Local musical theater company Cabrillo Stage has entered a new creative phase, naming Andrea L. Hart as artistic director.
Hart was hired following the retirement in September of Jon Nordgren, who served as artistic director of the nonprofit musical theater company, which produces musicals every summer at Cabrillo College, for 17 years. Most recently, he saw the company through difficult times in the pandemic. After Covid canceled its entire 2020 season, Cabrillo Stage moved from its longtime home in the Crocker Theater to the college’s outdoor amphitheater in 2021, putting on five small shows over the course of five weekends.
“We took a huge loss in 2020,” Nordgren said earlier this year. “Last year’s shows were mostly volunteer-led, with very small audiences. It was difficult, but we did it. It turned out great.”
This summer, Cabrillo Stage returned to the Crocker, planning its first full season in the pandemic era. A staging of Grease went off without a hitch in July, earning praise for its excellent cast and direction, but the subsequent Candide—heralded as possibly the company’s most ambitious production ever—was cut short by Covid in August.
Moving Theater Forward
Hart is the first woman to lead Cabrillo Stage in its 40-year history. She moved to Santa Cruz in July after finishing a Masters in Fine Arts (MFA) in Directing at the University of Texas at Austin.
Before graduate school, she lived in the Berkeley area for 20 years, where she was a co-founder and member of several small theater companies, including 6NewPlays, which focused on producing new plays by Bay Area playwrights. She also taught visual and performing arts and directed musicals and plays in schools all over the Bay Area.
In addition to directing, Hart is also an accomplished playwright and theater maker, having had her work developed at the Great Plains Theatre Conference (GPTC), New Ohio Theatre, Hyde Park Theatre, the University of Texas New Theatre Festival of New Work and more. While working as Director of Education and Public Programs at the Oceanside Museum of Art, she began the first dance residency with dancer Alyssa Junious.
Hart has self-produced multiple shows, and worked for many years producing a Fringe Festival at the GPTC.
“Studying how to make live theater during a pandemic was not what I set out in graduate school to do,” Hart said. “However, I feel incredibly fortunate to have been in school during that time. It served as a crucible to not only my artistic practice, but my thinking on how to keep live performance relevant to our communities as we move forward.”
These are some of the same issues Cabrillo Stage has been focusing on. They arose, for instance, in this summer’s production of Grease, which was directed by Nordgren’s daughter, Cassie Nordgren, with musical direction by Nordgren himself. The pair reworked aspects of Grease to make it both more modern and truer to the original stage production.
“Theater is changing quickly,” said Jon Nordgren. “There has been a huge turn towards diversity and ‘cancelation’ of a lot of older shows that are too hurtful to some people. There’s a much more open look at what you can do with theater now.”
The show also brought in more diversity with its casting. Corey Jones, a Black actor and singer who uses a wheelchair, was chosen for the iconic role of the Teen Angel. (Due to health reasons, his role was played by Jennifer Taylor Daniels, a Black woman.) Ella Currie played Sonny, a T-Bird who is usually male.
Currie said it was the director’s idea to change the character’s gender. During cast callbacks, she pulled her aside to ask if she’d be interested in the role.
“I was worried at first,” Currie said. “Given some of the lines Sonny has, how’s he’s usually played … I didn’t want to perpetuate stereotypes of the queer community. I wanted to avoid that.”
Currie praised Cassie Nordgren for her openness and respectfulness in creating the new version of the character.
“Cassie has been absolutely wonderful,” she told GT before Grease opened. “She’s so open to my ideas, we’re always on the same page. I love how we’re taking an opportunity to display the queer experience, especially in an era that was not as accepting.”
John Graulty, Cabrillo College’s dean of Visual, Applied and Performing Arts, is excited to see Hart’s vision for the company unfold.
“Our national search for a new artistic director landed us a bright, young, articulate star in the theater firmament,” he said. “Andrea has the passion and talent to work collaboratively with the Cabrillo Stage team to take the company to even greater levels of success and service to our musical theater-loving community. We are thrilled to welcome her aboard.”
Hart says she hopes to continue growing and developing Cabrillo Stage’s community connections and importance.
“Theatre, by its very nature, is a local endeavor,” she said. “It exists in a particular place and time and it speaks to those who see it in that moment. I want Cabrillo Stage to represent the Monterey Bay community in all of its fullness and to be a place our audiences call home.”
Over eight years of heading up GT, I have written somewhere around 400 of these editor’s notes. That’s more than 80,000 words—the length of a short novel. That means some of you have read a whole book’s worth of whatever I was thinking about as we finished each week’s paper, which blows my mind. I feel like at this point I’ve told you so many stories about my life living in and covering Santa Cruz—from UCSC to the Pajaronian to Metro Santa Cruz to Santa Cruz Weekly to here—that I’m not sure how many more I even have!
Well, I have one more—and it’ll be my last, as I’m leaving Good Times at the end of the year for a new opportunity on the other side of the hill. This time, I want to tell you what bringing you the paper every week for almost a decade has meant to me.
In short, everything. When I came back here to be editor of Santa Cruz Weekly, after seven years of not covering this area, it was the start of a real creative rebirth for me. When we merged with Good Times a couple of years later, some people were skeptical, because GT really is a beloved local institution. But others were looking forward to what we would bring to it—including local ownership for the first time in decades—and I remember thinking, “Well, we’ll see what people think in a year.” But long before that, I started hearing encouraging feedback.
I think both our news and cultural coverage got better every year—and then the pandemic hit. By the fall of 2020, there were two emergencies to cover, Covid and the CZU fire, as well as an important social movement in Black Lives Matter. We were liveblogging news about all three nonstop, doing more news coverage than at any time in the paper’s history. But there was so much to cover, nonstop, that for the first time I really had no idea whether we were doing an adequate job or not. So when we were subsequently named the best weekly newspaper in the state by the California Newspaper Publishers Association for the second year in a row, I was stunned, and even more grateful for our staff’s incredible dedication through the toughest of times.
We’re now at three years in a row for that award, and I’m so proud of what we’ve accomplished. I’m thankful to all of the amazing people I’ve had the chance to work with, both at GT and in the community. And I’m thankful for you, for picking us up, clicking to us online, and reading us. You’re the reason we do it, and the reason I’ve kept coming back to cover Santa Cruz County again and again in my career. There’s no other place quite like this one, and I’ll miss you.
STEVE PALOPOLI | EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
PHOTO CONTEST WINNER
TIDINGS OF JOY Speaking of King Tides (see Good Idea, this page), this was the scene on Christmas Eve during one of the King Tides’ famous extreme low tides. Photograph by Linda Weyers.
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GOOD IDEA
ALL HAIL THE KING TIDES
It might be wet and gloomy outside, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be a beach day. Strangely enough, it’s one of the best times to explore the seaside, because the California King Tides are coming to our shores. That means high tides and powerful waves, but also dramatic low tides expose rarely seen tide pools. Mark your calendars for Jan. 21 and 22, when the King Tides return.
GOOD WORK
BIG NEWS
More trails and roads in Big Basin Redwoods reopened last Friday, a total of four miles that includes the newly renovated Meteor Trail, a one-mile segment of Skyline to the Sea Trail, and dog-friendly access along the first mile of North Escape Road. The first mile of Sunset Trail is finishing reconstruction, and is expected to open sometime next month. Since Big Basin reopened to the public on July 22, over 16,000 people have visited the park. You still need to make a reservation, which you can do at: parks.ca.gov.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“You can get excited about the future. The past won’t mind.”
Re: Cannabis Chronicle (GT, 12/21): The Cannabis industry is complaining that their tax rates are too high for them and they can’t afford to make a profit, so they are lobbying to get their taxes lower. And guess what? They are winning. They are getting supported by people, maybe even paying them out, which means less tax revenue for childcare and youth prevention groups. Communities of color and youth are affected by the cannabis tax cut, which means no funding for prevention programs in a community at need. This may result in a rise in substance use, higher incarceration, and less affordable childcare, which is the last thing this community needs.
We strongly oppose these tax reductions because not only us but millions of youths of color that rely on youth prevention groups will be affected. Empower Watsonville is a youth-led group that focuses on expanding youth advocacy to implement more equitable policies. This is sometimes the only guaranteed state funding in communities like mine and with a cut in the tax rates, it’ll all go away.
Communities of color struggle every day to make ends meet. This issue isn’t going away—why are people supporting this? Why would anyone support reducing cannabis taxes where it imposes a threat to communities that will be negatively impacted like mine. We choose to ignore that children living in poverty and youth of color have a higher risk of engaging in using substances. We are way behind in providing stability for vulnerable communities, and we need this funding accessible more than ever. So, if the cannabis tax is reduced, all that money will be used for intense marketing to target youth, these youth who need stability. Affordable childcare is a huge problem, as wages are low and childcare rates are high. That help that is protected, as of now, by the funding that is allocated because of the taxes on cannabis.
Empower Watsonville is not just an ordinary afterschool program. We are learning to inform about policies and laws that affect us to create change within our community. We are staying active and vigilant to ensure that our voices are heard on policies that disrupt all the hard work we have been doing to reduce substance use.
Mia Ruiz, Empower Watsonville Youth Advocate
These letters do not necessarily reflect the views of Good Times.To submit a letter to the editor of Good Times: Letters should be originals—not copies of letters sent to other publications. Please include your name and email address to help us verify your submission (email address will not be published). Please be brief. Letters may be edited for length, clarity and to correct factual inaccuracies known to us. Send letters to le*****@go*******.sc
A 28-minute mini-documentary from 1975, simply titled Los Lobos del Este de Los Angeles—also the band’s original name—opens with six young guys in flannel shirts and jeans performing a traditional Mexican folk song atop a littered hill overlooking East L.A.
The sound and image quality are rough, mainly due to the home video equipment at the time. However, the essence of Los Lobos comes through beautifully. The melodies of the various stringed instruments and vocal harmonies carry you away to another place, another time.
The music continues as the scene cuts to images of everyday life throughout East L.A. neighborhoods—kids ride bikes across abandoned lots, vendors push flower carts and cars speed down Atlantic Boulevard. The music fades, giving way to a voiceover from Los Lobos co-founder Francisco González, who was 21 then.
“About two years ago, we got together—not for business gain or any money—to learn some songs to play for our mothers, to show them we appreciated the music of our culture,” González says.
They learned how to play their instruments by listening to old records and were approached by many, which kept the group going.“Now, we feel it’s an obligation to spread our culture to other people who don’t know about it. We play 15 different instruments from regions all over Mexico.”
González left Los Lobos just two years after the band formed to pursue different interests—he learned Veracruz harp, then became El Teatro Campesino theater group’s musical director.
“We want to make true Chicano music that draws from our past, that is in line with the past, the present and hopefully the future,” González adds.
Upon González’s passing in April 2022 from cancer, the band expressed their gratitude for the former member paving the way for the band to “create a sound that blended all of the styles they love: rock and R&B, surf music and soul, mariachi and música norteña, punk and country.”
For the outfit’s first seven years together—before they shortened their name—they were an all-acoustic, drummerless quartet who stuck to playing traditional Mexican folk tunes like the one in the 48-year-old documentary.
Incidentally, the title of that little movie was also used as the title of the band’s 1977 debut, which was recorded with little-to-no budget (there are a thousand known copies in existence, making it one of the rarest roots-rock vinyl). The record was reissued in 2000 as Just another band from East L.A. with the clinking bottles and background chatter still intact.
Los Lobos, known for concocting their own genre, a mix of conjunto, delta blues, Americana, rockabilly and everything else that inspires them, rings in the New Year at the Rio Theatre. PHOTO: Stephen Port
Though González’s time with the band was brief, his unofficial mission for the group has been a guiding light throughout Los Lobos’ career. It’s noticeable in their 1984 sophomore release, How Will the Wolf Survive? There’s significant genre crossover; everything from blues and country to rockabilly is present, but the Mexican roots of Los Lobos del Este de Los Angeles remain intact. “A Matter of Time” and the title track even delve into Mexican immigration issues that are still relevant. In 1989, the record placed No. 30 on Rolling Stone’s Top 100 Albums of the 1980s.
BORN IN EAST L.A.
The multi-instrumental crew—David Hidalgo, Cesar Rosas, Conrad Lozano and Louis Pérez Jr.—went from “just another band from East L.A.” performing “barrio parties” and backyard weddings to winning a Grammy for La Pistola y El Corazón, a tribute to Tejano (Tex-Mex music) and mariachi music in less than a decade. Also, within that time frame, Los Lobos’ unique multicultural-crossover sound catapulted them to the forefront of Los Angeles’ most popular bands of the time, which included X and the Blasters. But the group’s participation in the Richie Valens biopic in 1987, namely their upbeat interpretation of the film’s namesake “La Bamba,” brought them the international mainstream success that has yet to subside.
Los Lobos’ ongoing success can be attributed to adhering to several unsaid rules, starting with refraining from intentionally mixing their music with politics—for the most part.
“Sometimes [politics] get in the way of the music,” multi-instrumentalist Steve Berlin, who joined the band in 1984, says. “People tend to read an agenda into stuff when there really isn’t one. We try to be cautious about what we do, what we say, who we align ourselves with.”
Co-founding multi-instrumentalist Louis Pérez Jr. adds, “All we do is tell the truth. That’s it. It all began with learning a few Mexican songs to play for our moms. We never planned to do more.”
The sum of Los Lobos’ parts didn’t set out to become rock stars. They just wanted to play music. They worked hard and performed their best.
“I tell kids that if you want to be a musician, you have to love it so much that it keeps you up at night because there’s nothing else you could think of,” Pérez says. “But if you want to do it because you want to be a rich rockstar, then you’ll probably be disappointed. It will never let you down if you do it because you love it. It has to feel right.”
Not only does music keep Pérez up at night, but it also wakes him up, usually around 2am. Sometimes, it’s a lyric or a melody, something new that could become the foundation for Los Lobos’ next hit single. Other times, it’s a false alarm. That lyric or melody that Pérez thinks is genius at 2am doesn’t seem as stellar the next day.
“Sometimes, the next morning, I’ll wonder, ‘What the hell was that?’”
“Saint Behind the Glass” represents one of the times that Pérez struck gold during the witching hour. The intimate song, included on Los Lobos’ acclaimed 1992 record Kiko—arguably, one of their top three albums—features one of the rare times Pérez sings lead vocals over gentle finger-picking. It’s a tender breeze cradled by modest, simple, yet descriptive prose that brings you inside the song.
“Coffee in the air, coffee in the air/ Saint behind the glass, smells coffee in the air.
Curtains blowing ’round, curtains blowing ’round/ Saint behind the glass, sees the curtains blowing ’round.”
“It’s the most personal song I’ve ever written,” Pérez says. “That house that I describe is the house I grew up in—we slept in that one-bedroom; my mother, my sister and me. Those are beautiful memories. I wasn’t planning on singing it, but David chased me around the block a few times with the microphone.”
While Pérez wrote about his own experience and what he saw while growing up, it comes out with a universal appeal; the feelings and emotions aren’t provincial.
“I think everybody who puts pen to paper, hands on the keyboard, ultimately writes from an autobiographical place,” he says. “It’s a process: I sit down, try to come up with a title or something, and then I’m off and running. It’s a matter of moving the words around to see what I want to say. For the most part, it’s become intuitive.”
ABOUT A BOY
Pérez says music, art and reading saved his life. His father died when he was eight years old, and he never really had a chance to process the trauma.
“I lived in a very small bubble in East Los Angeles,” Pérez says. “The world could have been flat. Atlantic Boulevard and Third Street could have been the edge of Europe. To go anywhere, I had to use my imagination. And I think I escaped by walking down to the library and sitting on the floor between the rows of books, and I felt safe there.”
He recalls reading Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley: In Search of America. He felt invigorated each time he turned the page.
“It wasn’t just a travelog,” Pérez says. “It was also social commentary. Until I got a bike when I was 12, my neighborhood was the whole world. And these other poor kids [Los Lobos] in East L.A. grew up like I did and felt the same way. Can you imagine when we first went out on tour? We were driving through Iowa cornfields during wintertime. We had a joke: In Southern California, we keep the snowblower and the logs in the mountains.”
A big part of what helped shape Pérez as a musician and subsequently helped guide Los Lobos’ diverse sound stems from his lived era.
“I came up during the transformative ’60s,” he says. “There were so many things going on around us. The Watts riots, Vietnam, the assassination of President Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King.”
When Pérez was 14, he had begged his mother for weeks to let him go to a Jimi Hendrix performance at the Hollywood Bowl. Finally, his mom gave in and arranged for an older neighbor to take him.
“That [concert] completely rearranged all my brain cells,” he says.
GOING BIG
When Los Lobos’ 2021 Native Sons was nominated for a “Best Americana Album” Grammy in 2022, the group quietly didn’t think they had a shot in hell. The competition was steep: Jackson Browne, John Hiatt with the Jerry Douglas Band and Allison Russell. None of the band members expected the win. And they were okay with that. They aren’t greedy; Los Lobos has already racked up 12 Grammy nods throughout their career—they’ve won three—including two for “Best Mexican-American Performance.” The appreciation is much more than they could have imagined when they began.
“I didn’t think we’re the frontrunners, but I appreciated the sentiment,” Berlin told me before the awards. “We already have a few [Grammys], so we’re good. It’s just nice to be in there somewhere.”
Los Lobos’ 2021 ‘Native Sons’—the outfit’s 18th studio release—showcases California-based bands and singer-songwriters who have been influential to their sound, including the Beach Boys, Willie Bobo and War. The title track is the sole original, penned by David Hidalgo and Louie Pérez. PHOTO: Pete Dervin
It was also thrilling to be nominated alongside Jackson Browne, whose song “Jamaica Says You Will” is one of the tunes Los Lobos plays on Native Sons. Still, as Berlin noted, none of the band members expected the win, making it much more exhilarating.
Pérez was driving with his wife when he got a call from his son.
“He said, ‘Dad, where are you?’” Pérez recalls. “I said I was on the 405 Freeway with your mom. He said, ‘You’re not in Vegas?’ No. ‘You’re not at the Grammys?’ No. ‘Well, you just won.’ Then the phone lit up. It was affirmation. Not that we need affirmation, especially as Chicanos living in the United States and growing up here.”
Pérez adds that while the awards are nice, Los Lobos’ drive comes from somewhere much more profound.
“It’s not necessarily the work we did, but the example that comes out of it—inspiring other people who intersect with our life path along the way, on this journey,” he says. “It’s the key to a legacy: someone can take from what we do and do something themselves.”
About a year ago, Los Lobos last performed in Santa Cruz. Rising East L.A. rockers Tropa Magica opened. Los Lobos usually doesn’t have the time to see every band that opens for them. However, the renowned Grammy Award winners made sure they made time to check out their opening act.
“We looked forward to hearing [Tropa Magica] play and meeting the band,” Berlin told me. “I’m a huge fan.”
Tropa Magica founders, brothers David (guitar, vocals) and Rene Pacheco (drums, vocals), have felt a connection to Los Lobos since they first heard them on the La Bamba soundtrack. There is also that East L.A. bond.
“[Opening for Los Lobos] was a milestone marker for us,” David says. “We’ve been fans since we were kids, so it was super awesome to perform with them and meet them. It’s so cool.”
Tropa Magica’s approach to music is quite similar to Los Lobos—they use psych-rock, cumbia, stoner rock, Bossa nova, grunge, surf and even disco elements to create something uniquely their own. They call it “cumbia psychedelic-punk.”
50 YEARS
2023 will mark Los Lobos’ 50th anniversary. And they will be on stage in Santa Cruz when they reach this rare and remarkable milestone.
“Maybe it’s because we don’t want to think about it,” Pérez says. “You don’t want to think about what keeps an airplane in the air when you’re up there at 35,000 feet.”
Pérez thinks the key is that they came together as friends long before they were a band and grew up in the same East L.A. neighborhood.
“If you hang around a barbershop long enough, you’ll eventually get a haircut,” Pérez adds. “So, we were musicians hanging out together as friends who eventually started a band. We’re like brothers—sure, we’ll arm wrestle now and then. It’s natural. But the relationships, especially with David and I, that’s the glue that holds the musical and songwriting relationships together.”
It’s not lost on Pérez just how big of a deal this landmark is for Los Lobos. Aside from the Rolling Stones and Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band, there are very few examples of this achievement. It’s even more impressive that all the initial founders are still in the group, except González—Berlin has been with the band for 40 years, and drummer Alfredo Ortiz took over for Enrique “Bugs” Gonzalez, who returned to Mexico a couple years ago.
“Last year, we had all these crazy ideas about doing this and doing that,” Pérez says. “Everybody’s excited about turning 50; then you realize that you just want to take a nap—everything would take so much work. So, we’re going to be diplomatic and see what everyone has in mind, then collectively come up with ideas to celebrate. You’d think this would have all been planned, but it’s typical; we always say that the Los Lobos clock doesn’t have any hands on it. We don’t run on conventional time. We have some ideas of what we want to do, and we will have a great time celebrating.”
Beyond 50? Pérez isn’t sure yet what Los Lobos’ plans are. He does say that touring will have to slow down a bit. After being on the road and performing night after night consistently for five decades, there’s some wear and tear. Pérez references a recent Howard Stern interview he saw with Springsteen.
“[Springsteen] was sitting on a stool with a guitar, and there’s a piano a few feet away,” Pérez begins. “He’s talking about all this stuff; then he plays a song. Then he gets up and walks over to the piano [slowly]. I felt like, ‘wow, I know how that feels.’ All those road miles on his back—you can tell. That just illustrates that we’re looking at time as it evaporates. We’re not getting any younger. We’re going to think hard about how we want to continue [Los Lobos].”
Pérez, who turns 70 in January, aims to have more time to volunteer and serve young people directly. He says it’s just another way for him to express himself creatively—it’s also a way to give back.
Meanwhile, Los Lobos guitarist César Rosas has become known for telling audiences, “Thank you for still liking us.”
It sounds like Rosas will be offering a few more thank yous, at the least, before Los Lobos bids us farewell.
Los Lobos (Mattson 2 opens) performs Saturday, Dec. 31, 9:30pm. $85.05 plus fees. Rio Theatre, 1205 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz. folkyeah.com.
When he was seven, Luka Chavez came out as bisexual to his younger cousin and siblings, a step he says was made easier having grown up in a family open to LGBTQIA+ issues.
Luka’s first question for his relatives after this revelation was simple but earnest: “Do you still love me?”
Their response, he says, was a resounding “yes.”
“That made me feel really safe,” Luka says.
Emboldened by this, Luka—now 13—came out to his parents on Sept. 21, 2018, which he describes as a personal holiday.
“Like a little anniversary of the day I finally told my parents who I was,” he says.
Assigned female at birth, Luka’s transformation continued when he saw a video on YouTube that featured a transgender boy telling his story.
“He said he never felt comfortable being himself, and that if he had been born as a boy he would have been a lot happier,” Luka says. “I felt like, ‘yes, I kind of feel like that too.’”
That same year, as a Watsonville Charter School of the Arts second grader, Luka wrote a book with a transgender child as the protagonist to help himself process his transformation.
But that created a surprising backlash, when some parents complained to the teacher about him.
“They said they didn’t want me in the class with their kids, because they didn’t want their kids learning about what transgender means,” Luka says. “That was the first time I ever experienced some kind of prejudice.”
The teachers supported Luka, and many of them put up posters showing support for the LGBTQIA+ community, he says.
Luka said the pushback didn’t affect him, since his mother said she would always support him.
“My mom made it very known that if I ever came out as gay she would accept me no matter what,” he says.
He also found support outside his family. Through most of his journey to becoming a transgender boy, Luka has been part of the Queer Youth Task Force of Santa Cruz County (QYTF), an organization created to foster understanding and acceptance of LGBTQIA+ youth who do not have that support.
QYTF is one of 13 youth-serving organizations sponsored this year by Santa Cruz Gives.
Co-founder Terry Cavanaugh says the group was created during the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s, when community leaders noticed that many young people in their teens were testing positive for HIV, the virus that causes the disease.
But when they approached high schools to do outreach work on the subject, they were met with perplexed administrators seemingly unaware of the existence of the LGBTQIA+ community in their midst, Cavanaugh says.
“They said, ‘we don’t have any gay kids, we don’t know of any,’” Cavanaugh says.
So QYTF aimed to bring visibility and acceptance to a community that was essentially hiding in plain sight. The support network that stemmed from the organization was more important than ever, since HIV was one of several dangers facing young gay people, Cavanaugh says. Young people identifying as LGBTQIA+ also have higher-than-average rates of suicide and drug and alcohol addiction, and are more likely to be kicked out of their homes by their families.
QYTF is also increasing visibility of LGBTQIA+ youth and initiating change on an institutional level.
This looks like working with school superintendents and nonprofit leaders, and making law enforcement agencies aware that hate crimes were happening to LGBTQIA+ youth, QYTF Chair Stuart Rosenstein says.
“Before that, queer youth were scared to go to the police,” Rosenstein says. “If they don’t feel safe they need to know that law enforcement is going to protect them.”
In that spirit, QYTF in 2004 founded the Safe Schools Project, which provides training and support for administrators, teachers and school employees to support LGBTQIA+ students.
The Trans Teen Project was created to support the specialized needs of transgender youth, and to provide them with a support network that includes adult mentors.
The Adult Ally Project aims to recruit adult allies to help queer young people and the programs countywide that support them.
“The heart and soul of Santa Cruz County is people who are wanting to make life better for other people,” Rosenstein says. “And that’s how the Queer Youth Task Force was founded and that’s what it’s done since.”
One year after QYTF was founded, Cavanaugh launched the Queer Youth Leadership Awards (QYLA), now an annual event aimed at celebrating the achievements and abilities of queer youth.
“We used a strength-based model,” he says. “We said, ‘somewhere there are some of these young people who are going to make it and do fine. And they are probably helping people in their community, in their school settings. Why don’t we emphasize their strengths? Why don’t we make them role models?’”
While the QYLA ceremony is aimed at the LGBTQIA+ community, it is also intended as a message to any young person who is bullied for stepping outside the bounds of societal expectations, Cavanaugh said.
“The kid who isn’t queer but gets bullied because he likes to play the piccolo, or he is an artist, or she likes to play soccer,” Cavanaugh said. “Kids get gender role stereotyped and then are picked on for being gay. Well, if you take the picked-on-for-being-gay out of it, then there’s more gender role freedom for everybody. So it really helps everybody.”
Santa Cruz County Health Services Agency Director Monica Morales said that QYTF played a pivotal role in her life when she came out when she was young. Since then, she has seen the organization advance youth wellness and LGBTQIA+ rights, a mission that is still essential even in the face of growing societal acceptance.
“We’re still very behind,” she said. “We still don’t have equal rights. We’ve come a long way,—yes, we have gay marriage, but there is still a lot of discrimination that young people and the LGBT community face, even in Santa Cruz County.”
Bullied as a queer youth himself, Rosenstein says the main thrust of his mission is to reach young people who do not yet have the support they need.
“It’s important to know that there are absolutely wonderful, loving people from Scotts Valley to Santa Cruz to Capitola, and Aptos to Corralitos and Watsonville who are shining stars of how to embrace and celebrate their LGBT young people and their families,” he says. “What we all do as a county is to help support the students who don’t have that love and support.”
Luka, who was nominated for a Queer Youth Leadership Award in 2022, says he has a message for young people struggling with their sexuality and identity:
“Change will come,” Luka says. “One day you won’t feel embarrassed to be who you are. One day you will feel comfortable being who you are. And I think that’s what you have to look forward to. Imagine yourself years from now when you are happy. when you are yourself. That’s what gets me going.”
There’s a common misconception that undocumented immigrants don’t pay taxes.
Ray Cancino, CEO of Community Bridges, says that stereotype is simply false.
“They pay taxes every single day,” says Cancino. “You can’t negotiate down any grocery bill or any sales tax of a gas station. Millions of dollars are being taxed to the undocumented that are never returned in terms of public benefit.”
For undocumented immigrants, Cancino says the fear of the government knowing their status is a significant enough deterrent to pursue any kind of tax reimbursement efforts. But the consequence of that fear means that there are billions of federal and state dollars left on the table, money that could fuel the local economy and make a big difference for those undocumented families, many of whom are living in poverty.
With the help of the Santa Cruz County ITIN and Child Tax Credit Project, Community Bridges is working to get money back into the hands of locals, by assisting eligible families and individuals in filing for their Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN).
An ITIN allows undocumented immigrants to file for taxes, and makes them eligible for dozens of programs, like Child Tax Credit (CTC) and Earned Income Tax Credits (ETIC). Overall, Community Bridges has helped nearly 100 community members access almost half a million dollars in tax benefits over the past year: from tax reimbursements alone, filers have accessed approximately $122,000 in IRS refunds, and saved a total of $4,160 in document preparation fees.
In the current economic context, Cancino says this reimbursement money can mean the difference between buying essential goods, like diapers or groceries, or making hard decisions about what to sacrifice in order to pay rent. He points to some of Community Bridges services, like its food pantry and Family Resource Center, which have experienced a 135% increase in demand for services, as an indication of how much people need extra support in recent years.
The federal government reducing its Child Tax Credit program will be just another financial strain for low-income families, Cancino says. Throughout 2021, the program lifted 2.1 million children out of poverty, according to the Census Bureau. Now, the program will exclude some of the lowest earning families, which means that finding creative solutions to supplement income will be critical, he says.
“The reality is that money is an incredible way of stabilizing a family home from a lot of the negative impacts of our society that we see, from domestic violence to crime to substance use to homelessness,” says Cancino.
The organization has been operating out of the Live Oak Senior Center—which the school district owns—since 1977.
While the eviction notice came on May 4, the school district told Community Bridges in 2018 that it was looking to construct workforce housing on the property at 1777 Capitola Road. The organizations have been negotiating since then.
MOW, a program of Community Bridges, last year distributed roughly 250,000 meals to seniors throughout the county, many of them homebound and living below the poverty line.
In addition, some 45 people per day are served by the onsite senior center, where the mid-county location draws people from throughout the county.
According to Community Bridges spokesman Tony Nuñez, the six-month extension gives both organizations breathing room to meet their goals.
But moving would be a costly endeavor for MOW, he said, and prove a logistical challenge.
The LOSD Board of Trustees made the decision at its Dec. 14 meeting, and also approved the creation of a sub-committee to discuss the future development of workforce housing at the site.
The district’s plans potentially include a mixed-use housing project that could include permanent space for Meals on Wheels.
Community Bridges is in the “intermediate stages” of seeking out a location in Santa Cruz as a failsafe if the school district follows through on the eviction. Those discussions, Nuñez says, include local, county and state officials.
But making that move will require nearly $2 million of renovations and repair and up to two years to complete the necessary improvements.
Seeking a new location would also require MOW to temporarily spread its operations across to facilities at Elderday in Santa Cruz and the City of Watsonville, requiring the organization to make renovations and capital improvements to address those impacts to the kitchens.
In addition, MOW would be required to spend thousands of dollars to rent freezer space for its Home Delivered Meal program.
“The [thing] is that we don’t have time,” said Community Bridges CEO Raymon Cancino. “Construction and development is two years away, and we have a six-month extension. Those realities just don’t meet our needs.”
Cancino added that the organization does not want to spend its money on a temporary location.
“We want to make these one-time expenses worthwhile,” he said.
ARIES (March 21-April 19): “Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor,” writes Aries author Anne Lamott. “It will keep you cramped and insane.” I think that’s a key theme for you to embrace in 2023. Let’s express the idea more positively, too. In Navajo culture, rug weavers intentionally create small imperfections in their work, like odd-colored beads or stray pieces of yarn. This rebellion against unattainable exactitude makes the art more soulful. Relieved of the unrealistic mandate to be flawless, the rug can relax into its beauty.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Here are my four decrees for you in 2023, Taurus. 1. You are cleared to be greedy if it’s in service to a holy cause that fosters others’ well-being as well as yours. 2. It’s permissible to be stubborn if doing so nourishes versions of truth and goodness that uplift and inspire your community. 3. It’s proper to be slow and gradual if that’s the best way to keep collaborative projects from becoming slipshod. 4. It’s righteous to be zealous in upholding high standards, even if that causes less diligent people to bail out.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): In 2023, many interesting lessons will arrive via your close relationships and collaborations. You will have the potential to learn more about the art of togetherness than you have in a long time. On occasion, these lessons may initially agitate you. But they will ultimately provide more pleasure and healing than you can imagine right now. Bonus prediction: You will have an enhanced talent for interweaving your destiny together with the fates of your allies.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): Here are some projects I’d love to see you pursue in 2023: 1. Teach your allies the fine points of how to cherish you but not smother you. 2. Cultivate your natural talent for appreciating the joys of watching and helping things grow: a child, a creative project, a tree, a friendship or your bank account. 3. If you don’t feel close to the family members that fate provided you with, find others you like better. 4. As you explore territories that are further out or deeper within, make sure your Cancerian shell is expandable. 5. Avoid being friends with people who are shallow or callous or way too cool. 6. Cultivate your attraction to people who share your deepest feelings and highest ideals.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Mystic teacher Terence McKenna said, “You have to take seriously the notion that understanding the universe is your responsibility, because the only understanding of the universe that will be useful to you is your own understanding.” This will be key advice for you in 2023. You will be wise to craft an updated version of your personal philosophy. I suggest you read a lot of smart people’s ideas about the game of life. Make it your quest to commune with interesting minds who stimulate your deep thoughts. Pluck out the parts that ring true as you create a new vision that is uniquely your own.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): How should we refer to your romantic adventures in 2023? We could be whimsical and call them “Ritual Mating Dances on the Outskirts of History.” We could be melodramatic and call them “Diving into the Deep Dark Mysteries in Search of Sexy Treasures.” Or we could be hopeful and call them “A Sacred Pilgrimage to the Frontiers of Intimacy.” I think there’s a good chance that all three titles will turn out to be apt descriptors of the interesting stories ahead of you—especially if you’re brave as you explore the possibilities.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): “Coddiwomple” is an English slang word that means to travel resolutely and dynamically toward an as-yet unknown destination. It’s not the same as wandering aimlessly. The prevailing mood is not passivity and vagueness. Rather, one who coddiwomples has a sense of purpose about what’s enjoyable and meaningful. They may not have a predetermined goal, but they know what they need and like. According to my analysis of the astrological omens, the next six months will be an excellent time for you Libras to experiment with coddiwompling.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): In the theater of ancient Greece, the term anagnorisis referred to a pivotal moment when a character discovered a big truth they had previously been unaware of. Another Greek word, peripeteia, meant a reversal of circumstances: “a change by which the action veers round to its opposite.” I bring these fun ideas to your attention, dear Scorpio, because I think 2023 could bring you several instances of an anagnorisis leading to a peripeteia. How would you like them to unfold? Start making plans. You will have uncanny power to determine which precise parts of your life are gifted with these blessings.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Winters are cold in Olds, a town in Alberta, Canada. Temperatures plunge as low as 24 degrees below zero Fahrenheit. But an agronomist named Dong Jianyi has built a giant greenhouse there that enables him to grow vegetables year-round. He spends no money on heat, but relies on innovative insulation to keep the inside warm. In 2021, he grew 29,000 pounds of tomatoes. I propose we make him your inspirational role model for 2023, Sagittarius. My guess is, that like him, you will be a wellspring of imaginative resourcefulness. What creative new developments could you generate? How might you bring greater abundance into your life by drawing extra energy from existing sources? How could you harness nature to serve you even better?
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): In accordance with your astrological omens in 2023, I’ve chosen a quote from Capricorn storyteller Michael Meade. I hope you will make it one of your core meditations in the coming months. He writes, “All meaningful change requires a genuine surrender. Yet, to surrender does not simply mean to give up; more to give up one’s usual self and allow something other to enter and redeem the lesser sense of self. In surrendering, we fall to the bottom of our arguments and seek to touch the origin of our lives again. Only then can we see as we were meant to see, from the depth of the psyche where the genius resides, where the seeds of wisdom and purpose were planted before we were born.” (The quote is from Meade’s book Fate and Destiny, The Two Agreements of the Soul.)
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): In addition to my career as a horoscope columnist, I have written novels and other books. I have worked as a singer-songwriter in rock bands and performed a one-person show in theaters. As I survey my history, I always break into sardonic laughter as I contemplate how many businesspeople have advised me, “First, you’ve got to sell out. You’ve got to dumb down your creative efforts so as to make yourself salable. Only later, after you have become successful, can you afford to be true to your deepest artistic principles.” I am very glad I never heeded that terrible counsel, because it would have made me insane and unhappy. How are you doing with this central problem of human life, Aquarius? Are you serving the gods of making money or the gods of doing what you love? The coming year will, I suspect, bring you prime opportunities to emphasize the latter goal.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): I’ve chosen a sweet taste of advice for you to keep referring back to in 2023. It’s in rapt alignment with upcoming astrological omens. I suggest you copy my counsel out in longhand on a piece of paper and keep it in your wallet or under your pillow. Here it is, courtesy of author Martha Beck: “The important thing is to tell yourself a life story in which you, the hero, are primarily a problem solver rather than a helpless victim. This is well within your power, whatever fate might have dealt you.”
As the shadow of the pandemic lifted, there was much to savor in 2022. Throughout the year, I loved my favorite appetizers with cocktails at Venus Westside—cornbread with bourbon bacon topping, glazed brussels sprouts, spectacular french fries and the definitive burger.
At Bad Animal, our first encounter with the masterful Hanloh Thai cooking of Lalita Kaewsawang and Mauricio Ortiz left us breathless.Feisty appetizers of Mieng (betel leaves with assorted condiments) and Laab Moo (spiced pork wrapped in tender greens) led on to a memorable clay pot dish Pak Ob Woonsen accompanied by little bowls of a fiery bird’s eye chili and pineapple dressing. Inside the large pot lounged a shimmering tangle of glass noodles, surrounded by luscious shiitake mushrooms, tofu and tender braised greens, inflected with sesame oil, dark soy sauce and ginger. A gorgeous series of flavors.
At the new Iveta 545, we swooned over Dungeness crab cakes, glazed brussels sprouts and ahi on a bed of beans and squash with perfect asparagus. Dessert of panna cotta with ripe strawberries and shaves of dark chocolate made the perfect finish.
At Bookie’s Pizza, chef Todd Parker served up an ecstatic lunch in the form of thick pizza topped with mushrooms, nettles, preserved lemon and a dusting of parmesan Reggiano. A re-imagined Caesar salad made with chicories and kale was equally ravishing.
Dinner at the new and intimate Bedda Mia began with outstanding caponata of spiced vegetables, and led to an entree of wild salmon baked with herbs and joined by authentically Italian-style roast potatoes. Ravioli tossed with shreds of ham and sprinkled with fresh sage and parmigiano were stuffed with short ribs. The tiramisu dessert was shamelessly creamy.
At the micro-sized Sugo Italian Pasta Bar, I loved asalmon ravioli special with a dreamy sauce of diced fresh tomatoes and a dash of cream. An order of Pollo Marsala involved a huge plate of chicken scallops smothered in fresh mushrooms. Filling the rest of the generous plate were incredible roast potato slices, browned and crisp with bits of rosemary. Al Dente market veggies—long ribbons of brilliant orange carrots, crimson peppers, atop a nest of baby spinach—were perfumed with Marsala and olive oil.
A meal at Mentone began with a Caesar salad of mixed chicories, faintly bitter and crunchy, studded with lots of buttery, nutty Cravero parmigiano and extraordinary croutons of Manresa bread all slathered with an outrageous anchovy dressing ($17). Simple yet luxurious, the pizza was definitive. And so was the white Negroni that accompanied it. Tasting like a cross between a lean salame and prosciutto, the vibrant soppressata topping stood up to a scattering of hot red peppers and a dusting of parmesan and pecorino cheeses studding the entire surface. The crust was sheer poetry, ethereal yet substantial, kissed with a patina of oak charring. Dense chocolate gelato finished off a memorable lunch.
I also managed to take a long-awaited flight to Paris and Hungary, where the food was (as expected) terrific. A meal of chicken paprikash at Cafe Anna in Budapest proved to be the ultimate comfort dish. A richly seasoned stew joined by light free-form noodles—heaven. At the Michelin-starred Costes I surrendered to a square of house cured salmon topped with the fantasy surprise of sliced green strawberries and a glaze of ponzu sauce. It was one of the best things I’ve put in my mouth all year.
A meal in Paris at the two star Michelin Restaurant Palais Royal gave me serious flavor thrills with a multi-course lunch that began with many amuses,including a tiny cheese straw filled with whipped foie gras and continued on to a plate of large gamba prawn, sided by two basil-tinged green gnocchi draped with calamari crudo. This tour de force was also decorated with a flash fried zucchini flower on a little hill of broccolini. The gnocchi each sat on a brilliant green sauce of basil. The meal ended with a brilliant deconstructed tiramisu that arrived in two wide bowls. Mascarpone ice cream in one dish, candied orange peel on the side and on the other sat a warm baba drenched in rum on a crust of coffee nibs. A scoop of whipped cream on top was dusted with a veil of cacao and spices. Unbelievable, and as good as it looked.
Wishing you a Happy New Year filled with adventurous dining. Salut!
Now that the dust has settled after the holidays, it’s time to take a breather and relax with a nice glass of wine. And that would be Wargin Wines’ 2018 Sagrantino Reserve ($30). Wargin Wines owner and winemaker Mikael Wargin doesn’t just stick to favorite varietals such as Chardonnay and Zinfandel; he churns out exciting wines such as this vigorous 2018 Sagrantino. A fundraiser at El Vaquero Winery and adjoining Alladin Nursery in Corralitos introduced wine lovers to a bastion of local wineries pouring their elixirs—including Wargin Wines. The dry, inky-purple Sagrantino grape is high in tannin, twice the level of Cabernet Sauvignon or Nebbiolo, and has an almost-black center. Aromas of red currants, fennel, white pepper and rose hips delight the olfactory senses. Dried strawberry, rhubarb, dried thyme, dark caramel and light vanilla bean flavors add to the intrigue of this dry red wine. Grapes are from Siletto Family Vineyards in San Benito County—ideal for sun-seeking Sagrantino. “We make small-lot, handcrafted wines that speak to the palate and pair brilliantly with food, mood and maybe a little mayhem,” Wargin says. “Wines to pair with everyday meals and memories.” Wargin Wines’ Soquel tasting room is open Wednesday through Sunday.
The Seacliff Inn in Aptos, under the Best Western umbrella, is now part of the Tapestry Collection by Hilton. And it was all stops out for their grand opening in mid-fall. Food and beverages were comped—cocktails, beer and wine flowing all evening. Oak Ridge Winery from Lodi poured their flavorful Zinfandel—with the dulcet sounds of Santa Cruz band Soulwise in the background. Seacliff Inn’s rooms and dining areas have been beautifully renovated with an entirely new look.
Seacliff Inn, 7500 Old Dominion Ct., Aptos; 831-688-8987. seacliffinn.com.
