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June 13, 2026
Barlow Benavidez Panel Discussion
The Fruitvale History Project hosted a panel discussion at Eastside Arts Alliance in Oakland remembering the 50th anniversary of the June 11, 1976 killing of Jose Barlow Benavidez by Oakland Police. The panelists discussing the history of the killing and the relevance to current events in Oakland were attorney Tony Valladolid who worked closely on the case, Andrea Benavidez who is Barlow's sister and a spokesperson for the family, and Mariano Contreras who was a member of the Barlow Benavidez Committee Against Police Crimes and who remains active in Oakland community/police relations. They were introduced by Annette Oropeza of the Fruitvale History Project. The panel was moderated by journalist Liam O'Donoghue, host of East Bay Yesterday.
The event was well attended by community members and offered in depth discussion about the history of Barlow's killing and the current state of community oversight over police activities in Oakland. For more information about the killing of Barlow Benavidez see our page here:
Annette Oropeza introduces the panel
Panelists (l-r) Tony Valladolid,
Mariano Contreras and Andrea Benavidez
Mariano Contreras
Annette Oropeza introduction
Tony Valladolid and Andrea Benavidez
Liam O'Donoghue and
Tony Valladolid
FHP members and panel discussion attendees
Panel discussion attendees
Panel left to right: Mariano Contreras, Tony Valladolid, Andrea Benavidez, Annette Oropeza, Moderator Liam O'Donoghue
April 6, 2025
The Fruitvale History Project is online! We’ve been working 10 years gathering stories and experiences about the history of activism on Oakland’s Fruitvale District and now we’d like to share our work with you on this website. Our work is on going and we’ll keep you informed here about new interviews and events as they happen.
Please let us know what you think about our work and send any thoughts about issues, histories or people we should include. You can reach out to us through our contact page in the menu above.
Thank you to EastSide Arts Alliance’s community archive, CARP, for supporting the digitization of several materials represented on this website.
The process of putting this website together has been a group effort and we couldn’t have done it without the help of Danielle Nanos-Luz. Thanks Danielle!
September 20, 2025
We've Updated Our Site
The Fruitvale History Project has been working on updating the design and organization of our website. All the previous information is still there, plus we've added the essays from El Espíritu de Fruitvale: Malaquías Montoya, the book that accompanied the multimedia project we produced in partnership with EastSide Arts Alliance (ESAA) in 2024.
The Fruitvale History Project expresses a big Gracias! to Mona Barber, at The CX Lens, for her help in making this website redesign possible.
Let us know what you think about this update and, as always, please let us know about issues, histories, or people we should include in our project. You can reach us through the 'Connect' page in the menu above.
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