S1: Hey there , San Diego , it's time for KPBS roundtable. I'm Andrew Bracken. Another person has died in Ice custody at the Otay Mesa Detention Center. We check in on the latest news there. Meanwhile , has immigration enforcement in California jumped in recent weeks? What we know about reports of an immigration blitz in San Diego , and why it can be hard to get the complete picture of ISIS actions. Plus , one last look at your midterm ballot , why proposition 38 is dividing some in the medical research community and Dia de Muertos traditions , and why they remain meaningful for many across San Diego. It's all coming up on KPBS roundtable. On October 9th , Ice agents arrested a 43 year old Guatemalan man in Escondido. He died just two weeks later inside the Otay Mesa Detention Center. Ice says his death is under investigation. San Diego County officials are demanding an outside probe into what happened. Today on roundtable , we're talking about the state of immigration detention and enforcement just days before this year's midterm elections. Joining me to do that is Kate Morrissey , immigration reporter and co-founder of Daylight San Diego. She also has a Substack called Beyond the Border. Also , Elliot Padgett joins us. He's US immigration news editor for the Associated Press. Kate Elliott , welcome back to the roundtable.
S2: Thanks for having me.
S3: Hi , Andrew.
S1: So , Kate , I want to start with you. You know , tell me more about the man who died inside the Otay Mesa detention Center last Saturday. Who was he? And what do we know right now? Yeah.
S2: Yeah. So the San Diego County medical examiner has identified him as Guillermo Pascual Braganza. Um , he was 43. Uh , originally from Guatemala. Um , he was in Ice custody for about two weeks , and he was in , um , an assigned safety cell. According to Ice , when he died , which I think is , um , a very noteworthy thing , because if someone's in some kind of special observation cell , you would think that , um , there would be a pretty consistent monitoring of them. And so , um , there's there's some questions raised there. We don't have a lot of information yet about , like , who he was as a person. I'm still hoping to be , uh , gathering more of that information in the coming days and weeks. So , um , you know , I think there's always the as , as a journalist covering these things , you know , there's a , um , this , this balance of finding the story , but but not being pushy with people who are grieving , you know. And so like I think his his his story and its fullness and its wholeness of who he was as a human will come out in more depth as people are ready to , to tell that story. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. And you mentioned that this report that he was in , that was like safety kind of cell kind of under that monitoring. I think there have been some questions as to , you know , maybe members of the family reporting that that he did not have underlying health conditions. But what has CoreCivic , the company that owns the detention facility , said about what happened to him? Have they released much information at all at this point?
S2: Yeah , so we've gotten sort of brief statements from both core civic and ice core. Civic was a day earlier. Um , I think it was a day earlier than ice. They were they were before ice , for sure. Um , it might have been more than 24 hours. Um , this week has been a little bit of a blur. I apologize , but. So , um , he was found in unresponsive in his , uh , cell. Depending on whether you look at CoreCivic statement or ISIS statement , there's slightly different timestamps on that. Um , but it appears that there was , you know , several minutes before anyone started administering , um , aid to him , uh , according to the timeline that we've been provided by , by both entities. Um , and then paramedics were called , they arrived. They also attempted to provide , um , care to him and ultimately pronounced him dead , uh , there at the facility.
S1: So , as you mentioned , you know , there's still a lot of information to come. Um , it's going to take some time there. But , Elliot , I'm wondering how you see this story fitting into , you know , a larger pattern we're seeing with deaths in Ice custody.
S3: Well , it sounds fairly , unfortunately fairly common or a lot more common than it was under previous administrations. There have been about 60 deaths in Ice custody since President Trump returned to the white House in January 2025. A big increase , of course. You know , this is fairly typical in terms of the information flow. ISIS , you know , is required to report these publicly , and they usually do so pretty quickly , but with very little information. And it could be because they don't have the information or they're not ready. Well who knows why. But usually it's something like what Kate described. And we as reporters try to like Kate said , you know , try to find the families , try to find people who can give accounts. We had reported on a case in September of a man from Costa Rica who died in Ice custody in Louisiana. His girlfriend and his , um , sister and another cellmate were were told us that he had been. He was a diabetic. He was. Was complaining about not getting his his diabetes medications , uh , missed meals , uh , frequent moving. Uh , you know , that he was , you know , so and I will also mention that this , uh , question. Well , we reported in May that , uh , of these deaths since President Trump returned to office , ten were suicides , at least ten that we counted. And there's also a widespread problem of of medical neglect. We did a project , um , scraping court documents where we found 300 cases of alleged medical neglect across the country and 33 Ice facilities in 33 different states. One man who pulled his own teeth out because he was complaining of the pain became so unbearable and he wasn't getting help. A lot of people missing their medications for , uh , like I say , diabetes , high blood pressure , depression , epilepsy , any number of things. So , you know , I don't know what what this case involves will have to wait , you know , for a coroner's report. But it's fairly typical in these early stages to just not have a lot of information. I mean , it could have been. Who knows? I have no idea. Right. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. Kate , you wanted to add. Yeah.
S2: Yeah. I just want to really underline what Eliot said at the at the top , which is that this is , you know , a significant numbers of deaths that we've not previously seen. Last year , I believe the total was 33 , which was the highest number on record for any calendar year. This year. We're already at 30 that we know of , and we still have two months left in the year. And if we keep going at that rate , and we may very well top last year. So just just to give a little more flavor to the numbers that Elliot was already talking about. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. Important context there. Um , you know , Elliot touched on this just , you know , the overall the theme of of of lack of information and some of the difficulties in in obtaining that. And this happens at a time when we're hearing a lot of reports of , you know , a potential surge in immigration enforcement across California , including San Diego , being a part of that. What can you tell us about these reports right now? Yeah.
S2: Yeah. So we've you know , we've we've seen the reports that I think started with , um , some kind of leak internally from the government saying that they were going to do this. And , you know , whenever , whenever we see that kind of information for me as , as a journalist whose job it is to be a little bit skeptical , I'm like , okay , is this really happening? Or is this information getting put out because the government wants us to believe that it's happening? Like , what is the what is the reason for that? And if they want us to believe that it's happening , but it's not actually happening if I say that it's happening. Am I causing unnecessary fear for people? You know , so there's there's always some like weighing that has to happen when we start to hear these , these reports right of like how do I how do I navigate this? And , um , you know , but I think now with , with all of the eyes that we have on the ground every day with these community patrols and different folks who who are watching for Ice activity , we are hearing about more incidents anecdotally than we were hearing about before. I would say I personally am getting a lot more messages about individual cases than I was getting a month or two ago about arrests that are happening here in San Diego. I don't know if it's because people's awareness is is more heightened because of the reports , or if it's because it has gone up. I can tell you from my sort of very rudimentary , uh , data observations that I was able to do. There's a website that tracks ice sightings. Those seem to be on the up compared to a month or two ago when you just compare , like individual days. Um , excuse me , but it's , um , it's way too soon for us to have any actual data on arrest to be able to come to some kind of conclusive statement about how much it's up or whether it's up. Um , the most recent data that we have from the Deportation Data project is from back in July. That was already , uh , you know , an increase relative to earlier in the year. So it was already on its way up. And we don't know how much that trend is , has continued or whether it's sort of plateaued in that place. And I think it could be months before we get more data to be able to answer that question. Unfortunately , because the government doesn't really act transparently , transparently with that data at this point. The the deportation data project has to do , you know , public records litigation with their FOIA requests in order to get that information to begin with. Um , so it's it's kind of an open question. And I don't know if Elliot , you have any sort of thoughts to add on that , but. Yeah.
S3: Yeah. No , definitely. Yeah.
S2: Yeah. Yeah.
S3: Yeah. I mean , the deportation data project that's , uh , run out of UC Berkeley , UCLA , that's really like the best source that we have for , uh , for Ice data , which you would hope you would hope that we'd get better data given the billions of dollars that are going into Ice enforcement , the massive expansion and how how high it is on the national agenda. But we really just don't have good numbers. Uh , the deportation data project goes through July , and the only track arrests , they do not track deportations. There was a , um , DHS got very upset with a former , uh , official who was head of their statistics department. Uh , he he left a few months ago , I believe , month ago , and just came out with an estimate of , um , how many people have been deported , and DHS just said it was wrong. It's it's , you know , it really took issue. But they don't they haven't put out their own numbers like they used to. Since , since Trump returned to office since January 2025 , the border numbers are pretty good. CBP puts out numbers every month that are well scrubbed. Very detailed. ISIS has not put out any numbers. We get , you know , these press releases , we get press statements , but they're very , uh , the numbers are very rough and different officials give different numbers. They did put out a press release for August saying that , and it did give a precise overall number or headline number of how many arrests nationwide , it was 51000 plus , uh , which was the highest since Trump took office. It the previous high was in uh , uh , July and the high before that was in June. So they are you know , they have acknowledged that there has been this surge since June , uh , across the country , more arrests than than you saw last year during the operations in Minneapolis. That was this year. But Minneapolis , Los Angeles , Chicago is higher than than those periods. But yeah , there's definitely a data gap. And I think your your caution is , is well warranted because we , you know , we're without the numbers. We really don't know what's going on. We have these rapid response teams. I will say one more thing about this. I mean , I've definitely , you know , anecdotally noticed an increase and a palpable , um , change in , uh , in the sentiment. It's hard to gauge , but , um , I mean , just for example , we have been doing stories on Haitians , and they used to not go out , you know , they would they would rarely go outside. They would go out to , to , to for shopping for , to work. And now like they don't go out at all. So it's it's.
S1: Still having an effect regardless of what we know about the data at this point or not is what you're saying. Exactly.
S3: Exactly. Yeah.
S1: Yeah.
S3: Yeah , yeah.
S1: Um , Elliott , on data , you and your colleagues at the AP recently , you know , did a data tracking project looking at migration over the past decade. You know , I'm wondering if you can share some of the stories that emerged from from reviewing that data.
S3: We through Customs and Border Protection , we obtained the self-reported destinations of 4.5 million people who cross the border from Mexico and were released into the United States to pursue their immigration status. This is from 2017. Or was it 18 , um , to 2025? So over the last decade? Uh , and yeah , we found , uh , probably maybe the main takeaway was , um , well , we did a few stories out of it. One was just the incredible number of countries. There's more than 150 countries. Whereas previously it was , you know , 95% Mexican. A few from Central America. It's now from many countries from Africa and , um , uh , Asia , China , huge. Uh , so we we , we did a story from Cincinnati on Mauritania's , uh , settling there. I did a story. I went to Utah , uh , to do a story on Venezuelans. Because of that 4.5 million , about a million are Venezuelans. And they , uh , the story was about how they and Cubans were shunning Florida , shunning Miami. A lot are still going there , but a lot of them are saying , you know , too expensive. Uh , I love the weather. I love the Spanish. The people speak Spanish , but too expensive. Quality of life , not good , you know , traffic , etc.. So they're moving. Venezuelans have gone all over the country , um , everywhere. Atlanta , Chicago , Denver. Uh , as I mentioned , Salt Lake City Cubans have gone to Louisville , Kentucky , in a big way , um , to a lot of the meatpacking towns and Kansas and Nebraska I did , knowing I was coming in. Uh , we'd be talking today. I did look up San Diego and , uh , Haitians , by far the big the biggest group more than Mexicans , uh , a lot in the 921059211592116 , which I think 92105 is City Heights. Um , and then a lot out in El Cajon. Two uh , and then um , uh , as well in Escondido is a lot of Guatemalans interesting. So yeah , another trend I'll just mention real quick , a little more women and children. That's something that we didn't see , you know , a decade ago. So , um , yeah , just trying to we're trying to do with this , with this reporting. Is this this , you know , explain the the fallout from this unprecedented surge that we saw at the border. Uh , it peaked in 2020 23. But what has happened and , yeah , a lot , a lot of people , no question , are leaving voluntarily or involuntarily , but a lot of people are staying and a lot of them and I found in Salt Lake City , a lot of them opening businesses , buying houses , even though they're , uh , you know , they have a very uncertain immigration status A lot of them are putting down roots , and I imagine most of the the attitude I found is like , we're just going to try to wait this out for two years and hope that things ease up , um , after President Trump leaves the white House. But , well , that's wishful thinking on their part.
S1: Well , I mean , I mean , on that we're talking now just days before a midterm , national midterm elections , which has , you know , significant impact on the balance of power , potentially a lot of our conversations on immigration , you know , with each of you , have much been shaped on Trump administration policies. How are you seeing immigration policy , you know , influence this election? And what are you thinking about as we kind of reach this , you know , electoral turning point this coming week? Kate.
S2: Well , I think , you know , someone asked me about a week ago when I was on a panel what I think is going to happen after the midterms , if things are going to change in terms of of immigration policies , especially if power shifts and the Democrats take office. And , um. What I , what I said then and I stand by it and I'll say it again today on the radio , um , is that I don't expect there to be as much change as people as the public seems to think there might be , unless the public continues to pressure the politicians who end up in those seats. Um , and why do I say that? When you look historically at , for example , what happened under Trump won and then the transition from Trump to Biden. And when you look more historically at immigration policy and law in the US as a whole , the US generally tries to keep people from coming here. Right. Like that. That's It's a lot of the law and policy and rhetoric and mindset around immigration law in this country historically has been we need to stop this group from coming. We need to stop this from coming. We need to stop that. Right? We've had we've had a few moments where that mindset has shifted temporarily. But on the whole , that's how the law kind of has has shaken out over time. And , um , and that has included , you know , in the 90s , things like , um , prevention through deterrence , which is this idea that if you make it terrible enough for people to come here , then they won't , which , um , I would argue we were doing even before then , but we finally gave it a name in the 90s. Um , and it , you know , it it gives the US permission to sort of cause a certain amount of harm to arriving people so that they don't come right , or to allow a certain amount of harm to happen to people so that they don't come. And when you then take what Trump did during Trump one , he took. He took those ideas and things and made them more extreme. And then when Biden came into office and people thought , oh , there's going to be all of this change , he didn't really make it. Not what it was like. It stayed the same. He kept the status quo that Trump had normalized , but it didn't get more extreme again. So I think it could be a pause rather than a continuation of this pushing towards the extremes.
S1: And we're going to have to leave it there. Wish we could keep going , but we'll have you on again soon. I've been speaking with Kate Morrissey , immigration reporter , co-founder of Daylight San Diego , along with Elliott Padgett , U.S. immigration news editor for the Associated Press. Thanks so much , Kate Elliott. Welcome back to KPBS roundtable. I'm Andrew Bracken. Election day is just about here. And that comes with a lot of campaign ads , especially for statewide propositions. At least for me right now. One you may have seen is for or against proposition 38 , the proposal. The proposal would create an $8.4 billion bond that would fund medical research. Proponents say it would help fill a void for vital research on diseases like cancer and Alzheimer's , left by cuts in federal funding. Others are raising concerns over how the funds would be used and where they would go. Here to help us better understand , prop 38 is Jonathan Rosen. He is West Coast biotech and life sciences life sciences reporter for STAT news. Jonathan , welcome to roundtable.
S4: Thank you for having me.
S1: And Jonathan , we were talking earlier. I mean , we've had you on Midday Edition. We've spoken several times. We've done interviews. But I think a lot of it was over the pandemic era where it was over zoom. So this is the first time meeting in person. So it's great to have you in studio here with us.
S4: Fun to be here , I appreciate that.
S1: So , you know , tell us more about prop 38 and what it would do.
S4: So proposition 38 would essentially authorize $8.4 billion in bonds to fund immunology and immunotherapy research. As I think you said , at the top half of that money would go specifically towards Alzheimer's , cancer and heart disease research. The other half , the other 4.2 billion , would go to other areas of research within immunology. One of the specific things that's kind of interesting , and maybe we'll get into it a little more , is that half of the money would also go to a particular institute. It's not named in the proposition , but the idea is half of the money would go to one research institute , and the rest would then be awarded as research grants to individual institutes throughout the state of California. And then if you look a little closer in the text of the bill , there is some provisions around saying , for example , that any new drugs that come out of research funded by this prop would have to be sold at a 20% discount to Californians. So essentially the idea is that will benefit directly from that investment of taxpayer dollars. You know , there's also some language saying that any sales , 10% of money from drug sales or from patent licensing revenue would go back to the state. So the supporters have argued in a way that this would pay for itself over time , or that it could , and that this would result in drugs that are discounted for people in California. So those are some details.
S1: A lot of really yeah , a lot of angles here. You mentioned this institute and I want to get to that really quickly. But first you mentioned how , you know , immunotherapies. And I think I'm just wondering if you can briefly explain to us , you know , why is that important for these diseases. You mentioned that , you know. Yeah. Tell us more about how that kind of research works and why it's important. Sure.
S4: Sure. Absolutely. So immunotherapies are drugs that harness the immune system to do something. So for example , there are cancer drugs where you use small molecules to directly kill cancer cells. That's different from trying to activate the immune system that's already in our bodies to make it more potent. So there are various ways to do that. There are drugs called checkpoint inhibitors , which basically take the brakes off of the immune system because cancer after a while tends to weaken the immune system's power. Those have been really transformative for a number of cancers. There are drugs called car T cells that basically turn your white blood cells into more efficient cancer killers by equipping them with certain proteins that allow them to recognize and then destroy cancer cells. That's actually led to cures in some cases. So there's a lot of excitement around what this can do , what it's already done , and what it can do going forward. Moderna , for example , at at a conference in Spain , shared some additional data from a cancer vaccine. It's called the vaccine , but really it's a treatment for people with cancer treatment with for folks with melanoma. And they showed in a really important trial that patients who got that cancer vaccine , that treatment , which was an immune focused treatment , were less likely to have their cancer recur or come back. So there have been a lot of exciting developments. And basically , the folks driving the proposition or arguing that California can play an even bigger role in the future of that with this investment. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. So you you know , you mentioned this particular institute that is , you know , would in fact set up half of the funds. What is that group and how did it become so central in this discussion around the proposition?
S4: Yeah , I think that's probably one of the most important things to understand. So so the institute again , it's not named there's no institute named as the , the the recipient of the $4.2 billion or half of this props funding. But Cal Matters did some really great reporting towards the end of July , showing that if you look at the details , because the proposition lays out some very detailed criteria for what characteristics that institute would have to have. So it would have to be affiliated with one of the UC campuses. That UC campus would have to have a health system. That health system would have to see this many inpatients , this many hospital outpatients per year. It would have to be a health system that conducts clinical trials. I could go on and on , but basically , Cal Matters went through all those details and identified that there's really only one place in California that meets all those criteria , and that place happens to be called the California Institute for Immunology and Immunotherapy. It's also called CIII. So maybe I'll say that for short. What's interesting a couple of things are interesting about C triple C AI isn't fully operational yet. It's actually still under construction and will still be under construction until maybe 2028. I believe as of a few years ago , they had zero employees. If you looked at documents filed with the IRS , Cal matters wrote a story recently showing that that may have gone from 0 to 3 as of last month. And also , importantly , they were co-founded by Gary Michelson. Gary Michelson is a billionaire. He's a very successful retired orthopedic surgeon and maybe important for listeners to understand. He's the main person driving proposition 38. He is the number one funder by far. He's put at least 40 million of his own dollars into the Yes on prop 38 campaign , and probably more than that if you also include philanthropic organizations that he started as a way of funding various causes. I spoke with the guys on 38 campaign , and they acknowledged that prop 38 was his vision. Ultimately , even though they'll also then say that there were lawyers and other folks who helped write the specific language of the measure. But basically , he is the main central force driving this forward. and B just so happens to have cofounded an institute that would very likely be the recipient of half of the money. It should. Should this be passed by voters?
S1: And your reporting is bringing up some of the conversation around that? I think you , you know , spoke with , you know , experts in California politics who , you know , called the wording of the proposition oddly specific. You also spoke with members of the American Association of Immunologists. Tell us about , you know , that organization and some of the , you know , infighting that seems to be happening there around prop 38 right now? Absolutely.
S4: Absolutely. So I you know , as a reporter for STAT , we write for an audience of scientists and people who are interested in research. So I was having a conversation with the California researcher , California immunologist who had some concerns about prop 38 , and that left me thinking that it was probably worth taking a closer look. So as part of that , I ended up focusing in on AI or the American Association of Immunologists. So this is really the main. The largest and maybe one of the most important , if not the most important groups for that field. They've got 7700 members across various countries , and they have endorsed proposition 38. Maybe not surprising. It's funding immunology research. They do immunology research.
S1: Makes sense , right?
S4: Makes all the sense in the world. A fun aside , before I got into journalism I actually did my PhD in immunology. So.
S1: So you got some you got some skin in the game.
S4: Yeah , a little bit of a background in the topic. Uh , anyway , so I started looking into AI's stance on prop 38 and had to file a couple of public records requests to confirm all the details. But what I learned was that they actually seriously considered pulling back their endorsement. And that happened once they understood that Mickelson's institute would very likely be the recipient of of half of the money. And so what happened internally? And again , this this all came to public light through the records request. It wasn't something they planned to share with anybody. Was that their policy committee , the committee that advises them on science policy issues , had held a meeting also in late July and then voted and recommended the AI pull their endorsement. AI's governing body , which is called the council , took that under consideration , but they also spoke with doctor Michelson , asked him some pointed questions about where this proposition came , came from , how it came about , how it would work , and apparently , based on what they heard , they weighed the pros and cons and decided they were going to continue endorsing prop 38. And as I mentioned , this isn't something they plan to disclose. And actually , one of the emails I obtained , which was sent to the policy committee shortly after I had done a little bit of reporting , was encouraging them not to speak publicly or to speak with reporters about any of this , but but there was that internal debate. Hmm.
S1: Hmm. Well , now , you know , the proposition is in the hands of voters. So we've about a minute left here. I mean , what do we know about how voters are feeling about prop 38 right now?
S4: So there have been a couple of polls by Public Policy Institute of California , both of which indicate that slightly. You know , there's sort of a slight majority of likely voters who say that they would endorse proposition 38. So there was a poll done in September which said that about 55% of likely voters said they'd support the prop. The most recent numbers , based on a poll from mid to late October , were 57%. That's effectively the same. What's interesting is that you break that down by party support is 70% among Democrats and then 37% among Republicans. So so that suggests that to me that the yes on 38 campaigns argument that this funding is important because of the Trump administration's cuts to science , or because of the terminations of grants , because of the uncertainty that they've created , that that argument maybe is receptive or one that Democrats are receptive , and that's sort of being interpreted along party lines.
S1: I've been speaking with Jonathan Rosen. He is West Coast biotech and life sciences reporter for STAT news. Jonathan , great to have you on.
S4: Appreciate it. Thank you.
S1: And we'll include a link to Jonathan's reporting on our show notes today. Up next , how Dia de Muertos is being celebrated across San Diego. This is KPBS roundtable. Stay tuned. Welcome back to KPBS roundtable. I'm Andrew Bracken , D.O. de Muertos , or day of the dead is a time to remember and reconnect with lost loved ones through public and private celebrations filled with flowers , music , and , of course , skeletons. KPBS has been covering the holiday and how it's being celebrated across San Diego. Here with more is Mary Elena Castellanos. She is KPBS South Bay engagement producer. Also here is KPBS general assignment reporter Jacob Iyer. Welcome , both of you back to the roundtable. Great to have you here.
S5: Thank you.
S6: Thanks for having us here , Andrew.
S1: Malina , I want to start with you because , you know , we've talked in years past because it's been , what , 3 or 4 years now that KPBS has been doing a digital ofrenda. Remind us about that project and how it's evolved over the years. Yeah.
S5: Yeah. Um , well , we started back in 2023 , and that was the first year I was working here at KPBS. And um , then like now , which hasn't changed , is we , you know , ask ourselves often , you know , what are things we can do to connect with , um , the Latino , Latinx , Latina , Chicano , Chicana , Mexican , Mexican-American , Spanish speaking communities and , um , well , you know , day of the dead is just such a popular , uh , tradition. Um , it has a lot of communal aspects to it. You know , it brings people together. People love it. Um , they connect with it. Um , it means so much to them. And so we thought , you know , this could be this could be a way for us to connect with the community as well. And that's how we that's how we got started. Um , uh , this year we've had , um , a lot of submissions as we've had in the past. And , um , it's still going and , um , I've been reading through a lot of them. They're very they're very deep , emotional , sad , beautiful. Um , and they , you know , they really I think they really do allow for that connection. Um , you know what we're doing , it's more of a more of a modern way to , um , celebrate the other muertos. But it still has a lot of the traditional elements. Um , because each person takes the time to honor , um , someone that meant a lot to them. And that is very much like setting up your ofrenda or an altar. But here you're writing your words. Um. and then , you know , then it's it's , it's goes up on the altar and we also have , like , a beautiful altar , we have the colors , just like the tradition has. Um , but it does provide so many beautiful connection points , um , not only through the culture , but also , you know , through being able to connect , um , through grief. You know , when you read through the friends , you know , you don't know the person , but you read the story and , and then you get to know a little bit about them. You know , you can you can feel the love that they had for this person. And you can see the grief and the loss , and you can also see the other person's love for them.
S1: Can you can you share an example? Yes.
S5: Yes. Um , well , I have to say that we it's so hard to pick. There's so many beautiful ones. But I'm going to start with this one. This one is for Julie Guffey. Um , and this is how this is what it says. This is my best friend , Julie. She died in February , two days before her 60th birthday. This was supposed to be our year of celebration , but it has been a tough one. She loved her family , the Padres , and having fun. She was an awesome human. We loved to travel together and we went to many Padre games in the past 20 years. We went to 24 different countries and saw 36 different bands at concerts. She was a wonderful mom , grandma and friend and she used miss so badly every single day. And that was submitted by C.J. dinette in the alpine area.
S1: Really , really beautiful. Jacob , I mean , you've you've covered this holiday. I think , you know , for a few years now here at KPBS this week , you reported on a Dia de Muertos celebration that's been happening in the South Bay for , what , nearly 20 years? And it happens at La Vista memorial Park. Tell us about that. Yeah.
S6: Yeah. So the radio version of the story is up. We're going to get the online version up and the television version will air tonight. But what we really wanted to look into here was there's been this cemetery that , you know , it's kind of fluctuated in its size and scale , but more or less for about 18 years now , they've they've put on this what they call a , a more traditional south of the border sort of style , um , Dia de Los Muertos celebration , not just for the families of those , uh , who have lost loved ones that are actually laid to rest at this place , but for the community to come in to and take part. So we spoke to some family members , um , of those who who have people who have been laid to rest there. And then we talked to one of the co-owners of the site about this larger , uh , event , this larger celebration and why it's so significant to her and in the community.
S7: To build an altar , to put it together , to make the seven levels that represent the ascension , and to put the salt that represents the taste of what their spirits would flavor their food with. Um , it was such a therapeutic way for me to continue to do something as his mother.
S6: So that was the voice of Angela Riggs. She was one of the individuals I spoke to who had lost a loved one. Her story was , as she described it to me , tragic. She lost her son , Leo , back in 2013. He was just 26 days old. He was an infant. And you know , they have other kids in the family. Uh , her husband , they they build an altar every year. They hadn't even done this prior to the loss. But she was just so deep in grief , and she was looking for this physical way to stay in touch with her son as as was the rest of her family. So since since his passing , they've really just thrown themselves fully into Dia de Los Muertos. And she said it in that quote. I mean , it's been therapeutic for her , and it's really helped her physically feel like she stayed in touch with her son.
S1: Marilyn , have you heard similar , you know , thoughts and feedback from from folks you speak with about celebrations , whether digitally , like on the KPBS site or just in the events that you go to around the.
S5: Oh , yes. Um , we we were just at the Sherman Heights Community Center a few weeks ago. Um , and we were speaking with some of the volunteers and staff that put on the events there. And , um , you know , every person we spoke with , um , said very similar things. Um , and one of the things that really stood out to me is we spoke with Daniel Passos , who's one of the volunteers of the procession event. Um , and he was talking about he really emphasized that , you know , having the events here , um , gives people who You may not have grown up here , but can't. They can't go back. They can't go back to where they're from. They can't go back to their countries for different reasons. And they want to be able to mourn their loved ones , and they want to practice this beautiful cultural tradition. And that's why they they hold some of these events. And I know some of the other organizations in San Diego , that's the reason for for doing it as well.
S1: And I think we have a clip from from Daniel Passos. Here's a little of what he told you.
S8: We create an experience for people who can't go , whether it be health reasons , status reasons and money reasons. Um , and we provide that here. And I've heard people tell me it was magical. Um , it was , um , like being home. I felt my grandmother walking with me.
S1: I mean , you just get so much from that clip , right? I mean , yeah , I don't know what what jumps out to you about hearing that?
S5: Well , you know , he. He really talked about how , um , when people. You know , there's nothing like being able to to experience it , to come together to practice it. And , um , and , you know , he says , he mentions right there your grandmother walking with you. And he was telling us that , um , when they have some of their events and people go. Um , some people have actually never even experienced it , but once they're there , um , they really start to understand. And also , you know , themselves grieve for other families that are grieving. Uh , so it becomes more of a collective and a way to come together. And , and that's part of the reason that's another reason why they have it that he was sharing with us.
S1: And , Jacob , you know , this this holiday has Mexican roots. We kind of keep , you know , hearing kind of references to Mexico and trying to remain connected to it. We in San Diego have a strong connection with Mexico culturally and geographically in a lot of ways. How do you think that shapes how day of the dead celebrated here? Yeah.
S6: Yeah. You know , it's interesting in the story that I was reporting on Luisa McCarthy. She's the co-owner of the cemetery itself. She's from Mexico City. So her intention with this was she had seen that there's a lot of various celebrations , much like the one Marlena went to in person. There's a lot of other ones that have kind of cropped up in recent years. It's starting to become maybe more public , in Luisa's words , maybe a bit more commercial in some senses. What she really wanted to do was provide not just for the families , but for the community , this traditional sense. You know , like families are bringing candle lights or votive to go by the graveside , like she said , is more traditional , like you would see in various places throughout Mexico. More , more , you know , it's more practiced in kind of the central and southern parts of Mexico. Um , but she really wanted to have that deep community connection. And and for those who like have , Marilena had said , might not be able to go back to a country for whatever reason. Um , you know , she had mentioned that other folks come out there and , and feel this deep connection. So whether it's people who have never participated before , like we had heard from , uh , Angela Riggs earlier , um , to people who might not otherwise be able to go home , she was trying to provide a space. And you can hear in this clip , um , she herself has family on other side of the border.
S9: It started with my dad passing , and he's laid to rest in Baja California. But when I came and integrated here at La Vista , I thought , whoa , I don't have his headstone here , but what I can do is have an altar for him.
S1: Well , um , Marilena , you know , as you both have mentioned , really the heart of this holiday is connection with , you know , folks we've lost. Wondering if you can , you know , share another memory or two that that you've gotten this year.
S5: I would love to. Um , this one came from Chicago. Um , it's honoring Carmen Silva. Lafayette. Um , it's in Spanish. Um , it's bilingual , actually. And , um , here it goes. Me mama , proud mexicana teacher , beloved mama , abuela , Hermana and Tia. Siempre en el Corazon de todos. Te amo. Mucho mamacita. And that was from Emma McCann.
S1: That's really , really beautiful. Do you have another quick one? I have a few seconds left.
S5: A little long one. Well , I have that. Okay. Okay , a quick one. Uh , well , I'll. I'll shorten it. This one was , um , honoring a pet. Remy. Um. And here goes. We don't know Remy's exact age. Remy was rescued from a euthanasia list by grandma buddy's animal rescue Several years ago , he was adopted twice , but it but didn't end up working out and he was recently returned in September of this year. He deserved so many more years to enjoy the couch and snacks. He was at a he was a sanctuary dog and cared for by the rescue in the last few weeks and passed in September.
S1: That's a great way to end it. I've been speaking with Marilena Castellanos. She's a South Bay engagement producer here at KPBS , along with KPBS reporter Jacob Eyer. I also want to give a shout out to student assistant Karina montes , who worked on some of this reporting as well. I thank you both for being here today.
S6: Thanks for having us.
S5: Thank you.
S1: And you can view some of the digital offer vendors this year. You can go to KPBS for more. And that'll do it for our show this week. Thanks so much for listening. See you next time.
