Joen Garnica is President of Garnica Interiors, Inc., a full-service interior design firm located in Long Beach. This year, she celebrates 15 years in business. Born in San Pedro but raised in Long Beach most of her life, interior design was not a career she set out to build at an early age. Garnica has…
Tracy Colunga, Director of the City of Long Beach Innovation Team (i-team), has an incredible and inspiring backstory. It is a story of immigrants, multiculturalism, middle America, hardship, and the power of courage and perseverance. The daughter of an Irish-American father and a Mexican-American mother, Colunga grew up in South Bend, Indiana. “I am the…
Long Beach City Councilmember Roberto Uranga, representing the Seventh District (includes the communities of Bixby Highlands, Bixby Knolls, Bixby Terrace, California Heights, West Long Beach, Windward Village, and Wrigley), has one word to describe himself, engaging. “I like to engage people in conversation. I like to engage people by getting to know them better so…
Dr. Juan Benitez is the Executive Director for the Center for Community Engagement (CCE) and an Associate Professor in the Department of Chicano and Latino Studies at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB). He’s also a candidate, for a second time, to represent the Third District on the Long Beach Unified School Board. PalacioMagazine.com asked…
Long Beach Unified School Board Third District Candidate Cesar Armendariz came to the United States from Ecuador when he was ten years old. As he tells his story, Armendariz speaks about how he was challenged by language and culture. “Coming to the United States was a complete culture shock for me.” Bullied in middle school,…
Businesswoman and Civic Leader Julie Larkins tells a story about one of her first bosses. A chain-smoking diet coke-binging boss, the woman was known for tirades or as Larkins described her, “A real challenging boss.” Fear was her calling card. It didn’t seem to matter to Ms. Larkins. “It gave me the opportunity to look…
Lori Ann Guzmán is Assistant City Manager for the City of Huntington Beach and a member of the Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners, the five-member governing body for the Port of Long Beach. With all those credentials and more, she told me a more interesting story about her early life in New York City….