This week on Arizona Illustrated, we visited Art Gallery in the Pueblo within a city South Tucson.

When we moved here from Los Angeles, Mel struggled making that connection with galleries here.

Preserving the unique culture of La Doce.

The environmental injustices that happen here in the South Side.

So we've taken community leaders, brought them together to talk about cultural asset mapping.

We'll meet some enthusiastic fans of Korean pop music in Tucson.

It came at a crucial point in my life where I needed some sense of community and just a group of people that also related to the same things that I liked.

And a tour of Pima Community College's brand new Center for Applied Manufacturing.

The architecture creates a framework for inspiration, connection and aspiration.

Hello and welcome to another all new episode of Arizona Illustrated.

I'm Tom McNamara, and we're joining you from the city of South Tucson.

Now, you may or may not know this, but this is its own unique city, separate from Tucson proper and the South Side.

The one square mile town is home to almost 6000 people.

The population is predominantly Latino, and the community's maintained a strong cultural heritage.

Despite forces of gentrification.

The bold and colorful tile murals line the streets and are worthy of further inspection and recognition.

There are more than 300 small businesses, including some of the best Mexican restaurants on Earth.

In fact, President Bill Clinton ate at Mi Nidito in 1999, and the plate he ate was named after him and is still on the menu.

And here to tell us more about this special place is a man who spent most of his 71 years here and has led South Tucson as mayor for the last four years.

Bob Teso.

Bob, thanks for joining us.

You're so familiar, so embedded in this community.

Tell us about the essence of South Tucson.

What makes it unique and special?

Well, I think what really makes it unique and special is I think the people we are the only minority majority run community in the city and in Pima County because we are a minority community.

I mean, we have a large population of Pascua Yaqui peopl To you, Tohono O'odham.

What do you see for the future of South Tucson?

Well, I think it's looking a little brighter now.

We were having some issues here, especially budgetary and things like that, because we were an enclave.

Being an enclave makes very things very difficult.

If we can get generates more revenue, I think we'll be in a lot better shape.

And certainly I think we're on the right track for doing that.

Now with it's great food and colorful murals, it's obvious that arts and culture are a big part of this community's daily life.

But South Tucson didn't have any museums or galleries until 2018, and that's when Mel and Melissa Dominguez opened Galleria Mitotera, which aims to celebrate an uplift the artist of this diverse community.

We're in the city of South Tucson, and we're at Galleria Mitotera, right across the street from Mi Nidito [traffic sounds] The city of South Tucson is a pueblo within the city, as they call it.

We're a one square mile city.

We have our own city council, our own mayor, We have our own city council, our own mayor, and our own city manager.

Public works, all of that.

[lofi music] The mission of Galeria Mitotera is really to inspire, uplift and support artists of color within our community.

And we want it to be a safe space for artists of color, for queer artists, to to be able to talk to and grow with artists that they can identify with.

Indian born American Made Three is a curated show by our friend and artist David Moreno from Pascua Yaqui and David came to us pre-pandemic and asked us if we could host the show here.

I just wanted a venue to to host Native American artists just to show and let other Native Americans have a place to to exhibit their artwork Native Americans have a place to to exhibit their artwork and hopefully get some recognition.

We are in an indigenous community, there's so much rich history in the city of South Tucson.

And to have a show like this of all indigenous artists and makers is really important for this space.

I was thinking, what if we did a big design like on the floor, like to create like a in Spanish, they call them alfombristas and they use like pedals and like sawdust that tinted different colors to make the design.

I've worked with a lot of communities and a lot of schools, and a lot of times I would be called back to the city of South Tucson, and what I was realizing in those callbacks was that a lot of the students and the youth around this area, sometimes they don't get to experience a lot of the performing arts or like visual arts or just a lot of times get to know some of the artists that live in their neighborhood.

So I come from East L.A. and that was pretty much our foundation was to seek the artists from within the community and lift them up.

And so I came to the city of Tucson with that, that one that says, you are beautiful in yoeme.

So it's, I love what he did and he is so shy.

He's a very shy artist.

And he called me and he's like, Melissa I'm not going to get the piece ready for the show.

And I said, I don't accept that.

Melissa would always tell me about how fantastic Tucson was, and I was like, when I went there, all I heard was crickets or something, you know?

And I didn't.

I didn't get it in 1997.

I didn't get it because downtown Tucson isn't what it is today.

I told Mel, I said "I'm done.

I really want to go back to Tucson."

And and Mel was like, "Okay, let's do it."

I can't live without her.

Is that why?

Yeah, I'm like, "I better go with you."

[lo-fi music] Mel had been painting out of our home, and as Mel's art grew, our career kept growing here.

Folks would ask to come and see Mel's work in the studio, but it was kind of uncomfortable having strangers in our house.

That kind of made us fast track the idea into finding a space.

[lo-fi music] Well, when I graduated from art school and came and tried to approach galleries, it was very, very difficult.

I mean, there was hardly any any galleries on this side of town.

That would even take you serious and even less on the on the east side.

When we moved here from Los Angeles.

Mel struggled making that connection with galleries here.

And Mel's work didn't really identify sometimes with what the gallery owners were wanting to show.

We still, in the background saw that need for artists of color to be able to break through or to feel like they could show their work because it should have been a space that already existed.

[alternative music] But this is where you talk about Tucson and it being a magical space.

This is where when you say things like that, like, where can we have a space to to uplift other artists and where can we do this where we identify with those folks?

And then you put that out in the universe in the city of South Tucson.

Magic happens like it's so wild.

Next, we go from south Tucson to Tucson's south side.

Now, remember, these are entirely different places to a neighborhood called La Doce, where residents are vulnerable to the forces of gentrification.

But they are uniting to try to find ways to preserve and protect their cultures and traditions as that community inevitably grows.

[Traffic sounds] [Upbeat Latin music] (VO) La Doce is a neighborhood in the Southside of Tucson that is wholly unique.

Spanning three miles along South 12th Avenue, from 44th Street to Drexel Road.

It's home to approximately 9000 residents, 90% of whom identify as Latino.

There are 253 businesses on the avenue, and it's here.

you'll find some of the most celebrated restaurants who contributed greatly to Tucson's designation as the first U.S. UNESCO's city of gastronomy.

What makes this corridor of the city unique is its resilience as a cultural district, despite years of disinvestment.

Now more vulnerable than ever to gentrification, multiple agencies have been strategizing on ways to preserve and protect La Doce's community and traditions.

The Southwest Folklife Alliance is one nonprofit that has been leading these efforts in partnership with the grassroots organization Regeneration, by engaging community members around issues of health and wellness and economic resiliency.

[Slow rock music] La Doce Space Activation is an event they held to showcase their findings.

[Slow rock music] “We've had amazing discussions.

” “What do we want our communities to look like?

” What do we need?

“It's not up to just the city.

” “On how they get to dictate on how we want to live.

” “It's about how we have the opportunity to go in and change the community that we live in.

” (Nlda) We're here to learn along side one another, in particular looking at alternative economies, community ownership, address the vacant lots while also addressing the environmental injustices that happen here in the Southside.

So we've taken community leaders, brought them together to talk about cultural asset mapping.

(VO) Cultural asset mapping is a tool that was used to identify and gather insights of the community's cultural resources.

A survey was created to examine the skills and needs of La Doce residents and create a network of skilled labor within the neighborhood.

On my street there is a lot of mechanics and I've actually have my car fixed by some of them.

We have seamstress people that cook just skills that people don't take that much into consideration, but then are taken to other places where you know they're sold.

We have a neighborhood that's full of roofers.

Why is it that our roofs are leaking?

If we have a community that has a bunch of plumbers, that's train them up to do rainwater harvesting, all that to like really invest in our environmental sustainability of our communities, but also uplift us.

We have the least amount of trees and shade equity, so our streets are extremely hot.

We want to address how everything intersects.

Those structural barriers, those systems that exist that continue to harm us.

(Nelda) What happens when we bring the community together to build something that we deserve?

(Claudio) Part of that is fighting gentrification by creating community land trusts that's actually owned by the community.

(VO) Community land trusts are nonprofit, community based organizations designed to ensure community stewardship of land and long term housing affordability for low to moderate income families.

It provides the opportunity for families to build equity through home ownership and preventing displacement through land speculation and other processes of gentrification.

As we look at the gem here in the south side of Tucson, 80% of folks here are homeowners.

But now we're starting to see signs pop up that will buy your house claiming that our homes are ugly.

Right.

So reducing our value internally.

I've lived to my entire life.

I was born here.

It's important to me because affordability, it's not really there anymore.

(Nelda) How do we ensure that our people are well-equipped, engaging the business community here in the Southside?

A lot of those cultural institutions don't own their buildings, even though they've been here for over 20 some over 30 years.

(Claudio) And if the community owns the land, we're going to use it collectively.

And folks have asked, are you going to impose the same slumlord action?

I was like, no, not if our values are based on trust, based on respect, because we're going to push what we inherently already have is that connection to the land.

(Nelda)We've been noticing the waves of gentrification that are seeping into the Southside with the revitalization that happened on the West Side and downtown now more than ever.

Right?

There's a sense of urgency before that beast actually lands here.

(VO) Of particular concern to residents is the proposed Norte-Sur line, a 15 mile long, high capacity transit route connecting the Tucson Mall on the north side to Tucson International Airport on the south side.

Studies conducted in several cities within the U.S. show how transit systems, although designed to bring economic development and mobility, can paradoxically have devastating impacts on low income residents along its routes.

Improved access to these neighborhoods can result in raised property values and taxes and displace the people.

These transit lines aim to serve.

The Norte-Sur transit line is in a research stage, and community ambassadors have been enlisted to work with residents in identifying their concerns.

How do you spark the rest of the neighborhood to follow your lead?

You know, and.

(VO) David Garcia is a community ambassador in south Tucson and held a neighborhood meeting to hear the concerns of his municipality.

(David) When I heard we have taxes going up, properties being sold, gentrification.

We got third generation families here and first generation families here.

And I can tell you what, aint nobody going to push me out.

I want a future here with my kids.

I want more houses for my kids, man.

But at this rate, man, my kids cant move out.

I think in order for us to combat gentrification we have to educate our community about what it is.

In places like Portland and San Francisco and all of other areas where disenfranchized individuals have been pushed out.

Again, I know there's so many resources, again with rental assistance that there's so many resources, but nobody knows about them because we don't educate ourselves and we're not putting that word out there like we should.

I see 6th Ave. being local people from the hood, setting up shop, right?

Your artist, your tortilla makers, which we have plenty of .

Your carneceria, that's what I know.

But I also want to see, like, a little restaurant from somebody in the hood.

Right?

All these shops, they're abandoned and we deserve it, man.

The businesses deserve it, but we also deserve, like, all the benefits that come with it.

(VO) The recommendations of residents yielded through this kind of community outreach shows the needs and desires they have for their neighborhoods.

And now, in the midst of a housing crisis, continued civic engagement and participation is needed for these communities to thrive autonomously.

(Claudio)There's been times when bumped heads with the city which is okay, you know, because that's that's what it's about, you know, and that's why we have to have constructive conversations on how do we move forward together, because they have a responsibility to us as constituents, but we also have a responsibility to our people and to our land .

And for those things, we do not have to apologize [Rapping in Spanish] Tucson is a place that embraces all kinds of cultures from the more established traditions of La Doce to something more contemporary, like K-Pop, which stands for Korean pop music.

We recently went to an event hosted by AZSpecialtea for fans of the genre and were overwhelmed by their enthusiasm.

(Stevey) K-Pop is Korean pop music.

It started early 2000's and hadn't really been brought to the United States until I want to say 2013 is when I joined in.

BTS paved the way.

[dance music] (Joclyn) First I heard a BTS song and I was instantly hooked.

(Jada) My ninth graders were like, Miss Genter, you've got to meet this band called BTS.

And I was like, Who?

And next thing you know, I've become a huge fan.

(Joclyn) As soon as you have that, like, thing to stand on and to communicate about and talk about, you're instantly like you feel like you know each other.

And it's led me to have a lot of friends who also love K-Pop.

(Stevey) A big thing that really got me into it is just the sense of community.

(Alex) They see that they have a really positive message about how you feel about yourself or how you should interact with other people.

And a lot of people really connect with that positive message, and so they just fall in love with their music.

(Stevey) It came at a crucial point in my life where I needed some sense of community and just a group of people that also related to the same things that I liked (Roman) What originally got me into it was just kind of like the sound and like the beat and stuff like that.

It was just like, I normally listen to, like a lot more like less upbeat stuff and like, this just kind of got me out of that.

(Alex) It's its own genre, but it takes a lot of inspiration from like R&B and hip hop.

Even some songs have, like, mariachi influences.

(Amanda) The music is... always slaps.

(Jada) So I just turned 50 this summer, and I'm in a Facebook group for moms who live in Arizona.

And are big K-Pop fans Is that for me?

We're older.

But we love that message that BTS puts out in the world, which is love yourself and you're worth it, and you can overcome the problems in the world today and then make the world a better place.

(Amanda) It's been pretty dry in Arizona for K-Pop events unless you live in Phoenix.

So it's been really exciting.

The anticipation waiting for the Tucson event.

(Joclyn) AZSPECIALTEA is fan events made by fans.

(Stevey) Our Tucson chapter has just started this year.

We started in February and that was just me by myself.

I didn't have an established team at that point.

It drew a big crowd and I think I wasn't expecting how big the community here in Tucson is.

(Joclyn) A lot of them are friendly, like they're so fun and loving to talk to.

Everybody just instantly loves talking about it.

And I feel like everybody wants to share their opinion and wants to be able to talk about K-Pop with somebody.

(Jada) I live in Coolidge, so I live halfway between Phoenix and Tucson.

And, you know, there are no K-Pop events in Coolidge.

And we found out that there was this bigger universe of this fandom out there, and it's the most welcoming group of people.

We're talking every race, nationality, gender, sexuality.

It doesn't matter what you are.

They love everybody.

[dance music and cheering] (Joclyn) it is not just Korean.

It is not just people singing in a different language.

It's so much more.

It's the members of the K-Pop groups.

They're kind.

They're generous.

They just they really want to show their care and consideration for their fans.

And that's what I appreciate and take away from that.

(Amanda) One of the things that really drew me to is how attached the groups are to their fans.

It's kind of cheesy to say, but it feels really cool to be included into music and to be a part of like their experience.

And that really is what drew me to it.

Whereas more Western music, I don't feel like there's that connection.

(Stevey) It's a lot more than music now.

I think it started as music, but it's grown into something else.

It kind of created its own culture because now we're in this community and it isn't just about the music.

It's about the food that our idols like to eat.

It's about art, what we consume and what we want to do on the daily basis.

(Jada) I believe that anything that helps my students and young people find hope in today's world, when all we ever hear about is all the bad things is a wonderful thing and their music is phenomenal.

So, you know, you're just like, Oh, I'm too old for this.

You're never too old.

We're never we're never too young.

We're never too old [dance music ends with applause] Next, Carmen Cueva takes us on a tour of her favorite place in southern Arizona, a place that's still in progress.

It's the Pima Community College Center for Applied Manufacturing, which in the future will be home to students learning computer aided design, machining, welding and more.

I'm Carmen Cueva, director of Advanced Manufacturing at Pima Community College.

Today we're at Advanced Manufacturing, building a new structure at the downtown campus, which is part of the Center of Excellence for Applied Technology.

Many people have made a case for its economic promise, but I see more value in personal engagement.

This is a place where we come together with a passion for craft and technology.

The architecture creates a framework for inspiration, connection and aspiration.

It's a place that doesn't yet exist for you, but will as soon as you arrive.

This is a tall building for Tucson, standing at seventy feet and three stories high as we approach from the West Side.

One feels excited and a little intimidated by it.

Similar to making a big decision about one's career, there is comfort in its heavy permanence and protective shell.

And yet it's also inviting.

There's a lightness and playfulness with angled edges and planes that create beautiful dancing shadows throughout the day and throughout the year.

The first floor is marked by rawness, the sound of metal, clacking, carving and being molded together.

This floor includes welding, machining and a prototype testing space that helps us get through many ideas quickly.

Ascending up the monumental stairs, you'll pause an impromptu stage, a place to share ideas and pitch new ones.

Reaching the second floor, you'll observe the crane up high over a charismatic walkway that leads your eyes from one end of the building to the other.

Small collaboration rooms are sprinkled throughout the building and are curio cabinet of ideas.

This is where things come alive, often looking like a manufacturing floor or assembly line.

Here, employers join us for targeted training specific to their businesses and help students remember that their goal is only a few steps away, a shorter distance than they realize.

Climbing up to the third floor on our cantilevered staircase, you'll feel the stability of the community behind you as you go out on a limb.

Here you can't help but feel a shift in perspective.

At first, choosing to engage felt heavy and daunting, and now it's putting you out there.

You're are what's intimidating about this place?

It's encouraging you to see and take on the world in new ways.

This floor includes computer aided design, This floor includes computer aided design, Applied Technology Administration, an incubator space, nurturing individuals in entrepreneurial ideas.

Here we are reminded that the sky is the limit.

This space centralizes and shares a public collection of tools and resources unlike anywhere in the world.

It is one large industrial scale makerspace available to you and brings together tools, experience, curiosity and enthusiasm.

It promotes collaborative partnerships with businesses, industry agencies, nonprofits, institutions and schools.

This is my favorite place because it's an opportunity to improve the quality of life for everyone in Southern Arizona for generations to come.

We appreciate your viewership these past few months of all new stories.

Now, our program will be off the air until mid-December for pledge break, but we'll continue to release all news stories online, including this one on El Charro, which celebrated its 100th anniversary this year.

Our thing is Tucson style Sonoran Mexican food.

That's what it is.

And I wanted to do a business with that.

I wanted to make that a business for them that would pay back all those years of hard work.

You have the heart for it, but then you really have to put a new brain to it.

That's when the restaurant really took on a growth spurt over the last 25 years.

Please follow Arizona Illustrated on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter so you don't miss a thing while we're gone.

And thank you for joining us.

I'm Tom McNamara.

We'll see you soon.