- [Announcer] "Expressions of Art" is supported in part by the California Arts Council, a state agency.

Learn more at arts.ca.gov and the City of San Bernardino Arts and Historical Preservation Commission with its commitment to visual and performing arts organizations that enhances the culture and economic well-being of the community, and viewers like you.

Thank you.

[whimsical string music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ - [Lillian] Art is a form of expression.

It provides an image to express joy and sorrow, triumph, love, and so much more.

Art is symbolic, traditional, and contemporary.

It comes in so many forms: dance, music, song, theater, photography.

It's on a stage and on a canvas.

The arts can play a critical role in our lives.

Art is all around us to embrace and enjoy!

[upbeat music] ♪ ♪ [louder upbeat music] ♪ ♪ On today's show, we'll showcase one performing arts organization and then we'll meet two artists, each working to keep the arts alive in our community.

♪ - See, Helen Hunt Jackson created this beautiful environment, beautiful Old California.

The mission bells, the flowers, and the wonderful Spanish music, and it's all true.

But within that beautiful romantic, she said, "Look at what's happening to Alessandro."

There is oppression and racism that exists throughout the world.

[light acoustic music] ♪ - How often is a stage show performed in the outdoors where the hills, gardens and grounds are the actual stage?

Early on, it was insisted that an all-natural setting would be the stage for "The Ramona Pageant".

The outdoor setting creates challenges to stage such a production, but it also adds to the awesome authenticity of "The Ramona Pageant".

With the completion of the 100th year of "The Pageant", artistic director, Dr. Dennis Anderson, having spent 27 years of his life in the company, shares the story of "Ramona".

[light acoustic music] [singer vocalizing] (bang!)

[light acoustic music] - Well, "Ramona" is based on Helen Hunt Jackson's novel, "Ramona", which was published in 1884.

And, it is a fictionalized story based on some historical fact.

The lead character is Ramona and she's been raised in early California, 1850s, during the Spanish-Mexican period.

And, she's been raised as a Spanish girl, not realizing that she really is had a Scottish father and a Native American mother.

And, the señora who's raised her is ashamed of any Native American blood and also an Anglo.

She falls in love with Alessandro, who is a Native American, the Cahuilla.

- I love you, Alessandro.

- And, I love you, Mijaya.

[pronounced] - [Dennis] And, the story is they wanna get married, but all the racial oppression and class structure of 1850 stands in the way of that.

- You now have everything that you have ever wished for.

- All I have ever wished for is to maintain the honor of this house.

- [Kathi] The strength of Ramona's character, I would say she gets most of her strength, honestly, from within.

And, I think there's a driving force in her that she really doesn't understand until later on in the play.

And, I think that is the fact that she now knows or then knows who she is, which is Native American.

And, I think because of her love for Alessandro and for the love of the Native American people, I think all of that comes forth.

And so, you see a lot of the hidden strength in the beginning of the show when she doesn't have a clue.

And then, once she finds out and then on the rest of the show you see that, you know, that new warrior, Ramona.

- [Dennis] People will say, "Well, they're like Romeo and Juliet".

They are and they're not.

Romeo and Juliet got married, and then they died almost immediately.

But, you see the struggle of Ramona and Alessandro for three years trying to survive.

And, I mean, anybody that's married or anybody that's been through life, you see that struggle and you want to fight for 'em.

- It is so important for students to experience "The Ramona Pageant".

I am of the feeling that students should be at the theater early and often.

It's one thing, as a teacher, to talk about Native Americans and Westward expansion and what the missions were like and how the Native Americans suffered.

And, it's quite another to be invested in characters on the stage and following a story, and then watching as they go through these experiences.

- [Dennis] We do this play every April, and this is our 100th anniversary.

We're the longest running outdoor play in the history of the United States.

We're very proud of that.

So, the challenge is, you are in this huge space and you have to have actors and dancers who can run and can move, and have that kind of heightened performance level without making it too exaggerated.

- I will use this against anyone who dares lay claim here!

- [Kathi] In the beginning of "Ramona", we had no microphones so the voices that we had here had to reach the top.

And, you were cast accordingly.

So, a lot of people that would've done absolutely gorgeous now, there was no way they were gonna be able to do it because there was no enhancement with a microphone.

- [Dennis] You're working with a cast of close to 400.

Our youngest actor is five-years-old.

Our oldest is 93.

We have about 170 children in the show.

We have 15 cowboys, and a mule.

And so, the challenge is, is doing this outdoors.

- You've got the fresh air, you've got nature.

You do have the unexpected, like birds and- and, uh?

Snakes!

(chuckles) Animals, all kinds of things happen.

So, it's kind of fun in that.

You just expect the unexpected here!

- Some of the weather is very cold.

Some of it's very hot.

But, once the play starts, it's totally out of my hands because I can't close a curtain.

I can't take the lights out.

I can't say "cut."

[background music] So, you have this company of actors on horseback, and running, and dancing and singing, and that's what makes it so wonderful.

And, I really, really believe that there's a magic when you walk into this bowl.

It's like going back in a time machine.

You're on a rancho in 1850.

- I portray the character, Yesidro.

I'm also a soloist, and the Alessandro stunt double.

- [Alessandro] Yesidro.

- Alessandro!

'Acha ma'!

[pronounced A-chay-mah] - Your cousin has been a great comfort to me in your absence.

- [Alessandro] Tell me, Yesidro.

Have you had any word from our people?

- Being from here, you know, of course we knew about "The Ramona Pageant".

I first saw it in the fourth grade, and some decades later here I am again joining the team!

Our goal here is, as California's official outdoor play, is to tell the story of not only them, but in a sense it's really all of our story.

You know, we're a result of what happened here, so we've been a nation in conflict ever since the beginning.

And, you know, I think still to this day it's definitely relevant.

♪ - If Alessandro says the land is his, then it must be so!

- [Cowboy] You were told to keep your mouth shut, Indian!

- Señor, please!

Yesidro has done nothing wrong.

- [Cowboy] Alright, priest.

Get off my land before I change my mind and shoot you and that damn Indian!

- [Dennis] I want the audience-- the takeaway that oppression and racism is just as prevalent now as it was in 1850.

- [Laura] We talk about history.

We do group discussions.

We do heaps of reading, but it's different to sit in the stands and watch the story unfold before you.

And, you know, it's always so shocking to the students when some of these really aw ful things happen in the play with Ramona and Alessandro, and they can't believe that they would let something like that happened.

But, that's what happened, and it's completely abstract idea for them to think about lots of people dying as a consequence of Westward expansion.

When they see it happening, they learn compassion and empathy and they understand the intolerance of the cowboys.

It's a wonderful way to get a message across to students.

[calm guitar music] - See, Helen Hunt Jackson created this beautiful environment, beautiful Old California.

The mission bells, the flowers and the wonderful Spanish music, and it's all true.

But, within that beautiful romantic, she said, "Look at what's happening to Alessandro."

There is oppression and racism that exists throughout the world.

But, the last takeaway, and this came from my Native American Advisory Committee early on: "don't just portray us as victims.

Portray us as we're still here."

I mean, Ramona should've been crushed by everything, but at the end of the play, she's victorious.

So, at the end of the play, you see this woman standing there after two and a half hours, and like many of my Native American friends say, "We're still here.

You didn't take us out."

So, I think that's the takeaway.

[gentle music] - In 1920, there was a focus to bring Helen Hunt Jackson's novel "Ramona" to life and Garnet Holme wanted it to be in the hills of Hemet.

Today, fourth graders have the opportunity to learn California history when they attend free performances as part of their school curriculum.

This past year, nearly 4,700 students experienced the performance of "Ramona" as they watched California history come to life.

To learn more about "The Ramona Pageant", visit their website at ramonabowl.com [gentle acoustic music] Up next is community organizer and photographer, Freddy Calderon.

-I incorporated a lot of ex- and current gang members in my work.

I always tell people that growing up on the West Side, it's complicated.

Like, there's a lot of bad that goes on, but there's also good.

Also, really good stories and some of the most genuine people I've ever met come from the West Side.

They come from backgrounds that you wouldn't expect.

[light upbeat music] ♪ - An artist since his childhood, Freddy works to combine community activism with his photography.

His mother instilled in him the importance of being involved in his community and staying engaged.

(birds chirping) (clank!)

♪ (camera clicks) [gentle soul music] ♪ (click-click!)

♪ ♪ - My name is Freddy Calderon.

I'm a third generation Chicano on my mom's side and a K'iche' Maya on my dad's side.

I do photography and videography in the city, contract work, and my own personal passion work.

[light guitar music] ♪ I always say, like, this is my safe space for creating.

Where I live, I still live on the West Side so it's a little rowdy there and I don't like having all my equipment there or people knowing that I have this equipment, that equipment.

So, I have everything here and everything stays here.

So, the first time I walked into this space, it was eye-opening to have a space of your own to work on your things.

And, just by luck, I had a friend that had an office in here.

So, I was helping him with some stuff and I walked in here and I was like, "Do they have any more spaces available?"

And, he said, "Yeah.

The owners in here right now if you wanna meet them."

So, when I met them, they already knew about me from all the work that I do in the city.

And they're like, "Oh, yeah!

We'll give you a spot.

We'll give you a spot right away."

And, that's kind of how it all happened.

So, this room originally, everything was bare.

Didn't have AC or anything.

But, when I asked them, like, "Would you guys rent this space?"

Especially 'cause it's facing downtown, and just the view.

Just seeing the view!

Like, growing up as a kid, it's like, "yeah, that's the view that I want."

And, they said, "We would, but it's not ready and we could have it ready in about five to six months."

And, I was like, "No, that's too long.

If I get it now, I'll do the work."

So, we made that deal and I did all the work and the renovation in here.

It was important for me to have a space in San Bernardino 'cause it's home.

It's definitely home and it wouldn't feel right.

It wouldn't feel right investing somewhere else that's not my community.

I feel like growing up we've seen too much of that.

And, just-?

You know, growing up everybody was, like, once you finish high school everybody leaves, go out of town, move away.

Or, people join the military.

Or hearing my family, like, "When are you gonna leave?

When you gonna leave?"

And, I was like, "I don't wanna leave."

I don't think everybody's meant to leave.

I think some people are meant to stay.

[traffic sounds] So, behind me is Seccombe Park.

I used to come here as a kid.

My mom used to bring us for the 4th of July celebrations.

It's always been beautiful to me.

So I take photos when I can, here.

Sometimes during sunsets when you get the reflections off the water.

I've taken drone video here too, of like the island in the center and when the trees move and when they're a little more yellow during fall.

I think it's a beauty that most people-- like, they've seen it when I post it and they're like, "Oh, my God.

It's so beautiful.

Where is this?"

And, it's like, it's right here.

And, you don't realize it when you pass it, but if you take the time to, like, really sit and look at it, you'll see it.

[light hopeful music] ♪ So, photography entered my life, I wanna say third grade or fourth grade.

My mom had gave me an old Polaroid camera to use for a project that we had.

And, it was just a project with carnation flowers and stuff like that.

But, I was more interested in the camera.

Like, the project was cool but the camera was everything to me!

So, I would ask her, "Can I use it again?

Can I have it again?

Can I use it again?"

So, from that point on it kinda stuck with me for a few years, but then I lost it for a good-- for a good amount of time.

I thought I wanted to pursue more of the traditional arts, like drawing and painting.

So, that's the route I ended up going.

And, it wasn't until high school again that they had a photography class and I was, like, "Yeah, I'm gonna take it."

And then, once I took it, in college they had another course in all this and I was like, "Yeah, I think this is it for me."

I feel like photography allows me to tell stories.

And, I always like to tell stories, but I don't like writing too much.

So, I write my stories with the photographs.

So, I like taking pictures predominantly on the West Side because that's where we grew up.

You know, that's where my grandma would walk us.

My mom would walk us to the stores and stuff.

And, we saw these buildings growing up but we didn't really recognize, like, why they were there.

Like, "why are they important?"

Until, I got older.

And, it's like, no, that's history.

Especially down Route 66.

I feel like those connections are something that we lose in the city.

Like, the connection to history.

And, that just bothers me a lot that there's no photographs of these things.

And, that's when I made it a point to just start documenting as much as I can.

Especially, I feel like it might happen everywhere, but on that side of the town it definitely happens at a faster rate.

You see buildings come and go, fields change all the time.

Whole neighborhoods get torn down and they build things.

And, it's like holding on to those little pieces and those little memories is what's important to me in these photos.

[mechanical creaking noises] Yeah, no.

I think the Stack is just-- it became a symbol of the area.

Like, everywhere outside of San Bernardino, people know this.

People in Riverside, people in LA, people in Fontana, they recognize that Stack and they come here just to take photos of it.

I feel like that, and then the history of all the families that came here during the building of the railroad tracks, and a lot of 'em worked here.

And, I have friends whose uncles and grandpas worked on this and actually painted the letters on the Stack early in the days.

[light uplifting music] ♪ I incorporate a lot of ex- and current gang members in my work.

I always tell people that growing up on the West Side, it's complicated.

Like, there's a lot of bad that goes on, but there's also good.

Also really good stories and some of the most genuine people I've ever met come from the West Side.

They come from backgrounds that you wouldn't expect.

You have all these guys and they're all tatted up, they all have things that people would look at like, "Oh, this guy is no good."

And, it's like, "no, they're family people".

Especially seeing them interact with their kids, interact with you, and just seeing that interaction in them, I feel like that's my favorite part of it.

Those are the people that I really reach out to.

A lot of these people?

It's funny.

Like, a lot of people they're all tatted up but they're very shy.

They're very shy of, like, "Hey.

Can you take a photo of me, please?"

Like, "I would like a photo of me for this."

For whatever the reason is.

So, I tell 'em, "Like, yeah.

I'll do it.

I'll definitely do it."

And, [light background music] that's how the process goes for the most part.

Like, most of the people I do know on a personal level and I've hung out with outside of photography.

And then, more so today now that people know me for my photography, it's been a lot easier.

Like I go to an event, somebody's like, "Oh, can you take a photo of me?"

"Oh, this photo's this and that."

I'm like, "Yeah, I'll take a photo of you."

[light soulful music] ♪ So, growing up, my mom always had me and my sister involved in the community.

♪ You know, it's important for me to get back to my community.

I wanna see the things happen that I wanted to see as a kid.

I wanna be that person for myself.

You know, we're only here for a short time and you can't take anything with you.

But, you can make somebody's day by giving them something.

So, I had got contracted for my photo work for this "People's Plan" book.

And, even for this, I was shocked.

And, they're like, "How much would you license your photos for?"

And, I was like-?

It's never been a thought in my head.

I feel like I come from humble beginnings.

So to tell me like, "Hey, I wanna pay you per image", I'm like, "What?

Why?"

So, after that conversation with them, we had come up with a deal and that's how I licensed these photos.

And, these people I still work with today.

[uplifting music] I never imagined making a career out of photography.

I know I wanted to, but it's worked so far.

- Freddy continues to surround himself with those in his neighborhood from all walks of life, all while striving to better the community of San Bernardino.

You can follow Freddy and his art on Instagram at a.westside.story [gentle music] ♪ Up next is artist Julie Weaver-Loffer.

♪ She creates paintings, drawings, and photographs.

She uses her artwork as a way to contribute by recording the stories and the legends she loves.

Julie is inspired to showcase her culture in a contemporary and positive way.

She believes in illustrating her culture as a way of protecting their stories.

Julie captures the connection between contemporary society and indigenous people as well as her own tribe, Ojibwe Anishinaabe.

♪ - My name is Julie Weaver-Loffer.

I'm from northern Minnesota.

I'm Ojibwe Anishinaabe from White Earth Indian Reservation.

Art has been really a part of my whole life since I was little.

My mother did oil paintings, my father did oil paintings, and I continued to learn art from my grandfather, from my father, crafting.

I would draw with colored pencils.

I would draw tattoos as a hobby.

But, when I really started taking painting seriously is when I started college.

I started community college.

I built some confidence there.

I did my undergraduate education at University of Redlands and that's where I really started to think that maybe I could be pretty good at drawing and painting, and that I wanted to continue.

I wanted to earn my MFA, Master of Fine Arts, so that I could become a teacher.

And, I wasn't really sure what I wanted to paint yet.

I knew I wanted to paint something related to my culture.

Maybe not just my tribe specifically, but just life as a Native American person.

The first painting I did that was really a turnaround painting for me was a painting I did of my grandfather.

His name is Jim Ironlegs Weaver.

He was an activist.

And, I wanted to continue to paint Native American culture, but I wanted it to be more of a complete thought or a full story, have every part of the painting count.

That's really what I wanna do in my teaching practice as well, is teach people the value of communicating through an image.

My style is figurative painting, imaginative.

I like mostly oil paintings because it gives me the time to work with it before it dries.

To me, an oil painting is something timeless.

Something that will hold value, become more valuable over time like an antique or a collectible.

It's something prestigious, an oil painting.

When I'm painting my people, when I'm photographing people, I don't wanna just photograph them.

I wanna go farther and then capture 'em in a way that's timeless, prestigious.

That's why I might add beadwork to adorn and celebrate a human being.

I add a lot of humor into my paintings.

I'll do little mischievous things in paintings.

I like to also use-- with my titles, I use the opportunity to sometimes use Anishinaabe Ojibwe language in my titles.

So, it's an opportunity to teach myself and my viewers a little bit of my language, as well.

It's really important, especially for youth, for children to have someone like themself to aspire to, to look up to.

To say, "Hey, you know?

That person's like me.

I can do what they do."

Like role models, our own role models in the skin that these children can understand, and feel connected to.

Yeah.

[light upbeat music] - Now with her master's degree in fine arts, Julie is spending her time working with college students, teaching them to express their voice visually while also appreciating their educational interests.

She continues to refine her portfolio with more drawings and paintings.

She's also illustrating children's books.

You can follow her on Instagram at ironlegs _grandaughter ♪ Early art education is sometimes underestimated and often the first subject in the K-through-12 classroom to be cut from a curriculum.

Because we all learn differently, understanding the importance of the arts can truly make a difference in one's life.

Engaging our youth in creative activities at an early age can and does have a positive effect on the student and the community.

I'm Lillian Vasquez.

Thanks for watching, and bye for now!

♪ [uplifting music] ♪ ♪ [music fades] - [Announcer] "Expressions of Art" is supported in part by the California Arts Council, a state agency.

Learn more at arts.ca.gov and the City of San Bernardino Arts and Historical Preservation Commission with its commitment to visual and performing arts organizations that enhances the culture and economic well-being of the community, and viewers like you.

Thank you.