damian trujillo: hello, and welcome to "comunidad del valle." i'm damian trujillo, and today, sabor del valle returns to silicon valley on your "comunidad del valle." ♪♪♪ cc by aberdeen captioning 1-800-688-6621 aberdeen.io damian: we begin today with a program called "supporting our schools." it's about getting our kids ready for back to school. with me on "comunidad del valle" is carlota parra. she is a paraprofessional at alpha blanca alvarado middle school, right here in san jose. carlota, welcome to the show. carlota parra: thank you so much for having me. i'm so excited to share my experience at alpha blanca alvarado. damian: yeah, thank you for bein' here. well, you know, kids, it seems like they just

got out of school, but it's time to start thinkin' about back to school, right? carlota: yes, and i'm happy to announce that i'm transitioning my position to lead teacher. damian: yeah, say that again? i'm sorry. carlota: i'm happy to announce that i am leaving my position as paraprofessional to be the lead teacher this year. damian: oh, well, congratulations. felicidades to you. well, tell us how ready these kids need to be and how they need our help. carlota: well, i know that these, most of these students are first-generation immigrants, and they are in need of supplies and backpacks, and i know these backpacks have crayons, markers, rulers, headphones, and things that they will need by the time they need to start the school year and prep for their homework and all of that. damian: all right, wow, headphones. well, i didn't even think of that, but that's an essential nowadays. so this is a part of collaboration between nbc bay area, telemundo, and the family giving tree, and alpha blanca

alvarado middle school was a beneficiary. tell us how it helped out when you received these donations. carlota: so, by the time that i started my school year, it was in october, and they start in august, so i know they had 100 backpacks, but we also have about 400 students, so for the staff in the office, it's to prioritize who is really in need of the backpacks, so on october, i noticed, when i was putting homework in the backpacks of my classroom, i noticed that one of my students had a broken backpack, and their mom did their best job to try to close it because it was the zipper who was not closing, so i went to the office, and i asked, "hey, i know that you received some backpacks from this campaign. do you know if you have one extra?" and they were so happy, and so the student went to the office.

he had the opportunity to pick the backpack that he wanted, and by the time he came back to the classroom, he opened it, and everybody was like, "whoa, you have rulers, you have markers, you have crayons, you had a headphone." so he was very excited to go back home and tell the mom the great news. damian: oh, that's wonderful. and, again, these backpacks aren't cheap, so we've gotta get our kids ready, and i'm reading here it costs about $100 per child for a backpack and supplies, everything that goes inside, but if you log on to nbcbayarea.com, family giving tree, $35 will be able to supply one child with a backpack. carlota: yes, and i know you also, if you're a family who needs a backpack, you can go to nbcbayarea.com/schools. i think you have time until february 29, to try to find a backpack online. damian: and, i mean, you were there, and you saw the look on that child's face, but it's needed, right?

i mean, what--you can't send a child to school without a backpack and without the supplies. carlota: yeah, because us, as a school, we have supplies for them in the classroom, but by the time they go back to home, and they need to do homework, they need those supplies that they may not have at home, so it's very important for them to have those supplies to succeed in the classroom. damian: and sometimes that's not enough, right? my sister-in-law is a schoolteacher here in san jose, and she's often having to buy supplies out of her own pocket because the school doesn't provide it. you know, it doesn't come with materials that are provided to them, so it's out of pocket for a lot of these teachers who are making next to nothing. carlota: yes, i have a wish list on amazon that i'm going to send some families that i know that they can help me to have supplies for my classroom because we don't get enough money to buy the things for the classroom and sometimes goes out of pocket, like you said.

damian: and, again, 85% of those children in your school at blanca alvarado are latino, and we know the neighborhoods that we all come from, and so every little bit helps here, and now's the time to start doin', right? because, come august, come september, that's when things start rolling already. carlota: yes, they are 85%, like you said, hispanic. they are spanish-speaking. it's their first language, and i know, as a immigrant also, going to a school, it's already a lot of pressure for the student. they don't know the language, and they are nervous how they are going to make friends, so i think also the backpacks are a good incentive for them to, like, "oh, okay, i'm ready to go to school," so--and they are nice. i saw the backpacks. they are very nice quality, and the supplies that they have inside are very good quality too, so i think it's going to give them confidence to go back to school. damian: all right, this is a great endeavor, again, with the family giving tree, nbc bay area and telemundo.

any final thoughts, carlota, before we let you go? carlota: well, i believe that this campaign is very nice, and i appreciate that they are giving this for the five year, and thank you for the help for our school. they are going to be so happy. damian: all right, well, thank you so much.co r also the family giving tree. telemundo's website is also up. "support our schools" free backpack drive for kids between now and the end of the summer. and up next here on "comunidad del valle," sabor del valle returns. stay with us.

damian: now, sabor del valle returns to silicon valley once again, and ray singh castaneda is puttin' it all back together. he joins us now on "comunidad del valle." ray, welcome back to the show. ray singh castaneda: thank you, thank you, damian. damian: thank you. so things are a little bit different this year? tell us what's happening this year for sabor del valle. ray: yeah, we decided not to have it. we're still concerned about the covid, and i've lost 12, 13

cousins, and i said, "no, let's--" but we're still--we have still, during this time, we've been doin' fund-raising. we've raised funds for our beneficiaries, and that's what we're gonna do on august 27, yeah. damian: tell us what's happening. you're at chacho's this year. ray: yeah, we're at chacho's. it's a five-course meal by a well-known chef, chef mark segovia, and we will have music, and we'll have wine, and the bar is there if you wanna get your own drinks, but it'll be outdoors, and it'll be on our website next week. we're just getting it all together, and the wine i'll select tomorrow after i meet with the vintners in morgan hill. i'll select one of them or-- damian: tells us about jorge sanchez and his opening the doors at chacho's to allow you to do this.

ray: well, you know, jorge--this is really interesting. his aunt, edna, your neighbor, i met--known her since san jose state, back in '69, '70, and we've been good friends, and i heard about--i used to go to chacho's when they were on almaden avenue. was it almaden? yeah, and i've always followed them, and then he got involved with us from the get-go, 13 years ago, and he's always been fantastic. we met there last friday with the chef and some of the board members, and he said, "let's do it this date," and we changed it because the day we--we changed it because that was the san jose jazz. we wanna support them too. damian: yeah, no, and jorge has always been generous with his time and with his business as well. so we're gonna have two other guests here on

the show, ray, in relation to sabor del valle. one is chef mark segovia and then gloria bazan, who is the owner--a co-owner of bazan cellars, so tell us about each one. ray: well, mark, i met him right before the pandemic. i invited him as a guest to gilroy rotary, and he was ready to join, and then everything shut down, and he said, "ray, brother ray, i just lost $30,000 to $40,000 worth of business." i said, "well, think of other ways that you could make money, that you could, you know, stay in front of people," and that's what we did. and then, gloria, she's been just fantastic. they've been with us about eight, nine years with sabor del valle. we visited them, in napa there, just several blocks away from gustavo brambila, but they're-- they've been great donors.

you know, i said this. we helped them with zoom tasting, wine tastings, and i told 'em, i said, "you know, for ten years, you folks probably donated over $100,000 worth of your wines. now it's our turn to help you," and we did, and i felt really good about that, and like i said, mark is-- it's a five-course dinner that he's preparing, that he's gonna be preparing. we are gonna have music there, and before every dish, he'll come out and talk about it. damian: oh, wonderful. ray: it's gonna be--it's a sit-down dinner, and all the board of directors are--we are the waiters. we have our sabor del valle aprons. you know, i thought that's what we do. we serve the community, and this time, we're literally serving the community. damian: well, as it should be. well, thank you so much. any final thoughts before we bring in those other guests? ray: no, just thank you again for your support. it's been a tough time for everybody, but, for us, we were

able to find other ways to market, and that's what we did. we just gotta keep on going and especially with this entrepreneurial program. the president of west valley college now is on our board, and she has entrepreneurial classes there, so people with a dream, we now can help them. we've got the investors and the people that can mentor them along the way. damian: all right, good work as always, ray. thank you so much for all that you do for the community. again, this is sabor del valle. it's happening on august 27, in chacho's restaurant, and there is the information, and you can log on for more information, and then the beneficiaries it goes to also to a great cause, otherwise, you know, we wouldn't be promoting as much on "comunidad del valle," but it's the community that benefits from all this. we'll be back and talk to mark segovia, who will be the chef, the five-course chef at sabor del valle, so stay with us.

this? this is supersonic wifi from xfinity. it's fast. like, ready-for- major-gig-speeds fast. like riding-a-cheetah fast. isn't that right, girl? whoa! it can connect hundreds of devices at once. [ in unison ] that's powerful. couldn't have said it better myself. and with three times the bandwidth, the gaming never has to end. slaying is our business. and business is good. unbeatable internet from xfinity. made to do anything so you can do anything.

damian: mark segovia is the chef at segovia catering. he'll be preparing a five-course meal for sabor del valle. he joins us now on "comunidad del valle." mark, welcome to the show. mark segovia: thank you. thank you for having me today, damian. i'm excited to be here. damian: yeah, thank you. i appreciate you. well, tell us about this five-course meal that everybody's bragging about for sabor del valle. mark: yes, yes, on august 27, at chacho's, first, i just wanna thank, chacho's, jorge, you know, for opening the doors to us. you know, what other restaurant does that and lets a caterer come in and, you know, to prepare something? but it's just how big we believe in community and, you know, helping. it's bigger than me, bigger than the restaurant, bigger than sabor del valle. this is about the community helping us, and we all gotta get together to really support these communities and help out the youth, the entrepreneur program, you know, and-- so i came up with this wonderful menu. it's a five-course sit-down menu. we're gonna start off--i wanna do my twist on the appetizer. it'll be a bruschetta, but we wanted to do a little twist and call it chancletas.

we're gonna do a black bean salad on top of that. second course will be a nopal salad. we all love nopales. gotta have it in a salad. third one will be a shrimp ceviche that have, you know, mango, carrots, pepino, all mixed up in there with a nice citrus marinade. the entree will be a braised coffee and chili rub beef short ribs. out of this world, and we'll put a little cilantro chimichurri right on top. the last one's gonna be fried platanos with a canela sauce. i know you're hungry now, damian so-- damian: yeah, and does that all go with white wine or red wine, or does it matter at that point? mark: as long as you're drinking, it doesn't matter as long as you're drinking. so that's why we're gonna put red and white out there so they could figure out for themselves, and i'll give some suggestions of, you know, try white with this one, or, you know, try red with this one, but that's just the whole thing of just getting out there and supporting community, having a great time, having great food, great, you know, great restaurant that's opening their doors to us, a great staff, great,

just, everything havin' a good time. damian: and you mentioned, you know, generous--generosity of chacho's to open their kitchen. is it strange for you to, as a chef, to go into somebody else's kitchen? mark: yeah, it's very not normal, but they believe in community, and they believe in--they look at the bigger picture of, you know, really, what it takes to support a community, it takes a community. it takes opening your doors to other people to come in and say, "you know, well, let's work together for a bigger purpose." that's why we're doin' this. damian: and talk about that bigger purpose because it is the community organizations and nonprofits that benefit from whoever shows up. mark: yes, definitely, definitely. it's also, you know, it takes, you know, what sabor del valle does is helping, you know, helping people that can't afford insurance or go see doctors. they have organizations like sabor del valle that helps with that. the entrepreneurship program they're doing with the youth, just amazing, you know, getting them engaged, getting them back, connected with community. it's huge, you know, huge, all the stuff they do with, you know, feeding the farmworkers.

there's just so much they do, and that's why, when ray asked me--i've been helpin' him for a couple years already. when ray asked me, i said, "no problem." it's--you know, we're not chargin' nothin' on our end to do anything. this is all volunteer from me and my staff and my family. we're jumpin' in. we're saying, "we're here for you guys. we're here for the community. we're here for our youth." damian: well, that's not easy. it's a big event, and to be volunteering your time and talents and staff, it's a big step on the generosity scale. mark: yeah, definitely, well, i run a family-run business, so we believe we wouldn't be here without community either. you know, i also work for the d.a.'s office. i run a youth diversion program where we give back to the community so much, and so there's so much going on, so we always believe that we always get blessed with, you know, the smiles, the stories after that. we hear of success and the youth that are moving on, doing wonderful things. that's our payoff at the end.

damian: that's beautiful. and, on the business side, things are bouncing back finally? mark: yes, yes, and we, you know, we had to pivot during covid and really change our whole-- how we were running business. i guess everybody had to, and then, you know, god's been good and really blessed us and really opened a lot of doors that, when we stayed true to ourselves to what we really wanted to do, god opens doors and really opened doors for us to really succeed and took us to that next level, so we're just really--we feel really blessed. damian: all right, your nopales, are they steamed, or are they fried? mark: well, what we do first is we're gonna steam 'em a little bit, cool 'em off, and do 'em with some nice heirloom tomatoes, bajo cilantro, and bam, there you go, some goodies. damian: i appreciate you, man. this is mark segovia, who's the chef at segovia catering. he'll be cooking for the five-course meal for sabor del valle. thank you so much for what you do. mark: can i do one shout-out real quick? damian: yeah, go ahead. mark: to my fiancee, valentina caradonna, love you.

thank you, i had to do it, i had to do it. damian: good for you, brother, i appreciate you. thank you so much. again, that's sabor del valle. it's happening on august 27, at chacho's restaurant in morgan hill. you can log on to their website for more information. there it is right there. and the community is the one that benefits. up next, she's a co-owner of bazan cellars in napa, gloria bazan. stay with us. when big tobacco's products were found out to be killers, they promised smokers safety. they called it a filter. but this filter wasn't safe or useful, just small and made of microplastics that have endangered us all. for far too long, they have polluted the earth. they're literally everywhere. there's no need to search. big tobacco, you'll have to answer for your despicable ride, for your wake of destruction.

your one little big lie. damian: she is the co-owner of bazan cellars in the napa valley. with me on "comunidad del valle" is gloria bazan on the show here to talk about more about sabor del valle. gloria, welcome to the show. for your wake of destruction. gloria bazan: thank you for having me. damian: thank you, and i love having vintners like yourself on the show because this is when we talk about going from farmworker, to business owner, to successful vintner as you all are now. talk about that trajectory that your family has gone through. gloria: thank you. well, mario came here to the valley in 1973, and basically, he had, you know, experienced all the changes from a very rural napa to what is now, you know, a--or class wine region,

and we are very proud of what, you know, we have done here. mario started as a laborer, and his big opportunity was at robert mondavi, where he could, you know, after 16 years working in the--for the company, he ended being the general supervisor of all the vineyards, including what is, you know, the very well-known opus one. he was there when it was founded. it did happen he was in charge of the planting of the vineyards. he was the first vineyard manager for opus one, and after that, he had the big opportunity to work for stag's leap wine cellars as well as a vineyard manager. 1996, he founded bazan vineyard management company, and 20 years, almost 20 years later, we founded bazan cellars, that is, it was in 2005, and i'm basically the one who managed

that side of the business and very, very excited to be part of this community, and we had the opportunity topen a tasting room in 2019, in downtown napa, so it's been always, you know, a step in one thing had led us to the next. damian: and who better--right? and i said this to the other latino vintners, who better to become winemakers than those who used to work the soil, who used to plant the crops and do the pruning and do the picking? somebody like your family. gloria: well, you know, we understand what is going on, and we can see what is the changes that every year we experience because mario has a phrase, and he says that, when you are farming a vineyard, you can understand it.

you learn to see every vine, and you can see when one vine is--you know, when there is something going on with a vine. you can see it because you are there every day. so that was some--a story very interesting, to me, and i think that it goes into the bottle, and our slogan is basically the essence of great wine in a bottle because without having that knowledge, you basically cannot accomplish a good wine, and it's--i always say to my customers, "if you are gonna hear in every wine region you go in the world, you are gonna hear 'good wines are born in the vineyard,'" and it could sound like a cliche, but it's not. that is a true fact. damian: oh, interesting. i love that. now tell us about your participation with sabor del valle, historically and now. gloria: well, we have been part of

the sabor del valle for many years. i love to support the cause. i think it's--ray castaneda does a wonderful job putting the community together to work for the community, and it's something that, you know, when you help the community to be better educated, when you help the community to have information to do better, you are basically doing a better place to live too and leaving a better place to live for our kids, and it's something that i always have appreciated, and without the help of the community, you basically--it's very hard to go through--you know? you need that. damian: no, and that's the one thing about this event. sabor del valle is why "comunidad del valle," you know, is always glad to bring those events on because it's the community that always benefits at the end.

but getting back to bazan cellars--and this is true of all the other latino vintners and the mava members in napa valley and in sonoma valley is that this isn't bottom-shelf wine. this is top-shelf, "lock it in the cellar" wine if you're gonna go to a fine restaurant because that's all you produce over there. gloria: yeah, well, our--the most of our job production-- and i'm glad you mentioned mava. most of us, we are small producers, meaning our wines are limited, and we try to put the best of what we do in it, right? we put out the best of our experience, the best of our knowledge in what we're doing. that is, you know, reflection in the wines. those wines are--the most of us sell direct or only have representation in california because we are very small.

we are not a mass-produced wine that you are gonna find in every single grocery store or, you know, even in your pharmacy, soy that it is called "small winery" or "micro winery." i think that most of us are micro wineries producing, like, in our case, 1,200 cases of wine a year is basically a micro winery, a micro production. damian: a boutique winery and one very successful one. any final thoughts, gloria, before we let you go? gloria bazan here with bazan cellars. gloria: well, i hope everybody supports sabor del valle. as i said, it's a wonderful cause. it's a wonderful way to get involved in the community, attending to these events, and i'm very, very happy to share with you our wines too. damian: yeah, well, thank you so much.

again, they're in napa valley. feel free to make an appointment. i'm not sure--there's no tasting room, right? you have to make an appointment if you wanna try some of the wines or go online? gloria: no, they can come to the tasting room. it's open to the public. it is in clinton street on-- and, yeah, it's very--because we are a small room too. it's very--we have appointments, but we welcome walk-ins too. damian: okay, well, thank you so much, glon, for being on "comunidad del valle." thank you, and, again, sabor del valle is happening on august 27, at chacho's restaurant, in san jose. there is the information for you to log onto. thank you so much for being a part of our sunday here on "comunidad del valle." we'll see you once again here next week. there is our information. if you wanna follow me on twitter or on instagram, you can do that as well. we'll see you again here next week. buenos dias.

- [worthington] atlanta georgia, home of the braves, peaches, and southern hospitality. this weekend hosts the athletic canines of the incredible dog challenge. we kick off the 25th anniversary season of the idc in midtown, atlanta and atlantic station. competitors from the eastern u.s. will compete for a spot at the national championship finals later this fall in st. louis. it's heating up in a town. who will rise to the top and be crown purina pro plan incredible dog challenge eastern regional champions? incredible day for the incredible dog challenge here in atlanta, georgia and atlantic station, a brand new location welcoming in the idc eastern championships. and after a two year hiatus, check it out,