Author: unsettlers
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Campfire: Polo Gonzalez (with mom Ana Gutierrez represented)
Polo, his mom Ana Gutierrez, and his youngest brother Ruben received an Ellis Act Eviction in 2012 to leave their Lucky Street home in the Mission District, which has been the family dwelling for 34 years. Polo is the eldest son of the family of five children. As a young man, being the eldest son…
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Campfire: Sarah Brandt (with Mary Phillips represented)
Sarah Brandt is a public school teacher, born and raised in San Francisco, who has lived at her current address for 15 years. She is currently being Ellis Act evicted from her Mission District apartment by the infamous Urban Green, now known around town as Urban Greed. When Sarah is not teaching teens to resist…
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Campfire: Lauren Montana Swiger
Lauren Montana Swiger is an activist, musician, and community member who was evicted from the Mission, along with her teenage daughter. It was an Owner-Move-In eviction, one of three kinds of no-fault evictions displacing San Franciscan families and communities. Montana and her daughter were forced to relocate to Berkeley. It’s pretty there, but they mourn…
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Campfire: Donna Saffioti-Johnson
Donna, her husband Robert “Jawara” Johnson, and the family dogs Xochitl (age 4) and DJ (age 2 and ½) were served with Ellis Act eviction papers in 2012, and forced out of their 73-B Pearl Street apartment in San Francisco by serial evictors Kwok Chung Wong and Har Kwan Luk. Since 2003, this company has…
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The Corrido of El Cabe
“The corrido (Spanish pronunciation: [koˈriðo]) is a popular narrative song and poetry form, a ballad. […]It derives largely from the romance, and in its most known form consists of 1) a salutation from the singer and prologue to the story; 2) the story itself; 3) a moral and farewell from the singer. […] Various themes…
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Still Life After Dark: A Mission District Photo Essay
Stills of storefronts and streets in the dark evoke the bustle of the daylight Mission.
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Street Altars: A Mission District Photo Essay
A photo series of street altars as public expressions of grief in the Mission District.
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Homicides in the Mission (2008-2013)
Homicides In The Mission (2008), Stats Part I Youth homicide is the leading cause of death among youth ages 15-24 in San Francisco. The year that Adriana Camarena arrived to the Mission (2008), 19 people were killed in the Mission, primarily with use of firearms: Name Age Date of Incident Aproximate Location Justin Lee 40…
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La Llorona: The Twelve Evictions (Essay)
The First Eviction: Memory Once upon a time, long before the Mission was El Barrio and a hipster incubator, it was simply a watershed. From the twin mounds to the west, a myriad of rivulets and creeks tumbled into the crevices below. The most robust creek coursed east towards the middle of the valley, engorging…
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Breaking Bland in the Mission
It is 7 a.m. in The Mission. Dogged Latino migrants carve the pavement to the bus stops. Obdurate homeless undock their shopping carts and billow away with garbage bag sails. Mulish children are towed to school by unyielding parents late for work. Caffeine-addicted professionals shudder into the cafés. Little old Catholic ladies resolutely bend their…