For seven years in the early 2000s, local artists and activists organized to address the concerns they had with the direction of Centro Cultural de la Raza in Balboa Park and how it was being led at the time. The Save Our Centro Coalition wanted to resolve the years-long boycott of the center and re-establish it as a cultural space able to its community and ive of that community’s empowerment through arts, culture, and activism.
With the of the community and organizations like the National Association of Latino Arts and Culture, the boycott resolution team was awarded a Peacemaker Award from the National Conflict Resolution Center in 2008. To commemorate this work during a time when Chicano cultural centers in other parts of the country were facing similar struggles, the coalition is hosting a symposium to mark the 25th anniversary of its work — “La Lucha Continua: The Light and Legacy of the Save Our Centro Coalition.” This event, kicking off a year-long series of discussions, begins at 2 p.m. Saturday at Centro Cultural de la Raza and features discussions, an exhibition, guest speakers, and a performance by well-known musician and a member of SOCC, Bill Caballero.
Caballero, 69, lives in Normal Heights and is a trumpet player who’s also known for hosting his weekly Latin jazz jam sessions in multiple San Diego neighborhoods for nearly 20 years. He was inducted into the San Diego Music Hall of Fame in 2019, has fronted his own group, played as a session musician for artists like The Temptations and Natalie Cole, and performs at 8 p.m. Saturday with his Bill Caballero’s Latin Jazz Jam. He took some time to talk about his music and his work with SOCC to restore the Centro to its original mission and purpose.
Q: Can you talk a bit about how you got your start learning to play music and what motivated you to pursue a career and life as a musician?
A: I wanted to band when I was in the fifth grade, entering junior high the following year, because they went on a picnic every year. The year that I started junior high, the picnic was discontinued, but it was too late, I had already signed up for band.
I pretty much sucked at everything I tried until I ed band. My grandfather and three of my uncles were musicians; it came rather naturally to me. Finally, something I was good at. At the age of 11, I knew that I was in it for the long haul. I didn’t know how it was going to work, nor did I understand it, but I knew that music, and more specifically trumpet, was my calling.
Q: What instrument did you first learn to play?
A: I chose trombone because the woodwinds had too many buttons, drums were for dummies, and I couldn’t get a sound out of the trumpet. When I approached my father with the permission slip, he crossed out trombone and wrote in trumpet. “Your grandfather played trumpet. Your uncle played trumpet. You’re going to play trumpet.”
What I love about Normal Heights…
Normal Heights is pretty chill. Stuff close by within walking distance.
Q: Your Bill Caballero’s Latin Jazz Jam is a featured performer at the Save Our Centro Coalition’s symposium, “La Lucha Continua: The Light and Legacy of the Save Our Centro Coalition.” This event focuses on the work of the organization and its boycott of Centro Cultural de la Raza in the early 2000s. My understanding is that the seven-year boycott began in 2000 as a result of frustration with the istrative team at the center and the lack of resolution over community concerns regarding censorship, destruction of art, eliminating the arts advisory committee, forcing a Chicana activist off of the board, and hiring an executive director at the time without a national search. Well-known artists and musicians, including Lalo Alcaraz and Ramon “Chunky” Sanchez withdrew their work and from the center during this time. You were a member of Save Our Centro Coalition during the boycott? What do you recall about what led to this chasm between the center and the community?
A: Yes, I was a member of the SOCC. Among a myriad of reasons was the arbitrary removal of my then-wife as director of Ballet Folklorico en Atlzan by her mother to replace her with the partner of the new director. Also, an edict that any participation at the Centro had to be preceded by g an affirmation of (their) conduct (“values”). Nonsense.
Q: What were your own concerns about how the center was being run during this time? What stood out to you/bothered you about what you were seeing?
A: It was becoming an exclusive club. Treachery in the name of “values.”
Q: Why did you ultimately decide to SOCC in resolving this conflict between the community and the center?
A: Because it was wrong and self-serving for a small clique. The Centro is for everybody.
Q: What lessons did you learn as an artist and activist as a result of participating in the boycott and its resolution?
A: We hung together for seven years and did not flinch. As you stated earlier, Chunky Sanchez, Lalo Alcaraz, not to mention Victor Ochoa, Mario Torrero, and others like Los Alacranes, David Rico, and many more community artists who practiced inclusivity as opposed to exclusivity, stayed the course. We were resolute.
Q: How have some of those lessons shown up in the work that you do today?
A: I practice inclusivity and have a strong sense of loyalty, traits that one does not find enough of these days.
Q: Why is it important to you to acknowledge the work of SOCC and share the results with people in this way on Saturday?
A: It’s a small part of the history of the Centro, so why not include it?
Q: What kind of music do you find yourself currently listening to most often?
A: Miles Davis; various stations on Pandora; Latin, funk, and jazz. I listen to a great variety of musicians. If you’re asking my favorites, I would have to say Miles, the Crusaders, pretty much anything Cuban, Latin, Dori Cayimi, anything funk related, horn bands, Tower of Power, Roy Hargrove, Lester Bowie, Ashlin Parker, Wayne Shorter, Coltrane, Paul Desmond, and the list goes on.
Q: What is it about this style of music you find yourself drawn to right now?
A: I like horns, funk, Latin, and oldies. All of this attracts me. You know, the late ‘60s and the ‘70s encom the birth of what we listen to now. The Beatles, The Crusaders, Blood Sweat and Tears, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, The Moody Blues, Pink Floyd—the era was an explosion of creativity, the likes of which we may never again see, nor hear.
Q: When you’re not performing, where do you like to go, locally, to listen to live music?
A: Tijuana Jazz Club. Cool place. Anywhere Pablo Cantua or Israel Maldonado are playing. Burnett Anderson at Café La Maze. Jason Hanna at the Riviera Supper Club. These guys are great to listen to, and they like to have fun with their music, no pretentiousness. Oh, and Louie “Kablouie” Valenzuela at Blind Lady. And Jefferson Jay’s open mic night at Tony’s Martini Bar in Ocean Beach.
Q: What is the best advice you’ve ever received?
A: Don’t count on anyone but yourself.
Q: What is one thing people would be surprised to find out about you?
A: I enjoy gardening.
Q: Please describe your ideal San Diego weekend.
A: Coffee with my girl and my dog, and a walk. In TJ, dinner, cocktails at La Justina, hummus at Praga, and mezcal and beer at El Bar Dandy Sur with my friends.
