Vallejo Vignettes – Inspired by public art

After a year of studying public art with Vallejo Teaching Artists Leah Tumerman and Amy Owen, Jesse Bethel High School, Cave Language Academy, and Hogan Middle School students developed recommendations for Vallejo's public art collection. They presented these ideas to the Vallejo Arts and Culture Commission, and a group of volunteers helped restore the I Heart Vallejo mural located in the waterfront, by the Ferry building.

High school student Jasmin Albarado shared her experience and her love for the city of Vallejo.

My name is Jasmin Albarado, and I am 14 years old. During the Public Art Program, I learned how much goes into making art. From rejection to supplies, to how the public reacts to your artwork, sometimes you have to take big leaps of faith to get your work out to the public. 

During this experience, I met some of my best friends, and we got to learn/do some cool things that I had never dreamt of doing. I even got to speak in front of the Vallejo City Commission on Culture and the Arts and offer some of my ideas of what I want to see in Vallejo. 

One of these ideas is restoring different works of art, like we did with the I Heart Vallejo mural. That was a good piece to restore because of the positive impact it has on everyone who walks past it. It shows off Vallejo's pride.

I loved getting to meet some of the artists that created pieces for Vallejo. I met Gene Buban, who has a sculpture next to the Soltrans station that, to me, shows a wonderful representation of peace. I also met Liberty Pierson, who also has a sculpture next to the Soltrans station, which shows diversity and how there’s more to any one person than meets the eye. 

I met and worked with Izzy Drumgoole on a mural to help shine awareness on how the monarch butterfly is going extinct. She is also the creator of the I Heart Vallejo mural. I also met Jean Cherie, who made the Mother and Child sculpture near the Ferry building parking lot, which represents a form of comfort and protection that can be found in the bond between a child and their parent. 

My favorite artwork in Vallejo is the Capitol Street Steps. I love the color and how it shows Vallejo's history. 

I was born and raised in Vallejo, and I have met some of the most important people in my life here. I have pride in my city of Vallejo and though people say a lot about how “bad” of a city it can be, that is only one part of Vallejo, and for me, that isn't the real part. 

Vallejo is all the good people who show each other support in what we want to do and the people in the city who help us grow. Vallejo still has a long way to go, but I still love my city.

— Jasmin Albarado, Jesse Bethel high school student

Watch the student's journey here.

Forging a resilient identity in Vallejo

My family arrived in Vallejo in 1979. Unfortunately, for various reasons, soon both my parents left me and my three siblings. We were on our own for over three years.

I was 16 going on 17. My sister Debbie was 14 and Pablo was 4. My brother Ralph was 18, but he came and went and didn’t contribute financially. It was up to me to keep my family together and afloat. 

I got my grandpa out of the rest home where he resided, so we could use his pension to afford a rental house. My father’s V.A. benefits helped for the first nine months, but then my grandpa left to live with his daughter and the V.A. payments stopped due to some bureaucracy issue.

I made ends meet thanks to the welfare benefits we got for my younger brother and sister. Real estate agents from Valla Vista Realty in Vallejo drove us around until we found an affordable apartment to rent, coincidentally, in Valla Vista Street. If they thought it was strange that a 16 year old with no parental supervision was the head of the household they did not show it.

Sometimes we wouldn’t be able to pay the rent and we had to move to a different apartment. Our time on Pennsylvania Street during the summer of 1980 was the happiest because our mother came back to us for a while.

Vallejo was a good place to be in those years when I felt lost and alone. Even though our circumstances were not ideal, we always found ways to have fun and we were never homeless. Soon after we moved to the city I made a friend, Dana, and we became best buddies. Her family had an auto shop and Dana and I would go around town in a truck delivering parts. I loved it.

My siblings and I attended the city softball games, and the tailgate parties at Blue Rock Park. Vallejo was never frightening to us. 

Towards the end of 1981, I got married and moved to my husband’s house on Florida Street with my brother Pablo. My sister Debbie was already old enough by then to live alone with her boyfriend at the apartment on Pennsylvania Street.

Those years when I took care of my family successfully as a teenager are a huge part of my identity. They make me feel a lot of pride.

I spent most of my adult life outside of Vallejo but I returned in 2021. My goal is to be an advocate in the community for the underdog, the homeless, the people who don’t have a voice. I don’t think I’ll ever leave Vallejo again, because this is the place where I can do the most good.

— By Kimberly Ramos, community advocate

Send us your best Vallejo stories! Ideally they are under 300 words, tell something fun, quirky or inspiring that has happened to you in Vallejo, and read like a short story with a beginning, a middle, and an end. Email your submission to vallejovignettes@vallejosun.com. An editor will contact you if your story is being considered for publication.