Browse Items (249 total)

Constructed between 1818 and 1828 for the fifth comandante of the Santa Barbara Presidio, José de la Guerra, this "adobe mansion" was a center of the early community's political and social life. The house remained in the family for over one hundred…

Photo taken behind the Presidio Chapel at the 2012 Annual meeting of the Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation.

Portrait of Delfina de la Guerra as a young girl.

This is a picture of Delfina and possibly her sister, Herminia.

Donnie Yee, a cousin of Tommy Chung, was born November 10, 1930 in China, but moved to Santa Barbara as a child. He quickly got involved in local sports leagues, participating in baseball, track, and football. Donnie fought in the Korean War as a US…

Palomino horses, now a main feature in the Old Spanish Days Fiesta parade, are not native to Santa Barbara, but are the result of tireless work by Fiesta's first El Presidente, Dwight Murphy (above left). Golden Palomino horses, once known as…

This remnant of the Presidio was built in 1788, making it the oldest building in Santa Barbara. For many decades, the family of Presidio soldier Jesus Valenzuela lived in the adobe. In 1941, a group of citizens purchased El Cuartel and it became Boy…

The above interview is between Elizabeth Hvolboll and Luis Moreno, founders of El Coro del Real Presidio de Santa Barbara, a local choral group which celebrates and performs music of the Californios. The group sings in Santa Barbara’s annual Una…

Raised in El Paso, Texas, Elvira moved to Santa Barbara in 1975, where she started teaching a Spanish language course for native Spanish speakers at Santa Barbara City College (SBCC). In teaching the course, she discovered that the amount of readily…

Emilio Tabacci came to Santa Barbara in 1926 after immigrating to the US with his Swiss-Italian parents. His family owned a bakery on the 100 block of East Canon Perdido Street, near the site of what is now Jimmy' Oriental Gardens. He spent much of…