A new, must-see exhibition at the downtown San Jose main library has been years in the making — and it helps fill in decades of forgotten history about the city.
“East Side Dreams: The Untold Story of East San Jose,” which opened July 1 at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Main Library, grew from a seed planted when the library hosted a popular exhibition about lowriders and San Jose’s car culture in 2018. Visitors to the library’s California Room asked if materials were available about other aspects of East San Jose history but the library had little to offer, said Estella Inda, a clerk in the California Room who was the driving force behind “East Side Dreams.”
Once the library — working with San Jose State’s Africana, Asian American, Chicano, & Native American Studies Center — began collecting material, it came in a flood, Inda said at the exhibition’s opening reception last Saturday. The results — tracing the community’s evolution from the 1950s onward — practically fill the library’s fifth floor, which is decorated with replica street signs for Alum Rock Avenue, King Road, Story Road and more.
“I never thought anything like this would be possible, and it became a bigger success than I ever thought possible,” she said. “I’ve been honored to work and help gather these histories that most people wouldn’t trust just anybody with. It’s their work, it’s their life, it’s their family.”
The exhibition tells the story of East San Jose through newspaper articles — including many from the East San Jose Sun — photographs and other artifacts like street signs, festival flyers and even matchbook covers from East Side businesses, which have almost all faded into memories.
But the key ingredient to “East Side Dreams” — which includes a display of photograph portraits by Mary Adrade in the library’s second floor DiNapoli gallery — is that it spotlights the notable figures from the East Side and tells the community’s story through them. It also features campaign materials for groundbreaking politician Blanca Alvarado, three Emmy awards, a typewriter that belonged to newsman Rigo Chacon and a display on Paul Reyes, who grew up picking prunes and other fruit and eventually opened his own upholstery shop in 1975, providing services for all those lowriders.
And while much of the exhibit is about the Mexican American residents of Mayfair and other neighborhoods, it was wonderful to see a section on the Ribbs family — a prominent African American family that included Henry Ribbs and his grandson, race-car driver Willy T. Ribbs.
There also are videos from Cinco de Mayo and other celebrations recorded in the 1980s and ’90s by Alcario Castellano, the former Safeway worker who won a $141 million lottery jackpot in 2001. His daughter, Carmela Castellano-Garcia, president of the Castellano Family Foundation, was there to represent her family and celebrate the donation of the Alcario and Carmen Castellano Family Collection to the library.
“East Side Dreams” will be on display through Sept. 24, with two free panel events connected to it: East Side Stories at 1 p.m. Aug. 13 and “The East Side’s Impact in San Jose” at 1 p.m. on Sept. 3. There is also a new, limited edition library card to commemorate the exhibition titled “Siempre East Side” and designed by Tiffany Dang.
Kathryn Blacker Reyes, director of the AAACNA Studies Center, said the exhibition tells a story that should appeal to everyone in the city. “For those of you, like me, who did not grow up on the East Side, or even in San Jose,” she said, “this is an opportunity for you to eavesdrop on the conversations and the memories and learn about how important, how dynamic and how diverse our community is.”
Source: www.mercurynews.com