Hometown Hero: Ernest Marquez

Hometown Hero: Ernest Marquez
Photo by Sharon Kilbride

Ernest Marquez, the historian of the Marquez family, was born in 1924 at Mary Martin Hospital in Santa Monica.  He grew up in the family home in Santa Monica Canyon on land that was part of the original Rancho Boca de Santa Monica, land that had been in his family for generations.

“In the Canyon cows roamed free and so did kids.  As a boy I spent my time at the beach, swimming and playing in the creek and climbing the bluffs,” remembers Marquez.

Miss Verna Weber was the only teacher at the one room Canyon School where Marquez was one of the 30 children in the school.  “We all loved Miss Weber. There were four children in my graduating class.
I was friends with everyone in the school,” said Marquez.

As a child he helped his cousin, Angelina Olivera, take care of the Marquez Family Cemetery on San Lorenzo.  He listened to the family stories from his aunts and uncles, who were a generation closer to the old history - history that went back to the time of the American Revolution.

In 1769, Junipero Serra, led an expedition to California, claiming Alta California for the King of Spain.  Francisco Reyes, the great, great, great grandfather of Ernest Marquez, had worked on ships used by Junipero Serra and was known by the Spaniards.  In 1771, he was recruited to come to Alta California as a Spanish solider.  He was 24.

After 15 years of being a Spanish soldier he applied for a Spanish land grant.  As all land belonged to the King, a Spanish land grant gave permission to use the land, but it didn’t convey ownership.  Francisco Reyes was given the land grant for Rancho Encino.

His grandson, Ysidro Reyes joined with Francisco Marquez, to apply for a land grant for Rancho Boca de Santa Monica.  It was 1839, Mexico had won the War for Independence and Alta California now belonged to Mexico.

To apply for a Land Grant one had to be a Mexican citizen, Catholic, and speak Spanish.  The application had to include a diseno (a hand drawn boundary map) and a letter to the Pueblo Council requesting the land, promising to build a house within one year and certifying ownership of a herd of 150 cattle.  The Pueblo Council reviewed the application and, if they approved it, forwarded it to the Governor of Alta California. 

The boundary map of Rancho Boca de Santa Monica started above Topanga Canyon, on the beach.  Two horsemen, each holding a tall pole, connected with long buckskin ropes of 100 varas (a vara = approximately one yard) marked the perimeter.

The first horseman jammed his pole into the sand and then the second horseman rode as far down the beach as the rope would permit and jammed his pole into the sand.  They repeated this action in relay fashion and continued until the entire 6656-acre area was mapped.

The Mexican government awarded Reyes and Marquez Rancho Boca de Santa Monica.  When they died and left the land to their families, the Rancho was United States land.  

Reyes’ widow, Maria Micaela de Guadalupe, sold her interest in the Rancho to Robert Baker.  In the 1870’s Baker filed to have the property partitioned among the owners.  The partition wasn’t final until 1881 and, during the process, Baker transferred his interest in the Rancho to his wife, Arcadia Bandini.

The Marquez Family Cemetery is one of two pieces of land, from the Rancho, still owned by the family.  In all, 32 people are buried in the cemetery, 10 family members from a New Year’s Eve tragedy, other family members and family friends.  Pascual Marquez died in 1916 and was the last person to be buried in the cemetery. 

Pascual left his land to his children, and it was sold.  As the cemetery portion couldn’t be used it was deeded back to Pedro Marquez.  He accepted the cemetery but not the lot that gave access to the cemetery. That lot was then deeded to a neighbor who offered to take care of it.

When Ernest Marquez retired, in the 1990’s, he could finally focus on what he calls his “real job, the family history.”  He began to work on protecting the family cemetery.  The old agreements, which had not been properly recorded, were ancient history. He had both a title and an easement problem to solve. 

The first step was to gain the right of an easement to the Marquez Family Cemetery, which was won through a court order.  Title was still in the name of Ernest Marquez’s uncle, Pedro Marquez, who had died thirty years previously.  The Judge directed Ernest Marquez to get quitclaim deeds from his cousins, which he did.

The next step was to reopen the Estate of Pedro and Aurora Marquez.  In 2010, with help from the Marquez and Reyes families, and especially with the help of his lawyer daughter, Monica, Ernest Marquez became the owner of the family cemetery.

La Senora Research Institute, a non-profit foundation, joined with the families to raise money to purchase the easement lot between the cemetery and what is now San Lorenzo.  Help also came from UCLA archeologists who used high tech equipment to locate burial sites, from the City of Los Angeles and Councilman Rosendahl with support for a landmark designation, from pro bono attorneys, from neighbors and friends.  Working with the Foundation, the family will plant a traditional, sustainable garden on the easement lot and the garden will become the new entrance to the cemetery. 

Ernest Marquez hopes “the cemetery and garden will be a reminder to the land grant families and to the people of Santa Monica of the history and legacy of Rancho Boca de Santa Monica.”

What Say You?

Santa Monica Pier Paddleboard Race and Ocean Festival

Santa Monica Paddleboard Club Members. 1941
Photo courtesy of Stephanie McLean/Classic California

 

“Waterman” was the descriptive name given to the early greats of surfing such as Tom Blake and Pete Peterson, Santa Monica’s most famous Watermen, who shaped the culture of Santa Monica and of beach communities around the world.

The Santa Monica Pier Paddleboard Race and Ocean Festival, June 11, continues the Waterman tradition with an all day celebration of life at the beach featuring: paddleboard, outrigger and dory races; live music; and a ‘museum for a day’ showcasing the Waterman history and the history of lifeguarding, surfing, paddleboarding and skateboarding. The event benefits Heal the Bay.

Paddleboard races were a regular event at the Santa Monica Pier in the 1940s. Two paddleboard clubs, the Santa Monica Paddleboard Club and the all women’s Manoa Paddleboard Club, both housed at the pier, were Santa Monica favorites. The clubs had large memberships. Champion paddleboarders, including Dorothy and Maryann Hawkins and Esther Lopez Maier, drew many fans.

Paddleboards were first used in Santa Monica in the 1920s when Blake, one of the earliest of the Santa Monica Lifeguards, introduced the paddleboard as a way to rescue distressed swimmers.

Blake began surfing in California in the1920s.  He worked as a lifeguard, a swimming instructor, and a movie stunt double. He was also an important surfboard innovator. He shaped boards from the ancient, Hawaiian olo design to see if he could build a faster board to use in the annual and popular surfboard paddling races held in southern California each summer. To lighten the weight of the surfboard, Blake took his 16-foot olo replica board and drilled it full of holes to lighten and dry it out, resulting in the first hollow surfboard.

In 1928, armed with his olo replica, Blake won the first Pacific Coast Surfing Championship. Reports of the day said 10,000 people gathered to celebrate the holiday and watch the races. Blake used his hollow surfboard in the race from the California mainland to Catalina Island over a 26-mile course across open water. Blake made the trek in 5 hours and 53 minutes. 

One of his most enduring contributions, the surfboard skeg – or fin – which he introduced in 1935, went on to be an integral part of surfboard design. 

Pete Peterson, who grew up in Santa Monica Canyon, soon joined Blake in the surfing world. Peterson became recognized in the 1930s as the Mainland’s best surfer, winning the Pacific Coast Surfing Championship four times out of 10 (1932, 1936, 1938, and 1941). 

More than a contest surfer, however, Peterson was a Waterman in the truest sense of the word. In 1939 Peterson took his paddleboard over the massive open ocean bumps from Anacapa Island to Santa Monica Pier, a distance of more than 30 miles.

He was also an innovator of ocean vehicles and lifeguard rescue equipment. Some of his lifesaving creations include soft rescue tubes, all-fiberglass hollow boards, and foam/plywood/balsa sandwich surfboards.

Blake and Peterson exemplify the Waterman tradition now being honored by Santa Monicans working together to bring paddleboard racing back to Santa Monica and the Pier. The race and festival are organized by a long and well-known list of Santa Monica community activists, business owners, lifeguards, and members of the Harbor Patrol.  

Race and festival committee members are event director Joel Brand, race director Todd Roberts, Russ Barnard, Jay Butki, Andi Curl, Jon Van Duinwyk, Eric Faber, Scott Ferguson, Ross Furukawa, Jared Kingsbury, Lori Nafshun, Tom Seth, Tim Sanford, and Mike Vaughan. Waterman's History Committee members are co-chair Jim Harris, co-chair Nick Steers, Harold Dunnigan, Jeff Ho, Craig Lockwood, Stephanie McLean, and Cary Weiss. 

These Santa Monica locals see the Pier as a wonderful venue for events and want to have more community events on the Pier that tie in with the experience of the ocean.

The 2011 Pier Paddleboard Race and Ocean Festival celebrates the Waterman tradition, the magic of the ocean, and people coming together to have a grand time. Register to be one of the racers in either the 2- or the 5-mile race. Cheer the racers, meet Kathy Kohner-Zuckerman, the woman who inspired the “Gidget” movies, and Esther Lopez Maier, winner of the 1947 Championship Race. Listen to the FuDogs, be an environmental steward and bring your own, reusable water bottle, and get it filled at the Pier. Continue the Waterman spirit and tradition.

What Say You?

Hometown Hero: Janet Salomonson M.D.

Janet Salomonson M.D. FACS

Santa Monica plastic surgeon Janet Salomonson will be in Guatemala this coming summer performing operations to correct the birth anomaly of cleft palate.  “We never turn away any child who is healthy enough to go through the operation.   I stay for one or sometimes two weeks in the host country and typically perform about five operations every day.  We work until the work is done,” said Dr. Salomonson.

“For reasons we still don’t know, even though the human genome has been mapped, normal structures don’t form in the lip and palate and children are born with cleft palate.  Not only is cleft palate disfiguring, it’s important to have the structures in place as early as possible so the child can learn to speak correctly.  It’s best to do the operations in stages.  We do the lip first, especially with a child under 10 months and then return to repair the palate.

“If the cleft palate is not corrected when they are very young the child can still learn to speak, but often they can’t speak clearly and can have difficulty being understood.”

Salomonson has been to Nicaragua, Guatemala, Peru, Bolivia, Chile and the Philippines to perform cleft palate surgeries. This is her tenth year of working with Faces of Hope and Rotaplast, two Rotary sponsored groups, which arrange trips for teams of medical professionals to work internationally donating their much-needed medical skills.

“We go with a spirit of humility and with respect for the local culture.  We work with the local people.  Their knowledge is helpful to the success of our work.  We partner, whenever possible, with local physicians and are always on the look out for local physicians who want to be trained in cleft palate surgery.

“We bring the supplies, everything from sutures to anesthesia,
our own scrubs, antibiotics, so that we are not taking from the local facility.” Doctor Salomonson noted.

The visits of the medical teams are announced on the radio, in the newspapers and on banners and flyers.  The radio seems to be the way most people learn about the program.

The organizing group goes ahead of the medical team and scouts out the situation in the host country to make sure that the basic requirements for operating and achieving good surgical outcomes can be met. They also make the arrangements for lodging and meals for the medical team members.

The daughter of Swedish immigrants to Minnesota she has the famous Midwestern straightforward manner and self –deprecating style.  Her mom was a stay at home mom and her dad worked on road construction. They wanted the American dream of education and a better life for their child.

Her parents had originally met when her mom was a ‘summer child’ on a farm.  It is a typical Swedish custom, kind of the Swedish equivalent of sending your kid to camp, for city children to go to farms in the summer.   On the farm she was given a kitten, the food was great and she had a wonderful time.  She liked the entire farm family, including the older son.  Years later, they met again and decided to marry.

Salomonson’s path to studying medicine was incremental.  She knew when she was in Maplewood High School in St. Paul, Minnesota that she was drawn to math and science.

This took her to the University Of Minnesota as an undergraduate to study Chemical Engineering.  Many of her professors worked in the field of bioengineering and medicine.  Salomonson admired their work and decided she would apply to medical school and become a medical researcher.

In Medical School, also at the University of Minnesota, she fell in love with the clinical work and decided that, as much as the research meant to her, it would mean more to work with patients.   One more incremental move took her to UCLA for a surgical residency, starting in general surgery and then specializing in plastic surgery.

Now she has the hard earned and well deserved prestigious title, Janet Salomonson, MD, FACS, Plastic Surgeon/Medical Director of the Cleft Palate Center at Saint John's Cleft Center.
At the invitation of a beloved former teacher, Salomonson went back to Minnesota to give the commencement address at her old high school.   She told the graduates, “You won’t remember for long who won the super bowl or even the Nobel Prize, but you will remember the teachers who taught you about the world and the people who were important to you.  Fame is not what is important.  What is important are the people in our lives.”

What Say You: Bergamot Transit Village and Hines

How did it all go so wrong is the question being asked about the development proposed by Hines 26th Street, LLC (Hines) for a 960, 000 square feet project located on the north side of Olympic Boulevard from Stewart Street on the east to 26^th Street on the west to Pennsylvania Avenue on the north.

The Land Use and Circulation Element (LUCE) criteria for the site of the proposed project call for “a village environment as the focus of community life” with an “exciting neighborhood that is unique and authentic” and with a “bold and eclectic building design that reflects an arts character.

“One with human scaled buildings, a variety of housing types, creative arts jobs, local serving retail/services, reestablishing the city roads pattern to provide pedestrian, bicycle and vehicular connections throughout the project area and into the surrounding neighborhoods.”

The Hines proposal busts the scale and character of the City’s vision, instead proposing super-sized buildings that are suburban rather than urban, corporate rather than ‘bold, eclectic and reflecting an arts character’, and isolated rather than connected to adjacent neighborhoods and the City.

The area name, ‘Bergamot Transit Village’ comes from the LUCE, but the Hines proposal has no relationship to the name.  ‘Bergamot’ echoes a time when the bergamot plant, a California native, grew on the site.  Yet there is no design nod to the history of the site. ‘Transit’ identifies the site in its relationship to the coming Expo Station.  Yet it does not connect with ease or enticement to the coming Expo Station and the Bergamot Arts Center. Finally, the proposal is antithetical to the qualities of a ‘village’ - a place, traditionally built over time, where people come together to live, have fun, conduct business and to express the values and hopes of the common community. 

On March 22, 2011, after a lengthy public hearing and a full discussion by the six Council Members present, a unanimous Council sent the developer back to the drawing board with Council Member Bobby Shriver leading the argument that approving entering into a contract for a Development Agreement would send the wrong message to the developer. This project he said, “doesn’t feel like Santa Monica.” 

Council Member Kevin McKeown reflected broad public sentiment when he stated, “the City is baffled by the proposal and wonders why we are entertaining it at this time.”  On McKeown’s motion the Council voted not to enter into negotiations on the terms of the Development Agreement and, instead, to direct staff to work with the developer to address all the points made by Council and in the Staff Report.   The Council would then reconsider the application and decide at that point whether to enter into negotiations on a Development Agreement for the project.

Development Agreements, contracts entered into between cities and developers, allow for the agreement to contain terms and conditions that are specifically negotiated and determined for the project.  The fee for the Development Agreement application is unique in Santa Monica in that the developer pays the City an initial fee of $10,000.00 and staff time is then billed to the developer, at a rate of $227.00 per hour (a rate determined for the City by an independent study).  If the initial fee is exhausted, the developer continues to pay the City for staff time at the predetermined rate, thus allowing the City to recover costs.

The real question remains.  How did the developer, who knew that his project would have to meet the LUCE standards, get it so wrong?  Why doesn’t his design meet the LUCE standards?  Where are the “bold and eclectic buildings that reflect an arts character and express the unique and authentic qualities of the Bergamot area?”  

However, repeated calls to Colin Shepherd, the representative for Hines, were not returned.  As of press time we don’t know how the company would answer.

What could Hines do to get to go on this project?  Listening to the Council Members at the March 22 meeting, Hines would have to commit to a fundamental redesign of the entire project. 

Start with a new master plan for the site that re-established the street grid and then expanded on that grid to create a network of public sidewalks, pathways, gardens and public destination points is the starting place.  Done right, this would be the beginning of creating character and a sense of place and would establish clear connections between the project site, the coming Expo Station, Bergamot Arts Center, the surrounding neighborhoods and the City as a whole. 

Redesign the proposed mega buildings into a series of appropriately scaled buildings that relate to the street.  Crucial to the redesign would be a respect for the aesthetic vision for Bergamot. A vision established through years of public workshops and finalized through the formal public approval process of the LUCE. 

Creating a ‘village’ is probably the hardest of the tasks. Key to success in achieving the village concept will be the design of the individual buildings, their place in the landscape, and their relationship to the street grid. Essential to the design is that the buildings express the aesthetic character called for in the LUCE and that each building be distinct.  Fortunately, for Hines and for the City, Santa Monica is home to great architects of both international and local renown.  It would go a long way toward achieving the village concept if each building in the redesigned project were to be designed by individual architects all working toward the common goals of the LUCE.

As it stands now, all I have for Hines are questions. 

What Say You?

Hometown Hero: Eileen Fogarty

"Eileen was a force for good and for smarts. 

She worked like a tigress and she achieved 

the LUCE, an amazing result.  And she did 

everything else well too!  The City will miss 

her experience, vision and sense of humor."

Councilman Bobby Shriver.

 “Values frame opportunities,” said Eileen Fogarty, speaking of why she came to Santa Monica in 2006 to lead the City through the process of creating a new Land Use and Circulation Element (LUCE).  The LUCE, adopted to acclaim this year, is now part of Santa Monica’s General Plan and will guide development and planning in Santa Monica for twenty years to come.

Fogarty’s introduction to Santa Monica was one of “a community where the people had a commitment to the social well being of all its residents, an interest in the City as a whole, and a commitment to sustainability.  It was important to me that it was a progressive community.  These values give a positive flavor to a community and I knew I would be expected and allowed to be creative and innovative.”

The Council had offered Fogarty the job as Director of Planning and Community Development only after an extensive search and after ensuring she had the experience and the skills to build relationships with the neighborhood and business communities in Santa Monica and to lead the City through an inclusive and transparent planning process. 

Before coming to Santa Monica, Fogarty was the Director of Planning in Alexandria, VA, which she describes as “a combination of prime real estate and residents who love and care deeply about their town.   I found in Santa Monica the same kind of sophisticated, educated community and people who are passionate about their quality of life.”

When asked what she hopes and expects from Santa Monica in the future Fogarty said, “The long term health of the City depends on the continued involvement of the community. 

“Conservation of neighborhoods is a top priority.  We need a proactive community to identify character and have greater control over neighborhood decisions.  We need a community that continues to remain integrally involved in every project to ensure projects fit into context, scale, and neighborhood character.

“Implementing all the strategies in the LUCE for getting around town easily is also a priority.  Any new development will be subject to very aggressive transportation demand strategies which will create opportunities for funding/construction contributions to the downtown, such as Expo Station benefits, having large employers make it viable for their employees to come to work on Expo, and wider sidewalks, street trees, bike amenities – all of the connections talked about in the LUCE.  In the neighborhoods it will be green streets, bike paths, street trees, protection of neighborhood character, and preservation and reuse of buildings.”

When asked what the LUCE means for the person living in Santa Monica Fogarty said, “I’m planning to still be living here when the plans we’ve made begin to become a reality.

“I would walk or bike most places.  I wouldn’t need to get into the car to get around Santa Monica.  I’ll be able to go to art events at the exciting Bergamot neighborhood with its open space and its farmer’s market and special character.  Getting downtown LA will also be easy on Expo.”

With the completion of the LUCE, Fogarty feels it is time for her to work on new projects.  She submitted her official resignation letter to City Manager Rod Gould on March 4, 2011 although she plans to work here through the end of spring to help prepare for the work to implement the LUCE.

Fogarty called leaving the job a “very hard decision because I’m very involved in every project and I’m so attached to this community and it was hard for me to make a decision even though I think pragmatically and objectively it is the right one and the right time.”

Fogarty gives great credit to her parents for her concepts about good cities and about working with people in communities.  She grew up on the Jersey Shore in Seaside Heights, a much smaller town than Santa Monica and also in Brooklyn, NY.  “Even as a child growing up I could see the beautiful towns and the towns that had been neglected and had deteriorated and I could see the cycles of neighborhoods and communities,” remembers Fogarty.

Her Dad worked for Con Edison and was a union leader.  Her Mom was a Quaker and took her to demonstrations against the Polaris submarines.  “As a kid I was embarrassed – other kids’ families had a Cadillac in the garage and my family had a house full of Freedom Riders.  But it was my parents’ commitment to standing up for what you believe in that stayed with me.” Fogarty stated.

Fogarty and her husband, the artist John Clendening, originally met on an East Coast beach.  They both have a tremendous love for the beach and the small town feeling that comes from living in a beach community.  “One of the greatest draws for us is the beach.  I swim in the ocean, especially in the summer and I’m looking forward to doing more swimming.” said Eileen Fogarty.

What Say You? School Nurses

School Nurses have long been a treasured resource in the Santa Monica/Malibu Schools.  School RN’s are professional nurses with extensive training specific to school nursing.  They are the first line of defense any time a student on campus needs help because of illness or injury.  School nurses have the professional training and expertise to make the decisions that can make the difference in how a child is treated, skills that are crucial in any urgent situation or emergency.  RN’s are trained and licensed to administer medications.  They are health educators for our students, staff and school families.  Historically, they have led the way on important health initiatives in the schools.  And, fortunately for Santa Monica, because of the continuity of their work, they know the students and their families personally and have, over and over, been the ones to notice and help when there are students with serious problems at school or at home.

Yet school nurses holding 5.6 ‘full-time equivalent’ positions were issued potential lay off notices at the School Board meeting of February 17, 2011 with one ‘no’ vote, from Board Member Mechur.  Board Member Leon Vasquez was not present.

Board Members who voted ‘yes’ emphasized that the potential layoff notices were being issued as a precautionary measure and would help the district maintain needed flexibility with its budget if the Governor’s proposal, as part of his plan to balance the budget, does not prevail in the proposed June elections.  And the District has convened a task force to study and make alternate recommendations to the Board about providing health care on our campuses. 

While the immediate problem is real, are we asking the right question? Are we addressing this problem at the right level?  Governor Brown’s proposed June election asking the voters for a five-year extension to continue current personal income and sales taxes, as well as the Vehicle License Fee rate comes with the promise that revenue from the sales tax and the vehicle license fee will be transferred directly to local governments and, the Governor states, “one area of state spending that will be spared from further cuts is kindergarten through 12th grade education.” 

The Governor’s spending plan assumes that all statutory changes to implement budget actions will be adopted by the legislature in March, allowing the necessary ballot measures to be put before the people at a June special election and that the measure will pass.  Without that we will see further cuts in K-12 education spending.

Senator Fran Pavley, with her long history in pubic education, believes “It’s imperative that we invest in our children and prepare them to compete in a global economy. We simply can’t afford to cut education any further.  I urge Californians to support Governor Brown’s proposal to maintain existing taxes for another five years in order to avoid catastrophic cuts– cuts that could result in a generation of students who would be deprived of the kind of quality education they deserve.”

Even if the tax extensions pass, Santa Monicans know that State funding will not be enough.  Our City does much to support our students.  City Manager Rod Gould said, “7.8 million dollars will go from the City to the School District this year and that number will go to 8 million dollars next fiscal year and that’s before Measure Y.  Measure Y funding is anticipated to add 5.5 million dollars to the school budget in the coming fiscal year.”

So why don’t we have the money to keep our treasured school nurses, our full faculty, our music programs, our sports programs.  In short, why can’t we be the school district we once were?

Is the issue that the problem is bigger than our City and bigger than our State? When persons as divergent as David Stockman, a director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Reagan, and the filmmaker, Michael Moore, identify the growing wealth gap and bad economic policy as the issue, the issue becomes one of national priorities and national values. 

While we can’t opt out of being part of the national or state economy, we need to do everything we can to provide education here. Maybe we should be planning for the education we want and then focus on how to get there knowing, that at least in the immediate future, neither the Federal government nor the State government is going to support education in the way it once did in our Country.

We can hope for, and vote for, the Governor’s plan, but we know it is not sufficient to fund the schools our children need and deserve.  We may need to think differently, both about education and about funding.  We may need more support from other parts of our community.  But we need to do something.  Right now we’re not thinking big enough and it’s our children who need us to ‘think bigger.’

What Say You?

Hometown Hero: Student Mentors: Music and Meaning

Mayumi Kanagawa with Saint Anne Students     Photo Credit Robert Schaefer

Two students walked into music class at Saint Anne School in Santa Monica.  “They were bickering and calling each other names,” said Mayumi Kanagawa, a Crossroads student who is volunteering at Saint Anne School. 
“I taught them to play different lines of a song on their violins, and then had each play one line simultaneously.  When I told them that they'd just made harmony together, they couldn't help grinning.”

Kanagawa is a Music Major at the Elizabeth Mandell Music Institute at Crossroads School.  She, along with other music majors from Crossroads, in satisfaction of their community outreach requirement, work as mentors helping Saint Anne students as they learn to play a string instrument.

Inspiration for the music program comes from “El Sistema”, the Venezuelan success story that, for over 30 years, has reached children all over Venezuela, but especially in the poorest barrios, and has used music as the path to bring them out of the barrios and out of poverty.  Gustavo Dudamel, the conductor of the LA Philharmonic, is a product of El Sistema. He sees teaching classical music as a path to creating a more just social future and has continued the tradition in his work in Los Angeles.

The music program at Saint Anne’s is a part of the movement, inspired by El Sistema, to use music as a way to help children out of poverty and to create stronger and safer communities. The Belgian-born composer Jan Van der Roost said, “I think if all the countries in the world would do El Sistema, there would be a lot less problems and a lot more happiness.”

Saint Anne School started in 1908 with 55 children, to serve the large, migrant farm-worker families in the community. Migrant farm-workers from Mexico worked side by side with those from Oklahoma and the Southern states as their children studied together at Saint Anne School.

Maryann Cummins, a gifted musician and teacher, is the Director of the Elizabeth Mandell Music Institute at Crossroads (EMMI) and, among her other responsibilities, teaches music to the youngest of the children at Saint Anne School.  Cummins said, “When any of the music teachers or any student mentors come through the door the students surround us with hugs, love and happiness. They are hungry for music and the arts.  It feeds me to teach these students.” 

Third, fourth, and fifth grade students who want to study a string instrument, are mentored by EMMI students.  To be in the string program children must commit to working with the student mentors 4 days per week after school, in addition to their lessons during school taught by faculty provided by the Santa Monica Sol La Music Academy.  The violins and cellos they use are provided by donors and through fundraising.  All Saint Anne students study music.  If they decide not to learn to play an instrument then they are taught music through choral training.  And all students participate in the School's Christmas and Spring concerts.

Juan-Salvador Carrasco, a EMMI student, said of one child trying to learn to play the cello, “After a long struggle trying to teach one of my students a proper bowhold, one day everything I had been pestering him about finally clicked. It was amazing to witness his hand fall into the right mold, something I had often deemed impossible. Not only did I feel immensely satisfied, but it also made him feel proud to accomplish something so complex and intricate.”

Mentors take pride in their teaching and the Saint Anne students take pride in their learning.  Mentors for the music program are:  Elisa Abondolo, grade 6, age 11, violin; Seth Biagini, grade 12, age 17, cello; Juan-Salvador Carrasco, grade 12, age 16, cello; Sebastian Carrasco, grade 9, age 14, violin; Marina Chen, grade 12, age 17, violin; Mayumi Kanagawa, grade 11, age 16, violin; Maxwell Karmazyn, grade 11, age 17, violin; Esther Kim, grade 12, age 17, violin; Min-Jae Kim, grade 10, age 15, violin; Mackenzie Kugel, grade 8, age 13,violin; Alexzandra Morris, grade 10, age 16, violin; Avery Morris, grade 11, age 16, violin; Katrina Schaefer, grade 11, age 16, violin; Jeronimo Sexton, grade 11, age 16, cello; Chandler Yu, grade 10, age 15, violin.

El Sistema, as it is practiced at Saint Anne School is transforming life, both for the Crossroad mentors and the Saint Anne students.  One of the student mentors, Katrina Marie Schaefer, expressed the feelings of the entire group of mentors saying, “Music is an essential part of life, allowing an escape from the stresses of everyday routine. It stirs emotion and allows one to communicate with others, as it is a universal language.