When I first started writing about the Mission, I wrote the stories of mothers who had lost children to street violence, policing and addiction. In my essay “Matres Dolorosas”, I connect the name of the Mission Dolores, the Mission of Sorrows, to the torrent of unseen grief that runs through this neighborhood….
“The Friday of Sorrows is the last Friday of lent, a week before the Crucifixtion of Christ. On the Friday of Sorrows, Catholics venerate the Mater Dolorosa or Our Lady of Sorrows, which is a devotion to the seven terrible woes of Mary, the mother of Christ. The first sorrow of Mary is a foretelling that due to the life her son would lead, her “own soul a sword shall pierce, that, out of many hearts, thoughts may be revealed.” (Luke.2:34-35).” Our Lady of Sorrows is often depicted with her heart crossed by as many as seven swords; one for every sorrow. She is often dressed in Red and Blue, or black for mourning. Red and Blue are also the colors sported by the two current competing gangs of the Mission, respectively the Norteños and the Sureños. These two bands account for many Mission mothers cloaked in grief for their children fallen to gun violence or drugs, languishing in prison, or victimized by profiling and policing.
Recently, residents of the Mission have taken an increased interest in the original Creek of Sorrows. The ground water of the old creek continues to course through the Mission. A hatch in the basement of Mission High School reveals flowing source water. Other buildings on a downhill trajectory have similar hatches, creating a trail of invisible temples to the vanquished rivers of the Mission. On the northern boundary of the neighborhood, the flow of the Creek of Sorrows can be followed to 14th Street and Mission, into the Old Armory (now the ball gag-and-whip armory of Kink.com, a BDSM porn company).
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Yet, even more invisible is that other river running in a torrential sweep of grief through the Mission, unchecked and unseen. It is a river of tears teased out by poverty, policing, addiction, gun violence, and discrimination. Entire families are drowning in its waters, mothers are cracked and fractured, and youth are harmed, but this raging violence holds no geeky affinity of palatable liberal interest to us, like an actual river.”
Adriana Camarena is proud to collaborate with Accion Latina to create and distribute “Unsettled/Inquietos,” a series of literary non-fiction essays based on portraits of working class and poor residents of the traditionally Latino Mission District of San Francisco. The essays will be published in English and Spanish in the bilingual El Tecolote newspaper of Acción […]
An essay by Adriana Camarena about affordable housing, police brutality, homelessness, art and activism. The author was commissioned by the YBCA to write a response to the exhibit “Take This Hammer”, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA), March 11th to August 16th, 2016 (Guest Curator: Christian L. Frock) and present work at the event: […]
#OctoberTogether, More than just baseball… Dedicated to Bay Area families victims of police brutality and their supporters I. October Spirit II. Twilight III. Tipping the playing field IV. Unaccountable Murders V. Giants for Justice VI. October Together, the new normal… VII. List of Bay Area homicide victims by police I. October Spirit “October Together” is […]
On a sunny summer afternoon in Dolores Park, a bottle scavenger in a red cardigan picked her way through the partying crowd. She was minding her business, which is picking bottles. She wove in and out of techno dancers and picnickers, barely given notice. When acknowledged, she was identified as one of the others. That […]
A Watershed of Tears: Arroyo de los Dolores (extract 1/5) Ocean fog protected the Bay from European discovery, until 1769, when explorer Gaspar de Portolá viewed the body of water from a mountaintop. Six years later, on August 5, 1775, the ship San Carlos sailed through the golden gate under a moonlit sky. The Huimen […]
Refugio Nieto and Elvira Rodriguez (now Elvira Nieto) were born a year apart in the little town of Tarimoro, Guanajuato, known for its agricultural and handmade brick businesses. Refugio was the eldest child in a family of eight, and Elvira the fourth in a family of nine children. He was born into a family of […]
A photo series of street altars as public expressions of grief in the Mission District.
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 […]
Over the last three decades, several waves of tech booms and housing bubbles have eroded the character of this multi-racial, predominantly Latino, working class neighborhood. As lower income workers are pushed out of their homes by the shenanigans of private property markets catering to high earning professionals, the cultural diversity of the Mission is supplanted […]