damian trujillo: hello and welcome to "comunidad del valle." i'm damian trujillo. we have another exciting show with some very valuable information on your "comunidad del valle." ♪♪♪ damian: and we begin with a program that's very important to the entire bay area and sponsored by nbc bay area and telemundo [saking foreign language] so we're talking about silicon valley reads and with us on the show tay is nomar perez. so we're talking about silicon valley reads and with us on the he's gonna be showcasing the book "coquí in the city." nomar, [speaking foreign language] welcome to the show. nomar perez: thank you. i'm so glad to be here. damian: well, tell us about yourself. you're an author. we see some of your work behind you there. nomar: yes, i'm an author-illustrator.

i've been doing this for quite a bit. i'm also a greeting card artist as well, full-time, for a company called american greetings, but i've been able to come around and be able to do my own writing and illustrating as well too. damian: now, wait a minute, when you said you're on the american greetings cards, does that mean that what we're reading, all that mushy stuff, that comes from you? nomar: just the illustrations. damian: ll, that can be mushy o, [speaking foreign nguage] when do you find time to play the [speaking foreign language]? nomar: whenever i can. whever i put some [speaking foreign language] start pling it, just to get inspired a little bit more and keep going. damian: all right, well, you're part of this program called silicon valley reads. talk about your participation in the program. nomar: so i was asked to participate and-- because they were--they're gonna showcase my book, "coquí in the city," and i'm gonna be part of a special virtual presentation on march 30 at 4 p.m.

and i'm gonna be showcasing the book and the story and also gonna be doing a drawing exercise for the kids. damian: all right, well, silicon valley rds it'll kick off on the 20th. it's the 20th anniversary this year with a special in-person and livestreamed event, featuring their three-- featuring adult authors on january 26 at the de anza theater in cupertino and streamed online by the commonwealth club of silicon valley and that is free to the blic. but your event is on march 30 at 4 p.m. which ao streamed live. what a program, silicon valley reads, just getting--making sure that a child picks up a book and, you know, i guess it a pad now, but if you pick up the hardcopy book, we always encourage kids to read. nomar: you broke up a little bit there so i couldn't understand what you said, i'm sorry. damian: just the importance of getting the children to read. nomar: yes, i think it's really important, especially, you know, to be able to open up a book and see a

different perspective of maybe someone's life or what they've gone through, especially with this book i wanted to showcase a real-life situation that happened in my life, moving from puerto rico to the united states which was a big deal for me. it was a big change. and i wanted to showcase that in the book and not only just to show kids from puerto rico that, you know, moving to a new place, it's--it could be hard at first but at the same time, you know, you could explore and find new opportunities. you could also explore and see that your culture is also represented as well in your new home, but for other kids around the world, too, that move to a new place and try to find their way around their new place. and it doesn't matter where you're at, your culture still follows you, and there's other people that share that same cuure wi you. damian: that's wonderful.

we should mention that silicon valley reads picks books and themes each year that are responsive to the needs of the community at that time. so talk about "coquí in the city" and how that fits thbi. nomar: yes, ll, "coquí in the city," it's obviously the theme that silicon valley reads has is journey to new beginnings. so the book also represents that as well too because it was my journey from pueo rico to the united states which i was beginning, you know, something new and it was just something new for me and i wanted to showcase it in the book, "coquí in the city." damian: all right, well, again, nomar is gonna be joining silicon valley reads, a special program. this is happening on march 30 at 4 p.m. we're gonna show you the website. there you go. siliconvalleyreads.org. there you can find out all the information about the events this year for the 20th anniversary and find out more about nomar's spial esentation on march 30

at 4 o'clock here in silicon valley. we'll be back with silicon valley reads. stay with us. (steven) every time i come to see caremore, they go above and beyond to take care of me. i feel a lot better now. i'm taking medication for what i should have been taking years ago. (vo) caremore health provides advanced primary care wherever you need it, in the hospital, at home, in our clinics, or virtually. (steven) so when i call them over a medical issue, they take care of it instantaneously. i'm not afraid to go to the doctor anymore or put off going to the doctor. (vo) call the number on your screen to learn more about medicare plans in your neighborhood that include caremore.

damian: and we're back here with author and illustrator, nomar perez. his book, "coquí in the city" will be--is featured at this year's silicon valley reads program. [speaking foreign language] in ohio. i didn't know that was such a thing. nomar: yes, [speaking foreign language] are everywhere, everywhere. damian: well, i see supreme court justice sonia sotomayor also behind you. talk about that work. nomar: yes, that was a special book that i was able to do and illustrate. i was given the opportunity to illustrate the book and it very special because it was another puerto rican that i was able to illustrate and it was my first little golden book that i was able to illustrate as well too. and another aspect of it too reading through the stories itn started illustrating, i found out that justice sotomayor also

is type 1 diabetic so we had that little bit of connection, not only because we were puerto ricans but we also, you know, shared that same experience as well too, going through such a hard disease. damian: no, what a wonderful story. but now i would imagine, as an ahor and illustra you must have fallen in love with a book at one pot. what do you think it was for you that turned the light on and said, "you know what? i like the books, i like reading i like illustrating. maybe this is what i should get into." nomar: oh my goodness, i have so many. i was always attracted to a lot of picture books, especially the eric carle books as well too because of his paper-cutting and collage techniques, and just also the simplicity of it as well too. but i've always been attracted to the art of picture books and always wanted to explore them and here i am. i've been given the opportunity to be able to write my own book and illustrate it as well, and then from there it has opened a

door to a lot of other books that i've been able to illustrate as well. damian: are there-- in your estimation, when you're writing a story for children, is there an obstacle that the main character needs to overcome to show children that, you know, life isn't easy all the time and you're gonna face obstacles and you just-- nomar: oh yeahpecially in "coquí in the ci you know. the g stacle was, you know, leaving the island. you ow, it's very hard for us, you know, puerto ricans are--love the island, love being there but there's situations that arise and, you know, we have to move for different reasons. and my reason was because my dad had lost his job so we were looking for other opportunities as well, so it was six of us at that time when we moved from puerto rico to ohio and, you know, it was a big deal. you know, even though we had some family here,

it was still very new for us, learning the language, getting accustomed to the cold and just adjusting, you know, all in all different realms, you know, whether just getting to know different people, you know, being open to geto meettherends. the big, you know, obviously the big deal is the language, peopyou know, justbeing open to glearning the language. but that's what i wanted to showcase in the bookhat, you know, even though there's all these situations that happen, you ow, with miguel coming to the united states and, you knnot knowing whatdo not knowing, he was able to find a little bit of his culture everywhere he went and that helped him to move forward and be like, "okay, this is gonna be fine." damian: that's good. yeah, there's always that learning, teachable nt, ifou will. but--and the temperatures are different, coming from san juan headed over to columbus, ohio. nomar: yes, very different, very different.

damian: so what is the common goal? thirty minutes of reading per night for each child? i know that you're not an expert in psychology but what would you recommend as an author-illustrator? nomar: oh, definitely the 30 minutes a day, it's a big deal. i have three kids and we encourage them to read. i mean, obviously, it's amazing to be able to have them read the books that i illustrate and the books that i've written, but it's awesome to be able to develop that in a child. it helps ' to develop, it helps 'em to, you know, be creative and i've definitely seen that in my kids, to be able to, you know, read and imagine and just explore new realms. damian: all right, well, it's been a pleasure having you on the show. i'm talking with nomar perez, a participant author-illustrator in silicon valley reads. thank you and [speaking foreign language] nomar: [speaking foreign language] damian: thank you very much. again, silicon valley reads, 20th anniversary. nomar's book is a featured piece in that, "coquí in the city."

there is the website for siliconvalleyrds.org. up next on "comunidad del valle," the consul general of mexico in san francisco. stay with us.

damian: and we're back here on "comunidad del valle," the monthly visit by the consulate of mexico in san francisco. with me is ambassador remedios gomez arnau. she's back on the show. ambassador, welcome back. happy new year. remedios gomez arnau: happy new year to you too. i am very glad to be here again with you and your audience. mian"happy anniversary."g bac, remedios: yeah, yeah, indeed because this year we are celebrating the 175th anniversary of the opening of this consulate. let me tell you, they mean that this was the first consulate the mexican government opened on the west coast of the united states. it was in 1848, before that the gold fever could start or the

gold rush could start. so we've seen during all these 175 years many changes in the composition ofhe mexican community coming here and the contributions that this mexican community has provided to the area. so now, we have a very varied community that goes from agricultural workers to professionals working in tech and scientifics--scientists also in the universities. but very important, damian, that famous mexicans came here, they made their imprint here, like diego rivera. he had an important influence in the muralism here. frida kahlo, that manyint people love her still today, he hand also carlos santana. influence in the muralism here. those that like the rock. well, he studied here in high school. and an ex--former president of mexico, francisco madero, he came here. he studied at berkeley university and where nobel

awardee, octavio paz, literature awardee octavio paz, he was also living here. he actually worked at the consulate and then he became an ambassador of the mexican foreign service. so, many things that we can talk about during these 175 years of the opening of the mexican consulate in san francisco. you mentioned carlos santana born in autlán, jalisco, moved to tijuana because his dad was a mariachi there, and then made his name at woodstock when he was in the mission district in san francisco. so, some strong roots by some very powerful and famous people. remedios: yeah, that's it and we will be celebrating all that all along the year with different events. there will be an event for the community. we will inviting the community. we cannot accommodate everyone but we will be inviting organizations that have been helping the consulate to provide services to our community.

so, yeah, we're very happy for this year and we just let-- wanna let know other people about this celebration. damian: that's a big celebration, 175 years of official mexico business in san francisco, so thank you for sharing that with us. you're continuing your community programs, educational programs. one that's coming up is the [sakinlanguage] tell us about this. it's a spanish virtual event but one that everybody can benefit. remedios: yes, yes. this coming tuesday at 12:30 p.m. through our facebook page, we will have a virtual class with a mexican [speaking foreign language] who actually she's a leader also in their region. she will be teaching how to make crepe paper flowers, flowers of crepe paper. and that's a--those types of flowers are very mexican

that we usually put them in different celebrations, en though if you don't speak spanish, i mean, as you will be watching how she is making them, you can also watch it even though you don't speak spanish, you can visually understand what she's telling us about how to make these beautiful crepe paper flowers. damian: well, and that's on tuesday. you havether event tomorrow, mo, and then one on wednesday. so the consulate is not starting the year slow. you're going fast, you're starting fast. remedios: yeah, we know that our community needs different services, not only the communication services that everyone--everybody is aware of, but also other informational, educational, health, and services that we also try to provide to the different and very varied community that we have here in 13 counties in the bay area and northern coastal

california, anat damian: all right, well, a lot of good information. any final thoughts [speaking foreign language] before we let you go? remedios: please follow us in our social network because that way you will be able to know about different events that we will be organizing along the year. it also, whenever there is an important issue or important information we want to provide the community, whether it's the spanish speaking or it's english speaking, we will announce that in our social network, so pow uas damian: all right. thank you so much and [speaking foreign language] remedios gomez arnau, the consul general of mexico in san francisco. thank you again for your time. we'll see you next month. remedios: thank you, see you. damian: all right, thank you. and again, the consulate of mexico in san francisco is on folsom street. we're gonna show you that web address. there it is, for more information. we'll have some great tejano music up next on "comunidad del valle," with another special interview, so stay with us.

damian: well, if you wanna get a hold of us you can follow me on instagram. my instagram handle is @newsdamiantrujillo, on twitter it's @newsdamian. a lot of good information that we share on both of those social media sites. well, we thank you for being a part of our sunday once again here on "comunidad del valle." we also are starting the year strong. we're gonna leave you with another special interview with the former founder, well, one of the former directors of crla, the california rural legal assistance program and end with a little bit of music, [speaking foreign language] national anthem. we'll see you again here next week. damian: been the face of crla for many decades, california rural legal. we're talking about don jose padilla. he is the outgoing executive director. he's my guest here on "comunidad l valle," and jose, welcome to the show. jose padilla: thank you very much for the invitation,

mr. trujillo. damian: thank you, sir. i appreciate you being here and we just discovered that you and i have an awesome kinship because of this thing right here. talk about el cortito and what you've-- your role in eliminating it. jose: yeah, well, first of all, being the director of crla has been one of the honors or the blessings that i've had. crla is a legal service program that provides civil legal services to the rural poor through our network, and crla has been around for more than 50 years, providing rural legal service to actually all the rural poor eligible for our services, but it happens that in our history, a big focus has been in the service of farm workers. and not only does crla provide individual legal services to individual clients or to individual families,

one the things that is our historical legacy, is that we also do what is referred to as impact work, systemic work, where we are able to have impacts statewide, you know, regional-- impact litigation or the thing i was mentioning to you is that one of our first big cases involving the farm workers was a case where we challenged the agricultural industry in the use of the short-handled hoe and in that case, we were able to successfully eliminate the use of the short hoe which the farm workers referred to as [speaking foreign language], the short-handled hoe, and today you can be driving b rural areas in the fields and you see workers standing up with the long hoe,

but that's because of the litigation that we did where we eliminated that. and the reason that we went after it was because one of our founders, cesar chavez, had mentioned to us that the farm worker, many of them, suffered back injuries because of the use of that short hoe. he himself had suffered a back injury because of the use of the hoe and he said, "can crla do something about it?" and in the chirmona case, we were able to go after the california department of labor and eliminate the use of that hoe and so when i saw--when you mentioned that you had the short hoe in the back there that had been used by your father, what a circumstantial connection for both of us to know that, that we were the organization that eliminated the use of that hoe. damian: well, thank you for doing that,

you know, from a professional and from a personal standpoint because, you know, it changed a lot of lives because of what you did, what crla did, and cesar did, i was able to use the long-handled hoe, i di't have to be hunched over, so thank you for making field work a lot easier for me. you know, they say that when people become more studied, become attorneys, wow, this person's gonna make it, they're gonna be rich, they're gonna own three cars and four homes and what not, but that's not what studying law is all about. jose: yeah, no, i--there are different--obviously, ways to practice law. from a personal perspective, you know, i received good education because my parents, my grandparents had been farm workers, they had, like other immigrants, wanted their children, their grandchildren, to go to schools and i was able to successfully go to the university of stanford and berkeley. but one of the things my grandparents had instilled

in us was that when we received our schooling they reminded us, as my parents did, to never forget the community that had raised you. and because i had been born and raised in rural california, in imperial county, by farm workers who had come from mexico, central mexico, [speaking foreign language] from my father's side, from [speaking foreign language] on my mother's side, we knew that if we were able to use our education to help those communities, it would be something that our parents and grandparents could benefit from and so i was able to then go back there to rural california and give my services and then after having done 6 years of work out of the, you know, central crla office, i was then able to--i was then selected to become a crla director and i've been doing

that for 38 years and i've done a lot of work assisting not only farm workers but other rural poor. damian: wow, we thank you for that service. i wanna talk about your retirement in our next segment but, you know, the world keeps getting smaller. my parents [speaking foreign language] and so it all makes sense now. but crla, folks, their web address, we're gonna show that to you because they are still in action and still advocating for those who might not have a voice. there is a website for more information: crla.org. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪

[singing foreign language] [singing foreign language] [singing foreign language] [singing foreign language] [singing foreign language] [singing foreign language] [singing foreign language]

[singing foreign language] ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ (steven) every time i come to see caremore, they go above and beyond to take care of me.

i feel a lot better now. i'm taking medication for what i should have been taking years ago. (vo) call the number on your screen to learn more about medicare plans in your neighborhood that include caremore.

. narrator: when you see this symbol, you know you're watching television that is educational and informational. the more you know on nbc. corey: hi, everyone, i'm corey robinson. join us as we celebrate athletic greatness both on the field and in the community. this is "oneteam: the power of sports". today, world cup champion julie foudy talks about the positive changes in women's sports and what still needs to be done. julie: you're seeing these inequities between the support of the men's team and the support of the women's team. i am encouraged, though, that we're seeing signs of progress. corey: then, one of the greatest sled hockey players ever shows us he's not slowing down any time soon. announcer: that's why he is the prominent man for