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Chata
PART 1: What brought us here
With Giants and Hometown Heroes coming to MCASD—and to La Jolla, more specifically—we wanted to articulate why it is so monumental for an exhibition focused on diasporic Black artists and local artists to be shown in San Diego. To do so, we spoke with Chata, an artist featured in The Dean Collection Presents: Hometown Heroes, about her family’s roots in La Jolla, uncovering a broader history of La Jolla’s rich (but mostly unknown) history as a POC neighborhood.
Chata is a San Diego-native and photographer, whose documentation practice focuses on contemporary Chicano identity, lowrider car culture, and community as a means of self-representation, preservation, and celebration.
As one of the artists featured in Hometown Heroes, Chata has mentioned that this exhibition feels like a “homecoming,” sharing with us archival materials that trace back her family’s history in La Jolla.
Chata shares with us that from the late 1920s–1960s, her family migrated three times to La Jolla.
The first time was when her relatives Cornelio, Abraham, and Ubaldo Rodriguez (who were her great-grandmother's cousins) established Pottery Canyon. This is where they sold pottery and ceramic tiles across La Jolla. Eventually, a portion of Pottery Canyon became a state-funded park, established in collaboration with the Rodriguez family, and UCSD was established just north of it.
The second time, her great-grandmother, Alicia Rodriguez-Stevens, purchased a library cottage along Draper St. (now Draper Ave.) with her husband, Nicolas Stevens. This property, originally built and used as La Jolla's first library/ reading room, became their family residence.
The final time, her grandmother, Teresa Maria Rodriguez-Villeda, relocated to La Jolla with her six children to join Alicia. Solidifying their roots in La Jolla, Teresa and her children would go on to serve the La Jolla community as housekeepers, child caretakers, landscapers, healthcare workers, cement masons, and more, directly impacting the La Jolla community in a positive way. The historic cottage remained as their longtime family home.
“From Pottery Canyon to Draper St., my family’s soul and spirit is definitely woven into the fabric of La Jolla.”
–Chata on her family’s lineage in La Jolla
That being said, after decades of external pressure from developers and institutions, her family reluctantly sold and relinquished their property to The Bishop’s School. Regardless of the city’s intention, Chata says that the action sent a message of continued erasure to the marginalized families who called La Jolla home.
Presently, the property that served as their longtime home is still preserved, albeit in a different location. As La Jolla's first library, it was granted a protected status as a historic site, but it was relocated along Prospect and Cuvier St. (diagonally across from MCASD)–a layered reminder of La Jolla's past.
Despite that bitter end, Chata emphasizes how being part of Hometown Heroes brings significant pride to her family lineage, and she dedicates this moment to her great-grandmother, Alicia.
“Being here in this moment, sharing these pieces with the greater San Diego community, and coming back home to La Jolla really speaks to the love and resilience and all of the hard work that the generations before [me] have put in.”
–Chata reflecting on her work being featured in Hometown Heroes
This energy of gratitude, but also rectifying a history that was lost, is what we really feel encapsulates Giants and Hometown Heroes, and we thank Chata for sharing her family’s personal history and archives with us. In doing so, she not only speaks for herself, but also the many families like her who have migrated to San Diego and the artists who seek to reclaim that history for their community.
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