Teresa Saldivar, at the 25th Reunion

Interviewer: Today is September 28th, 2024. This is an interview with Teresa Saldivar as part of the Logan Barrio Archival Project. The interview is being conducted at Chepa’s Park, located at 1009 North Custer Street, Santa Ana, California 92701. The interviewer is a member of the LibroMobile Arts Cooperative Digital Humanities Collective. Today we’ll be talking to Teresa about the 25th Reunion of the Logan Barrio. The first question is, where in Santa Ana did you live and what was the Logan Barrio like?

Teresa: I was actually born at Community Hospital, which is no longer here in the Logan Barrio. And my parents lived at 906 Stafford, which is Civic Center, and it turns into Stafford. And I just passed by my old home, a tiny little house. Lived there till the age of six, and then went to Monte Vista Elementary and Smedley and then Valley High School. We lived on the corner of Myrtle and Daisy, Southwest Santa Ana.

Interviewer: What was your favorite thing about being part of the Logan Barrio community?

Teresa: I would probably say that not only was I born here, but my father was also born here. My grandparents and great-grandparents migrated from Mexico 1917. They landed in Santana, the Logan Barrio, and my father was born here right there by the railroad tracks, Lincoln Street in 1926. And he also went to the school here. And a lot of my relatives were born here, the Saldivars. One of my aunties lived to be a hundred years old, Nina Saldivar and all my cousins were born here, it means a lot to me, even though I left at the young age of five, six years old. But I come back to the reunions every year. I’m here. I don’t miss it.

Interviewer: What does the 25th reunion here at Chepa’s Park in Logan Barrio mean to you?

Teresa: I would have to say because it’s a legacy. Chepa, her family, my mother who passed away last year, Andrea Saldivar, knew Chepa and the daughters. There’s a lot of people that are involved in the committee that I know from Jeanie Alvarez Alvarado, my father baptized her. She’s on the committee and so I know a lot of the people that are involved. It’s one big happy family. And sitting out there with Zeke Hernandez, who’s one of our reported trustees for Rancho Santiago, I ran into our mayor, Valerie Amezcua, and I just ran into a lot of my customers also.

Interviewer: The last question before we talk about your business is, what’s the best part of attending the Logan Barrio reunion for you? And do you have any memories or stories that you wanna share with us about it?

Teresa: I would have to say again, just running into folks that I haven’t seen in a long time. There was another young lady that I ran into right now, Evelyn. Her mother was my madrina, holy communion. And again, just running into people that I haven’t seen in the longest time.

And as far as memories, before we parked, my sister and I, we went around the whole area. And again, just the memories of playing out there and coming back. ’cause it wasn’t like we left and didn’t come back. We came back because our cousins grew up here. We would come back often, and spend a lot of time for the holidays, Easter, Christmas, etcetera. So it just means a lot.

I’ve always told people, and they laughed, when I said, “I’m from the barrio!” “What?” “Yes, Logan. I was born there.”

So I’m very proud. I am very proud to be from here. Yes.

Interviewer: So now tell us a little bit about your business.

Teresa: After I graduated from Santa Ana College, went on to Long Beach State, was gonna be a nurse and I was four years into nursing and I started working at Veterans Hospital and that just did not work out. It was right during the Vietnam War and it just wasn’t. I still think I didn’t have the compassion to be a nurse. So what do you do with four years of nursing? So I decided to drop out my senior year and I started working at the jewelry store. 10 years later, I opened, Teresa’s Jeweler’s on the corner of Fourth and Broadway, and I’ve been there for 39 years.

And I consider myself a community leader very involved in philanthropy. I love giving back to my community. That’s why I only have one jewelry store because I should have had five or six, but I said no. I’d rather go ahead and just raise money. I love being involved in raising money for scholarships for Latinas and Latinos.
So I am right now sitting on the board of directors at Cal State Fullerton. Involved at OC Alliance, which is UCI’s. There’s about 50 of us leaders, shakers and movers of the Latino community and very involved in everything that has to do with scholarships four Latinos, Latinas. I’m one of the founders of HEATH Hispanic Education Endowment Fund.

So that’s one passion and the other one is helping women open their own business. I’m one of the founders of the National Hispanic Business Women Association. And I, again, anyone that I find out that it’s going to open their own business, I’ll reach out to them or someone will tell them, go see Teresa, and I literally take them by the hand and help them open their own business. I love it. Those two things are my passion.