San José Roots: Free Cultural Heritage Festival (2025)

Submitted by the Event Organizer

History San José invites you to San José Roots, a celebration of San José’s diverse heritage. This outdoor event will take place on Saturday, November 1st, 2025 from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm at the Gonzales/Peralta Adobe and Carmela and Thomas Fallon Historic sites near San Pedro Square Market.

San José Roots celebrates San José’s history, starting with its indigenous, Spanish, and Mexican pasts to its present innovative spirit. The free program provides a platform for cultural exchange, storytelling, and artistic expressions, showcasing the rich historical and contemporary contributions of various communities in San José. History San José will host lasso lessons, candle dipping, corn husk action figures, and period dress up at the Gonzales/ Peralta Adobe, and old fashioned porch chores like silver polishing, butter churning, laundry, and rug beating at the Carmela and Thomas Fallon House.To accommodate more community partners and cultural organizations, History San José will close W St. John Street between Almaden Ave/Terraine Street and San Pedro Street, providing an open, vibrant, and pedestrian-friendly space for the festivities.

History San José is proud to feature local performing groups like Jeffery Fung Tai Chi, Luna y Sol Folklorico, Viet Steps, Xpressions Dances of India, Hui Ilima of Santa Clara County. Our cultural programming is organized in partnership with Mosaic America, an organization that cultivates belonging through inter-cultural expressions and winner of the City of San José’s 2022 Cornerstone Creative Impact Award. Additionally, Calpulli Ocelocihuatl will be doing poetry readings from 12:30 to 2:30, and the Chinese Historical and Cultural Project will bring their traditional Chinese Dragon. Each organization is dedicated to nurturing and preserving the region’s history and culture. Lastly, the Gonzales/Peralta Adobe and the Carmela and Thomas Fallon House will be open to the public from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm.

This event is free and open to the public thanks to the support of StarOne Credit Union, and Supervisor Betty Duong. For more information about this event visit History San José’s website: https://historysanjose.org/programs-events/. We encourage everyone to attend!

Disclaimer: Please double check event information with the event organizer as events can be canceled, details can change after they are added to our calendar, and errors do occur.