The Gilroy Cannery formerly known as the Filice and Perrelli Cannery was vacant filled only with fading memories. The buildings were to be torn down making way for a housing development. South County Housing wanted to create a museum within the complex but needed artifacts, they also wanted to honor the men and women who worked in the Cannery while creating a harmonious link to the community. An Event was created that would tell the stories of the people that worked in the cannery.
An article titled "Old Cannery into New Housing" was written by The Gilroy Dispatch staff. Click here to read the article.
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The People and Organizations That Made This Event Possible
Project Director - Nancy Moore Wright, South Bay Housing Project Humanities Expert - Leah Halper, Gavilan College History Department Event Production & Multimedia Presentations - MMSolutions E.G. Martinez Janet Martinez Gopher Gold Productions Jennifer Colby, PhD A. Dennis Gaxiola Gavilan College History Student Interviewers Crystal Lombardo Erin Fry Jackie Penyacsek Jeff Harris
Interviewees Ruben Trujillo Esperanza Perez Frank Vigna Tom Koch Elenor Roberts Ordo Sisters Eda Stimac Sarah Aceves Al Filice Dolores Reynosa Rose Marie Calabro Anna Cortes Catherine Calabro Mary Cardenas Marietta Scagliotti
Gilroy Historical Society Docents Roberta Hughan Al Gagliardi Connie Rogers Katherine Tsujimoto Edith Eddie Claire MacFarlane Carol DeSantis
Sponsors California Council for the Humanities [California Stories Fund] Union Bank of California Washington Mutual Bank Geomatrix Consultants First American Title Scott Schork - BKF Engineers Gilroy Historical Society Gavilan College History Department
Program and Activities
• Walk of History
• Old-Time Radio Production
• Cannery Slide Show
• Scanning Station (for collecting & preserving documents and pictures)
• Children’s Art
• Refreshments
Cannery History panel Welcome by Dennis Lalor, South County Housing
Panel Moderator: Leah Halper
Panelists: Dolores Reynoso Marietta Scagliotti Ernie Marques George Goris
Thank You
Cannery History Committee Cecilia Weymuth Bunny Filice Susan Voss Leah Halper Crystal Lombardo Lucy Solorzano Lani Yoshimura Connie Rogers
Children’s Art Sue Ann Hillyer Rebekah Newman Alex Magellan
The event was held inside the cannery. A stage was set up with theater curtains as the backdrop for the panelists to tell their stories. The panelists were shown on a large screen, for the audience, as they were being video taped.
A path was created in another part of the cannery with hanging banners lining the path along with large pictures on easels, albums or artifacts on pedestals and docents ready to answer questions. The path culminated at the Old Time Radio Production.
Below is a slide show of the banners that hung on the “Walk of History.” Click play on banner to automatically play the slide show or click on arrows to move forward and backward manually.