San Diego activists have gathered more than 500 signatures on a petition for a stand-alone cottage celebrating Mexican culture in Balboa Park.
Mexico is one of 33 countries in the House of Pacific Relations, a nonprofit that celebrates the city’s cultural diversity with music, art, dance and food in the park.
Only 19 of those 33 countries have actual cottages. Mexico is not among them.
Enrique Morones, director of the nonprofit Border Angels, said he thinks the park’s display should include a stand-alone cottage for Mexico, considering the large Mexican population in San Diego and the city’s proximity to the border.
“I received all kinds of phone calls going, how come there is no House of Mexico?” Morones said. “This is unbelievable. We need you to do something about it.”
In 2004, Morones founded the House of Mexico group. It linked up with eight other groups in the House of Pacific Relations to form the New International Cottages Committee, which has been working to get nine new houses built in Balboa Park since 2009.
The committee has finally obtained the permits it needs for construction and is in the final stage of raising funds. Construction is set to begin in the spring of 2016. But because of space limitations in Balboa Park, most of the countries in the committee will have to share duplexes. Only the House of the Philippines will get its own building.
Morones says he was aghast when he learned that the House of the Philippines had been given priority for the stand-alone cottage.
He said, “For the Philippines? They already have a house.”
It’s true, the House of the Philippines is currently sharing with France in the main courtyard of the international cottages display. But the groups in the committee were allowed to choose new locations based on their seniority in the House of Pacific Relations.
The House of the Philippines joined in 1961. Morones argues that this means it came after the House of Mexico.
“Mexico was there in 1935. We were there at the very beginning,” he said.
That’s also true, but the House of Mexico was expelled twice for reasons that remain a mystery. No one interviewed by KPBS could explain why. Some, including Morones, speculated that the expulsions were rooted in racism. Others guessed the House of Mexico failed to file the right paperwork.
Morones’ group has only been around for about a decade. So the House of Mexico will have to share a duplex with India.
“At one time, San Diego, California, the whole Southwest was all Mexican,” he said. “We had the land taken away from us. Now they’re taking away our house and we’re not going to stand for it.”
In his petition, Morones asks Mayor Kevin Faulconer and other city officials to secure a stand-alone cottage for Mexico. The minister of tourism for Baja California and other Mexican officials have also written letters to the mayor in support of the House of Mexico.
In response to a request for comment, the mayor's press secretary Charles Chamberlayne issued the following statement:
“The mayor supports the expansion of all nine cottages including the House of Mexico as a part the House of Pacific Relations expansion efforts. The House of Mexico expansion is especially fitting given the large Mexican presence in San Diego and our proximity to the border.”
The statement did not address Morones' request for a stand-alone Mexico cottage.
International Cottages Committee Chairman George Novinger said he doesn’t think Mexico is going to get its own cottage.
“Ideally, I think all of the houses would like to have a stand-alone, individual cottage, but because of constraints and limitations … and various bureaucratic obstacles to building the cottages, that’s just not possible for everyone,” he said.
Novinger is the president of the House of Peru, which will be sharing a duplex with Palestine.
“I think it’s a wonderful thing that the two houses that will share each duplex will learn from each other and coexist there pacifically, peacefully together, in the same vein as the House of Pacific Relations was founded,” he said.
Novinger said the House of Pacific Relations was created in 1915 “to delight and inspire and educate” visitors by showcasing the city’s multiculturalism.
“Visitors who come to the park to visit the cottages almost get to take an international tour,” he said.
The initial plan for the new cottages was to build three duplexes and a triplex, but an important tree was in the way. So the triplex had to be split into a duplex and a single cottage.
“Although we understand Enrique’s desire and the reasons behind wanting an individual house for the House of Mexico, we really don’t believe that his actions at this point are appropriate or helpful to the cause,” Novinger said.
He said it took years to get approval for the current layout, which takes into account the complicated tree and root system of the park.
Art Castro, representative for the House of Mexico on the committee, signed off on the plan to share a duplex. He selected its shared location with India.
“We’re really looking forward to having our own house,” Castro said. “Now we can basically say we’re no longer homeless. That’s what I like to say. We’re no longer homeless. If we were to start the process again, we’re basically back to step one, and there’s about five different boards that have to review the whole process.”
The current president of the House of Mexico, Bertha Hernández, said she has agreed to move forward with the duplex plans, but that she supports Morones’ petition.
“How can you not have a House of Mexico?” she said. “We have a House of the U.S., we have a House of many other nations, and Mexico should have had its House a long, long time ago.”
Morones said his petition isn’t meant to derail current plans.
“There’s a happy solution. We don’t want to eliminate anybody. If the Philippines are gonna have their own house, God bless them. But we should have our own house. We were there before. We’re the largest community by far,” he said.
He questioned the idea that the park lacks space for an additional stand-alone cottage.
“There’s plenty of room,” he said. “Plenty of room. We could easily move one of those trees.”
City officials have expressed the importance of preserving trees in the Balboa Park Master Plan.
