Lisa Montes, community advocate, educational mentor, and cultural defender, turns to her roots for inspiration
By Melanie Slone
When Lisa Montes’ mother’s cousin needed a haircut to start kindergarten, Mexican Americans in La Colonia de Eden Gardens were prohibited from using services outside their enclave. So, the community set up its own barber shop. And that was just the beginning.
“Everything I learned about what is important in life came from my ancestors, watching my parents, my tías and tíos,” Lisa tells North County Informador.
Lisa’s family was one of 30 that moved to the neighborhood in the 1920s, to work in the citrus, lima beans, and tomato industries. “My roots are deeply set here in historical La Colonia de Eden Gardens,” she says. “I watched the things that my parents and my tíos had to fight for. That really inspired me to continue to give back to the community.”
Lisa talks about the Americanization school in the racially segregated area. “My family basically started this community.…They weren’t allowed to go into Greater Solana Beach,” she tells us.
“I heard all the stories growing up as a child…I was a listener… and it really influenced me when I was a young girl to be become a community advocate.”
She heard how the families raised money for those in need; how her Aunt Cipriana took a bus to the San Diego County Office of Education to fight for desegregation in the schools and fought to save the community church, taking her complaint to the Pope.
“It made me stronger as a person,” says Lisa. “We’ve earned our right here, to be in this country.” Her uncles and cousins went to war for this country and later formed the Oceanside chapter of the American GI Forum, a Latino veterans’ organization, and were involved with the 1960s civil rights movement.
The neighborhood restaurant Tony’s Jacal belonged to Lisa’s great uncle Tony Gonzalez, who she says was a philanthropist. “He made his fortune here in his restaurant, built it from scratch, and always gave back until it really hurt. …My tíos’ children sponsor hundreds of baseball teams, softball teams. My tío owned the site where the first Boys’ Club was…He loaned it out for one dollar.”
Listening to the stories about her family made her decide, “My parents gave back. My tío and tías gave back. So, that’s what I’m going to do with this community.”
The Go-To Person
Lisa has strong roots in her community, so she knows who to talk to when a problem arises, helping families with school issues, drug issues. “Let’s make some phone calls,” she tells them. “I’ve always seen myself as that go-to person to connect them with people…I know the pulse of the community…Whenever I can see that there’s a need, I try to put it together or contact the city,” she says.
Some of her community work has included helping provide bilingual books for parents to read to their children.
She also helped organized Tacos with the Community, a get together with community law enforcement. “I could see an uptick of things happening here in the community,” she says. “Our sheriffs come out. They need to sit with our people from this community and talk to them. Our people need to trust them.”
During the Covid emergency, she helped organize vaccinations in the parking lot of La Colonia Park and helped hook up with a program to bring a food truck. “People were unemployed…We started giving out food. Cars lined up all the way around the corner.” She even helped drive older people to the Del Mar Fairgrounds for their shots, “so they could see a familiar face.”
Lisa was on the founding board of La Colonia Community Foundation and later became its president. In the past couple of years, she has passed on the torch, helping “train the younger generation to take over.”
Lisa will soon receive a Congressional Award from Congressman Mike Levin for her community work.
Education and Mentoring
In her professional life, “Youth and families, that’s been my focus,” Lisa says.
She worked at Palomar and MiraCosta Colleges for 37 years combined, guiding students to their dreams. She also organized conferences for some 900 kids through the Encuentros program.
She often mentored first-generation community college students and remembers going to welfare offices where people were applying and talked to their children about the importance of education. “EOPS at Palomar was the most powerful position I think I ever had,” she tells us.
Then, in Financial Aid at MiraCosta, “There were so many students…former gang members. I gained their trust. They wanted to come back to school, change their lives.”
She mentored Jimmy Figueroa, today the executive director at Operation HOPE. “When I met him, he was a high school dropout, completed a GED through MiraCosta…He got very involved. I mentored him along the way.”
Her cousin Richard Huizar also passed through her office. “His dream college was MIT.” Lisa even helped him finance his SAT exam. She told him, “I’m investing in you.” Richard was one of only 17 transfer students worldwide accepted to MIT that year and the first student from MiraCosta. “He opened doors for so many students. Now, he’s giving back. He shares his story with students to motivate them,” says Lisa.
Fentanyl and Loss
When Lisa was young, “People OD’d on the streets. I would see people do drug transactions,” she tells us. “Heroin was really big here in the community.
Eden Gardens against Drugs (EGAD) was formed “to take back the streets. They cleaned it all up,” she says.
Today, Lisa is getting involved in the fentanyl crisis. “I lost my niece to a fentanyl overdose…At 23, she passed away.”
Lisa is attending conferences to learn about the crisis. She is also member of the San Dieguito Alliance for Drug Free Youth. “We have a lot of kids here in La Colonia that I’ve been working with.” Especially after losing her niece a few months ago, she says, “I’m going to fight hard so we don’t lose any more kids here.”
Cultural Connections
Lisa majored in Spanish and Mexican American Studies at San Diego State and is proud to maintain and protect her roots, fighting for the cultural rights of others.
She recently defended the son of a fieldworker who was beaten up at a local high school.
She was also a plaintiff in a lawsuit against what she calls gerrymandering of the schoolboard elections map. “They tried to take La Colonia and Solana Beach’s vote away,” she says.
Lisa fought to allow the bells at St. Leo’s Mission to be rung before Sunday morning mass, protecting this cultural heritage with help from two cousins originally from La Colonia who are civil attorneys.
Recently, she says, someone marked a racial slur in the bathroom at La Colonia Park. Lisa filed a report and got the city to install security cameras. “I’m standing up for people,” she says.
Tips for Others
Lisa tells others they should “find a mentor in the community that believes in you and can guide you.”
She also urges young people to get involved. “When you surround yourself with positive people, hardworking people that give back to the community, it really helps you build character and grounds you.”
Volunteering can help you figure out what you want to do in life. “Do you like to work with people? Older people? Younger people? Do you like to be outdoors? Indoors?…You get to meet all kinds of people,” she says.
As the curator for the Solana Beach Heritage Museum, Lisa takes local third graders and teaches them the community history, actively removing any negative stereotypes.
She also works to empower others. After connecting them to service providers, she tells them, “Now, you can go to them directly. That’s what it’s all about, teaching others, to empower them.”
