Salinas Underground

The church of Rock & Roll comes to the podcast with one of Oz's childhood friends. Steve O talks about what it has been like to watch the Salinas music scene evolve over three decades and how it will continue to move forward. We talk about the Rocky Horror Show currently going on at the Paper Wing Theatre in Monterey. If you plan on going, be sure to know how to misbehave properly. If you don't know what that means, listen to the episode, and we will tell you all about it.

Once again, Salinas was in the national news for reasons that had nothing to do with agriculture or Steinbeck. Instead of adding more fuel to an already hot fire, we see this as an opportunity to look within our community and work on healing ourselves. We also talk about the unexpected recall election before finishing it up on a lighter note. In the next city council meeting, there will be a vote for more food trucks and the next step towards a beautiful new park in the middle of the city.

In this episode, we have a conversation with local writer Xago Juarez about his art and what it was like for him growing up in Salinas. We talk about his childhood and walking to Alisal High through the Old Lane and what it was like to live with some of the last Dust Bowl migrants in the Alisal. This one goes deep and drops a lot of knowledge, so you may want to grab a pen and paper to take notes.

Oz's soapbox was getting a little dusty, and he thought it was time to bring it back out. This week he and Electro discuss the mayor's fascination with big red trucks and another police shooting that ended with a teenager dead. The police shootings not only erode trust with the community, but if you go back over the last decade, you see that the city is also paying out millions of dollars in settlement money.

Some people are born and raised in Salinas. And some end up getting called here while sitting in a medidative bath. Samirah the Sapphic Siren (@siren.samirah) is the second kind of person and she decided to start her journey in Salinas in the middle of a global pandemic. She is a poet who transformed her poetry into a set of beautiful Tarot cards. She talks to us about how this set of cards came to be and why they are so personal to her. They are available to buy at Etsy.com/TarotTeaPoetry or if you can follow and view the cards on her Instagram @TarotTeaPoetry

If your family traces it's roots in the Salinas Valley back to your great-grandparents you are sure to have some local tales. David Hernandez has been a DJ in Salinas for the last couple of decades and is witnessing the nightlife shift over from Monterey to Oldtown Salinas. We talk about his company Monterey DJ and how Salinas can prevent itself from becoming the town from Footloose.

Nacho Ornelas was born in Tequila country in Mexico but he grew up in Salinas and now spends some of his time doing reasearch at Stanford University. He runs the Bracero Legacy project which aims to give a broader understanding of the Bracero program and it's cultural impact on the country. We also touch on a current hot-button isssue, Ethnic Studies, and discuss some common misconceptions. Another project Dr. Ornelas is working on is changing the name of an athletic field at El Sausal Middle School in honor of Joe Garcia Kapp a local sports legend that Sports Illustrated once called the "Toughest Chicano"

The Salad Bytes Media network that produces this show is constantly working on new and innovative podcasts when thousands of new shows are coming out every week. The latest show is Stay Low Podcast, a show covering all the major sports across the country. To introduce the podcast, we talk to Anthony and Rueben, two of the three hosts that will guide you through the ever-changing sports landscape. Listen as they break down some of the current NBA playoff action and talk about their plans for the show. Stay tuned for the first episodes of the Stay Low Podcast coming out at the end of June!!

This year's city budget is the most talked about in the eight years that we have been doing this podcast. We decided to take a deep dive into the 500-page document to answer some questions people may be wondering about. Where does the money for the budget come from? How big is the budget and where does all that money go? How much money is being hidden away in a secret fund to pay for trips to Bermuda? We do our best to answer all these without putting all of you to sleep.

With the recent news that Alvarado Street Brewery will open a restaurant and bar in what most of us know as the Rabobank Building, we decided to look into the history of this Salinas landmark. This leads us to a journey following the history of beer brewing in Salinas, which goes back much farther than we realized. In 1874 a couple of German immigrants started a brewery that lasted until the Second World War and shipped beer all over California.

The pandemic is still keeping us from going back to our regular lives but that doesn't mean that the growth of Salinas also stopped. In the next several years hundreds of new people are going to move into projects that are the advanced planning stages. Oz went through the permit centers reports to see what some of these projects may look like. One of the more interesting projects is a group of houses that is going to be built around a creek in Laurel Heights. Also the famous arch is finally up and it has Oldtown absolutely bombilating.

Eric and Ness are two-thirds of the team behind The Beerded Bean in Oldtown, which is going on its third year of serving up coffee, beer, and music. They tell us how a potty training moment at a pizza place in Pacific Grove led to their partnership and how a local restaurateur that rented out his kitchen helped them perfect the art of the Canela cold brew. This is an inspiring conversation and a great example of the potential future of businesses in Salinas.

February was Black History Month, and Oz promised you an episode on Black history in Monterey County. His guest hosts for this journey are Samantha and Frenchy from our sister podcast 831 Comadres. They start the show by talking about the Brown Berets and how some of their work crossed over with the Black Panthers' work. The last half is full of some of the most amazing stories we have uncovered while researching these local history segments!   If you don't yet subscribe to 831 Comadres head over and give them a follow!!

We've all driven on Highway 101 up and down Salinas hundreds of times but did you know that some of the route traces its history back to the late 1700s? In this episode, Oz traces the highway's history from an old stagecoach trail to a modern highway and even a glimpse into the possible future of this important piece of Salinas. We also talk about the recent storm and update the ongoing Main Street upgrade through Oldtown.

A major project to connect Salinas to the Bay Area with a commuter train celebrated the completion of its first phase. What does that mean, and when will we be able to jump on a train in Oldtown Salinas and hop in Downtown San Jose? Oz does his best to answer these questions before ending the episode with a history lesson on trains in the Salinas area.

Monterey Jack Cheese is probably the cheese we are most familiar with. The melty, soft, white cheese is most often found inside quesadillas, but where does it come from? Is it from around these parts, or is the name just a coincidence? Oz gets to the (possibly) bottom of this question. But first, an update on the renovation of the Dick Bruhn building in Oldtown. Also, a new city manager is about to take charge of the city. Who is he, and where did he work before Salinas? All on this episode!

Very soon, Salinas will have dozens of new apartments downtown, a new train connection to the Bay Area, and thousands of new homes on the Northside. Oz keeps thinking he's some Walter Mercado and can predict what this might mean for the people currently struggling to live here. Can anything be done to prevent the people that were born and raised here from being priced out?

One of the ingredients that make the Salad Bowl such a great place to live in is the hustle of its people. We were wondering what local businesses and artists were doing to sell their things in a time when we can't get together. We asked our old friend Rob from MASA what he is seeing and how he is jumping in to connect shops with customers. @vendors831 is one of his projects that is quickly gaining steam. Follow it on Instagram to find some dope items from local people!

Digital Nest is an organization that is trying to get the youth of our area the tools to compete in a modern workforce. We talk to their founder, Jacob Martinez, and their Salinas site manager, Yesenia Molina, to discuss how they have been doing that in Salinas and Watsonville. We talk about their history, the difficulties of being a Latino entrepreneur, and their plans for the future not just here in Salinas but all over the country.

The election has finally passed, and now we can get back to our normal routine here at Salinas Underground. I bring in the guys from The Electro and Banno Movie Power Hour to go over what happened in the election and talk about what has been going on in Salinas for the last month. This episode was recorded before the final counts were published, so the numbers we talked about are outdated.