Students Discover a Fair Exchange of Cultures

For the past few months, 1,500 junior and senior high school students in San Diego County have looked at old newspapers, pored over hundreds of pages of arcane facts, read political dissertations on Southern California, and talked to a variety of sources, all in an effort to find the historical threads that bind together this border region.

The best of their resulting research papers, exhibits, videotapes and performances will be judged at the sixth annual San Diego/Tijuana International Cultural Fair, which begins March 4 at Tijuana’s Cultural Center.

“This is a great opportunity for the kids to share their historical roots, which are actually one,” said Lynn Eddy-Zambrano, a coordinator for the fair. “Although there is a boundary between San Diego and Tijuana, it’s an artificial one. We are one large community, geographically and economically. We’re interdependent.”

Richard Swain, another coordinator for the fair, said the project encourages students to learn about past politics, economics and people of their immediate communities, as well as how to conduct and apply their research.

No ‘Significant Interaction’

“From what I know of, there isn’t any significant interaction going on between San Diego students and students from Tijuana--at least not at an intellectual level,” said Ann Marie Wood, a 17-year-old student from Gompers Secondary School in San Diego who is participating in the fair. “I think the fair is a meaningful way to get students from one culture to meet students from another culture. It’ll be real interesting.”

At Southwest High School in Imperial Beach, a three-tier, cardboard exhibit sat at the front of Marilyn Montgomery’s third-period history class. Glued to it were photos of people from San Ysidro’s first colony--the “Little Landers.” Under each was a typed description of the person and how he or she contributed to the growth of the colony.

“At first I decided to do a project because it was a class assignment,” said 16-year-old Ayanna Mullins, a junior at Southwest High. “But once I got involved in researching the Little Landers, I found it real interesting.”

Mullins’ partner on the project, 16-year-old Jilma Leyva, shared her enthusiasm.

‘A Lot of Work’

“It was a lot of work, but it was worth it because our project will be among those judged at the fair in Tijuana,” Leyva said. “I’ve been to Tijuana before, but I never thought I’d go there because of a class project.”

Mullins and Leyva are two of nearly 500 county students who will travel to Tijuana next month and share their historical findings with more than 900 Tijuana students. Wood, from Gompers, is another.

Wood extensively researched one aspect of post-Depression politics in San Diego and wrote a 12-page paper on two of the largest pension organizations then in existence: the so-called Ham and Eggs Movement and the Townsend Plan.

Both the groups, according to Wood, had significant power in San Diego in the late 1930s, and also had a strong influence on President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s decision to enact the Social Security Act of 1939.

“I was fascinated to find out that in 1937 in San Diego . . . there were 80 Townsend Clubs. Some of them consisted of 1,000 or more members, most of (whom) were 50 or older,” Wood said. “What’s just as interesting is that Roosevelt Junior High School in North Park was one of the major meeting places for the Townsend Club.”

Project on Lindbergh

Some students got involved in the international fair by participating in their school history fairs.

“We did a project on why San Diegans named Lindbergh Field after Charles Lindbergh. We thought it would be a good subject because transportation was one of the historical themes for our school fair projects,” said 16-year-old Jannice Abordo of Southwest High. “We learned a lot about the airport here and its history.”

Partners Norliza Tayag, 16, and Rosalie Ros, 16, both juniors at Southwest, agreed with Abordo that none of them thought their exhibit would be chosen for the fair in Tijuana.

“We weren’t even expecting this,” Tayag said. “It’s great--and we’re real anxious about going to the fair.”

50 Bilingual Students

“This year’s fair will be truly cross-cultural,” said coordinator Swain. “In the past, there was somewhat of a language barrier between the students. This year we’ll be sending 50 bilingual students to the fair who will serve as ambassadors. Hopefully, there will be closer communication between the students.”

The fair is co-sponsored by San Diego State University’s Center for Latin American Studies, the campus Center for Historical Research, Universidad Autonoma de Baja California, the San Diego Unified School District and the San Diego County Office of Education.

The judging of San Diego students’ videotapes and performances will begin at 10 a.m. Saturday at SDSU’s Adams Humanities Building.

The remaining activities and judging will be held at the Cultural Center in Tijuana. Judging of all exhibits will take place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. March 4. Winning exhibits will be displayed from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. March 5 and 6. An awards ceremony will be held at the center at 7 p.m. March 15.