Fiesta Aura Launches Reborn Gill Building

Oceanside city officials and political hopefuls gathered at the historic Americanization School on Monday to eat Mexican food, listen to Mexican music and kick off the building’s restoration and rebirth as a community center.

The school at Center Avenue and Division Street was designed in 1930 by Irving Gill, San Diego’s most prestigious modern architect, after Oceanside Elementary School saw the need to funnel Spanish-speaking students into an English-language program.

Sixty-two years later, the neighborhood remains heavily Latino, plagued by crime and gang violence. But Monday, only a handful of neighborhood residents showed up at the dedication ceremony, which was held in English.

Those who did, however, said they were eager to volunteer their time and services to turn the old school into their community center--complete with English classes, a bilingual library, recreational facilities and medical referrals.

And volunteer they must.

In 1990, the city purchased the 3,500-square-foot, wood-frame and stucco building with its arched entry and simple Islamic dome to be the neighborhood’s community center. But city funds have covered only $50,000 of the project’s estimated $316,000 price tag.

So far, The Fieldstone Co. and Centrex Homes, construction management companies, have donated more than $40,000 in materials, and a host of other companies have also pitched in.

But more than $200,000--for everything from furniture to building materials--is still needed. Monday’s groundbreaking was held in part to make that pitch.

“There’s nobody that can’t do something for this building,” said City Councilwoman Melba Bishop, who is seeking reelection. “Today’s the day we start pulling up the floor. So if you want a little piece of history, stay and pull up a piece of the floor.”

City officials from the mayor on down filled the schoolyard Monday to applaud restoration of the architectural landmark--and the impact of a community center on the gang-torn barrio.

“We have a chance to do something that may be more important” than preserving the building, Mayor Larry Bagley said, “and that is to establish a heart for this neighborhood. It gives us a chance to bring this building, and this neighborhood, back to life.”

The school’s gated yard already shows signs of the neighborhood’s involvement. The same teen-agers the building will soon serve have cleared away knee-high junk and leaves, and painted a mural sporting low-rider bikes, bilingual books and a call for “Peace and Dignity” on a long wooden structure that runs along the Division Street side.

“We are Just Barely Born,” reads another vivid mural slogan, painted by Barrio Arte, which will help build and run the new community center.

Some residents fear the new center will pit the Center Avenue gang members against those who hang around near Balderama Park and the community center there.

“I’m glad to see the building saved,” City Council hopeful Ray Metcalf said. “But my fear is that now we have an undertow, of the East Side Balderama Park homeboys, and this side’s homeboys. I’d rather pull them all over there. I want to bring them together.”

But residents, and the homeboys themselves, disagree.

“I’m 100% behind it,” said Maria Solis, who came to the ceremony to eat the lunch provided by Waste Management Inc. and donate her time and services. In tow behind the Spanish-speaking Division Street resident were her three small children.

“For me, the most important thing is to have something for the children,” Solis said. “They are our future. They need something to keep themselves off the street, something positive.”

“It’s about time we gained something,” said Joel Gomez, 18. “If they would have had something when I was growing up, I probably would have turned out OK, instead of hanging out on the streets all the time.”

As for worsening gang problems, the young men who helped clean the yard, paint the mural and planned to stick around and pull up the floor said that’s unlikely.

“We don’t go over there. Why should those guys come over here?” Gomez said.

They all agree on what they want to see inside the beat-up building’s walls once all is renovated: a weight room, pool tables and maybe even a boxing ring, said 17-year-old Luis Arango.

“And maybe an art class, to learn about our culture,” he added.