and pet wrangler too. you report to your boss, every afternoon. so beautiful. so becoming a student again might seem impossible. hello, mi amor. but what if a school could be there for all of you? career, family, finances and mental health. well, it can. national university. supporting the whole you. damian trujillo: hello, and welcome to "comunidad del valle." i'm damian trujillo, and today the foundation helping latino national university. and indigenous communities called celebration nation on your "comunidad del valle." ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪

damian: and we begin today with the--our annual event called clear the shelters with nbc bay area and telemundo canal 48. with me now is allison lindquist, the president and ceo of the east bay spca. allison, welcome to the show. allison lindquist: thank you so much for having us. damian: now, we--let me first start off about the crisis that we're in, and i think it's a crisis 'cause we've reported it for the last few months. how serious is the overcrowding in shelters across the bay area? allison: it's really quite bad, and it really is--was somewhat unexpected, although retrospectively i think that we can say there's no surprises. during the pandemic, our shelters were emptied. everybody was at home adopting animals. we could not keep animals in the shelter. people were adopting. people were buying. and now we are absolutely overwhelmed with an overpopulation of dogs and cats, particularly in california. i think most of the country is experiencing this. the northeast, i think, somehow is escaping the same problem

that we are having. and so i know that there are tremendous efforts around the country to transport animals around. damian: all right. well, the--in conjunction with the--your agency and others around the bay area and nbc bay area and telemundo, we've adopted--well, we named some pets after some of our anchors. we're looking right now at ginger conejero saab. she needs to be adopted. we're looking now at vianey arana. she needs to be adopted as well. she's a belgian shepherd. and here's rob mayeda. he is a domestic short hair cat that also needs to be adopted. talk about this strategy. allison: we are very grateful to nbc for hosting clearing the shelters. it's critically important as you mentioned. we are seeing a tremendous overpopulation. so we're trying to have some fun with this naming the animals after some of our favorite anchors on nbc, and we really would like to see as many animals as we can get into homes this month and open--free up the shelters for the incoming

population that seems to be endless at this point. damian: and i hear that you're-- the pet damian trujillo was adopted. allison: yes. your namesake was scooped up, and he is living large in a home of his own right now. damian: oh, that's beautiful. talk about the urgency again. you kind of touched on it, but it's kind of an urgency we're in. we've been at this for a month with this clear the shelters program, but the need is still great. allison: the need is still really great, you know, and i think that we're going to be seeing this for quite some time. with people going back to work, we're seeing animals getting surrendered. we're seeing a lot of animals that are under 2 or 3 years old. so we have to assume that there was some breeding that was going on during the pandemic because people weren't finding animals in shelters so people were starting to breed and sell animals. and then, of course, the first 8 months of the crisis spay and neuter was considered a non-essential medical procedure so we were not allowed in california to spay and neuter.

so we got very behind, you know, for the 8 months of animals that were not getting spayed and neutered. so i think what we're seeing now is the perfect storm of that. and of course with the eviction moratoriums being lifted, people really struggling to make sure that they have housing for themselves are having to make very difficult decisions. so it's critically important that, you know, we keep adoption strong. i know that with children going back to school and people going back to work adoptions may not be super timely right now. it tends to slow down in the fall anyway as children go back to school, but we're hoping that people that can make room in their homes will do so so we can keep this pipeline moving and keep animals being safe--getting saved in shelters. damian: all right. well, we have about 2 minutes left. there's a whole list of things that we can talk about, but i'll give you the floor. you tell us what you want to get across. allison: well, we really want to make sure that people know that there are resources available. we have a humane advocacy program that we've had for about 16 years, and we have two social workers on our staff who work

with pets and they're people who are in crisis. and we have the ability to provide, you know, emergency care, make sure that their people have wraparound services available to them. we work with people, anyone who is--you know, from dealing with domestic violence situations, dealing with temporarily homeless situations, dealing with medical emergency of their pet. you know, all sorts of different things. and we have a staff here on standby to help people with these crises so we can keep people and their pets together because we know that, you know, to most people their pets are very valuable family members. damian: so instead of surrendering your pet you're offering programs to help them keep their pets and maybe avoid this crisis. allison: absolutely. so, you know, people, you know, reach out. we have services. we--you know, give us a call. there are other programs and services besides the east bay spca. check out your options. there are lots of us out here that are willing to help to help

keep people and their animals together so that they--you know, surrendering their pet hopefully would be their very, very last choice. damian: all right. and a lot of other programs here that--you can log on to the website of the east bay spca. they have a lot of fabulous programs. allison lindquist, thank you so much. the president and ceo of this great agency, thank you for helping us solve this crisis. allison: thank you, damian; and thank you, nbc. damian: thank you so much. and there's the information on your screen. there's a website for the east bay spca and also clear the shelters with the nbc bay area. it goes on through august 31st, but of course adoptions are year-round. up next here on "comunidad del valle," mariachi youth concert is back in the south bay. stay with us.

damian: the youth mariachi concert is back in the south bay. with us here on "comunidad del valle" are shirley trevino once again and kathy chavez napoli, two legends in their--in our own worlds here on "comunidad del valle." welcome back to the show, ladies. shirley trevino: thank you for having us, damian. thank you, nbc, for hosting us. damian: thank you for being here.

kathy, we're going to start with you because--you know, this used to be a mari--a youth mariachi competition. now it's a concert, right? let's let the children enjoy themselves and play their favorite tunes for us. kathy chavez napoli: yes. i think that what we changed is so that the children are not limited to just certain songs in a certain time. now we're going to have almost 4 hours of continuous mariachi music and folklorico dancers. so this, i think, really helps showcase the talents of our youth. damian: and, shirley, you've been looking at just the youth mariachis from across the country as they perform and some of the dancers as well, just a beautiful folklore that we're--you're going to be showcasing there. but talk about the importance of doing this, shirley. i mean, you've been--i mean, you're a chicana activist. you've been at it for--i don't want to date you, but for decades. you know, you're a role model to a lot of people and yet you're still going--working with our youth. shirley: yes. i was so appreciative of kathy inviting me to be on the

committee because i really believe in our youth, and the importance of this mariachi concert is that we're involving the youth themselves. they have an opportunity to participate in music, which helps also dedicated to their studies. their parents are involved. their parents are supportive. the community is supportive. so one of the ways i think that we as a community can help is to have these events so that they can showcase their talents, carry on our culture and carry on the important work of sharing mariachi music with the community. damian: i lived in morgan hill for about 9 years, kathy. this wasn't something that happened a lot, but you said, "not to worry. we're going to bring it--we're going to bring an annual event to the area." kathy: yeah. this will be our fourth year; and yes, it hadn't really happened in morgan hill. we don't have a lot of activities for the latino youth or families essentially. so we were very fortunate to get a grant.

i wrote a grant through the county of santa clara historic grant program. so we are now currently funded by them. this is our last year. but we also funded native american garden. we have classroom traveling trunk shows where we talk about the native american, the spanish, and the mexican periods all funded by this grant; and that has helped us to bring this to morgan hill because we have those funds. it's a very generous grant and we're very fortunate to have it. damian: all right. well, you know, like i said in the previous segment, i'm always a chismoso asking all the questions, but, shirley, i'm sure there's something that i'm not going to ask that you want to get across. so go ahead. you have the floor. shirley: well, i really want to share who those mariachi groups are so that we give them credit on--over the-- your show today. mariachi juvenil luz de luna. their director is carmelita inda; mariachi mexico, director is matias --ez; mariachi juvenil corazón jalisciense the director israel ramirez; and el grito de las culturas

which is our folklore group, director is of course elena robles who you know very well. damian: oh, she's been at it again. she is a contemporary. she's been at it for a long time as well. and same thing, kathy. i know that i tend to ask all the questions and sometimes leave the guests hoping they got something across. so go ahead. kathy: well, i do want to just showcase one group, and that's the mariachi mariachi juvenil corazón jalisciense because they just came in second place for the jose hernandez' mariachi nationals and they also won a youth mariachi pathway award by the mariachi women's foundation. so that's one of the groups that's going to perform, but all of them are excellent. they show great talent, and i got to see mariachi--let's see. i got to read it because otherwise i'll forget the name. mariachi juvenil luz de luna and they played at los cuates. and they were excellent.

these young people have such talent. they're young, they're talented, they're charismatic, and they're out there performing and really showcasing their talent and our traditions and our language. damian: well, you mentioned the jose hernandez competition. that is the mariachi sol grammy-nominated been on the show. so that is an awesome competition. shirley, how important is it for people to show up and to make sure that you showcase--or you show morgan hill, the city itself, that this should be and stay an annual event? shirley: yeah. as you have said, you hadn't seen any of--this kind of event or support for latino music or mariachi in morgan hill for a while, but now that we're there we're--i think it's important to the community itself in santa clara county to see that our talent is incredible, it's--they're doing some wonderful things, the directors with our youth. and i want to say that they have to come on september 16th to morgan hill at the vita--villa mira monte.

it's at the morgan hill historical society, and it's from 11 to 4. damian: all right. well, thank you all so much. our chicana guerreras back on the show. thank you for being on the show, and thank you for doing this for our youth in south county. kathy: thank you. damian: all right. thank you. and, again, the--it's happening on--well, in the mexican independence weekend september 16th there at villa mira monte in morgan hill. there's the number to call for more information. it's the youth mariachi concert and family picnic for the community south of san jose. well, up next here on "comunidad del valle," cultura in the park by celebration nation. stay with us.

damian: the foundation is called celebration nation, and they're having an event also in san jose around that same weekend. it's called cultura in the park. with me is flor martinez, the founder and ceo of this great nonprofit. flor, welcome to "comunidad del valle."

flor martinez: hi. thanks for having me. damian: well, tell us first of all about celebration nation because the videos that i've seen that you post, the activeness, the activism that you sponsor and that you have is just truly amazing. it's a voice that needs to be heard. tell us about celebration nation. flor: yeah. so celebration nation was founded back in 2020. we saw there was a huge need in our latino indigenous community and then we just--you know, as a community we decided to fill the gap, and we've been doing so for the past 3 years assisting with efforts from emergency relief to food assistance. we have our food bank for farmworkers that feeds over 10,000 farmworker families every month. and besides that we have our event section which--celebration nation, we love to celebrate community, family, and just all things togetherness, our culture. and so we--our mission statement is to provide basically services, nutrition, education, and resources to our latino

indigenous community; and this event coming up september 16th is also to bring our culture to the community. we love to be inclusive. so in this event you're going to see that we invite the whole latino, latin america community from mexico to venezuela to argentina to colombia. you're going to see it all, feel it all; and it's a free event so no family gets, you know, left behind. you know, any family if they want to participate, there's a lot of free activities. so really if they don't have any money to spend they could still attend. that wouldn't be an issue. and so we're just--pretty much celebration nation is something that our communities have needed for a long time and just--our tool here has been social media, like you were mentioning the videos. we've been able to bring awareness to a lot of injustices that happen in our community and in response community members from all across the world has reacted and, you know, participated and contributed either by donating or volunteering their time, and it's just been a beautiful community effort and now we're--now the pandemic, you

know, kind of cooled down we're able to get back to our events because we--i also have an event company that i've had for 6 years, and that's actually how the idea of celebration nation came about. we wanted to start having more free community events because our events were for profit and a lot of people couldn't participate, and we thought, "well, that shouldn't be an issue." growing up, you know--my family, we're undocumented. i have daca. we didn't have a lot of money and, you know, we couldn't really afford going to the movies or great america, and that's the case for a lot of our community and we just wanted to, you know, change that. and it's just kind of being who i needed when i was younger, right? yeah, that's a little bit about celebration nation. damian: you know, and dac--istas sometimes, you know, for--sometimes for understandable reasons they might stay in the shadows because they don't, you know, want to make--overexpose it, but the--you're on the opposite end of that. you're strong about it, you're loud about it, and you're not ashamed about it and then you're doing something about it. flor: yeah.

thank you. so aside from the nonprofit work; yes, i am an activist, a very active activist and i use my platform--just reached 200,000 followers on instagram, about to reach 100,000 on tiktok; and i utilize my platform to mobilize and organize people. that's how we've been able to grow this nonprofit to be where it's at in a matter of 3 years. and not just that, right now we're fighting for immigration reform, for farmworkers rights, and everything that just, you know, our community go through. and so it's just really important to utilize your platform and not be afraid, especially with such a tool like social media. for example, our civil leaders before like, you know, cesar chavez, mlk, they didn't have social media. and so now that we do, it's really important to spread awareness on there and like tell your story, and it just makes an -- difference. i feel like -- inspire and other youth like, you know, that is afraid to speak out, i feel like i'd be getting my job done. damian: and, i mean, you're pulling on my strings when you're talking about the farmworkers,

but the need is great. how big of a shame is it that help like yours is still needed for those comunidades? flor: well--i mean, i think it's just--first of all, i also emphasize on how we're indigenous. you know, they call us hispanic latino and--but in reality we're all really connected through our indigenous heritage, and i emphasize that a lot on my profile. actually, my profile picture it says-- it has the immigrant scratched out and it says indigenous. i think it's really important to emphasize on that because it leads us to reclaiming our power because there's so many of us. we're the original americans, and this is the americas. and since there's so many of us--and just, you know, historically we've been oppressed from--like i just mentioned today on my social media, the mexican repatriation where they deported over 1.5 million us citizens just because they were mexican and didn't even go--that doesn't even account for all the undocumented people, mexicans that they also

deported around that time, and that was only about 90 years ago. and so just historically we've always been kind of oppressed, and i--so i think there's always been a lack of assistance from, for example, like other entities that are not like, you know, indivi--community-led. right? and in this case, you know, it just kind of took--i guess i had to--we have to be the change we want to be in the world. right? and in this case in order to take it up a notch we made it an entity, a 501(c)(3) and now we were able to be in spaces, be at tables where we're taken seriously because we have that title, because we have that entity. and so it just--it is overwhelming that, you know, we--honestly we take on a lot of roles and we are always looking to expand because we see so much need, but there's also a sense of leadership that i take on upon myself and i utilize my platform to create other leaders and show them, you know, they're capable of doing it. don't have to look a certain way or act a certain way. they can be themselves and then that there's good people in there--out there and that, you know, it's about flipping that switch.

right? and so as mentioned like i'm just trying to be that blueprint for this youth or anybody really that's looking to make a difference but also showing them like the power of being, like i said, at the table and making--building entities, having a team, you know, investing into this project because that's what it takes. you know, mutual aid groups they do great work, but a lot of times they lack funding and, like, funding is a resource and funding is a resource that our communities lack. it's actually probably one of the biggest resources that our communities lack. damian: yeah. well, i've seen your work up and down the state and across the southwest, and so you have a fan here in the bay area. again, this is celebration nation foundation. they're having cultura in the park september 16th. it's there on the screen at the plaza de cesar chavez in downtown san jose. we'll be back and talk about that great cultura in the park festival when we continue. stay with us. oh ms. flores, what would we do without you?

leader of many, and pet wrangler too. you report to your boss, every afternoon. so beautiful. so becoming a student again might seem impossible. but what if a school could be there for all of you? career, family, finances and mental health. well, it can. national university, supporting the whole you. damian: we're back with flor martinez, the founder and president of the foundation celebration nation.

also, she's hosting an event called cultura in the park at national university, plaza de cesar chavez here in downtown san jose. now, you looking for sponsors still for that. i know you're still having to raise more funds to make sure that this is a success for the entire community. flor: we are actually since, you know, we're expecting the number of 2,000 attendees, but it looks like there probably will be more. and as i had mentioned there's a lot of free activities from hair braiding, to planting plants, to aztec dance lessons, and to banda, corrido dance lessons. right? and so there's just a lot of awesome -- we're gonna need. 'cause there's some other activities that are going to be part of this. and not just that, we are going to have local talent from aztec dancing, mariachi, folklorico, banda. and so we want to be able to cover all that and just, you know, be able to make an inclusive event and then--you know, it is a free event, but in reality it's not free obviously for the people throwing it.

but it's free for the community but really it just takes people willing--people that care and these businesses, organizations that care to celebrate and, you know, bring together the community on september 16th for cultura in the park. so all support is definitely needed. when i found out september 16th, that the day was available we jumped to it and we said we have to hold space for our community. there's so many of us and september 16th happens to be mexican independence day, and it's just holding space for a safe and inclusive event that will not only include all of our community aside from the mexicanos. like i mentioned, it's all latin american because a lot of independence happens in september. that's why it's also hispanic heritage month. so if any companies or individuals are looking to be a part of such an important month, you know, this is it and we'd love to hear from you guys and see how we can get you guys to participate because it's a community event and it takes community be there for community. and in this case we also know that there's a lot of changes

happening in san jose, from, you know, a crisis, a lot of people are being kind of moved out because they can't afford this anymore because of the new technology buildings coming in. and so in a way it's just also a space where we're able to celebrate our heritage and just be together in unity. damian: i mean, we could have had this over at the fairgrounds where a lot of our events are taking place or at emma prusch park in east san jose; but you're going for downtown san jose, plaza de cesar chavez, which is pretty significant. flor: we want to have the loudest music and the--you know, i don't know if you've seen the--i'm sure you have. they're surrounded by buildings, right? but that park, it's significant. it's historic. so it's not going anywhere, just like us. right? and so about the park--a little bit about that park. so it was the first--besides the indigenous people, it was the first public gathering in north california. so i think that's where they decided, "what are we going to do? and not only that, it used to be city hall.

so it does have, you know, historical significance, but also it's the park in the middle of downtown. you know, it's named after our civil activist cesar chavez. and a lot of the times there's other events that our communities can't necessarily afford to attend and that's why also we decided to go with this park and call it cultura in the park so they feel a part of this community even if they have one event that they can go to, you know, during the summer. damian: all right. well, we have about 30 seconds left, flor. anything else that you want to add? flor: it's all community and we're just trying to connect all the dots from connecting the newer residents to the older residents and building those bridges and just also celebrating our heritage and reminding the community that we're here for them, that they have a space. and like i mentioned, you know, being undocumented i grew up looking for community, not knowing where to find it; and i think a space like this is needed for those families as well because they're part of san jose and then they--you know, even if they have to move out for whatever reason, they'll

know that this was their community and it will always be their community no matter what. damian: well, like i said, i admire your work up and down the state. sometimes you get into good trouble, which is always encouraged. so thank you for what you're doing for this and many other comunidades. flor: thank you, too. damian: all right. flor martinez, the ceo, founder of celebration nation foundation; and there is the september 16th the cultura in the park event at plaza de cesar chavez in downtown san jose. there's the website for more information, celebration-nation.org. well, if you want to get ahold of us here on "comunidad del valle," you can follow me on instagram. my handle is @newsdamiantrujillo. that's also my handle on threads, the former twitter handle. it's on--actually it's a new social media site, the threads. it's also @newsdamiantrujillo. and we thank you once again for sharing a part of your sunday with us on "comunidad del valle." we're going to see you back here again next week. we have some more exciting events coming up.

we'll see you just in a few days. pase usted muy buenas tardes. ♪♪♪

tonight the man hunt for a killer after a deadly police ambush. a sheriff's deputy murdered while sitting in his car outside l.a. authorities focusing on this new video that shows a car pulling up to the deputies. investigators now searching for clues. the deputy killed just days after getting engaged. his colleagues leading a sol