Barrio Station celebrates 50 years of service to at-risk kids, community

Dozens of awards and certificates cover the walls of Rachael Ortiz's office. It's the kind of recognition earned for leading a youth and community center in Barrio Logan for half a century.

"I'm going to do this until I die," said Ortiz, executive director of Barrio Station Youth and Community Center, who is 78 years old.

Barrio Station offers numerous programs for kids ages 6 to 18, including counseling and athletic programs, as well as a gym and game room. The center has an annual enrollment of 2,500 kids.

The center is credited for curbing gang violence and drug use among at-risk kids in the community.

Although the obstacles kids face today are different than when the center opened — there's less gang activity now and more resources in the community — Ortiz says Barrio Stations' work is far from over.

"Barrio Station has made a huge impact," Ortiz said. "I feel that we've saved many lives from bad elements that prey on our youth. We have helped people to empower themselves as parents, family members, neighbors, to deal with things themselves."

Supporters and organization leaders recently celebrated the center's 50th anniversary. More than 150 community members, elected officials and educators attended a benefit dinner Friday.

Ortiz awarded activists who have championed social justice issues in San Diego. State Senator Ben Hueso, San Diego City Attorney Mara Elliott, and members of the San Diego City Council also awarded several certificates to Ortiz for her leadership.

Those certificates will have to wait for a space on the wall.

Barrio Station was founded in 1970 by advocates involved in San Diego's Chicano movement. They wanted to offer kids in Barrio Logan and Logan Heights a safe space to thrive. The vision was a boys and girls club with programs that helped kids develop physically and mentally.

Barrio Station first opened in a small Logan Heights building and over the years, as more kids enrolled, moved to its current 35,000-square-foot facility on Newton Avenue. The modest building has a gym, boxing ring, a game room, a hall for events, office space and counseling rooms.

Barrio Station is praised as a pillar in the community, but Ortiz is the first to admit it wasn't easy and took a lot of work.

Gang activity in the 1980s in the neighborhood was a significant reason for those hurdles. Ortiz addressed that by organizing dances to break up territorial differences and inviting guests such as actor Lou Diamond Phillips and the cast of the 1981 film "Zoot Suit" to speak with kids in the programs.

"I'd tell them, 'Don't get preachy on them,'" Ortiz said. "Just show them what you do and tell them that everybody loves them and that you're here for them."

She also turned her attention to improving the community. Ortiz became an iconic force, often pushing elected officials and advocating for resources. She organized protests with kids at the center against junk yards in the neighborhood and advocated for the community's zoning plan in 1978.

Beto Vasquez gets nostalgic thinking of his time at Barrio Station. He was 6 years old when his parents took him to the center in the 1980s. Over the next seven years, Vasquez took karate classes and ceramics and visited the swimming pool. It was a safe haven. Now 42, Vasquez thinks fondly of the free lunches the center provided during the summer.

"It was a place in the community where we could all convene," Vasquez said. "It was fun, and it was safe. Every time we were there it felt like we were going to be OK."

Vasquez was raised in Logan Heights and overcame homelessness, incarceration and addiction. Today he is a community outreach and engagement coordinator for UC San Diego and a commissioner on the city's Commission on Gang Prevention and Intervention.

"There is no other place like Barrio Station," Vasquez said. "Rachael has done an amazing job at being the gatekeeper for Barrio Station (and) being an advocate for the community for decades."

Ortiz spent her young adult and teenage years addicted to drugs and was incarcerated for a year in state prison for a felony drug conviction — she was pardoned by then-Gov. Jerry Brown two years ago.

After getting out of prison, she spent time volunteering with the United Farm Workers Union in San Francisco and developed a passion for organizing. She used those skills when she returned to Logan Heights.

Civil rights advocate Enriqueta Chavez said Barrio Station's impact on kids and the community has been tremendous. Chavez was involved with San Diego's Chicano movement in the 1970s and in the efforts to open the youth center.

"She has poured her heart and soul into that center," Chavez said of Ortiz. "Without her that center would not be what it is now."

Running the center has not been without financial obstacles. The center has struggled to secure funds and programming has fluctuated throughout the years, but the organization has carried on.

"We are going to continue being socially and civically responsible," Ortiz said. "We are going to continue shaping lives of young people and arming people here for leadership."

She's aware that the neighborhood has changed since 1970. The greatest threat to the community, she said, is displacement as a result of gentrification. She said she plans to turn her focus on efforts to update the neighborhood's community plan to ensure that kids in the community are not pushed out of the neighborhood.

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