Arts & Culture

This week, communities across the U.S. are celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month, a month dedicated to the histories, cultures and contributions of Americans whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, Central and South America. The origins of the observance began with President Lyndon Johnson, who...

Author Olga Rosales Salinas remembers clearly the folklore and myths she heard growing up in Watsonville. The Mexican legends of La Llorona and El Cucuy in particular stuck with her; stories themed around fear and often used to teach difficult lessons.  “I’ve often thought about what...

Artists in Santa Cruz County are setting the stage for the annual Open Studios Art Tour which runs three consecutive weekends. After being mothballed last year during the pandemic, this year will offer the public a sweeping array of art, from paintings, photographs, assemblage and...

SANTA CRUZ — The night sky was lit brightly with bolts of flames and electric lights Saturday evening during the annual Glow event at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History. The festival of fire and light drew a huge crowd to a closed-off...

A weekly column that celebrates local businesses — especially eateries, watering holes, coffee shops and the like. Tony Nuñez Food: The Farm House: Dino’s Stuffed Burger The Farm House restaurant has been open for some time now, but because our offices are downtown I have not had...

APTOS—Cardboard is a material that nearly everyone has at their disposal. Often used in packaging and shipping, it is usually broken down to recycle or saved to reuse. But cardboard can also be full of possibilities for artists. This is apparent at “Extraordinary Ordinary,” Cabrillo...

SANTA CRUZ—For years, KUSP was Santa Cruz’s non-university-affliated public radio station, offering local news and extensive music and talk programming, and acting as a regional affiliate for National Public Radio.  The station went dark in 2016, but it wasn’t long before a group of citizens...

WATSONVILLE—Two local arts organizations are hosting a four-day Holiday Boutique this week at the historic Porter Building in downtown Watsonville. Arte Del Corazón (ADC), a group that has been staging open-air art shows, markets and events throughout Watsonville since 2019, is organizing the boutique with...

While Michael Wallace was serving as Managing Editor for The Pajaronian newspaper in the 1970s and 1980s, he learned a thing or two about getting to the bottom of a story.

APTOS—As a young man, Bapcha Murty moved from his native Chennai, India to attend UC Los Angeles and become an engineer. He went on to a career in the Silicon Valley tech industry that spanned more than two decades in several companies. But when Murty...