Latino San Francisco
The Latin Side of This California City's Sites, Foods, and Festivals
This article highlights the Hispanic influence on the city of San Francisco and describes the city's Latin history, sites, restaurants, and events.
Spaniards, Mexicans, Central and South Americans all played a large part in shaping San Francisco and their influence can be seen all over the city.
Encounter San Francisco’s Spanish Colonial Past
It was the Spanish who first colonized California, setting up their customary pueblos (towns), presidios (military barracks), and missions. While there is little evidence of the tiny pueblo of Yerba Buena that stood where the thriving city of San Francisco is now, visitors can visit The Presidio and Mission Dolores.
The Presidio is one of the best parks in San Francisco and one of the best places from which to view San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge. For a peak at The Presidio’s past, visitors can view the historic Officers’ Club building. The building was used over the years by Spanish, Mexican and United States troops. Today it is rented out for lavish San Francisco weddings and other events.
Even more impressive is a visit to Mission Dolores (properly called Misión San Francisco de Asís). There one can wander through the old mission chapel, sit in the cemetery, and imagine the profound changes experienced by the indigenous Ohlone as Spanish missionaries imposed their new religion and way of life. Visitors may also recognize the cemetery as one of many Hitchcock movie locations in California, in this case from the movie Vertigo.
See Diego Rivera’s San Francisco
With the Gold Rush came immigrants and miners from all over. Anglo immigrants from the eastern United States soon outnumbered the original colonizers of Spanish descent. Although miners also came from Mexico and even Chile, the power and influence of Latin Americans waned for a few years.
Then came the Mexican Revolution and the artistic explosion that followed it. Post-revolutionary Mexican art had a profound influence in the United States. All three of the most famous Mexican muralists worked in California, but it was Diego Rivera who left his mark on San Francisco.
There are three Rivera murals in the city. The first is in The City Club of San Francisco, formerly the Pacific Stock Exchange. The mural, titled Allegory of California, depicts the industry, agriculture and sense of discovery embodied in the young state of California.
His next mural, at the San Francisco Art Institute is titled The Making of a Fresco, Showing the Building of a City. In it, businessmen, industrial workers, architects, and even Diego himself work to build the ideal city. All is calm, organized, and soot-free in Diego’s version of industrial America.
His final San Francisco mural was painted years later for the San Francisco Golden Gate Exhibition. It is titled Pan American Unity and combines his positive, industrial visions of the United States with the themes of Mexico’s culture and indigenous past. Great leaders of the Americas, from Hidalgo to Washington, appear side by side.
Experience Today’s San Francisco
As Latinos, particularly Mexican Americans, began moving back into San Francisco’s Mission District in large numbers in the '60s and '70s, the mural tradition grew. Today, there are hundreds of murals in the district. To see them, visitors can wander the streets or set up a tour with the Precita Eyes Mural Arts and Visitors Center.
San Francisco is justifiably famous for its food and its Latin food is no exception. Mexican food fanatics can head straight to La Taqueria. While those who can’t get enough Peruvian ceviche will want to make a reservation at Limon. And those who aren’t quite sure which country’s culinary creations they want can head over to the Costa Rican and Cuban-owned Charanga for a selection of Nuevo Latino dishes.
Wise visitors will arrive in San Francisco at the beginning of November. The month kicks off with a Day of the Dead celebration. Following that is the annual Latino Film Festival.
Details
Presidio Officers’ Club, 50 Moraga Avenue at Arguello Boulevard, 415-561-5444
Mission Dolores, 3321 Sixteenth Street, 415-621-8203
The City Club of San Francisco, 301 Pine Street at Sansome, For Architectural Tours Call Marsha Zakheim, 415-648-7198
San Francisco Art Institute, 800 Chestnut Street, 415-771-7020
City College of San Francisco, Diego Rivera Theater, 50 Phelan Avenue, 415-452-5550
Precita Eyes Mural Arts and Visitors Center, 2981 24th Street, 415-285-2287
La Taqueria, 2889 Mission Street, 415-285-7117
Limon, 524 Valencia Street, 415-252-0918
Charanga, 2351 Mission Street, 415-282-1813
Sources
Caughey, John W. California: A Remarkable State’s Life History. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1970
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