09/23/2026
Last Friday September 18, SDEMP spent the afternoon at the Chicano Park Museum and Cultural Center, learning the history behind one of Barrio Logan's most meaningful spaces.
Chicano Park was born on April 22, 1970, when the community turned a former trolley parking lot into what is now a beloved cultural landmark, on land that goes back even further as a dairy farm and a neighborhood with roots to 1910. The space itself has served the community since the 1990s, but it didn't become a museum until 2015, and it took until 2022 for the doors to actually open. Its community archive just turned two.
What we loved most: the museum's youth programs are free. Kids can come play, try airbrushing, learn pinstriping, and get a firsthand look at lowrider culture, described by staff as a "chrome and candy dream."
The museum also makes a point of spotlighting Chicano, Indigenous, and Brown artists, showing that great art is made right here at home, not just brought in from somewhere else.
Add in wellness programming, Indigenous classes, and a new Executive Director asking the community what they'd like to see next, and you have a small museum doing meaningful, intentional work.
If you missed this one, don't worry, we do these visits often.
Follow along for our next event and come see it for yourself.
https://sandiegoemp.org/events/
