In late December, Clementine Sanders called her son at Coalinga State Hospital to make sure he had received her Christmas card. That’s when his bunkmates informed her that her son, 58-year-old Shannon Starr, had died three weeks earlier. “I was just totally shocked,” she says. “Nobody called me.” Since then, …
Read More »This Parlier Family Doesn’t Want You To Experience What They Did – Three Generations Got COVID-19
Brianna Cisneros is the youngest of four siblings. On this cool December evening, she’s sitting at a table in her backyard with her two sisters, her brother and her father. A dog barks nearby, there’s music playing from a neighbor’s house down the street. Signs of normalcy in a not …
Read More »UC Merced Professor’s Documentary About Refugee Family Screens Internationally
A 2019 documentary that was directed and produced by UC Merced global arts professor Yehuda Sharim will be screened internationally over the next few weeks. The film, titled “Songs That Never End,” explores the displacement and struggle of new refugees through the eyes of two young siblings who immigrated to …
Read More »‘God Bless You, Heidi’ – Family Evacuated In Creek Fire Overwhelmed By Support
People across the San Joaquin Valley have been rallying to assist evacuees from the Creek Fire. For one family, the gift of a tent led to a change in outlook. When Matthew Warner and his family were evacuated from their home in Tollhouse last week, they weren’t planning on camping, …
Read More »The Morales Family On Playing Mariachi Music Through The Pandemic
Last August, we introduced you to a Delano teen who had just released her own mariachi album and was preparing to attend Harvard University with her older sister. In mid-March, sisters Anaí and Xóchitl Morales returned home to Delano to finish their semester at Harvard online, due to COVID-19. Since …
Read More »In Kerman, This Punjabi American Stays Connected To His Faith And Family
We know the San Joaquin Valley is home to diverse communities and cultures, and this year we’re bringing you audio postcards from some of the families who settled here a little more recently. Today we’re going to hear from Amanprit Singh Dhatt at his home in Kerman. The city is …
Read More »Fresno County, Assemi Family Settle Over Unpermitted Pistachio Plant Development
Fresno County has settled with a family of pistachio growers over unpermitted building on what the family contends will be the largest pistachio plant in the world. The County issued permits back in September to Ventana South, LLC and Touchstone PIstachio, LLC for the construction of 49 siloes in Cantua …
Read More »‘The Nicest Person That I Have Known’ – Shooting Victim’s Family Asserts No Gang Ties
One of the men killed in Sunday’s mass shooting in Southeast Fresno was a young musician named Xy Lee, who had tens of thousands of Youtube followers. Despite implications from the Fresno Police Department that the shooting could have been gang-related, Lee’s family asserts he was no gang member . …
Read More »A Family Was Stopped By ICE On The Way To School. ‘I Always Thought Fresno Was A Safe Place.’
Fifteen-year-old Sandra Hernandez can’t get this one Tuesday morning out of her head. “All I was thinking at that time was ‘I wanted my dad back,’” she said. “I wanted him to get in the car and for us to go to school like any other day.” Her father, Hugo …
Read More »Assemi Family Files Lawsuit Over Pistachio Contract With Wonderful Company
A prominent Fresno family has filed a lawsuit against the Wonderful Company for breaching a contract of payment. The complaint , filed last week in the Fresno County Superior Court, alleges that the Wonderful Company, which also markets other Central Valley agricultural products, retroactively reduced the price it promised the …
Read More »In The Studio: How Do You Prepare Students For College When They’re The First In Their Family To Go?
Going to college is hard enough, but what if no one in your family can tell you how to study, help you choose classes, fill out financial aid forms, or even apply in the first place? What if you’re the first in your family to experience this? A federal program …
Read More »Louisiana Man Revisits Fresno, Where His Family Assembled Before Being Interned 78 Years Ago
A Japanese-American man from Baton Rouge, Louisiana visited Fresno for the first time in 78 years Tuesday to see where he and his parents had to report in 1942 after President Franklin Delano Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066. Walter Imahara was 4-years-old at the time. What is now the Fresno …
Read More »For Thanksgiving Hosts, Carrying On Family Traditions Means More Than Just Turkey
We’re going to hear from a few San Joaquin Valley residents about how they celebrate Thanksgiving. Like most families, it’s a time for them to gather, cook, and the menu usually includes the expected turkey and mashed potatoes. But they also incorporate other cultures into their gatherings. You can hear …
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