A tiny bark welcomes you into Productos Naturales Georgina’s at 2286 Mission Street. Popi, a small Chihuahua, sits behind the counter in his FBI sweater. “He’s my guard,” says Georgina, the owner. “He lets me know whenever anyone comes into the store when I’m in the back. I have avoided being robbed countless times because of him.” “I stocked this...
Abdiel Avila, 58, sets up on Mission Street every morning. He spreads a blanket out beneath the shade of a tree near 17th Street and pulls out watches, chargers, shoes, backpacks, movies, bike seats, and whatever has come his way. Once, he even tried to sell a dog someone gave him. On a good day, he says, he can make...
At a meeting Monday night, service providers for the city’s Latino and immigrant populations said fear of deportation and family de-stabilization have risen while the resources to deal with both have diminished. “Our attorneys are doing quasi-social work,” said Lariza Dugan-Cuadra, executive director of the Mission-based Central American Resource Center or CARECEN, a nonprofit that provides immigration legal services to...
The Mission’s Episcopal Church of St. John’s the Evangelist on Wednesday joined a number of churches in the San Francisco area and beyond in vowing to protect their immigrant community from deportation. “We’ve given sanctuary to many over the years,” said father Richard Smith, St. John’s vicar, to a group of some 50 community members gathered in front of two...
After 129 years in operation in the Mission, St. Charles Borromeo School at 3250 18th St. will suspend operations in June, citing low enrollment and an inability to meet an expensive construction budget for outstanding seismic retrofit work. “There has been a steady declination over the last five years and it’s been really dramatic over the last three years,” said...
While most stores in the Mission District remained open Thursday, dozens made it clear on handmade signs taped to shuttered storefronts that they were willing to forgo profits for a day to show support for the immigrant community. The closings were part of a nationwide protest, A Day Without Immigrants, meant to underscore the importance of the country’s more than...
Some 40 people gathered on a sliver of sidewalk outside of the Immigrant Worker Power Center at 3358 Cesar Chavez St. to celebrate the center’s reopening following heavy renovations Thursday morning. The center has served as a hub for organizing work in the workers and immigrant rights movements and as a vocational training facility, and houses the 25-year-old collective of immigrant workers known...
State Assemblymember David Chiu and several colleagues have put forward legislation that would bar landlords from using a tenant’s immigration status to intimidate them into leaving. He and other state and local lawmakers and community leaders announced the proposal San Francisco’s Mission District, at the Mission Neighborhood Community Centers building on Capp Street. Co-authored by State Senator Scott Wiener and...
Instead of writing wishlists for Santa Claus, immigrant activists gathered on the steps of City Hall Monday to write letters to Mayor Ed Lee urging him to provide more funding to the public defender’s office in the anticipation of a Donald Trump presidency that promises to deport thousands of undocumented people. So far, Lee has resisted such pleas to increase funding...
In San Francisco’s Mission District, the city’s Latino neighborhood, the ascendancy of Donald Trump to the White House was met with a mixture of fear, resolve, and a come-what-may attitude. “What happens will happen,” said Miguel Gustan, a worker who immigrated from Mexico. If immigrants are allowed to stay in the country, fine, he said, he and others will be...
Trim and Talk is an occasional series from the Mission’s salons. Amidst the ridicule of Donald Trump’s unchallenged appointment with Mexico’s president, Enrique Peña Nieto, the pieces are starting to fall. Univision has finally changed its all-day Juan Gabriel broadcast into criticism of the deposed finance minister, Luis Videgaray, and attention to the September 26 U.S. presidential debate. Not that...
A Mission leader credited with helping to place some 40,000 Latino and immigrant community members in jobs will be honored at this Saturday’s 20th Street Block Party– a free, day-long neighborhood party expected to draw some 15,000 revelers to the 20th Street Corridor. The building that houses the Mission Language and Vocational School at 2929 19th St. will be named after its...
Advocates say the arrest of a Mission District resident by federal immigration officials moments after he tried to retrieve a stolen car from police may be a violation of San Francisco’s sanctuary city policy, which prohibits cooperation between local law enforcement and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “Pedro Figueroa was the victim of a crime, and today he’s the victim of...
Since mid-adolescence, food has been Gabriela Guerrero’s passion. She watched cooking shows on television, scribbled down the recipes and then cooked for her family and asked, “Is it good or is it very good?” Then, she would keep working at the recipe until they told her it was delicious. In November of 2015, that passion became Delicioso Creperie, a brick-and-mortar...
Update: The story has been updated to reflect German Maldonado’s bankruptcy filings. The property manager who was accused of stealing his tenants’ rent last summer has been found guilty and must pay a total of $780,000 to his nine former tenants for negligence, emotional distress, and loss of rent, among other charges. German Maldonado “has caused a lot of harm, and he...
