Stream with KPBS+ / Premieres Monday, Oct. 12, 2026 at 9 p.m. on KPBS TV
Four trailblazing women whose skills, leadership, vision and determination helped build San Diego. Their stories are about creating opportunities, solving problems, building businesses and institutions, and finding ways to survive and thrive.
The Women:
- Juana Machado was a skilled midwife, healer and nurse who delivered hundreds of babies and healed the sick and wounded. Her knowledge and leadership made her an important figure in 19th century San Diego.
- Doña Vicenta Sepúlveda de Carrillo was one of the first women to receive a Mexican land grant and became a pioneering rancher and entrepreneur. She managed nearly 20,000 acres at Rancho Valle de San José, now Warner’s Ranch, and more than 35,000 acres across Southern California, building a legacy as one of the region’s most respected ranchers.
- Margaret Tull Robinson was a pioneering Black entrepreneur who first established a bakery, then a restaurant, before building the Hotel Robinson with her husband in Julian, California, in 1897. Margaret’s vision, leadership and determination helped build a successful business and a lasting legacy.
Belle Benchley started as a bookkeeper in 1925 and became the San Diego Zoo’s first and only woman director. She helped transform the zoo into a world-renowned institution and established animal care and conservation guidelines adopted nationally and internationally. Yet for nearly 30 years, she did the work without the title, recognition or equal pay she deserved.
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Elsa Sevilla is the Executive Producer of HISTORIC PLACES WITH ELSA SEVILLA and the founder of Sevilla Productions, LLC, a company dedicated to documenting and preserving diverse histories. Her work as a filmmaker and historian shines a light on the rich narratives of the First People of the Kumeyaay Nation, who have lived in the region for millennia, as well as the first Mexican, Black, Jewish, Chinese, and Japanese people to arrive in San Diego in the 1700 and 1800s.
