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The Place for All Things Multicultural in San Diego
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San Diego's Finest Online Resource for Multicultural and International
Events, Places and People
The City of San Diego is home to one of the most vital culturally diverse populations to be found anywhere in America. The Participant Observer is a web magazine dedicated to discovering and showcasing the wide variety of culturally interesting events, people, places and organizations our city has to offer. Our frequently updated Events Calendar provides comprehensive information about current and forthcoming events in San Diego. In addition to covering local events, The Participant Observer publishes features and articles about cultural events and phenomena happening around the world. We urge you to explore the many other resources our site provides. We encourage article and event submissions from our readers.
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(Read: 670 times)
From the explosive, synchronized drumming of Japanese Taiko to the meticulous, calculated movements of the Indian Odissi dance, the Worldview Project’s inaugural “Cultures in Harmony and Motion” concert proved to be a spectacular night of international entertainment! The concert took place on September 24, 2011 at the historical Casa del Prado Theater in Balboa Park.
(Read: 687 times)
 Ready to expand your culinary and cultural horizons? You might try 99 Ranch Market, located on Claremont Mesa Boulevard, just east of the 805. Larger than your average Vons or Ralphs, 99 Ranch Market is the largest Asian grocery store in San Diego. While most of the clientele are Asian, the store is also a culinary mecca for gourmet cooks and anyone else who is either interested in Asian cuisine or simply finding the best deals and the widest selection of fruits, vegetables, meats and seafood. The center aisles of the 99 Ranch Market overflow with imported canned and packaged foods, everything from hundreds of different sauces, a large selection of frozen foods (like ice cream mochi!), a whole aisle of rices as well as a generous assortment of Japanese, Indonesian and Thai specialty items. The store also has a large bakery and an always bustling deli/fast food counter where you can get the cheapest good lunch in town.
By Jackie Hwang
Photos by Nuelma Patio
(Read: 17255 times)
 One of San Diego's unique treasures that has escaped the notice of many of the city's residents are the International Cottages of the House of Pacific Relations (HPR) in Balboa Park. Balboa Park has the distinction of being the nation's largest urban cultural park, the home of fifteen museums, the Organ Pavilion and the San Diego Zoo, and is visited by hundreds of thousands of San Diegans and tourists each year. Yet many long-time residents are unaware of the many programs and opportunities provided by the HPR cottages, located off Presidents Way at the South end of Balboa Park.
By Shanti Hofshi
Photos by Emily Johnston-O'Neill
(Read: 19470 times)
 If you've never visited San Diego's Chicano Park, you might imagine that it is just another typical park: grass and trees, playgrounds and picnic tables, weekend gatherings of families and friends. However, unlike other parks, Chicano Park is steeped in a profound socio-political history of Chicano life in our city.
By Jordan Tresham and Tom Johnston-O'Neill
Photos by Shimona Carvalho
(Read: 14748 times)
 The Religious Society of Friends (aka the Quakers) are a Protestant Church that was established in England in the 1650's. Like several other Protestant movements of the time, a significant shared belief held by early followers was that ordinary people could have direct experience with God without the help of religious experts like priests. Today Quakers are a diverse lot comprised of numerous independent organizations, but most Quakers follow beliefs and practices that are; anti-hierarchical, averse to authoritative creeds, rituals and oaths, actively service-oriented, and generally—or often adamantly—pacifist. Quakers have created numerous well-known and respected activist and charitable organizations throughout the world. The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) is the most well-known official Quaker organization that works for peace and social justice, but several other august international groups—such as Amnesty International, Greenpeace and Oxfam—were either founded or co-founded by Quakers. Both the American Friends Service Committee and Amnesty International have won Nobel Peace prizes.
We asked several San Diego nonprofits to write about their cross-cultural projects and efforts. Ken Barratt, the National Outreach Director for QBL (who is based here in San Diego), submitted the following report for our continuing Spotlight Series. In addition to describing the vital clean-water development work accomplished by the Quaker Bolivia Link, Barratt offers astute observations on why some development efforts succeed and why others fail.
(Read: 2134 times)
 This article describes wedding customs and rituals celebrated by Tamil Brahmin families in southern India. My name is Lakshmi Appachar and my family follows the Brahmin tradition. The pictures shown in this article are actually from my own wedding which took place recently. Writing this article enabled me to relive a very important and pleasurable event of my life and it also gave me an opportunity to gain a fuller understanding of the significance of many of the rituals.
by Lakshmi Appachar
(Read: 24680 times)
 Step under the archway entrance to the "village" and you will be greeted by a meandering plaza paved with pastel painted flagstones surrounded by stuccoed cottages with red tile roofs. In the center of the plaza sits a gazebo and a varied collection of charming trees and plants add to the air of quaint serenity. . . One of the more spectacular studios hosts the paintings of an artist named Lucy Wang, who for the past twenty years has been creating stunningly beautiful paintings that combine tradition-rich techniques of Chinese brush painting with her own path-breaking and innovative techniques.
by Jackie Hwang
Spanish Village Photos by: Nuelma Patio
Additional Images: Lucy Wang
(Read: 10372 times)
 The Center for World Music is a unique nonprofit organization whose mission is to foster awareness and understanding of the world's diverse performing arts and cultures through public performances and teaching. Its primary purpose is to draw public attention to the diversity of the world’s performing arts traditions: Asian, African, European, Latin American, and American.
(Read: 3581 times)
Lisa See, the author of the international best-seller, “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan”(2005) and New York Times best-seller “Peony in Love” (2007), had time to sit down and answer a few questions while in San Diego, the last stop on her tour for her latest novel, Shanghai Girls (2009), now in bookstores. In this interview we discuss the variety of elements found in her novels, including the women whose voices narrate her works, and the exploration and revelation of forgotten parts of history. Her works explore pockets of history and time within Chinese culture before they disappear, as See puts it, “off the map of memory”. “Shanghai Girls” is the story of two sisters, Pearl and May, and their odyssey of immigration as they leave war-torn Shanghai for Los Angeles as new brides in arranged marriages. See chronicles the joy, the heartbreak, and the bond of sisterhood that connects Pearl and May over the next twenty years as they experience the making of a new life, and the formulation of a new identity. To learn more about Lisa See and her works, please visit: www.lisasee.com
By Christine V. Nguyen
(Read: 10100 times)
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| Our Staff |
Michelle Yoon - Associate Editor
Vijaya Vedantham - Calendar
Sarah Ross - Arts
Ian Williams - Assistant Editor
Maki Imai - Calendar
Shari Johnston-O'Neill - Photography
Tom Johnston-O'Neill - Sr. Editor |
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