Gloria Alvarez Gomez grew up in this neighborhood, playing down on Calle Sur at her grandmother’s house, and she remembers when this place used to be a movie theater. She laughed as she recalled trying to sneak in to see E.T.
But that was almost 45 years ago, and she never imagined this moment back then. The Old Pascua neighborhood is seeing more change this year than it has in a long time. Today this place is tribal land, it’s a busy construction site for a new casino, and Gloria is now an elected member of the tribal council, helping to govern what this place becomes.
“We’ve come a long ways and that’s something that I will always carry: playing here at one time and now seeing what it brings for the future,” she said in her speech to a crowd on the top level of the new parking garage during a Feb. 9 ceremony to light up the dome at the new Casino Del Sol Vahi Taa’am location at Grant Road and Fairview Avenue…