damian trujillo: hello and welcome to "comunidad del valle," damian trujillo. today, the "latino report card." it's been out. how did we do? on your "comunidad del valle." ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪

damian: and we begin today with the monthly visit by the consulate of mexico in san francisco. with me is a consul adscrito for the consulado, señor vincente sanchez back on the show. mr. consul, welcome back to "comunidad del valle." vincente sanchez: thank you, damian. it's a great honor to be here with you. with you audience. thank you. damian: yeah. no. thank you for being here. let's talk first about semana binacional de la educación, education week. vincente: oh, yes. it's an important event here in the consulate. is one of the topics that we--are very important for the consulate is, of course, the regular documentation for our nationals. but another topics are community programs like the education. between the 14 and the 20, we're going to celebrate the sixth by national education week, it means that we can provide information about options of universities, what we need--they

need our young to be ready to--for education. and we have a list of events, the first one will be in 19 and 20, for example, in mission cultural center for latino arts. we're going to be there with the workshops and information about how we can be successful in education. i think it's a great invitation for all the communities, especially the young people because all-- everybody needs education. and why not the latino community in general and the mexicans in particular? well, we are ready to provide information and this is the sixth event in a row for the last six years. i think it's very important. the information, the people who are interested, they can see our website with more information, contacts, websites, et cetera. damian: all right. well, that's important because that's gonna be one of our topics with the latino report card education. there's also semana binacional de la salud,

which is always important. health education. vincente: yes. now it's education. yes. the -- by national health week will be in october. this is another topic that we can talk about it in next month. yes. damian: oh yeah. we're talking about labor -- derecho laboral. vincente: we have another, it's for the last 15 years we celebrate the labor week day. it's very important another topic because the--all the workers need to have in the hands wealth at the rise for them. well, for--we are ready to start with workshops, information in general here in the consulate for the public regularly we receive them and we provide information. meanwhile, they are waiting for our--the consulate documents. but especially between the 28th, august, the 28th and september 1, we'll be here with virtual events and workshops

here in the consulate. it's about the women rights, for example, about the farmers' rights and the people who needs information about, in general, what are the rights for them. we have a specialist that they can respond virtually some questions. and here we are going to have some tables with information. damian: oh, that's important as we approach labor day. so that's always an important topic here on the show. let's ask you also about the "programa, the héroes paisanos." vincente: well, this is--this program is during every year for the vacational weeks. our, for example, summer and the end of the year, we have this program. it's--in the beginning was a certain pamphlet, like this one, yes. with more information. now it's reduced for less information, but they have contacts that they can see in website.

but in general, it's the people who wants to go to mexico in vacation with the family vacation. what they need for the pets, for example, or to introduce a car or what the documents that they need. well, this information, it's very important. and this it's--we start the program between july the 25 until august the 25th. but all the information you can see in the website, i think is very important when they--someone want to travel and--into mexico, and they have many questions. well, this information is important. and every year, probably many people knows about "programa paisano." now it's called "héroes paisanos," but it's the same information. damian: perfect. well, thank you so much. a lot of great ition. the consul adscrito, the vice consul general of mexi in san francisco. thank you for being back on the show. damian: thank you so much, damian. damian: all right.

and again, the consulate of mexico is on folsom street, 532 folsom street. we're gonna show their website. there's where you can grab all the information that we discussed today. up next the "presidio trust and tunnel tops," stay with us. (warehouse ambience) inintroducing g togo's new frfrench dip s sandwiches feataturing frfresh artisasan b piled highgh with tendnder roast bebeef,

smothehered with m melty provovolone cheeeese and seserved with h hot au ju fofor dipping.g. try y the roast t beef or papasi frenench dips totoday only at togo's damian: and we're back here on "comunidad del valle." this time talking about the presidio trust and tunnel tops. with me is faviana rodriguez who is a presidio activator. welcome to the show. faviana rodriguez: hello. thank you for having me. damian: tell us what a presidio activator is. faviana: the presidio activator is somebody who is engaging in making the presidio tunnel tops park a more welcoming and engaging place for everyone. damian: i don't think you can do that 'cause it's already--we--you see the images. it's already so engaging and welcoming. tell us about what's different now with the tunnel tops. faviana: well, what's different is that we are bringing art and cultura and música, cumbias, baile. we're bringing many different things to the presidio to invite families, all kinds of families to come enjoy and have a

beautiful day with us. and so i--this weekend on sunday, we will be inaugurating a new mural by an artist, felicia gabaldon, and we're gonna be celebrating this new mural together with music and food and fun. damian: talk about what your job did when you first saw the images, the paisajes from the presidio itself. faviana: yeah. well, you know, i grew up in a family. my parents were immigrants from peru, and we didn't really go camping. we didn't go a lot of times to have fun in nature. and so as an adult, i think it's very, very important that as latinos, that we connect with nature, that we spend time in the park away from the tvs and the phones. and so when i go to the park, i just absolutely am--there's the view of the golden gate bridge is breathtaking. and it's just a beautiful park to be in. and you literally can see the entire city of san francisco.

damian: and how smart is it to bring in the latino flavor that you were mentioning into the presidio? faviana: well, you know, latinos, we make this economy run. we are very, very hard workers in this region called the bay area and in the state of california. and so we have to also prioritize our joy and our relaxation. and so my invitation is that, you know, i have designed this day for it to be especially welcoming for latinos. that's why we're gonna have a band, rené y familia, that is going to play cumbias. it's an all-family band. we're gonna have dancing, we're gonna have food, activities where kids could actually play with critters and connect with nature. so my goal has always been to create a very inviting environment so that latinos and other communities of color can come and have a good time. damian: and look at all these images we find out now, why we call it tunnel tops. it's right over top of the tunnel.

but i get a feeling that this won't be the one and only latino-themed event. it seems like you're on to something here. faviana: that's correct. every sunday--every second sunday, the presidio has different events. in september, there's going to be a big dancing event. well, there'll be dancers of all kinds of forms, and so we invite everyone to come to the park on second sundays, especially this sunday, august 13th, because it's going to be a day that i've especially curated to show love just to all our immigrant families. you know, i grew up in an immigrant family, and i wanted to create a day that was about connecting to mother earth and also celebrating our culture. damian: and we saw what fiesta en el parque back in july. the crowds that you had there did--any recommendations on transportation? faviana: yes. so i would recommend that if possible families come together or that you take ride share to the park.

if you get to the park, there's always parking at sports basement, but very important dress in layers, because sometimes there can be fog, sometimes there can be sun. there's going to be food trucks. so it's just, you know, come prepared to have a good time. and i can tell you that for the kids, there is an amazing place space called the outpost plaza. so make sure your kids are ready to come play, and they're dressed to come play. damian: that's good advice. any final thoughts faviana before we let you go? faviana: yes. i think, you know, it's the summertime. let's take the time to enjoy and connect with mother nature. we are in a climate crisis, the planet is literally getting hotter. so it's important that we teach our children how to appreciate nature so that they can protect nature in the future. damian: all right. thank you so much. faviana rodriguez, the presidio activator on the show, talking about some great events happening at the presidio. faviana, thank you so much. faviana: thank you so much. damian: oh, thank you. well, you know, you can go to any park, i guess, but nothing like the presidio with the fantastic images and sites that

you can see there. there's a website for more information. it's on lincoln boulevard. there's a website, presidio.gov. up next here on "comunidad del valle," we're talking about the results of the silicon valley latino report card. it doesn't look good. stay with us.

damian: the grades are in the silicon valley report card is out, and the grades don't look good. with me is a former mayor of san jose, the honorable ron gonzales, ceo and president of the hispanic foundation of silicon valley. mayor, welcome back to the show. ron gonzales: hey. how you doing, damian? great to be with you again. damian: we're doing good. well, here are the grades and we're gonna show them what they are in a bit, but the--you have a line that i love all the time when these report cards comes out, but because they don'ok good, give us that line, if you don't mind. ron: well, you know, dating all the way back to 2011, which was our first report card, followed up by our second report

card in 2018, and now our third report card just in june of this year. unfortunately, you know, we look at the quality of life for latino families and children in both santa clara and san mateo counties. and unfortunately, the grades have never been good. and i--and they--and unfortunately, particularly this report, because it's the first one after the covid-19 pandemic, we've actually slipped further back. so like i have said, on every occasion we've released a report card that if this was my report card, i'd hide it from my parents. and unfortunately, that's the reality. and we have a hard time with these report cards because it, you know, really shows the biggest challenges that our community continues to face in order to maintain a high quality of life in silicon valley. and we just keep struggling and the pandemic certainly did not help. i think this report card clearly shows how devastating the pandemic was on our community, and particularly our children.

damian: well, here we saw the grades just now we're talking about two ds, two cs, and a b. it looks an awful lot like mine when i was in high school. not good. ron: mine was slightly better than this, but, you know, it--i think the most discouraging part particularly for our foundation, 'cause we work so much with latinx students and parents around education excellence, is the fact that for the first time in the first report card, the education grade has slipped to d, and that is definitely shows the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on our students. and the reality is that unfortunately, most of our students go to under-resource schools and school districts that were slow in terms of responding to distance learning when the schools were closed down at the start of the pandemic.

and, you know, what i've had to share with a lot of business leaders, particularly in the last couple years during the pandemic, was, you know, because their reality is, well, let's just get these kids some chromebooks and, you know, the problem will be solved. well, they have to understand that our children, most of them in this report card points it out, live in overcrowded housing conditions because of the how high housing cost. and so, you know, their study area is the family kitchen table where they'll share that table with a couple other siblings, maybe even some cousins, maybe other family members who happen to be residing in that apartment. and, you know, the reality was that our children weren't having success connecting with that school computer, having, you know, success, getting information in a speedy way. and consequently, they got frustrated and gave up. studies have shown already that our children are as many--as much as 12 to 18 months behind-- non-hispanic children

in our school systems. damian: that's incredible. and then they're having to share a hotspot as well. and we all know how hotspots work in the house owners. seven people trying to log onto that. talk about the research, who does the research for you and then presents it in the way that you can present it to us. ron: well, ever since our first report card in 2011, we've used a company called applied survey research. they're well recognized in the kind of social services area. they do a lot of research for counties and cities particularly here on the peninsula and down in the south bay. so we found that their work is excellent. it's indisputable in terms of the data that they put together for the report card. our report card primarily is made up of what they call secondary data or secondary research, things like the us census, other surveys that are done by various government agencies. and then we supplement that secondary information and data

with firsthand research that we do through a survey where we survey both latino and non-latino residents in both counties. so we think this is a very good, unfortunately, very bad picture of the state of affairs in our community. but, you know, our foundation we've always believed in transparency and the importance of putting the facts out there so that our community is aware of what kinds of issues we have and what kinds of problems we need to work on. damian: are you able at all to grade on a curve and give us a break next time? ron: well, i tell you, i certainly feel that this has gotta be the bottom line. we, you know, we cannot go below this level. you know, it's clear that our latino families are having more and more difficulty just residing in silicon valley. we can see this by the population drop that has taken place in the last 12 to 13 years.

and so we know that our latino workforce is more employed than ever before. there's no doubt that we are engaged in the work, in the economy of silicon valley. the only problem is, is that many of our families are now traveling greater distances to get to work, you know, all the way from salinas in los bono. so you're taking two hours to get to work, you're working all day, and you're getting two hours to go back home. you know, that is not good for the mental health of our families. so that concerns us deeply, and we're hoping that government agencies will start to get a quicker desire to get that affordable housing issue resolved. damian: all right. well, a lot of important topics here in our next segment, mayor, i do wanna talk about maybe where we go from here because you discussed that at this gathering that you had not long ago. but the folks at hispanic foundation of silicon valley is, in fact, in silicon valley covering santa clara

and san mateo counties. there is a web address for more information. you can find some info on the silicon valley latino report card. we'll be back with the former mayor of san jose, ron gonzales. (♪♪) (♪♪♪) (♪♪♪) (♪♪♪) ((♪♪)) (♪♪♪) ((♪♪)) (♪♪♪) ((♪♪)) (♪♪♪) ((♪♪)) visit yr lolocal volvo retail, to explore mild hybrid suvs

during the summer safely savings event. damian: we're back here on "comunidad del valle" with ron gonzales, the former mayor of san jose, and the current president and ceo of the hispanic foundation to explore mild hybrid suvs of silicon valley. and we're talking today about the latino report card, how we've been doing in silicon valley over the last three years or so. two ds, two cs and a b. and at your convening, mayor, when you release the report card, it's a somber first part of the morning because we're getting the grades. but the second part is so different,s so energetic because i don't know if we're filled with anger, fration, or we're rolling up our sleeves. you--well, tell us what happens in the second part. ron: yeah. well, this was a community committing. we always had them after every report card to publicly display

the report card, the grades for each of the five quality of life areas we look at. and usually, we draw anywhere from 200 to 250 leaders from our community and elsewhere and other different communities in the south bay in the silicon valley area. and so the first part of the program, as you mentioned, we display the data, we talk about the grades. and the second part is we then distribute these attendees in various conference rooms based on their interest of the subject area, whether it's education, health, financial stability, housing, or the environment. and we ask those people in each of those rooms, each of those conference rooms to talk about the data, to talk about the report card, share their feelings, share their desires to see something happen that improves these grades for the next report card and start to identify where this community, our community, should be working to resolve these issues and to

have a better report card the next time around. so that's a very helpful process for us. we take those comments as well as the data from the report card, and we implement all of that information into our long-term strategic business plan. and in fact, we're gonna do that this coming year, this coming 12 months. we're gonna update our strategic plan. and so that this foundation is really guided by the data about the needs of our community and the feelings from those people who attended that important event in early june in mountain view. damian: and you're leading the charge. the foundation is leading the charge on how we can improve things, but you're not alone, right? i mean, when you have all these stakeholders in that room, they're all going into, whether they're nurses or teachers or principals or what--whoever they are, housing directors, they're going back in to make hopefully, into their communities and see what can be done. ron: i think the important thing about the report card is

it gives you data and that, you know, when you're dealing in nonprofits or you're dealing with social issues you just can't, you know, you can't make things up. and this is really important aspect of the report card as we know that other nonprofit organizations have used the data from the report card to document the various needs that they may be addressing with an application for funding from a government agency or from a corporate sponsor. so the report card is used by, you know, many people, many organizations other than just us. and of course, we use it. we use the very first report card to really focus on the fact that we have to improve the academic achievement levels for our youth because we all know those of us that have had the privilege and honor and opportunity to attend college and to get a four-year college degree, know that that changes the trajectory of a student's life, and not just their lives,

their family's lives, and their extended family. cousins and so forth that usually get dragged along in the process, because as i'm sure, my cousin said when i first graduated from college, "if ron can graduate from college, i'm smarter than him. i better go." sou know, that's the -term implions of--for us have to continu stay focused oncation, because that ialhe fouion, partarly here in silicon valley, to raise our economic level, to raise our self-sufficiency, to provide the income opportunities, to afford a home, or at least to be competitive in trying to find a home in silicon valley. and to have a good health plan and benefits from your employer. education is gonna be the foundation for sure. damian: it's the great equalizer. you know, and it--what it means, what the grades mean is that as a reporter on two different stations, as a host of this show, i have to do better. folks in their communities have to do better because it's--the report card is just not acceptable.

ron: absolutely. i mean, i really feel that we all, you know, have to double down. i'm very concerned with the data in this report card, particularly on our youth and our--and this youth generation. i don't like to dramatize things, but i think the data clearly says that if we don't, as a society, as a local community, get our act together and start doing things very specifically that result in the--a result in the impact and outcomes that are positive, we may lose an entire generation because of that pandemic. it's the--the implications are that broad, unfortunately. damian: that is very scary, very scary words, mayor. any final thoughts, mayor, before we let you go in presenting this latino report card? ron: well, i just want to emphasize the importance of taking individual action. you know, all of us, you know, you don't have to be part of a nonprofit. you don't have to be part of an action group.

each one of us could be a solution to one of these issues in the report card. and as my father used to say, "we all have a responsibility to improve the lives of others." and that's how i've dedicated my life, and i hope that others who are watching this program take some part of their lives to improve the quality of life for others. damian: well, you know, there's no hiding from it, mayor. it's right here in black and blue and red and everything. and so we thank you for putting this together and for holding our feet to the fire. and it's time to mobilize. thank you, mayor. ron: thank you. damian: thank you very much, ron gonzales, the president and ceo of the hispanic foundation of silicon valley with giving us two ds, two cs, and a b on the silicon valley latino report card. the silicon valley foundation--the hispanic foundation of silicon valley. there's a website on the screen. you can log on and find out more about the latino report card. if you wanna get ahold of us on "comunidad del valle," you can

follow me on instagram and on threads. the address is the same @newsdamiantrujillo. we thank you once again for sharing a part of your sunday on "comunidad del valle." we're gonna see you back here again next week on another great show. pase usted muy buenas --. ♪♪♪

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