​Elsa Johnson

Elsa was born and raised in Lima, Peru. As a Japanese descendant, in her early twenties she had the opportunity to move to Japan and experience their culture and diversity. Through the years, she came to learn the Japanese language. While there, she worked for Canon, Sony and eventually Phillips where she worked as an interpreter for the latino community, and assisted production engineers. This experience built a great interest in serving others through the use of other languages. After getting married, she left Japan and moved to the US, to Hawaii, and years later to San Diego where she raised her two daughters.  
She now works for the San Diego Unified School District in a High School administration office and feels great satisfaction interacting with and assisting the school community especially with language barriers. She holds a professional certificate of Translation and Interpretation from UCSD. Elsa enjoys music, dance, making chainmail jewelry, spending time with her family and friends, and traveling.

Elsa recalls that one of the first Peruvians that she met in San Diego was when she visited Balboa Park for the first time back in 2004. She entered the HPR building and met the founder of HOP, Gladys Jones. Elsa would regularly go to Glady’s home to assist in making calls to volunteers and looking for support towards making Glady’s  dream of a cottage in Balboa Park a reality. Since then, Elsa’s two daughters have actively participated in Peruvian dances and cultural events through HOP and the queens program. Serving House of Peru as one of the board members is an honor for her as well as an opportunity to represent and promote the Peruvian culture with great pride through the organization and the House of Peru casita, now built in Balboa Park.