Arts & Culture

WATSONVILLE—A new 50-by-54-foot colorful outdoor mural of a humpback whale was recently completed at Marinovich Community Center on Second Street. Painted on the blacktop of the basketball court, work began on Oct. 25 by Watsonville artists Augie WK and Jessica Carmen. “Once we were done and...

WATSONVILLE—For the first time ever, the city of Watsonville has its very own poet laureate. Longtime resident Robert Gómez will for the next two years be working to advance the literary arts throughout the Pajaro Valley.  A poet laureate is appointed by a government or...

WATSONVILLE—Situated along the western coast of São Jorge Island in Portugal is Velas, a historic port town with a population of just over 5,580 people. Located in the Azores, the city is one of the oldest settlements on the island, boasting incredible ocean views...

WATSONVILLE—“The Apple King,” a novel inspired by Watsonville’s Croatian community and its historic role in the region’s apple industry, recently won the Connecticut Author Project Award and will be featured in an issue of the national Library Journal publication. Author Barbara Anne King was born...

WATSONVILLE—A large gathering of people celebrated the Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe the Virgin Mary Sunday at Pinto Lake County Park. Based on Catholic tradition, the virgin appeared to a young boy, Juan Diego, in Mexico in 1531. Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe...

WATSONVILLE—The Watsonville Film Festival (WFF) will soon celebrate its 10th anniversary, and to commemorate the occasion it has launched a fellowship to support local up-and-coming Latinx filmmakers.  The Cine Se Puede fellowship will support five emerging filmmakers from Santa Cruz County and the Pajaro Valley...

WATSONVILLE—Watsonville artist Augie WK for two years has dreamt of bringing a humpback whale to life at the Marinovich Community Center. It was 2019 when the upstart muralist was approached by Watsonville Environmental Science Workshop coordinator Darren Gertler and asked if he’d be interested in...

WATSONVILLE—Local author Jaime Cortez always had nicknames, and now one of them has become his first book. “Gordo,” a paperback collection of stories, is quickly gathering praise after its release by a national publisher in August. And while “Gordo” is Cortez’s first widely distributed work,...

The Tobera Project, a local initiative aiming to preserve, honor and celebrate the Filipino immigrant experience in the Pajaro Valley, is continuing to grow in scope. From the ongoing “Watsonville is in the Heart” exhibit and subsequent calendar chronicling the history of local Filipino-American heritage,...

WATSONVILLE—A virtual event created to highlight writers of color was canceled on Nov. 11 after a group of anonymous attackers logged on to their Zoom meeting, and then shouted racial and homophobic slurs and broadcast pornographic images. Such an attack is known as a Zoombombing,...