My sculpture East Side Stories is currently on view in Hold Fast!, the 2026 member exhibition at Works/San José Community Art & Performance Center. The exhibition brings together the work of artist members, exploring the many ways artists continue creating, adapting, and holding onto their ideas through uncertain times.
This piece carries a particularly personal story.
One of the most meaningful aspects of this piece is a collaboration across generations. Embedded within the work are original ink and colored pencil drawings created by my dad, Steve Rubalcaba Sr., in the early 1990s. More than three decades later, I carefully incorporated portions of those drawings into a new composition, allowing our work to exist together within the same piece.
Growing up, my family moved throughout San José. I lived on every side of the city before eventually planting my own roots in East San José. My parents were immersed in the city’s Chicano culture—lowriders, cruising, family gatherings, and the soundtrack of East Side Story compilations playing from cassette tapes and even an 8-track. Those sounds became part of the rhythm of everyday life, even if I didn’t fully appreciate them at the time.
Like many childhood memories, they’ve changed with time. Songs I once skipped now carry entirely different meaning. They remind me not only of my parents when they were young, but also of the courage it took to build a family while navigating life in San José. Looking back, I have a deep appreciation for their resilience, their love, and the example they continue to set.
The sculpture itself is built from reused materials and layered objects that carry their own histories. A small reference to ESSJ is tucked into the sculpture for anyone willing to spend a little more time looking.
East Side Stories isn’t simply about nostalgia. It’s about family, cultural identity, and the way ordinary objects can carry memory across generations. By bringing together my father’s drawings, reclaimed materials, and pieces of my own history, the work becomes one chapter in a much larger story—one that began long before this sculpture and will continue long after it.
Some stories aren’t written.
They’re assembled.
