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Hello, today is Columbia Heights Day and it is June 24, 2023. My name is Dan Kerr and can you tell us your name? My name is Julia Gales, formerly Julia Almarante Mateo. Gale is from my ex-husband. I see. Yes.

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And could you tell us a little bit about your connection to Columbia Heights. My connection to Columbia Heights is way bigger than I thought it would be. I came to the US in 1975 and I've been here since. I traveled different places, but this has been my home. Since 1975, I've been here forty-seven years. That's amazing. Yes, and the memories of Columbia Heights, Adams Morgan, Mount Pleasant has been really enlightening because it had changed so much. It had changed dramatically from what it was in 1975 when I came in to now it had developed into an awesome, very pricey neighborhood.

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Interesting. Yes. The Latino festivals, the Pride Days, and all the celebrations that have been through this area has been amazing. You know I love DC, I love Columbia Heights, I love Mount Pleasant, it's my heart. That's wonderful. Could you tell us, so in '75, where did you come from when you came to Columbia Heights? I came from the Dominican Republic and I used to live right on Columbia Road and Quarry [Road], and like I said, it has been my neighborhood, and came through the Embassy of Madagascar. My mother used to be an employee for the embassy and she brought all of us here through the embassy.

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Madagascar. Yes. And why did you choose to, or did your mother choose to live in Columbia Heights? Well my mother was already here in the US for a couple of years before I came, and she had an apartment right here on Columbia Heights, which was very inexpensive. The same place that we used to live before, we could not even look at an apartment. That is so expensive, we can't afford it. So, but it was, my mother used to live in Columbia Heights before I came to the US.

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And when you first arrived, do you remember what your memories are? What are your first memories of what Columbia Heights was like? How did it feel when you first came? It felt, to tell you the truth, I feel like it was—I was in another world. Coming from the Dominican Republic, I felt so in, you know like in power, like I was [in] like London, France, that's how I saw it. The way the rain fall, the smell, the happiness, the unity that was in the area, it was amazing. You know, it was amazing. You know, even to this day, you know, like, it's different from what it was used to be. And what were the, when you said the unity, you mean of the people who are here? The Blacks and the Latino.

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I see. That we like, it was a tie. And so you had many, you made many friends quickly? Many friends. Yeah.

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And were you in school, you must have been in school? I was actually in school at night, I was nineteen. Okay. And we used to go to school to learn English. And quickly, I turned from my group of Latino people to a group of African-American. And it was amazing because with them, I was able to really learn how to pronounce, enunciate the English. And I learned so much. I learned so much from the African-American community.

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And you said it was a group where they focused on any kind of either politics or activity, or was it just an informal group of friends? No, we were teenagers. We were teenagers. We were between the ages of maybe sixteen to nineteen, twenty. You know, so we were just kids, you know, having fun. I did associate myself with the celebration the following year of celebrating the Latino community and that was part of a dance group, that you know, they went, you know, danced with the floats and stuff like, it was amazing. It was amazing. And were you a dancer before coming or did you learn to dance here? Well, you know, nobody ever taught me how to dance. It's just the rhythm. If you have rhythm, you can dance anything you want. So I never had like any formal dancing, but I let myself—I let the rhythm lead me. So I did some competitive dance in the neighborhood you know? It was not a big thing, it was not national, but it was something that we were doing to enjoy ourself.

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What were some of your favorite places in the seventies? It was the museums. Okay. The museum was my favorite place because it has so much information, and it taught me so much. It taught me about history. It taught me about geography—which geography was one of my favorite subjects in school. And I never thought in my dream that I would ever be here, but being here, it just has led me to different countries. You know, I have traveled to different countries and it has been, it was a dream of me when I was a little girl. I wanted to learn another language back home and I used to say, One day, one day I'm going to learn one of these languages. And here I am, I am speaking fluent—not "fluent"—English, but I can get around. I can get around and I still want to learn how to speak French. Yeah.

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That's wonderful. And so, how about in the neighborhood? Were there any kind of favorite spaces in the community—parks or businesses or community centers that you attached yourself to? Not particularly, but uh, I had a park where we used to congregate as kids, you know, and relax at the Kalorama Park or either at the Hill Sixteenth [Street] and Columbia Road Park [ed. note: Rabaut Park]. We used to hang out over there and you know it was just a place of relaxation and sitting down and playing games and talking to each other, yes. That's fantastic. So what are some of, you said the neighborhood has changed a lot. Could you tell us some of those changes that you've seen from when you moved? From when I came—

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Yeah. From when I came in 1975, there was a lot of devastation from the Martin Luther King death, you know, like the burning. There was a lot of businesses that were burned. There was a lot of places that were condemned and streets that, you know, like I was always advised not to walk around there, and like, Why? Oh, because, you know, it's really dangerous. But I always had to experience myself what people were saying, and it never happened. You know, it was just a devastation that was left from years ago. So now all those places that were burned and play in and condemned, they're now businesses. They now restore and bought by people that have businesses and it's an amazing area to live in, and had turned into Columbia Heights into a whole different city. Mm-hmm. And you have since moved, is that right? Yes, I moved. I had lived in Northeast. I had lived in Southeast, which is apparently the bad area, but never had a bad experience. 𝘕𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳. Living in the Southeast for eight, almost nine years, I never had a bad experience. I have lived in Puerto Rico, for a couple of years. And come back to the District because this is home. This is home. Travel to, from Chile to Manila to all those places and I'm back, back home. I'm going to Mexico next month.

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(laughs) That's terrific. I love to travel. Wow. And is that part of your work, or just for enjoyment? No, it's just a part of me. I like to travel, I don't have any small children, divorced, I don't have anybody to account to. So if I'm retired, why not?

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Yeah, that's good. I need to live my life. And your home is in Columbia Heights now? Yes, I live on Fourteenth [Street] and Harvard [Street]. That's where I live right now. Next year, I don't know where I live, but right now I'm living there.

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Is "next year" something happening? Oh, I don't know. I don't know what's going to happen. I don't know where God is going to take me. I see. I'm part of a congregation that we are missionaries. So I don't know if they're going to ask me, Hey Julia, would you like to move to West Virginia?

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Right. I love DC, but you know, I will be, DC will be in my heart but if they ask me to move to West Virginia, I will move to West Virginia. And is your congregation in the neighborhood? It's in the area, it's not in the neighborhood, but it's near on Connecticut Avenue near UDC [University of the District of Columbia].

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Okay. Yes. And it's not just there, it's international. It's international. That's why I travel to many different places, because we have conferences during the year and we can choose where we wanted to go. And do you get a feel in the neighborhood of Columbia Heights of it being an international neighborhood? Yes.

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Could you tell me a little about that? I like it because you know it's a mixture of every cultural ethnicity. I love African food, Mexican, Ethiopians, Indian, Middle Eastern. You know, we are all people, why can't we live and coexist together? 𝘞𝘦 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘵. You know, I love the family. We are all human beings. No matter where you come from, we all have the same, we have blood, we share the same blood. We share the same—maybe not the same tradition—but we need to learn how to live together. And when we live together in peace and harmony it's—it's amazing. Without saying where you come from, not like, Fine, come on, we're human beings. You were born in different places, but we're still human beings. So we need to love one another as humans, not looking at the color of the skin or where you came from. I think that's my theory. Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's beautiful. And we'll have peace.

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What's your hope for the future of the neighborhood? The hope for the future of the neighborhood, I would like to see more of what you said, opportunity for the low-income families to stay in DC and to stay in the area where they are now and not have to move to Maryland or Virginia because of the economy. So that's what I'd like to see for the future. Because of the prices of housing going up and being harder to afford. Yes. I have my oldest daughter, she had to move to—she was born and raised here in DC, but she could not afford the rent. So she had to go to Maryland. She moved to Silver Springs. I mean she loved it here. But she's like, "Mommy, I cannot afford the rent." So she had to move to Maryland, to Silver Springs, Maryland, you know. Hopefully in the future she'll be able to buy a house here in DC.

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Yes, I hope so. Yeah. Any other thoughts you'd like to share with us today about Columbia Heights? Columbia Heights is amazing. If we can—I don't know how we're going to do it—but the neighborhood is not bad? It's the influence that comes from the, you know like, people that don't want to be friends with certain ethnicities and some that bring bad vibe to the neighborhood. You know, we should be able to keep our space nice and clean and, you know, inviting and all that, but not everybody does that. And how we're going to make people change? I don't know. That has to come from within.

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Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts. Yes, thank you. You're welcome. 𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸