Once we had done our background research and came up with the research question, we began attempting to make more personal connections.
We began to ask, what names are common in the Salinas Valley and nationally? Which names were familiar to us? What names were taught to us at home? What names were taught to us by the American education system? Are these places being named, and are we naming places after people when their true histories are assumed, hidden, or unknown?
The consensus was we wanted to find out was what knowledge did the community have about these public figures and how they felt about these names and places.
There were many names and places that came into our discussions such as Steinbeck, Bardin, Everett Alvarez, Gabilan, Independence Boulevard (Blvd), Boronda, and more. We decided on the following names Tiburcio Vazquez, Cesar E. Chavez, Hartnell, and here's why...
We chose Cesar Chavez because when looking for names and locations to focus on in our project, Chavez came up plenty because of the impact of his work on our community. In the Salinas Valley, many have connections to Chavez and his legacy, including some of our group members. Chavez focused heavily on helping field workers in the Salinas Valley in the early 1960s and left his mark here. The controversy of Chavez and his stance on illegal immigrants was another reason we decided on Chavez. In 1996, Cesar Chavez Elementary opened.
We chose Tiburcio Vazquez because we felt like this name was not commonly known. Tiburcio Vazquez was the original name of Montebella Elementary school in East Salinas. When some of the community did not agree with the controversy to his name, it was asked for the school to change its name. Some of us have more personal connections, like a group members brother who attended while it was still Tiburcio V. elementary. We wanted to learn who this man is in the eyes of the community and how they felt about this "bandito" or bandit, being glorified.
Hartnell was decided for a few reasons, the main one is that it is the only community college in Salinas. A few of our group members were transfer students from Hartnell, and even they did not know who Hartnell was or why the college was named after Hartnell. Following a discussion with a community mentor who informed us it was believed Hartnell had Indian slaves and he married for money, we wondered how a community with such a large Latinx culture could name such an important institution after a colonizer. Even a member from Redding CA said there is a Hartnell Rd located there, which helped us decide on the name. We wanted to find out who knew the history of Hartnell, and how they felt about all of his 'recognition'. Since Hartnell College has a Latinx attendance rate of 65.5%, what kind of impact could this have on the students and teachers that attend/work at this location named after a British colonizer?
Coming up with the questions for the interviews...
For our project we wanted to look at the districts and the influential names of Salinas Valley. Since some of us reside in different locations throughout California, we wanted to see a commonality of the influential names we visited within our community.
We had a conversation about which names stood out to us the most and from there we began to see what names frequently popped up. We started to look at the different neighborhoods, we noticed that some areas were named after animals and plants or other neighborhoods were named after people. There was another discussion on each other's background heritage, and we began to notice that most of our group members have been raised by or are related to migrant workers and immigrants.
When it came to how we were going to get input from the community, many ideas were exchanged; we faced several obstacles like, the inability to interact with anyone outside of our household in person. Many questions began to circle in our group. How would we conduct our survey? Should we try to create some type of survey? How would we obtain the information we needed? Initially, we intended to send out surveys but we soon realized that would not be the best option. Then the idea of interviews was proposed. The idea left us a bit nervous but we decided this would be the best method to learn about the feelings and thoughts of the community. So who within the community would we interview and how? Given that the nation is in the middle of a global pandemic, we could not go out into the public and get responses. We decided to email students, teachers/professors, other staff members, parents, and a few other locals, to ask for their participation.
Before the actual interview, we would like to get a little bit of background information. Tell us about yourself, where were you born and where did you grow up, how old are you or how old do you want to be, ethnicity, do you have preferred pronouns, or anything else you feel is important for us to know about you
Interview Questions
Can you tell me anything you know about the history of [the person] …. (Hartnell, Cesar E. Chavez, Tiburcio)
What do you think of this name… (Hartnell, Cesar E. Chavez, Tiburcio) _________
What do you associate with … (Hartnell, Cesar E. Chavez, Tiburcio) ________
Do you have a connection with this place? (Hartnell, Cesar E. Chavez, Tiburcio) ____________
Before we begin the next part of the interview….
Give a brief historical background of the name Hartnell, Cesar E. Chavez, Tiburcio
& follow up with these questions
What feelings/thoughts does this history bring up for you?
If you were able to name a school after someone, who will that be and why?
Is there anything further that you would like to share with me?
Is there anything you would like to tell me about?