It would be an understatement to simply say that
"2020 and 2021 were 'different kind of years'"
Nothing could really prepare our community
for the abrupt cancellation of the entire 2020 educational season’s programming. One by one falling
victim to the Coronavirus were our lectures, films, and even our outdoor concerts. The field trips for school children so vital to our mission of telling California history also had to
be abandoned. And just when we hoped Covid was gone -- another wave came and the 2021 Season had to be cancelled too. Yet there were two Highlights to 2021 Our Rancho Boca de Santa Monica book by Historian Ernest Marquez was published by Angel City Press. Introduced to La Senora friends and neighbors at the 1840s era Rancho Cemetery on a beautiful afternoon, volumes of this limited edition book were happily snapped up to soon become out-of-print Collector's items. As the year drew to a close, we were delighted to watch the Tinto Tango Orchestra take home the "Tango Album of the Year" at the 2021 Latin Grammys. First assembled to provide La Senora with a tango concert, This group of musicians became 'family' to our members during nine seasons of our annual Tango Concert. One of the musicians' first calls was to say thank to La Senora for having given them studio quality rehearsal space and the sense of 'belonging' they got from being our Tango Orchestra through the past decade. As we had done in 2020, we used our association with many larger historic organizations and educational institutions, to continue La Senora's access to programs...remotely. While Covid-19 might have shuttered our onsite programs, it led to enriched Zoom events for lectures we'd once had to ration as ‘thank you benefits’ for large donors. Once online, La Senora could invite more attendees with no in-person risk --- and no long drives through rush hour traffic
either!
We continued to identify your
broader interests and arranged access for you to a wide spectrum of University keynote lectures by
noted authorities in their fields. Live streamed Concerts were brought to you by our long time associated organizations. Rarer still, we took you into a highly privileged audience for the National Academy of Sciences panel
discussions with what had become the ‘household
name speakers', Gupta and Fauci, and into the labs of the equally distinguished but lesser known leads
of international research and pharmaceutical teams. During 2020, several
brave members were even invited to participate in early stage Vaccine Trials--we all celebrated with the scientific community the remarkable scientific achievements and collaborations brought about by this otherwise dark cloud Pandemic. All of the substitute programming access of 2020-21 was
provided at no cost to our long term supporters. We really missed the ‘neighborliness’ of
seeing you at events but we were so grateful to have a way to say thank you via our
collaborative organizations' programs making thess unusual Seasons of Access possible.
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