Gathering the Troops

Years ago, when I first moved into San Diego, one of the first places I looked for a place to live was in Linda Vista. Home to the beautiful campus of the University of San Diego, Linda Vista holds a very special place in my heart - especially since we began our very first San Diego Asian Film Festival there in August 2000.

Now many years later, I return to Linda Vista through our partnership with the Bayside Community Center to launch a grassroots media arts program called CONNECT SAN DIEGO, where we are planning to bring together Hmong, Vietnamese, Mixtec, and Mexican residents together through film, digital storytelling, and rich discourse.

One of the best things of working with Bayside Community Center, is its passionate executive director, Jorge Riquelme, who has advocacy in his blood. I'm talkin' this brother is DOWN. And he always makes certain we're well-fed. (Gracias, compadre!)

We also invited leaders from various ethnic organizations to get their commitment to this program. I was so happy to see every group represented in this small room, and by the end of the evening, everyone seemed to agree what we proposed was a good start to connecting communities cross-culturally and inter-generationally within Linda Vista.


There are so many rich histories, languages, and cultures here, but the citizens themselves may not share them with one another because of various barriers. We hope to change that.

After our meeting of the minds, one our way to the parking lot, I was surprised to see this small group of young people at Bayside's basketball court practicing their lion dance. (It is that time of year, after all for Lucky Lion dancers). It was a nice end to a culturally enriching day.