A Project of
the San Diego County Commission on the Status of Women and Girls,
the Women's Museum of California,
SDSU Women's Studies Department, and UCSD Women's Center.
Josephine Talamantez
2022
Historian
Josephine "Josie" Talamantez is a historian and activist who became dedicated to defending the Logan Heights neighborhood, now known as Barrio Logan, where she was born and raised.
Talamantez was a co-founder of Chicano Park and a co-founder of the Chicano Park Steering Committee on April 22, 1970. Over the next 20 years, and with Talamantez’s activism, many pieces of artwork were added, including more than 70 murals by Chicano artists from across California, making the Park the largest collection of murals in the United States.
Talamantez moved to Sacramento where she served from 1987 to 2011 as Chief of Programs for the California Arts Council, a state funding agency. But, throughout her professional career, she maintained duo-residency in San Diego where she also served for a period as executive director of the Centro Cultural de la Raza in Balboa Park.