Interview with Juliana Martinez, September 23, 2021

So my name is Juliana Martinez. And I moved to Petworth on summer of 2014. So I've been there like seven years now, which is kind of crazy and I am from Colombia, South America, but I was living in DC since 2010. Yes, in a very different neighborhood.

Would you mind telling us a little bit about your experiences with celebrations in Petworth, your celebrations in Petworth?

Yes, so I am a very social person and I love to celebrate and at the entrance of my house. There's a little sign that says that this is my friend's house, the house of my friends and my friend's friends house, right? So that kind of tells you a little bit of what my place is like, so I like to bring people together. I like to bring community together. And in my home, I like my home to feel like everyone's home. So when we first moved my partner and I we I told him, we need to throw a party. This was the first home we've ever, the first and only home we've ever bought. So we were very excited and we had a party with all of our friends. We invited some of the new neighbors that didn't know that us, didn't know us back then or we didn't know them, but we invited them anyway. And it ended up being we ended up staying till at 4 a.m or something, and my partner was very embarrassed and very worried about what the neighbors were going to think It was like our first weekend there and we're going to get kicked out. So next morning our houses are like this little row houses. So the really literally next to each other. So he went out to the to the backyard and the neighbor is right there, like the next door neighbor. My partner is like very apologetic. Like hey, man, sorry for all that noise, you know, this isn't something that happens all the time, which is not entirely true. And the neighbor is like, what party and my partner is, like, what you didn't hear anything. You didn't hear the, you know, Mariachis at three am singing and he's like, no, no. The wolf here that they actually have firewalls. So, they're very thick, you can't hear anything, and then we're like, I've moved to the right place. Like, I've arrived home, because, finally, I didn't have white people calling the lobby because I was talking to myself or to my mother on the phone after quiet hours. So, I was, that was a great welcoming to the neighborhood, and to the many celebrations. Wonderful celebrations. We've had there.

So, are there any particularly memorable celebrations that you can think of recently or in the past seven year?

I was really stunned the first Fourth of July I spend at Petworth because I again, I come from Colombia. Fireworks are very common there, people buy fireworks and they, they like them with their family members with their kids. You know, it's like a big deal, but since I've been living in the u.s. I hadn't seen that. He was always like very professional fireworks that you go to the mall or whatever and this is big thing but no one's having like their own fireworks and in Petworth that is insane. Like the first time I was there, I couldn't believe it. It was awesome. It was like hours and hours and hours of this amazing fireworks and each like block almost has like, I don't know but an hour's worth of really professional fireworks. So we just sat in the backyard, like, for hours, completely amazed having a beer and enjoying the weather, and it's just amazing, amazing, amazing. And I think it's, I don't know if this happens in many other neighborhoods in DC, but I think it's one of the things that makes it Petworth really special because you see, people people come out and everyone's watching and you kind of hear like the families come out and the friends and it's like the kids with with their grandparents, it's just very feels very. It makes me feel very at home. Like that's the kind of vibe that I enjoyed growing up in Colombia and that I miss a lot. So it's something I really appreciate.

So how do you think celebrating in Petworth has changed since you've been there or the last seven years ?

Well, Petworth has changed a lot. And, you know, change those always brings good things and others that are not so good. And for example, the Fourth of July, I am afraid that that will disappear slowly. Oh, well, we'll get like more institutionalized or something which basically means like it. Just becomes this show but you take it away from the hands of the people who have been doing it forever and I'm afraid of that because you already hear a lot of younger families have been moving in and you hear people talking that you know, the air quality is so bad because there's like now there's a roller derby in. I used to live in Woodley Park next to the zoo. And it was like the roller derby. Like it was all these baby like all these people with their baby carriages everywhere. You couldn't even park anywhere because he was like loads of families. Mostly white families going to the zoo and taking over the entire neighborhood. And you know, Petworth his kind of moving in that direction. You see, increasingly more white families, who have different expectations of what kind of celebrating it's appropriate for children and things like air quality things of do dogs like you here. Oh, no, my dog is terrified. Listen. I have a dog too. She's also terrified but, you know, it's one night a year and it's an awesome, you know, block thing. So, just give your dog, some drugs. They'll be fine. Dogs are happy when they're high. I don't know some dogs, but I'm really afraid that this kind of becomes an excuse to push aside celebrations that have been going on there for a long time that bring communities together, the people save for And plan for for months of the year because it makes new residents or some of the new residents uncomfortable with things like noise or air quality, which I understand. But again, it's like one one night a year. So I think, I think we could all just enjoy it.

Where would you like let's say five ten years if it was up to you, where would you like celebrating in Petworth to be?

I I would love for it to be kind of more integrated. I would I would love for it not to be so like older or celebration, more traditional celebrations that have been there not to have to make room for other types of celebration that kind of adjust to other expectations and standards. So I would love for people who have been in this neighborhood for decades and decades and decades to be able to celebrate keep celebrating, how they like to celebrate even if some people consider that loud or you know, there's garbage next day. Okay, well, we can clean up, you'll be fine again, you know, it's not every all every single day. So I wish that we can, we can continue to live with each other to make this neighborhood really welcoming for all of us and not expect to come to a place and kind of change how people have been doing things for a very long time, just because we're not comfortable with it.