A thriving industry in San Diego in the 20th century — one steeped in tradition for generations of Portuguese and Italian families in the Peninsula area — tuna fishing and canning was driven from the area in the mid-1980s because of toothier environmental laws, foreign competition and cost efficiency problems that forced much of the industry overseas. But on Saturday, Sept. 26, a public art project honoring the gritty, physically demanding industry was dedicated downtown. The tribute to cannery workers, dubbed Parque del Sol, is located at the corner of Cesar Chavez Parkway and Crosby Street, adjacent to Crosby Street Park. The site is where cannery workers used to go during their breaks. “Parque del Sol was originally created by the workers themselves,” said Allan Tait, Port of San Diego public art organizer, “even though it was [initially] not much more than a coral tree and some picnic tables in this little parcel next to the building.” Port of San Diego Commissioner Robert “Dukie” Valderrama, who hosted the dedication, said they event had special meaning for him. Ten of his family members worked in the Van Camp and Bumble Bee canneries around the waterfront. “It means a lot because I come from a very big family that was really not a very rich family,” Valderrama said. “We were a ­working family and this was the means of how our family was able to survive. And it was not only our family, it was the whole community.” The tribute consists of three lifesize bronze figures — a woman and two men. An arch of stainless-steel tuna connects the male figures, one crouched with a basket of fish and the other who appears to be catching fish. The female figure is cleaning the fish. Each of the figures is depicted in cannery-appropriate uniforms from three eras — the 1920s, 1940s and 1960s. Near the three statues are historical plaques attached to equipment and parts retrieved from former canneries. The landscaping at the tribute site is focused around a coral tree that is an original fixture of the park. The tree is encircled by a mosaic sun and has a seat wall and sidewalk around it. The project was created by Valerie Salatino and Nancy Moran of Nature Works, Inc., an ­Escondido­-based company. “It’s a completely different design that anything we’ve done,” Tait said. The idea for the tribute arose when the Port District was considering public art projects in 2004. By then, the tuna canning industry had been dark for about two decades. “Thousands of people were involved in the industry,” Tait said. “There were canneries all along the shore of San Diego Bay at one time.” According to Point Loma resident August Felando, a local historian and 40-year veteran of the industry, the first cannery dedicated to packing canned tuna opened in San Diego in 1911. By the early 1950s, there were six tuna can­neries operating in San Diego. According to Port District officials, at its height, the tuna canning industry employed 17,000 and had an annual economic impact of $65 million. The industry also has ties to the roots of a number of different cultures’ origins in San Diego. Among the ethnic groups that worked in tuna fishing and cannery were Italians, Portuguese, Japanese and Mexicans. “It’s important to a lot of people in the community because even though they may not have worked in it, their ancestors did,” Tait said. “It was a real entry point for immigrants who came to America in those days, enabling them to get a foot in the door of the so-called ‘American Dream.’” While the bulk of the tuna industry vanished from San Diego in the mid-1980s, Felando said that two major tuna canners — Bumble Bee Foods and Chicken of the Sea International — still have their headquarters in San Diego. Meanwhile, the exhibit “will have a big impact for the residents that have been here for a long period of time that have actually worked in the industry,” Valderrama said. “I think it’s going to have a lot of significance to these individuals because this was part of the history.”