In our last during week 7 we made a visit to Barrio Logan in San Diego. This neighborhood was full of culture and I loved it. As a Mexican American, I felt very familiar with the type of people I saw walking around the streets, and the restaurants and shops they had, for example the birreria they had at the corner of a street my group and I walked on. I felt comfortable in the area because I could identify with this culture and its people. I loved Chicano park, I loved the murals. I love my Mexican culture and seeing it displayed for everyone to see was very refreshing. My peers and I were there to walk around the neighborhood and observe how age friendly it was. At the end of our walk we met up at Chicano park and discussed our observations. Although Barrio Logan is a culturally rich neighborhood compared to many other parts of San Diego we found that for the most part it was not an age friendly place for seniors. There were not any benches for seniors to sit at, the only exception was bus stop benches. We found that the sidewalks were not as flat and not very safe for seniors to walk on alone, we also discussed how we had to rush when crossing the street and that it could take a senior a longer time to cross than us, meaning that they needed more time to cross the street making it unsafe. We also found that the only large area with grass was Chicano park and even though it is full of trees, tables, and benches, it is directly under the freeways. It was very hard to hear each other because of the noise from the freeway and this led us to the discussion on pollution and how Barrio Logan is one of the areas where people are most affected by toxic air emissions such as particulate matter. We also discussed how this neighborhood is generally hotter than La Jolla because of the lack of grass and because there is more cement in Barrio Logan making it retain more heat. All of these environmental factors have a great effect on one's health. This also made me think about my home in Los Angeles where my grandparents live and how it's structured very similarly to Barrio Logan. As a young adult I am able to navigate the city much more efficiently and faster than my grandparents so that may be the reason why I never noticed it. I began to compare what I saw in Barrio Logan and draw similarities between where my grandparents live in Hawthorne California. I discovered that the sidewalks are also very old and cracked, and that in general it is not a neighborhood that promotes interactions between people or that is friendly for seniors. My grandparents love their home because they are comfortable and they have lived in their house for many, many years but the city is definitely not the safest in terms of crime. This also made me think about how I have never asked my grandparents if they feel safe in their neighborhood or if they wish there were more resources for them. Luckily they have their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren to help them and take them to those medical resources they may need, but this is not always the case for many seniors. As Life Course Scholars in this class, I think it is important that we create awareness around this issue because many young people like myself never noticed little details like this before. Overall this was a great enriching experience, and I am excited to learn more through communities such as Barrio Logan
In my previous blog, I talked about the book we are reading and how it made me reflect a lot on society's assumptions on older people and how it made me think mostly about how I do not know much about my grandparents and their lives as seniors. The Oral Project we did was a great experience and I am so happy that I had the opportunity to sit and talk with my grandma and get to know her more. I enjoyed looking through albums with her and looking at pictures of my aunt, uncle, and dad from when they were very young. I feel like before I started taking this class, I always saw seniors as people who do not have interesting lives anymore, or just people that have boring lives. I feel like before I did this project I didn’t think there was anything my grandma and I could mutually relate too. Completing this project made me realize that my grandma and I actually have a lot in common. When she talked about her years as a young teen and adult, even though we both lived those ages in completely different times there were many similarities between how we viewed ourselves at that age and issues we faced as latina women. I felt that I could relate to my grandma, and hearing her struggles made me empathize with her on another level. I am a first generation college student, and this also came up in our conversation. She explained how incredibly proud she was of me and I thanked her because her struggles and sacrifices have allowed me to pursue an education; something she was never able to do. The event we coordinated at the Gary and Mary West Senior Wellness Center was an amazing experience, and I feel incredibly fortunate to have participated in the event. After doing the project with my grandma, I felt that I gained communication skills that allowed me to connect with seniors and overcome that intergenerational gap that prevents us young adults from approaching the seniors in our communities. I met many seniors during the event but spoke to a few for a long period of time, and got to know them on a more personal level. Watching the smiles that taking pictures brought to their faces was priceless and being able to interact with them and joke with them was a very rewarding experience. I later realized that I had experienced and had those conversations with seniors that John Leland wrote about in his book. I could now relate to how he described certain conversations with his interviewees. He explains how some of his interviewees were very happy and enthusiastic, and others complained about their life. I also interacted with seniors that were always smiling and others that were not as happy and complained about politics and society. In the past seven weeks of winter quarter I have learned a lot and have gained valuable experience and knowledge. I am very excited to continue to learn from my peers, Professor Lewis, and seniors in our communities.
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Jimena Carolina SalazarJimena Salazar is a Public Health major with a concentration in Community Health Sciences. She is from Archives
March 2022
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