damian trujillo: hello and welcome to "comunidad del valle." i'm damian trujillo, and today, keeping your children connected to the internet during the summer on your "comunidad del valle." ♪♪♪

damian: we begin today with the annual celebration called carnaval. rodrigo duran is with calle 24, the organizers of carnaval 2023. rodrigo, welcome back to "comunidad del valle." rodrigo duran: damian, thank you for having me again. i love this show and i'm excited to be here, carnaval is around the corner. damian: yeah, we're excited to have you and excited about the fact that it's once again in person and we're looking at the colors, the music, and what not. tell us about the beauty that is carnaval. rodrigo: man, we're gonna be celebrating 45 years of beauty. our theme is music in movement. not only are we highlighting all the wonderful music from latin america and the caribbean but the movements, the many movements that carnaval has been involved in, not only the dancing aspect of it but, you know, the civil rights, the farmworkers' movement, you know, black lives matter movements, carnaval's been there and will continue to be part of those wonderful movements. damian: yeah, why does that matter, rodrigo? why can't it just be music and dance and having fun? why add some of the social justice aspects, if you will?

rodrigo: 'cause at the very core of carnaval, you know, artists, activists, and residents gave birth to the celebration as, in a way, as a political and social statement. we are here, this is our culture, this is our music. embrace it, enjoy it with us. and so we continue that tradition to this day. damian: one thing that gets me is was vandra gonna be here this year? rodrigo: oh yeah, and you know, my ceo and my mentor roberto hernandez has been wanting to happen for over 20 years 'cause they're coming straight from cuba. they had to go--we had to go throughout the visas but they're here. they're here at carnaval on saturday, straight from their motherland. and we also have la sonora dinamita as the other headliner on the other stage on saturday, may 27. damian: well, talk about, i mean, you know, the big carnaval, obviously, is in brazil but talk about maybe this

might be a close second, if you will, becomes a-- to be outside of brazil. rodrigo: oh, nothing can compare to brazil. nothing compared to colombia or trinidad. what we do have here, though, is the most diverse, the most multicultural carnaval on the world, because we are highlighting all of them, right, so all the colors from those countries that i mentioned and more are represented in our festival and grand parade, and that's what makes it special. damian: and i know that in the past folks would come to participate and enjoy from across the state, across the country. are we seeing the same thing this year? rodrigo: yeah, not only--yes, we're here at the bay but we get folks from north and south, out of state, and people fly to san francisco just to be part of this parade from bolivia, from colombia, from cuba, from mexico and other international places come to san francisco just to experience this melting pot.

damian: talk about the family aspect of it, rodrigo, because it's not just for us older folk. it is for the family. rodrigo: you know, family's everything. i am a product of carnaval. i'm a carnaval baby. so my family was involved in participating in carnaval since the get-go and we encourage folks to show up. it's free, 100%, both festival and grand parade. and it's a good time to share memories, to connect with people that you haven't seen, and make new friends. damian: you mentioned all the other countries that celebrate carnaval, but they don't have to come from those countries 'cause we have that melting pot here. they live here. rodrigo: exactly, and what's beautiful about san francisco and the bay area is that we have folks outside of those countries or cultures that embrace this tradition so you will find, you know, a person of asian descent dancing an amazing samba,

someone from, you know, the middle east doing amazing ballet folklórico mexicano, so you will find people engaged in ways that a lot of folks have never seen. so be impressed, be surprised. it's carnaval. damian: all right, well, it's happening at the end of this month, memorial day weekend, in san francisco's carnaval. may 27 and 28. the 27th, again, is sonora dinamita. on the 28th is los van van. boy, two days-- rodrigo: they're both on the 27th. damian: oh, they're both on the 27th. we'll talk about that in the next segment. damian: we'll be back with rodrigo after this. stay with us. ♪♪♪

damian: we're back with rodrigo duran of calle 24. the organizers, some of the organizers, of carnaval 2023. we mentioned when that segment ended about how both of those performers are on saturday, the 27th, los van van and sonora dinamita. rodrigo: yeah, so we made it hard for the community, i know,

but you're gonna have to pick. on saturday, may 27, at 4 p.m., both headliners are on opposite stages, giving you a 2-hour concert. are you team cumbia or are you team baja? we're gonna have to find out. damian: you know what? i might have to go with sonora dinamita. i'm not sure, that--i go way back with them. and so that's on saturday, and sunday is the big parade. is that right? rodrigo: exactly, oh my god, we're gonna fill up the streets of 24th and mission street with about 3000 different artists. we have 66 different contingents ranging from 30 members to 300. so, again, i--we welcome you all that sunday at 9:30 a.m. the parade starts on 24th and brian and then makes its way around up until about 2:30. damian: and it's not an easy feat, right? i mean, i'm assuming that you started organizing this year's

festivities the day after last year's festivities. rodrigo: exactly. you know, we have 20 dedicated volunteers that give their time. time is everything, right? we can share it with the people we love and they share with us because they love carnaval and we organize year round for the theme, for logistics, for the artists, just so that you all have a wonderful time. damian: well, and at the end of this entire show, we're going to stop talking and we're gonna play just a natural sound of some of the festivities there at carnaval that you can enjoy on the 27th and 28th of may in san francisco. let's touch, if we can, again, rodrigo, on the community aspect of it because, as we've mentioned, it's dance, it's song, it's baile, it's everything, but at the--it comes down to comunidad. rodrigo: yeah, and community is--it's very wide when we talk about carnaval's community because the economic impact that we have in the mission is incredible.

over 200 businesses get patronized and we love them. they're our family, they're our friends, and friends of friends, so we wanna support the local economy. that's a community. we have culture institutions that we partner with. you know, they bring the dancers, they bring a lot of the space for this to happen. that's a community. and so we--community is really--it's a wide network of folks that for 45 years we've cultivated and we've supported and they also support us back with a lot of love. damian: you know, and there's been a lot of stories reported on the gentrification taking place in the mission. this is kind of a way of saying, "hey, you're not getting rid of this. this goes back a long time and this is the mission." rodrigo: well, we have, you know, and they never talk about them. we have a mission diaspora, a mission district diaspora, so folks that, yes, unfortunately, were displaced of the mission or even parts of san francisco or the bay, know of carnaval so when it happens on that weekend, we all flock back together and

we reclaim the space, call it home. it just reminds folks that we didn't leave. we're still here. damian: yeah, i know. and you know, one of your volunteers in the past, arturo riera, i know he travels the world, do you have volunteers who travel the world and come back with ideas when you see how they celebrate carnaval in other areas, or maybe they come here to get ideas on how they celebrate it at home. rodrigo: most definitely. we've partnered, we've had meetings, zooms and in-person with international carnaval organizers and so we bounce back ideas but a lot of the people in our travel to the countries in latin america and the caribbean to experience it. i, myself, lived in brazil for a year and i experienced carnaval there, and so i brought some of my experience, my thoughts and ideas, back to my community in the mission and we get that from everyone, left and right, from trinidadians, from colombians, from guatemalans, you name 'em. damian: and you think that you know all of these cultures because we live, again, in such a melting pot here in the bay

area, right, but then you travel, like you said, you live a year in brazil, you'll learn a lot. rodrigo: yeah, you learn a lot of portuguese and a lot of samba. damian: puro portuguese. any final thoughts, rodrigo, about carnaval 2023? rodrigo: my god, well, join us, you know? it's a milestone for us, 45 years of music and movement. find out more on carnavalsanfrancisco.org. it's spelt in spanish, carnaval. and we just welcome you all to join us. damian: all right, that was rodrigo duran with calle 24 organizers of carnaval 2023. thank you, rodrigo. we'll see you on the other side. rodrigo: thank you, gracias. damian: and again, carnaval is happening on may 27 and 28. on the 27th, big concerts, sonora dinamita and los van van. and of course, the parade on the 28th. log on to that website for more information. up next, keeping your children connected during the summer. stay with us.

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during the summer. it's an important topic and with us is elizabeth castaneda who's with the san jose public library system la mera mera there at the library system. elizabeth, welcome back to the show. elizabeth castaneda: thank you, damian. damian: well, we know it's that time of year again, and the kids are getting out of school in the next couple of weeks and, you know, parents are wondering what do we do now if we don't have internet at home. and lo and behold, here comes san jose public library to help. elizabeth: yup, we have a lot of books. both: [laughing] elizabeth: no, we not only do have books but we also have a lot of tech devices that are available for checkout with a library card. we have 24 library locations throughout san jose, in addition to the main library again, downtown san jose, and one of the things that we're very proud of that came out of, like, the pandemic is the fact that we now are spearheading the dual equity within our city, or sj access initiative, and this sj access initiative provides people with access to wifi hotspots,

chromebooks, community wifi, all for free, to our community members. the chromebooks and the wifi hotspots, people will need to have a library membership to check it out but once you have it, you can connect several devices in the household to a hotspot. they're all high-speed hotspots and we've seen a lot of amazing stories come out of these hotspots and the opportunities that people have been able to create for their students, for themselves, for just whatever's going on in life for them, just having access and connectivity 24/7 in that household or wherever they go. so we have hotspots and, you know, that will allow families to stream movies for a trip or maybe even just to continue learning, you know, there are still a lot of opportunities and virtual opportunities for learning for children. so people, if they don't have access to the internet at home, they could come to the library and check out some of--

one of our devices. damian: all right, and we'll talk about the community wifi in our next segment but if there's something that came out positive and we repeat this over and over, it's important. came out positive out of the pandemic, was the fact that we saw how big the need was and we were able to mobilize and now we, kind of, we know how to do things when it comes to providing every child with a hotspot. elizabeth: yeah, since we launched the hotspots, i mean, we had a tremendous response over our sj access initiative. people were letting us know, like, they were so grateful for having connection in their household. they were able to continue studying, they were able to connect to a medical appointment. they were able to connect to family and friends that are outside of the area, just to check in on them, to just say hi. you know, i think a lot of people also felt isolated, being that we all had to shelter in place, so having access to an internet device that is reliable and trustworthy, it's coming from the city of san jose, it's coming from the library department. we would never put anything out there that would track anything

that anybody does, like, you wanna make sure that, you know, people have access to it and they can do whatever they need to do with those devices and, hopefully, you know, help them make some life-changing decisions or just help them as they navigate some new, you know, idea. maybe it's like planning a business and you don't know how to get started and so you decide you're gonna start to, like, look up an idea and you have now access to internet at home to be able to do that. so i think sj access hotspot has been a tremendous, like, program -- and initiate opportunities for a lot of people and just really creating a more well-run, like, digital landscape in our city and so we're really proud of doing that initiative in san jose. damian: and there's an old saying that an idle mind is a devil's workshop so you wanna keep the kids entertained during the summer, right? and learning at the same time. you don't want them to fall behind and start the next school year maybe a little behind because they were not, i don't

know, on the internet, doing a little research here and there, and maybe playing--even playing some games on the internet gets you kind of--gets that mind going, gets you thinking of what's ahead, come the fall. elizabeth: it does and, you know, not only do we offer the wifi hotspots, but when you come in to pick up a wifi hotspot at the library, if that's something that you're gonna come and take advantage of, we also have, like i mentioned earlier, we have a ton of books in different languages, for everyone. join us--for anybody, like, we have also programs on that. we offer them for free in our libraries. one of them, you know, being coding programs, stem programs, robotic programs. and also during the summer, we know that a lot of people have, like, some down time so we do incorporate a lot of, like, performing events like live performances or entertainment, family-friendly entertainment, for people to come and take advantage of over the weekend. so, you know, expect petting zoos and other type of programs that people probably would never expect from the library but i

know a lot of families, they do appreciate it and it's an opportunity to support the public library a little bit more and meet your neighbors and bring friends and just take advantage of what we do. something that, you know, and maybe a lot of people don't realize that everything we do is available for free to anyone. we never charge for anything that, you know, we share with people, like, you know, our online services, our e-resources, like our e-learning platforms, even. that includes, like, linked in learning which a lot of young professionals and or professionals that, you know, are looking to really hone in on a specific skill that they need for work or they may be looking for another career path, right? these are opportunities that we have available to people that have a library card membership. and so-- damian: yeah, let's--well, i wanna show folks the information on how you can access these hotspots. first become a member of the san jose public library, but there's the website there on the screen. that's how you can get more information on how you can get your portable wi--or hotspot for the summer so that your children

can have access to the internet. we'll be back and talk about the community wifi when we continue here at "comunidad del valle." stay with us. ♪♪♪

damian: and we're back with elizabeth castaneda of the san jose public library system here on "comunidad del valle." you know, i know what life is like without the internet. you probably remember a little bit, elizabeth, but these children, they have no idea what life is like without the internet and so that's why a summer without wifi sounds like a miserable summer. elizabeth: yeah, probably for some children, yeah, they'd probably be at the library. you know, something else that we have started to really wanna emphasize on is not only with devices that, you know, people can check out to if they have wifi at home but also we have worked with or partnered with east side union high school

district to create a wifi--free wifi in certain communities of san jose, so these communities are in the attendance areas of their high schools, andrew hill, independence, james lick -- yerba buena, mount pleasant, and silver creek will be coming up on next week as well. and so, one of the things that we want people to know is that if you live in the attendance area around these high schools you do have free wifi available, like, free community wifi available that you could take advantage of on your device. so, basically, you can, you know, look for a network on, it's sj access free wifi, and know that that's a network that is being provided to you by the city of san jose, san jose public library. it's a trustworthy network that people could connect to, to, you know, maybe browse the internet and hopefully do whatever they need to do. but if you need, like, to have something that is--because the

network can change, you know, when it's community wifi, it's a signal that, you know, hopefully is going to be a strong signal where you're at but just in case you're not as successful or maybe a little bit away, but can still connect to it, but need something a little bit more reliable, i would recommend going to the library to check out a wifi hotspot. damian: yeah, so--but for the meantime, if you live maybe a block or two, the farther away you live from these high schools, chances are your signal might be a little weaker, might be not be able to stream. the closer you are, the idea is to get the high school itself wired, but again, the -- maybe the surrounding community. elizabeth: yeah, the students have access but we wanna make sure that--and they wanna make sure as well that the community has access so the whole family can take advantage of the free wifi that is available in those areas. so that's something new that i think a lot of people may see that come up in the network options and just don't know what it's about, so hopefully, you know, if you guys see sj access pop up on your network list, know that that's a service

that's being provided by the city of san jose and the san jose public library and then if anyone wants to learn more you can always visit our website and we have it really front and center so people can easily get to the type of services that you could access through sj access or through-- and through the library. damian: and so the community wifi you don't need to be--you need the membership of the library system, but if you wanna check out the portable hotspots and laptops and chromebooks, then you need some membership. that's something they can do online probably real easy? elizabeth: yes, so you can request the wifi hotspot or the chromebook online and then you come in the library and, basically, pick up your device and if you need help, you can always come to one of--any one of our locations and basically talk to one of our staff members and they would be able to help you with the checkout process or requesting it if there's none available at that moment. but also, you can--all our libraries have free wifi, so if you guys ever need a cool place to stay over the summer, i know

it gets really warm sometimes at home, we also provide those type of spaces in the library so people can come in and enjoy a cool space, be submerged in books and maybe some programs and access the free wifi in the library. damian: it's a party at the san jose public library-- elizabeth: it's always a party. damian: elizabeth, thank you so much for that valuable information. we appreciate it on "comunidad del valle." elizabeth: thank you. damian: all right, and again, the free hotspots, and you can lease there, or check out i should say, at the library system. there's the website for more information. if you live in other communities of the bay area, call or log on to your local library system. they likely have a similar program in place where you can stay connected throughout the summer. well, if you wanna get a hold of us here on "comunidad del valle," you can follow me on instagram. my handle is @newsdamiantrujillo, on twitter it's @newsdamian. and we thank you for sharing another part of your sunday with us on this great show. we're gonna leave you now with a little bit of the sights and

sounds and colors and culture of prior carnavales in the mission district of san francisco, and we'll see you there next week. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ [cheering] ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪

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♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪ llajwita, quirquiña ♪ ♪ y una sabrosa taquiña ♪ ♪ qué linda mi gente mi gente de cochabamba ♪ ♪ llajwita, quirquiña ♪ ♪ y una sabrosa taquiña ♪ ♪ qué linda mi gente mi gente de cochabamba ♪ ♪♪♪

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