Explore South Lake’s Latino community
August 18, 2008
Over the past few months, I have conducted an experiment in journalism to see if using a process called civic mapping, combined with using multimedia tools (audio, photographs, edited video, and networking software) would enable me to cover South Lake Tahoe’s Latino community in a new way.
My goal was to find a rich and authentic way to report that invited the community’s participation in the storytelling. The 12 videos in this package include interviews with residents and highlights of significant places in the Latino community.
In my view, it’s the journalist’s job to lay bare, connect, and “map” the networks that form a community, and then use multimedia storytelling to express what is most significant to the community. The next step would be to use software—such as Vizster—to provide a structural image of a community’s networks. Thus, the news reported would be richer and help to solidify the community’s identity while conveying it to others living at Tahoe. This kind of news is essential for building democratic practice from the ground up. The journalist is focused on telling stories that inform and encourage community interaction—between members of the community itself and other local communities.
The project is far from perfect (or, in a sense, complete). Not every individual from the community is represented. The project’s network-inspired stories are underdeveloped (if developed at all). Finally, the design of the project fails to employ bi-lingual, multimedia interactivity. Even with these flaws, I still hope that what I’ve put together will reinforce a sense of community between Latinos in Tahoe and help bridge them to others representative of the larger Tahoe community. South Lake’s Latino community has an important story to tell, and I hope this inspires others to help tell it.
I would like to thank Jaime Navarro of Navarro’s Bakery, to whom this project is dedicated. I would also like to my friend Eduardo Ortiz-Ramirez for his translations. Without Jaime and Eduardo, this project would not have been possible.
Introduction
The best introduction to the project is the following video of a song written by Jesus Mariscal, a dishwasher who immigrated from Ameca, Jalisco in Mexico in 2006. He was inspired to write the song after arriving in South Lake Tahoe. The video also includes images of some of the individuals who make up the South Lake Tahoe Latino community.
Our Community
Listen to members of South Lake’s Latino Community speak about their hopes, what they would like non-community members to know, and the issues facing this fledgling community. This section also includes a 360 degree panorama of Bijou Elementary School.
Our Workers
Learn about two construction firms in South Lake Tahoe run by Latinos as well as the family that takes care of Camp Richardson.
The Immigration Experience
Three community members describe what it was like to immigrate to Tahoe and what it takes to become a citizen. A second video describes the challenges of participating in U.S. culture, and the third includes a conversation between two first generation residents about what it was like to be Mexican in Tahoe in the early 1970s.
Important Places in the Latino Community
Explore Cinco de Mayo, the Word of Life Ministries, Latino nightlife at Tahoe Underground, and Navarro’s Bakery.
Related posts: [ Our Community ] [ The Immigration Experience ] [ Important places in the Latino community ] [ Our Workers ] [ I Get Why I Don’t Get It ]
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