Latinos at the Golden Gate

Please join us at the Main Library on Saturday, February 15 at 10:30 am, when Tomás Summers Sandoval will share more about the history of Latinos in San Francisco, and the value of community history in his talk, “Community History, the City, and the Latino Future." What's on the 6th Floor invited author and San Francisco History Center researcher Tomás Summers Sandoval to be our guest blogger so that he could share his conversation and connection for his new book Latinos at the Golden Gate: Creating Community and Identity in San Francisco.

The views presented are solely those of the guest blogger, Tomás Summers Sandoval.






Being Latino—Mission Style By Tomás Summers Sandoval

As a person who researches, writes, and teaches about the history of Latinos in the US, I get excited by almost any story that brings Latinas and Latinos to the forefront. Even when the "news" might seem insignificant, it's almost always a chance to see how the mainstream media—like most of US society—has a lot to learn about the diverse communities that make up "Latino America."

The recent San Francisco controversy with entertainer Maria Conchita Alonso is a great example. The actress recently starred in a political ad for Tea Party-Republican Tim Donnelly, who is seeking the GOP nomination for Governor of California. Donnelly’s well-known anti-immigrant credentials sparked more than a bit of backlash for Alonso, who is an immigrant herself. The controversy was aided when, during an appearance on Spanish-language radio, Alonso discussed her support for Donnelly, and described "illegals" as a threat to the nation.

The actress had been booked to star in a Spanish-language version of the Vagina Monologues to be performed this month at the Brava Theater in the Mission. Amid a flurry of pressure from the show's producers, immigrant rights' activists, and others, Alonso backed out of the production. Eliana Lopez, one of the show's producers, said it well in a recent report, "Of course she has the right to say whatever she wants," said Lopez. "But we’re in the middle of the Mission. Doing what she is doing is against what we believe."

Some saw this as an example of the political intolerance of the Mission, with activists and Spanish-language media of "marginalizing" folks like Alonso because of their "stake in portraying the Latino vote as monolithic."

But critics like that are the ones guilty of monolithic depictions. They overlook the important ways the Mission's political and cultural identity is the product of a unique story, one that distinguishes it from the run-of-the-mill, modern neighborhood. The Mission is more than just a place where Latinos live. It is a place forged out of the specific struggles of previous generations of Latinos to find a home in the city.

That story is at the heart of my book, Latinos at the Golden Gate: Creating Community and Identity in San Francisco (published by UNC Press, 2013). This history spans almost two centuries, from

Julia Bayze shopping at Peter Arizu's La Mexicana store, 1947

the Gold Rush to the late twentieth century, one that explains why Latin American migrants have come to the city, how they recreated something of the familiar, and how they created a new—and very politicized—version of Latino identity, latinidad.

Latinidad is infused in every mural, every community organization, and every meeting to stop gentrification in the Mission. It is in the memories of longtime residents, and the dreams of those who work to make sure those memories do not disappear. It continues to breathe and thrive in the neighborhood, despite the forces that seek to eclipse it.

That's what Maria Conchita Alonso didn't know when she came out as an anti-immigrant zealot. It's not that she took an unpopular side in a political debate. She stood against the history of the Mission community, a community that was forged in the very political struggle for human dignity, a struggle that is very much still alive.