed with and bonded and attached to the label it carries. >> the attire itself, the cholo attire, the ben davis and the dickeys and the pendeltons, and

it's part of cultura now. it's part of culture. >> and what i told my mentees when we're younger, there's k s discrimination and i can get away with dressing a certain way because i've got my masters degree, right? i have an option to change careers. as a young person i would more recommend them to know how to function in mainstream society, and in questionable settings, but that doesn't mean they should be ashamed of who they are. they just need to give themselves options in life. >> you have to represent. i'm talking to know rec i flores about the new work book, cholo, communities. so we're alling to our

we're back with enrique flores, activist, community activist on comunidad del valle.

let's talk about the title, solo cholo university. why that title? >> i think it represents my journey. it was a very slow journey, and i was the only one of my kind. i felt there were other latinos there, but i just didn't feel they grew up the same way that i did, and so i felt very alone, and the solo cholo, right? just being able to cross that lake of loneliness and get to a lake of solitude where i'm at peace and it's a very empowering place to be where you can be by yourself and be happy and be in harmony and pursue your own goals without using cheer leaders in your corner and you just believe in yourself. and it made me strong even though it was a painful process it made me strong toer to ventu

out. and for all of those who are suffering in silence feeling like they're -- especially if you go to the high school, and new job or you feel you're the only one, a lot of people quit and go back to what's comfortable and what's familiar and hopefully they keep going. >> good message. and you call it a work book. what makes it a work book and who should read it, use it? >> yeah, so the workbook has been used so there is an auto b biography and it is a workbork. aft there are work books and the essay and journalling and it provides the questions and a blank page for people to write their own story, thoughts, feelings. so at the end of the workbook, they basically created their own

biography. >> and should it be cholitos who read it or should it be high school students or college students or those that are intrigued by the cholo lifestyle? >> great question. when i wrote solo cholo university i thought it was for someone exactly like me, someone that's a latino, male, growing up in san jose who, you know, is -- has adopted the cholo lifestyle, right? in terms of mannerisms or clothing style or whatever, but soon girls started liking it, right? females and then other races started liking it and then younger kids and older kids and adults, in college and barrio side heroes and like solo cholo university, the teachers will say i'm using it in english class or i'm using it in history class and one time a teacher

said she would use it as a carrot to get kids to do math during the period and at the end of the class they would read. that was her promise to the kids. you guys work hard and then we'll read some of the book. so it's being used by therapists in juvenile hall and different places. >> and i get the message enrique is to be who you are, be true to yourself, you know, respect the history and respect the culture and respect yourself and respect those around you, as well. >> exactly. and similar like east side heroes and i didn't feel like i belonged to the stereotype, and i didn't feel like i belonged to the stereotype in the university and i felt like i was just floating on my own so i created these books and east side heroes was meant for people to be a street scholar, to be able to say it's okay to care about

school and not be ridiculed and not be called a nerd or school boy because that's what i was. i was an undercover school boy, and i used to do my homework and i pretended i didn't and i used to fold up my homework in my pocket and i always got as and bs in school and i had to play the part and pretend i wasn't interested in school. >> did that help or maybe -- hurt or help you because it doesn't sound like you were as prepared as you might have been if you were carrying a backpack. i mean, i didn't. it was one book, it was one being boo, you're right. you didn't want people to think that especially the cool kids. you didn't want them to think you were a school boy. >> it hurt me because i had to, again, spend less time studying in public. i did my studying at 11:00 at night, you know? and when nobody was looking. so now i'm proud to be a school boy.

i'm proud to be a nerd, and be a reader and a square, right? and i'm proud to do that, and i want hopefully other kids, the young people to have that bold courage to say, i just don't want to partake in the crowd, you know? i want to be able to read books and not be ridiculed and if i am it won't crush me or deter me. >> all right. thank you so much, enrique flores. great job. it's called solo cholo university. his latest work and thank you very much, and good luck to you. >> thank you. >> thank you and thank you for watching "comunidad del valle." see you next week in the virtual sense. buenos dias. ♪ ♪

[music playing] i'm sara gore, and this is "open house." 'tis the season to celebrate the sun, no matter what. so we take a look back at some of our favorite homes to spend those summer days. we are in a surprise-filled bedford-stuyvesant townhouse with artist and designer, virginie sommet. teddi mellencamp, of bravo's "real housewives of beverly hills," shows us around her family abode in the hollywood hills. and how this designer mixed it up in his own santa monica home. but first, we head out east, to bellport, long island, to see how one designer transformed his client's home into an entertainer's paradise. the grounds of this property feature places for people to tan, people have glasses of ros , dinner outside, and even a putting green, to practice your short game.