SOLANA BEACH — Decades after Cipriana Martínez Gonzalez fought for the establishment of a community park in La Colonia de Eden Gardens, city leaders and community members gathered to formally recognize her legacy with a commemorative plaque at the park playground.
The small ceremony took place on Saturday during the Gonzalez family reunion, bringing together dozens of members of one of the original families to settle in La Colonia de Eden Gardens over 100 years ago. Another ceremony with the wider Solana Beach community is planned for July 16 at 4 p.m.
Tito Gonzalez, Cipriana Gonzalez’s son, described her not only as a wonderful mother and a “heck of a good cook,” but also as someone who always helped those in need and advocated for the community.
“She was a wonderful woman,” he said. “She was la madrina [the godmother] of La Colonia.”
Community members have been advocating for the past year for Gonzalez to be recognized at the new playground that opened last spring.
Gonzalez, who lived from 1906 to 1999, was born in Redlands but spent the majority of her life in La Colonia, where she advocated for the community and local landmarks. She married Salvador Gonzalez in 1926, and the two raised five children together in Solana Beach.
Gonzalez was instrumental in the construction of La Colonia Park in the 1970s. She was also a lifelong supporter of St. Leo’s Church, advocating for its construction after World War II and leading the fight against efforts by the Catholic Diocese of San Diego to remove the church in the 1960s.
She famously took the fight to Rome by writing to the Vatican, and was victorious in preserving St. Leo’s as a mission church.
In the 1930s, Gonzalez also fought to end segregated Americanization schools, where Mexican youth — including those from La Colonia — were forced to “assimilate” into American culture, including being punished for speaking Spanish.
She also organized annual fiestas for St. Leo’s church and started sewing circles to make altar linens and other church items. She was also the head of the Solana Beach Mothers’ Club, and a supporting member of the local Boys and Girls Club and the American Educational Guidance Association.
Gonzalez was also a supporter of the blind and would take her brother, Refugio, who was partially blind, and other blind parishioners to the Oceanside County Center for various programs.
Gonzalez’s grandson, Daniel Ramirez, said current generations must learn about trailblazers like his grandmother, who helped shape La Colonia into what it is today. These lessons are especially important right now, he said, as immigrant communities live in heightened fear of arrest and deportation.
“In a moment of fear and anxiety and uprooting, we have a witness to community solidarity. She would be entirely defending the vulnerable right now,” Ramirez said of his grandmother.
