Underground Good: Lidia Manzo

Ed Note: This Opinion piece is part of our Underground Good series, which focuses on providing a window into the mindsets of ordinary people doing good work in their community. It’s written by sociologist, coach and evaluation consultant Sharon Brisolara. You can find the rest of our Underground Good series here. Want to nominate someone? You can do that here.

If you have participated in Hispanic-Latino/a/e cultural events in Redding during the past several years, chances are you have seen Lidia Manzo and her family hosting, coordinating, and organizing a range of cultural celebrations. 

Lidia is a long-time Shasta County resident and mother of three whose family previously owned and operated the popular La Cabaña Restaurant in Downtown Redding. She is the current owner of Redding Cleaning Service and is working with others to develop a Hispanic Latino Coalition in the county.  

Her passion for sharing her culture is evident throughout this interview and reminds me of Theologian Frederick Buechner’s definition of vocation: the place where your deep gladness meets the world’s deep hunger. Lidia’s story offers a reflection on, and perhaps an invitation to, how we too might think about vocation.

We often begin these conversations asking people to introduce themselves with whatever is most  important for them to share. How would you like to introduce yourself to readers?

I come from Mexico. I was born in Mexico, and have been here in the United States since I was eight years old. So, I’ve lived here most of my life. It’s very important for me to give back to the community and do good things.  Doing volunteer work is something that my parents always did; they taught us to always give back. That’s something I want to share. 

Sometimes giving back happens by being a good example, sharing the idea that you can do so many good things with your free time. There are a lot of young kids who don’t know what to do with their time. It can seem that there aren’t a lot of fun activities in Redding for young adults and youth.  You know, there are a lot of families that can’t afford dance classes or sports. One of the reasons I started doing events was as a way to get more youth involved in activities. When I host community events, kids have the opportunity to do fun things and be part of the community.

Events are also an important way to make sure we don’t lose our roots. It is important that people don’t lose their culture, or traditions –  food, art, music, and more. It would be great to have even more opportunities in the future, like mariachi, a Ballet Folklorico group and other cultural dance groups, too.

What else is important to you about having larger cultural events in the community?

I’ve lived here 28 years and for a long time, I saw no large Hispanic-Latino events.  A lot of people don’t know how many Hispanics are in Shasta and there are many Latinos living here.

Since I started doing the events, many more people have shown up to attend.  We have had between 500 to 1000 people attend different events. Others have been part of the events, as performers or vendors, sharing their art, music, and cooking. We have so much talent here and events are a way that we can show off a bit and share.

I really don’t know how to put it all in words, but it has to do with letting people know that we’re here. We’re part of the community. We’re doing good stuff. We are family oriented, and we’re good people. We’re hard workers. We have a lot to give and we give back to the community in many ways.

What was the first event you did? And how did that come about?

I had worked at the radio station, La Mega, back in 2007, doing a lot of fundraising. At Mega I mainly did volunteer work for about four years.

I like working with the public. I like working with the community. It comes very easy to me. Maybe it’s my passion. I started thinking about that two years ago. I thought, okay, my kids are grown. I have more time now. What can I do to give back? How can I do something good and have fun doing something I’m passionate about?

I think you get to a stage in life where you think, what is my purpose in life? Do we have a purpose? I’m trying to figure that out; but I believe we all have a purpose. And I think mine is working with the community and giving back. I’ve been feeling that in my heart and it makes me feel happy.  There is a reward to giving back.

I’m very proud of our culture. That’s mostly what got me into creating opportunities to share our music, culture, and traditions: to promote our culture.  And I thought, if people want this, but no one is doing anything. . . ? That’s what got me started.

I know we need more events for the Hispanic community to get together. And the events are not only for the Hispanic community, they’re for everyone. They are a chance to celebrate all the diversity here.

Which events have you hosted?

Hispanic Heritage Day and Cinco de Mayo; those were both held in downtown Redding. My first event was at Hawes farm on November 4^th-6^th in 2022. That was how I really started out. I had gone there for a family party and thought “This would be a nice place to have an event.” I didn’t think about it too much. I didn’t think of the extent of the work that a large event would require. I don’t know why I started with an event that was three days long, but I think it was good because that made everything easier later.

We had live bands for two days, Ballet for Folklorico on three days, and vendors, food, and DJs.  We showed Coco the movie.  It was a family event.

In 2023, in collaboration with the Shasta Arts Council and others, we had the first Cinco de Mayo event in Shasta County. We had music, baile folklorico, vendors, food, and an art exhibit. That was really great.  Artists promoted their art, Hispanic art. Everybody loved it. It was very, very successful. We just had our second Cinco de Mayo event at the Sundial Bridge at Turtle Bay. A lot of people showed up to that too.  Among other things, we had Aztec dancers who came from Corning as well as kids’ activities.

I think for me, the most rewarding part was kids coming up to me and saying thank you. They were happy with the prizes and were having fun coloring and blowing bubbles.

People who have never done this before may not have a sense of what it takes to pull something like this off. Can you give us a snapshot of what it is like?

I have my own business, my own work, so I work on events in my free time, on breaks or whenever I am not busy.  This last Cinco de Mayo, I started really organizing two weeks before. I wasn’t sure if I was going to do it or not, then, I just made up my mind and said I’m gonna do it.  

I started getting sponsors, who, thankfully, responded right away. That made it possible to take care of some of the expenses. Then I had to get all the permits through the city. Everything fell into place. But it takes a lot of the time, preparing, getting everything organized. I went to bed late many days and it took  all my free time for sure.

I couldn’t have done it without my family. All my sisters, my brother, even my parents, my nephews and nieces all participated. This last event was like a family affair. All the family helped.

Did you have any other partners or organizations that helped?

For the first Hispanic Heritage event downtown, we worked with Viva downtown and there were more people involved with that event. I’ve mostly had help from my family so far. They like to do these kinds of things, too. So, it’s not hard for them. They also helped me come up with ideas about what to do at the events.

What ideas do you have about things you might like to do or do differently in the future?

It would be nice to bring in different kinds of performers. There’s so much culture to share: fashion, history, festivals that speak to different aspects of our culture.

What is your business?

I started a house cleaning business, Redding Cleaning Service, two years ago in February 2022. I was Nominated Best of Northstate in 2023 and 2024. I’ve been lucky to be busy without having to advertise.

Having a cleaning business has made it possible for  me to be involved in these projects. When I worked in the restaurant business with my family, you’re stuck there for a long time. Right now, with my schedule, I can work on events.

What motivates you to keep wanting to do this and even expand your efforts?

I see the need, and people want me to do this. Like this last event, I felt too busy to do an event, but I got so many calls, so many people reach out to me.  They asked me, Lidia, what are you doing? Are you doing anything?

I see the need in our community; I feel like if I don’t continue doing at least a few couple of events, then maybe nothing will happen.  Hopefully, more people will join and we can keep it going.

I have had a lot of help from friends, their kids, and high school youth. That helped a lot in just seeing them get excited about it. They enjoy being part of it and that’s what keeps me going.

If people read this and want to support a future effort, what can they do?

They can reach out to me. There’s a lot of talent out there; a lot of people that have skills and passions. We can use the help and they will have the opportunity to give back. That’s what we need for events, we need skills, talents and just the love, the passion to do it.

Are you looking for any particular skills or talents?

Artistic talents, being outgoing, reaching out to people. A lot of people don’t like to do that. We could use help looking for sponsors, being able to ask for help. Some people don’t want to ask for help, or they don’t want to be out there. So, I think that’s a good skill to have, being the leader.

Is there anything I haven’t asked you about the events or about hosting the events that you feel is important to add?

In the future, I would like to be able to give scholarships to first generation students at the events. There are other things happening.  Shasta County District Fair is having Hispanic Heritage Day for the first time. I’m very excited about that.

You know, I think sometimes people don’t want to be a part of things, because they don’t think they’re making a difference. But they are! Any kind of help, anything that they can be involved with, and be part of, is good. Volunteer work, giving your time, is very important.

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