(Tom) This week on Arizona Illustrated, El Presidio celebrates 250 years of Tucson culture.

We'll show you how its history is still alive in the Old Pueblo.

(Amy) This original fort, which was 11 acres, today is completely covered by downtown.

(Tom) A cohousing community is only 15 minutes from downtown Tucson, but feels a world away.

(Michael) I had no idea what cohousing was.

And it's actually this is the best place I've ever lived in my life.

(Tom) The sights and sounds of the 2025 Tucson Jazz Festival.

(Khris)Tucson is a mecca for music.

Live music exists and that's a thriving part of our community here.

(Tom) And we'll show you why this wildly popular racket sport is such a big dill.

(Linda) I think it's a sport you can play from five years old till you're 80 or 90 years old.

Once you start, you can't stop.

(Tom) Hello and welcome to Arizona Illustrated.

I'm Tom McNamara.

Today we're joining you from the historic El Presidio neighborhood, an important but often overlooked part of Tucson's rich history.

And this building is the historic La Casa Cordova.

It's on the campus of the Tucson Museum of Art, which was just recently renovated and reopened to the public.

The complex is so historic that there aren't records of when it was originally built, but it could be as old as 1848 when this part of the state still belonged to Mexico.

It is one of the oldest Adobe structures in the city and it's named after Maria Cordova, whose family acquired the property in 1896 and made a life here.

The recent renovation highlights the narratives of families and businesses that lived in the Presidio from the 1890s through urban renewal in the 1960s.

You can see the Nacimiento, a large-scale nativity scene, or this creation by Feng-Feng Yeh in the Chinese Chorizo Project.

That honors the long tradition of Chinese grocery stores in Tucson.

And this space includes contributions from Melani Martinez, whose family owned and operated the restaurant El Rapido right around the corner.

If you stick around to the end of the program, we'll have an exclusive interview with Melani.

But for now, we'll take you to this neighborhood's namesake.

Presidio San Agustín del Tucson is a window into Tucson's rich history.

Built as a Spanish fort in 1775, it protected the settlers and fostered a growing community.

Today, it serves as a reminder of our rich multicultural roots, blending Native American, Spanish, Mexican, and American influences.

♪ INSTRUMENTAL GUITAR (Amy) We're here in the middle of the Presidio Museum which is a re-creation of the original Presidio fort that was built by the Spanish in around 1775 and the years after that.

To create protection for them when they were exploring this area.

My name is Amy Hartmann-Gordon and I'm the Director of the Presidio Museum ♪ INSTRUMENTAL GUITAR When you come into the museum, you enter through what is known as the "Jacome House."

This is an 1850s Sonoran Row home.

♪ INSTRUMENTAL GUITAR As you come out of the Jacome House, you'll come into what we call the territorial patio.

There's a 100-year-old fig tree out here, beautiful local native plants growing here.

And then as we come out of the territorial patio, we go upstairs and we're now going back in time.

The O'odham people lived here for millennia and still live here, but in the 1600s and 1700s the Europeans started to arrive.

They were coming up from South America and they were looking to explore the region and in their minds this was New Spain.

The early O'odham people lived in a village that they referred to as S-cuk Son, and that meant at the base of the Black Mountain.

The Black Mountain was the lava rock, which we now think of as Tumamoc Hill and A Mountain.

But as the Spanish came up, they interacted with these people.

They heard the word "S-cuk Son."

They turned that into "Tucson," and they established their community here in this Presidio.

This enclosure at its height had about 400 people that lived here.

These were again, these are Spanish military.

They were officers and soldiers.

Part of their job here is to protect the space.

The O'odham people had incredible agricultural fields here.

They were growing corn and beans already.

There was trading happening, and that was the beginning of this kind of commercial community.

The Presidio Fort, the official date, it was established was August 20th, 1775.

This original fort, which was 11 acres today is completely covered by downtown, but it just happened that this corner was in a parking lot.

And so, thanks to a great archaeological team, they were able to uncover that and really do the work to see all the artifacts from this one area.

We actually have an archaeological uncovered excavation of one of these early pit houses.

So it gives you a real sense of the layers of the very earliest people living here.

We also have an exhibit we call the Early People's Park, which has a current day structure that we built, but it's made to look like an early structure for the early people that lived here.

And it gives you a sense of how this archeological excavation connects to what it really would have looked like in real time.

I think one of the most important reasons to preserve any kind of a cultural asset like this is reminding people of where they came from and to understand that the world we live in while in some ways is very different, but in many ways there's still a connection.

(Tom) This year, El Presidio will host a 250th anniversary of the founding of modern-day Tucson and the multicultural history of our community.

And they'll have a special gathering on August 23rd, 2025, featuring Gertie and the T.O.

Boyz performing live.

For more information, visit www.tucsonpresidio.com La Casa Cordova highlights a time when people cohabitated, and that concept is making a comeback.

Milagro is a multi-generational cohousing community on Tucson's west side, and the residents there share a common vision of supporting each other while respecting the Sonoran Desert.

(Tim) Four couples were dreaming about, "How do we live in the desert in a better way?"

We really wanted to save water.

It was one of the big things, save energy, save water.

So we had this idea, but it took a long time to manifest it.

We were very naive in the beginning, and we were not familiar with co-housing in 1993 when we began this thing, but soon after, we heard all about it.

(Becki) Co-housing, it's a type of intentional community, so people come together and live together and share some resources, but they still have privately owned property.

So most co-housing communities have a shared vision or mission or set of values.

Here at Milagro, we stress the importance of sustainable living, being good stewards for our environment.

And a lot of our infrastructure here at Milagro is built around that shared value of sustainable living.

(Woman) Good, good dirt.

(Tim) Of course, we wanted some expert consulting to respect the desert and the landscape.

And we heard about Brad early on, got him involved with our ecological committee, and he helped design the whole community so that we would save water.

(Becki) So at Milagro, we have 28 homes.

They're all privately owned.

Some of them are rented.

Some of them have casitas in their backyard that can be rented.

We also do each homeowner pays HOA dues.

Right now, those are set at $335 per month.

The transparency is 100 percent because we are literally the ones making the decisions and know what the dues are exactly funding.

(Tim) There were all kinds of challenges to get it built, but then it's very different to live here.

It's a lot of learning and a lot of listening, trying to say, what does a community want?

And how can I work with a community as opposed to what do I want?

And how can I get my way?

(Michael) Right, but also, most of the weight... (Becki) Here at Milagro, we currently abide by a consensus process where we need a quorum, which I think is two thirds of the homeowners here to agree on like a major community decision.

You know, if we zoom out and look at humanity, how our species has evolved over millennia, we are a social species.

It's strange to me, in a way, quarantine ourselves inside of one little plot of land and never talk to the people around us.

It's so important for everybody, and especially children, to be around a multi-generational community and learn how to resolve conflict with somebody you might not agree with.

Our society just in this day and age is not set up for experiencing those things.

-No snakes!

-No snakes?

Okay, good.

All residents, whether they're renters or homeowners, are expected to fulfill a few responsibilities.

One is serve on a committee, and then the other expectation is to put in work hours.

Currently, we have it, the expectation set at six hours a month.

(Michael) Whenever you get a chance, I want to try to pull this main axle out of the composter.

I came out here from Chicago.

I'm a renter.

I lived in a house first, then they sold the house.

Then I moved to a casita, then another casita, and I'm on my third casita.

I had no idea what co-housing was.

And if you would have said it to me back in Chicago, I would have thought, Commune?

This is much better, Jackie.

You know, I had no, no clue.

And it's actually, this is the best place I've ever lived in my life.

Besides my childhood home.

(Maureen) I don't live here.

I live 15 minutes away, but I came here to visit and I had a tour and during my tour, I stayed for about three to four hours.

And I just loved the idea of co-housing, community, living close together, working together.

And it just really fits me.

And so, although I don't live here at this time, I hope to live here one day.

[ BELL RINGING ] (Becki) Being embedded in nature is really important to me.

And I love the location of the Milagro because we're really not far from town, but it feels like we are.

This is a prickly pear.

I think it's prickly pear growing out of the tree, growing out of this mesquite.

I've seen lots of snakes in here.

We've seen bobcats.

I see hundreds of butterflies like on the daily.

(Michael) We have our own wetlands.

So we're not tied into the city sewer system.

Anything from our showers, toilets, sinks, goes through septic tanks, and then goes to our wetlands where it sits for a few days and then gets pumped up through the community and waters, everything you see here.

So not vegetables, but all the trees and the wildflowers.

I'm not accomplished like a lot of these people.

And monetarily, I'm not in the same level as these people.

But yeah, everybody embraced me like family.

Just, there's a lot of love here.

Yeah, all this stuff that I was concerned about just turned out to be... Yeah, just not part of the thing.

They just take you for who you are.

(Tim) We do tours all the time.

We encourage people to come and visit and want to live here.

It just is happening.

It's happening and it's real and it continues to evolve.

And yet it'll always be Milagro, 43 acres, a small footprint in preserving energy and water.

That's just the way I want to live.

(Tom) Fans of jazz will tell you it's more than just music, it's a feeling, a conversation, a connection.

And every year the Tucson Jazz Festival brings that energy to the desert with world-class musicians, lively entertainment, and a community that truly loves that sound.

♪ JAZZ MUSIC (Sarah) We are at the Tucson Jazz Festival.

It's a gorgeous day.

As you can probably hear, we have the main stage here at Corbett's.

(Khris) The Tucson Jazz Festival brings world-class artists from everywhere.

We're sitting here today at the downtown Jazz Fiesta.

This is an all-day event, every MLK day.

(Laural) This is the 11th year of the festival.

Khris, when he came on board, it was the right time.

He's been involved with the education of students for many, many years.

Tucson High teacher, he's been involved with U of A and he brought all of that experience.

♪ UPBEAT VIOLIN (Khris) I was an educator for 23 years here in Tucson and education is very near and dear to my heart.

It is part of our mission statement of the festival to engage local community and have a strong educational program.

♪ JAZZY TRUMPET The jazz tradition is all about that.

Nine day festival, we do ticketed events in large theaters like the Rialto Theater, the Fox Tucson Theater.

We do smaller events all around, in the Century Room, Arizona Theater Company, here at Corbett's Tucson is a mecca for music.

Live music exists and it's a thriving part of our community here.

And the jazz scene is bigger here than most people expect.

♪ JAZZY STRINGS (Sarah) There are a ton of jazz musicians who are either based here in Tucson or from Tucson, so they come back.

And it's like this little oasis, this little jazz oasis here.

Here in Tucson we have a little bit of everything.

I think that's what's so special.

And the genres and the audience members for the genres, they crisscross.

So people who love jazz will also go out and hear the singer-songwriter bands and the blues bands.

And players will play in the different bands as well.

♪ UPBEAT JAZZ I don't know if you heard the announcer, but when he was announcing our band, the band is a who's who of Tucson musicians.

And he's like, "So I'm going to call it Sarah Tolar and the Tucson Jazz All-Stars."

And I was like, "Yeah!"

Being the new girl in town.

The community of non-musicians love music so much.

So huge.

And they have the time and space and their lifestyle and what's important to them coincides with loving music and wanting to go out and hear live music.

Tucson is a community that connections matter.

(Khris) I would like to see this festival thrive, not only today, but into perpetuity.

That it becomes a permanent part of the artistic output of our community.

I say that we're maybe a small piece of the pie that is part of everything that happens in Tucson.

And I want that piece of pie to always exist.

It doesn't need to be bigger.

Maybe just get a little sweeter over time.

♪ UPBEAT JAZZ Tucson is, every year, falls in love with jazz again and again.

It's wonderful.

♪ UPBEAT JAZZ (Tom) Even though Pickleball was invented by a few friends in 1965 up in Washington State, it's not until recent years that it's had this explosive growth.

And now here in southern Arizona, pickleball courts are being built.

It seems everywhere.

Parks, housing developments, and other places.

♪ UPLIFTING MUSIC It's very addicting.

It's just a lot of fun Keeps me active I get good exercise.

[ PICKLEBALL BOUNCING ] I played all the raquet sports, tennis, raquetball, squash, but pickleball, by far, is my favorite.

[ COURT NOISES ] (Dominic) It has given me business opportunities, social opportunities, the list goes on.

[ COURT NOISES ] (Gabriel) It really helped with my social skills, and it gave me something to look up to.

[ NEIGHBORDHOOD AMBIENCE ] (Priscilla) My husband and I came to Voyager in 2004, and we were here for just a week the first time, and we saw all these people gathered around the old basketball court.

and there was like a tennis net on that basketball court, and they were hooping and hollering and having a great time, and hitting this what looked like a wiffle ball with a paddle that looked kind of like a pingpong paddle.

And we thought, "Whoa, what's this?"

So we went over to watch, and then we tried to get in to sign up for a lesson in the week that we were here, but unfortunately, we couldn't get in.

[ COURT NOISES ] (Jim) We discovered that six years ago when we moved to Vail, which was kind of unusual, we're from Washington State, and that's where it was originated in Bainbridge Island.

We never heard of it.

Just fell in love with the sport, and if you have any kind of racket or hand-eye coordination or racket skills, it's just a great sport.

It's something you can be good at right away.

You know, you don't have to wait and practice, you know, two, three years.

before you can compete.

[ COURT NOISES ] You can learn the basic rules in about an hour.

(Linda) I enjoy playing it with my husband.

I also play women's doubles.

It's a great sport.

I come from playing racquetball and squash and volleyball.

I really enjoy the fast pace of it.

All the people you meet, I mean all the tournaments we go to, it's a blast.

The court is very small, so you have a lot of interaction with the other player, and that's what makes it fun.

And at the end of every game, people tap paddles and say, "Great game."

And, "hey", up at the net, and that's sort of the protocol.

(Dominic) These courts behind us were tennis courts as soon as five years ago.

Being that pickleball became very popular, groups of people said, "We need pickleball courts here."

So the agreement after almost a four-year negotiation was Fort Lowell Tennis will remain tennis, and they will convert Udall Tennis to pickleball courts.

If you like pickleball and you don't like tennis, fine.

If you like tennis and you don't like pickleball, fine.

If you like both, even better.

And if you don't play either, shame on you.

(Gabriel) I used to ride my bike around here because it was a close park near my house, and I used to go to this dog park just so I could ride across the courts.

And it was like a hot day, no one was at the dog park, so I came over here, and I see these two guys playing.

I watched them for an hour straight, and I sat on that bench, and I was scared.

I was scared to talk to anyone because I didn't know anyone.

And then this guy named Kit asked me to play, and then I played the floor with him, and then I came back the next day, and I've been just coming basically every day from here.

♪ UPLIFTING MUSIC [ AUDIO FAST-FORWARDING ] [ COURT NOISES ] (Kyle) Pickleball was insanely popular, and we had this amazing space.

This historic Corbett building has been around since 1920, and so we didn't know what we wanted to do with it.

We know we wanted to do a restaurant, but with the rise of pickleball, we had space for five courts.

We put them in there, we came up with Corbett's (Tony) When we first started playing, we were playing at the Kino South Courts, and we got together a small group there, and we were all kind of learning together.

But then it got to the point where myself and a couple others were playing a lot more, and we wanted to see more skill level and different players, so we started branching out, and this was a place we started coming for the open play, because it's a really great place that you can play with players of different ranges and mix it up every other game, so you get a lot of different style, and you learn a lot better that way.

(Dominic) People just don't come, play pickleball, and leave.

We ask what your name is.

We ask who you are.

Are you new?

We do things outside of pickleball socially as well.

(Linda) I think it's a sport you can play from five years old till you're 80 or 90 years old.

Once you start you can't stop [ LAUGHING ] you get injured, you know.

People fall down, break bones, I mean it happens A lot of us think we're still 20 years old.

(Priscilla) I am well past that, okay, in my 70s.

We have to remember to prepare our bodies for this.

We can't play every day, all day I don't have any sort of addictive personality ever, Never done a drug, don't drink alcohol.

I just don't have addictions.

However, I am so addicted to pickleball.

I bought an RV and, now, I'm living in that full-time Going from city to city playing pickleball, throughout the United States.

(Gabriel) I want to go pro that's my dream, and I want to get sponsored by something.

I don't think this is a fad sport the fact that it's become multi-generational now.

I think it will stick around.

[ PICKELBALLS BOUNCING ] (Tom) Well, joining us now is Melani Martinez, whose book, The Molino, a Memoir, was published just last year.

Melani, you have connections to this neighborhood.

Three generations lived in these buildings.

Their life was centered around here.

What does this mean to you?

Well, the neighborhood is extremely significant to my family.

It's part of our collective memory.

It's part of stories that I heard growing up.

It's definitely part of even my own history, being able to be in the buildings a little bit when I was younger, working for my dad.

What are the stories, what are the aspects of this place downtown that really strike a nerve in you now?

(Melani) The presence of many Mexican Americans and other diverse groups living in downtown, which by the time I was here, I didn't see that much of it.

My great-grandfather, Aurelio Perez, and his wife, my great-grandmother, Martina Perez, were the folks who opened up one of the most important, I think, Molinos, places where you would go to get your corn ground in this neighborhood.

They named it El Rapido.

It was their home.

They had a machine that would do the grinding.

They prepared masa for people in the neighborhood to continue the culinary traditions of this particular neighborhood.

(Tom) To hear more of our entire interview with Melani Martinez, please go to our website azpm.org/ArizonaIllustrated or follow Arizona Illustrated on Facebook, Instagram, or X.

Thank you for joining us for Arizona Illustrated here at the historic La Casa Cordova at the Tucson Museum of Art.

I'm Tom McNamara, we'll see you again next week.