Three Portraits of Santa Barbara

Description/Purpose: Described as the American Riviera, Santa Barbara is not only renowned for its mountains that rise from the ocean and jacaranda trees that always seem to be in bloom, but a rich history of Spanish and Indigenous culture, Hollywood's grassroots, and world class surfing. Growing up in Santa Barbara, I saw how these intersecting identities both inspired and conflicted my peers, and ultimately influenced their forms and sub-cultures.  After leaving for several years, I now hope to return home to research and document how youth perceive their town differently, in what ways Santa Barbara has inspired their passions and how that youth now hopes to impact the city’s future.

Methodology: ‘Three Portraits of Santa Barbara’ is an entirely qualitative research project.  Although the film will appear primarily observational, I will conduct thirty minute interviews with each participant, then overlay their voice-overs throughout the piece. While I have a series of set questions to ask, I have found in the past a semi-fluid interviewing process often renders the most interesting and genuine responses. 

Before selecting any direct quotes for the final film, I will conduct a thematic analysis in order to code and closely examine broad themes and patterns.  This will allow me to decipher and highlight what commonalities or substantial differences each subject holds ideologically. 

Lastly, I will perform a content-analysis to more clearly study the meanings behind words and phrasing.  Through these analytical steps, I hope to reveal authentic and emotionally substantial moments to produce a more compelling project.

Findings: When we set out to document this project, our goal was to discover how a place inspires a younger generation's art, and how they want to impact their community in return. How we accomplished this was by following a young surfer, songwriter, and flamenco dancer, and allowed them to tell their unique stories from varying backgrounds.  In examining our hometown with a closer lens, we have found cultural divides, broad historical misunderstandings, and the most influential aspects of Santa Barbara’s character traits in its younger generation. 

For instance, Fiesta, a summer festival celebrating Santa Barbara’s Spanish heritage is enjoyed by our town and neighboring cities with little critical thought or intervention. After interviewing with the flamenco dancer, she highlighted the problematic nature of celebrating and creating a large festival for the colonizers who wiped out Santa Barbara’s indigenous population, the Chumash people. She further goes on to describe the complexity of Santa Barbara’s romanticization of Santa Barbara’s Spanish roots, such as how tourists and locals alike enjoy the red spanish tile roofing, yet feel uneasy when confronted by people actually speaking spanish.

Another finding was Santa Barbara’s investment in its paradise perception. The songwriter in our film discusses how locals stray away from difficult conversations in favor of maintaining  the delusion of Santa Barbara as a perfect oasis. The finless surfer adds to this idea by explaining how this type of thinking permeates into areas such as our pollution control  and over development. Santa Barbara has suffered from a terrible drought for decades now, yet there is no movement towards creating development restrictions.

While having conflicting relationships with their home, all three participants felt especially privileged to grow up in such an astoundingly beautiful place with so many intersecting cultures.

Personal Impact: Growing up I always found the natural and social environment of Santa Barbara fascinating and convoluted.  We read about the Chumash’s artisanal work and their sophisticated environmental conservation practices yet, they were pushed to the less desirable Santa Ynez Valley and forced to create income through casinos. Almost half of Santa Barbara’s population is Hispanic, yet we were never required to learn the language in school and classes were basically segregated by ethnicity.  Santa Barbara films showed surfing, skateboarding and palm trees but never explained what came before.  Everyone, including me, seemed to understand there were other conversations to have and stories to acknowledge but, instead discussed how the jacaranda trees always seem to be in bloom.

With this project we hoped to recognize each distinct culture and seek how the youth of Santa Barbara interprets these historical forces.  It has been fascinating to explore how their identities and community have played a role in their passion and how they in turn hope to impact their community with their passion. We have enjoyed giving young adults a voice, and learned about our home through their art.

Next Steps: Because this project’s final form is a documentary film, our initial hope is to show this publically and hopefully inspire other young voices to speak up and think critically about their own homes.

More specifically to this project, each of the three participant’s give a closing remark about what problematic traits exist in Santa Barbara and how they hope to impact those specific areas.  For example, the musician believes that music has the power to close certain ethnic divides within the city, and can be a powerful tool in telling one’s own story. 

As for the Flamenco dancer, she hopes to teach young women in her dance company, high self-esteem and self-worth. Additionally, she hopes to suggest reform to the board of Old Spanish Days, and propose a more holistic celebration of all of Santa Barbara’s history, including our Chumash history. 

Lastly, the surfer addresses the lack of diversity in the water, and the ocean’s pollution. He proposes in an effort to get more people of color and non-cis-males in the water, to have beach events in which experienced surfers create outreach to varying communities and offer free lessons and equipment.