Tony Estremera’s Journey to San Jose's barrio de Sal Si Puedes

Alfredo Daniel Garza "Danny", Keeping Community Organizing Alive

Tony’s life journey began in La Isla del Encanto, known to most people as Puerto Rico or Borinquén, what the Taino, the indigenous people of the island called their beautiful island.

While the island is indeed encanto or enchanted, the lives of the people has always been a hard life, characterized by economic exploitation and the marginalization of the people of the island so that the rich American corporations could reap profits and exploit the land and the people.

Tony’s sense of social injustice was with him at an early age and he carried it with him as his family migrated to New York City, where he experienced ongoing discrimination as he grew up.

As Tony grew into young adulthood he realized that he needed to make a huge life change, so he signed up for Job Corps and west to the Bay area where he went through the Job Corps program and was asked to consider college, which he initially found to be a daunting task.

Tony’s family eventually moved to San Jose and the family settled into the Sal Si Puedes neighborhood, where they again lived a life full of discrimination and limited educational and economic opportunity.

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