Sometimes I like to splurge and take the long drive home down East Beach then down Milpas and take a moment to cruise while I people watch. I usually also catch myself looking around trying to remember who was once there.
Remembering Scolari’s where Trader Joe’s is, Mundo infantil on Milpas, Video City — okay I better stop before I go too far back. Yes, Santa Barbara has changed a lot. A lot of people I grew up with have either grown up or are still doing the same thing, moved away or have passed away. Even with all the changes, a lot of the ideologies have stayed the same. Places that were safety nets have now been cut or forced out.
I remember planning my daughter’s baby shower last minute at the Eastside Neighborhood Park, where now there are no tables and reservations fees are required.
I remember walking downtown and hanging out at the Borders bookstore tables and eating my free funnel cake courtesy of my mom’s friend’s puestesitos during Fiestas. I remember the joy and pride to perform at Fiestas with my friends and feeling like this was my community and that my heart was valued because of great people who worked at the libraries, Casa de La Raza, programs like Future Leaders of America, and Cal-SOAP.
Walking down the parks now feels lonely; downtown feels like there is a big “Do Not Enter” — you are not welcome here, and all the familiar faces are now long gone.
As a youth I didn’t really comprehend — even though I was born and raised in Santa Barbara, going to every Santa Barbara school including UCSB — that my voice in decision-making was still considered an outsider. I am now labeled as an advocate, agitator, a buzzing sound that refuses to go away.
Again, yes, lots of changes, and we can blame the economy or the government or your in-laws, but we allowed this to happen. We continued to invest in “public safety” instead of investing in our local city workers, libraries, and housing.
This is why, when Councilmember Santamaria got on council, my heart beat. She is a representation of all young Latinx femmes in our community who have been silenced by microaggressions and tricked into believing that we are not enough and that our voice does not matter. Councilmember Santamaria has come in with a fire and has shown us that we are worth fighting for and to continue to be in the rooms that determine our future world. BIPOC Womxn like Councilmember Santamaria, Chelsea Lancaster, Ana Garcia, Simone Ruskamp, Kyrstle Sieghart, and so many others who have come before me have had to violently fight for the moment that we have now to make things better. Their sacrifices need to continue to be acknowledged.
I have continued to witness the racist attacks thrown at Councilmember Santamaria, and the excuse used that she isn’t from Santa Barbara so she doesn’t understand — even though most of council and city staff is also not originally local to the area — but this only is a form of attack toward her. I also witness outbursts from all council members, but why, when Councilmember Santamaria raises her voice, is it worded as unprofessional? As unwilling to compromise?
That word compromise — a word disguised as an opportunity to come to common ground, but in reality it’s saying: you don’t know what you are talking about and we will continue to come back to this issue until you agree with what I am telling you we need.
I know this will not change the minds of the people set in their ways, those who love Mexicans only during the World Cup, Black people only during Juneteenth, queer folx only during Pride, immigrants only during No Kings Day. This is for the ones that see that the Santa Barbara way is about unity within our diversity of cultures. Where we welcome and protect our neighbors with open arms and the only qualification they need to be Santa Barbarians is to be here.
I want this moment to turn into generational change for my daughter to witness and not have to look back, like me, and wish the place she once loved was still here.
Ana Arce is Santa Barbara County Policy Advocate for CAUSE.
