There’s only so much you can learn about a community from its power players, insiders and political influencers.
Fresnoland went deeper in 2025 with a new series of profiles focusing on people not typically in the spotlight — the filmmakers, the painters, the food truck owners and the conservationists putting their stamps on our rivers and murals and lunches.
Here’s a (very) short (and totally incomplete) list of some of the most interesting people we met in 2025.
The Fresno folk singer who beat the Creek Fire
Many know the story of the Sweet’s Mill folk music camp scene.
Jemmy Bluestein grew up around the extraordinary community of singers and poets and musicians that emerged in the 1960s in the Sierra Nevada foothills east of Fresno.
The son of Fresno-area folk singer Gene Bluestein, Jemmy’s family has a rich history among the region’s artists.
But it was Jemmy’s scientific interest — and stunning success — battling California’s devastating megafires that caught Gregory Weaver’s attention over the summer.
‘Weird art stuff’
Fresno has more than a few uniquely-local traditions and characteristics and one of our favorites this year was the Sweded Film Festival, also known as Fresno’s Swede Fest.
Back in May, Julianna Morano sat down with festival co-founder and Firebaugh native Roque Rodriguez to talk about the history of the now-almost 20-year-old Fresno festival.
The fun, cheap and aggressively creative short films Swede Fest has spawned are Fresno’s anti-Marvel movies. They show how a community network can democratize moviemaking in the central San Joaquin Valley and beyond.
Home-cooking from the heart
The intersection of Blackstone and Shaw is literally the center of Fresno. Blink and you could miss a food gem tucked away inside a furniture store parking lot — Fresno’s only Cuban food truck slings some of the region’s best lunches.
Opened in 2022, Lazaro Santana’s Havana Cafe has built up a steady following of loyal regulars who frequent the truck at Shaw and Blackstone for Cubano sandwiches, steaming bowls of piccadillo or arroz con pollo and Cuban coffees.
Becoming Fresno’s favorite Cuban chef was a long road for Santana, a retired Marine and paramedic who began his professional food journey because he missed his mother’s cooking.
‘When we lean into curiosity’
Among the many local artists and creators that caught our eye over the year, NeFesha Ruth’s summertime ArtHop performance inspired a lot of different conversations that felt harder to have in 2025.
She named her project “The Paint + Punch Project: An Exploration of Sexuality + Spirituality through Art + Athleticism”.
Gisselle Medina spoke with NeFesha and reflected on the performance that drew from the artist’s identity as a queer Black woman raised in Baptist churches and influenced heavily by a Pentecostal preacher grandmother.
Down by the River
Richard Sloan has been all over the world. So why has the San Joaquin River always called him to come back home?
If you’ve ever spent time around the river and not stumbled upon a depressing amount of trash, Sloan is among the people most deserving of gratitude.
By the time he retired from the river preservation nonprofits he founded, Sloan estimates helping remove something like 11,500 used tires along with countless heavy appliances and stolen cars from the river’s muddy banks.
This summer he told Diego Vargas the story of his first troubling trip down the river.
