I grew up in Mexico City. Mexico City, as you might know, is one of the huge cities of the world. What comes from that? Good things and bad things. Good things if you’re born in the rich areas or in the middle class areas. But I was born in the lower income areas close by downtown.

By the 90s, things started getting really bad in Mexico City. Read more…

I grew up in the East bay, in Martinez, so moving to the Silicon Valley was a step for me.  It was a huge transition because I had always called the East bay home, even going to Berkeley.  I graduated with a degree in sociology, and I was a reserve officer in Contra Costa County at the time, and I really wanted to hand-pick where I went.  I knew I wanted to pursue a career in law enforcement, so I asked for statistical data on all the local agencies.  I wanted to find out a little more about law enforcement in California, but also I wanted to find the right agency for me.  So I looked at things like size of the city, the number of specialized divisions, the opportunity for advancement, the diversity in the ranks and a few other things too.  Then I put all the eggs in one basket, and tested it against San Jose’s Police Department.   Read more…

I’m one of the few officers in the department who lives here in the city, and I’m very comfortable raising my daughters and having my family here.  It is a community that is safe and it has a lot of resources.  I feel very fortunate to live here and to be able to provide our daughters with a place that has a sense of community.  As a Santa Claran, I feel that that sense of community has always existed.  Even as the Silicon Valley changes and advances, it is one thing that I feel hasn’t changed. Read more…

I’m from Los Angeles, the San Fernando Valley, the not cool part of L.A.; well I shouldn’t say that, but  as opposed to Hollywood. In a sense, the San Fernando Valley and Southern California are very similar to San Jose where they’re both sorta big, flat, spread out, and then you have this sorta mecca, this other place where you go to have fun. Like in L.A. it’s Hollywood or that kind of thing, and around the Bay Area it’s obviously San Francisco. I went to school in Northridge, a California state school, and I was interested in this advertising and writing program. I had gone through some majors and I had decided that’s what I wanted to do. San Diego had an advertising major, and I had some cousins that had been going to San Diego, so just to be contrary I thought “Oh I’ll go to San Jose”. Read more…

Mark was born in Ohio on an Air Force base, as his father was in the military. His family moved to Los Gatos when he was four. Mark grew up riding skateboards and playing music in a punk-band, and he has enjoyed a bit more of the Silicon Valley’s counter culture. He is married with three children and two dogs.  His wife is a stay-at-home mom, and he works doing corporate finance for a major high-tech company in the Silicon Valley. He is very good with his hands and he has performed many well executed renovations of his home. Mark is an intelligent guy with strong opinions. He has a direct way of speaking; this combined with a brittle, loud voice can make him come across as foreboding, but his voice and characteristics stand in contrast to his thoughtful words and insightfulness. Read more…

“Papa,” Juliaa Anne whimpered as she rubbed my shoulder to wake me up from my slumber. “Wake up Pa. Sariah and I will be late for school,” she said in a somber tone. Life has been really hard on all of us ever since we moved here last October to the quiet suburb of Milpitas from a poor province in the Philippines. I, Celso Dela Cruz, and my wife Susan, felt it was necessary to come to America to give our four children better futures. Read more…

Nearly a lifetime San Jose resident, Ben Mayberry now lives and works in Marina, California as the marketing & event operations coordinator for the CSU Monterey Bay athletics department. He hopes to become an assistant coach for the baseball team next year. He returns to San Jose to visit his parents frequently, and still thinks of spending the weekend at their house as going “home.” Read more…

Adam Galuszka is a buyer/manager for a bicycle shop in Palo Alto.

I’ve lived in Silicon Valley for twenty-five years; the first twenty in Mountain View and about five years in Los Altos.  I was born in Canada, but I came over with my parents when my father was transferred to a large engineering firm in Redwood City.  I’ve never worked outside Silicon Valley.

I think that a lot of people choose to have the Valley “change” them.   Read more…

The design team for the Ampex VPR1 Video tape recorder in 1976. This was the first Video tape recorder that would do slow motion. Interviewee is in the front row, third from right.

[I lived in] Oakland and San Jose [State] was close, very inexpensive to go to: $53 a semester.   So I came down and moved in with two friends I’d known since high school.  We all took electronic engineering. Read more…

Richard Barry is a semi-retired start-up veteran of Silicon Valley who recently moved to Southern California with his wife, Christine. Although he grew up poor in Chicago, his ceramic engineering and MBA degrees from the University of Illinois landed him a job in Mountain View with Fairchild Semiconductor in 1966. After riding the Valley’s wild ups-and-downs for over four decades, Mr. Barry has seen it all—and he has the stories to prove it. Read more…