Surrounded by altars, marigolds, and candlelight, Marco Ruiz stood out from the crowd. In lieu of an elaborate memorial, Ruiz simply hugged a large framed photo of his brother Martin, who had died two days after his 19th birthday.
Ruiz was stoic, taking in the scene. When asked about his brother, however, he smiled.
“He thought he was the best dancer,” Marco grinned. In reality, “he was so bad — but he didn’t care.” After Martin was killed in a car accident years ago, 1,000 people attended the funeral, Marco added. Now, only the oldest kids remember him.
On Día de los Muertos on Saturday, the Mission, like the Ruizes, was focused on celebrating the past.
Potrero del Sol park filled with altars honoring pets, friends, teachers, children, grandparents, great-grandparents, and even strangers who have passed. Their loved ones reminisced, telling stories long past sundown to anyone who stopped by.
Martin Ruiz, according to his brothers, was the goofy, sporty middle child. He never said no to babysitting his nieces and nephews — as long as there was pizza involved. They had their own language of inside jokes.
The Ruizes once lived in the Mission. The siblings are graduates of Saint James Catholic school and, in the ’90s, their mom owned a taqueria and produce market near 22nd and Valencia streets. They moved away when the neighborhood began to gentrify, Marco said, but they returned on Saturday to celebrate Martin.
“Sitting with grief and not being sad is a beautiful thing,” said Cindy Predock from the center of a communal altar organized by The Marigold Project.
Above, notes handwritten by passersby fluttered in the breeze, clipped to string tied between three trees. The notes will later be burned in a Burning Man temple, Predock added.
For many, setting up an altar at Potrero del Sol has become an annual ritual. Artist Adrian Arias, for one, attends every year “to remember with beauty.” This year, Arias said, that means not just remembering ancestors and friends, but every Palestinian affected by war.
Others were new. Even though 24-year-old Erick Farias was raised on 24th and Mission, Saturday marked his first among the altars. It was a chance to connect to his Mexican heritage, Farias said, still giddy from dancing in the park’s marigold-strewn placita.
While most in the park traveled with family and friends, some arrived alone.
At the end of the night, one woman in an oversized black parka collected framed photographs from a communal altar. She wrapped them in plastic and slipped them into her rolling backpack, steeling herself for the trip back to Ocean Beach.
The elderly woman asked to remain anonymous, explaining that she had nearly been scammed out of her life savings over the summer and was now worried about identity theft. But she agreed to share images of her mother.
Many of her picture frames are dedicated to the family matriarch, who “worked so hard” she became skinny to the point of no longer looking “like a human being.”
This condition, the woman said, was the result of years on a factory assembly line in tropical Hong Kong. A framed scrap of paper — less than one inch wide and inscribed with Chinese characters written in soft pencil — is the last preservation of her mother’s handwriting.
Her father, she continued, had been the mayor of a small town in mainland China before escaping the communist party. There was more family memorabilia at home that did not make the trip to Potrero del Sol — this was her first time and she’d been concerned there wouldn’t be enough space for her.
On the bus ride home, the woman marveled at how receptive everyone at the festival of altars had been to questions about their loved ones. Mourning the dead, for her, had always been a private activity.
It was nice, she reflected, to share their memories.
About the author
‘Like a teddy bear’: Bob Lee’s friends testify to drug use, character
Two former colleagues and friends of Cash App founder Bob Lee testified today that while the homicide victim used drugs, Lee was not aggressive or erratic. The testimony countered a narrative from his alleged killer that Lee first drew the knife that killed him. Nima Momeni, the man on trial for Lee’s murder, has testified that Lee attacked him with a kitchen knife over a “bad joke,” about spending more time with his family rather than going to a strip club and that Momeni redirected the weapon toward Lee. Momeni’s defense team rested its case earlier this week. Prosecutors today called three rebuttal witnesses to testify to Lee’s character, as well as a San Francisco police captain intended to discredit a former sergeant who on Tuesday testified in support of the plausibility of Momeni’s self-defense claim. Kristina Champion, who worked with Lee when […]
Over 900 mobile home owners in Sweetwater, Florida handed move-out notices amid plans to transform park
Over 900 mobile home owners in Sweetwater, Florida handed move-out notices amid plans to transform park Residents of Li'l Abner Mobile Home Park in Sweetwater, Florida, were recently notified that they'll need to find somewhere else to live and quickly. The community of more than 900 mobile homes, together housing roughly 2,000 to 3,000 people per the mayor's estimate, will close in May 2025 to make way for new affordable and workforce housing. Mobile home owners usually own the home but rent the land it stands on. The land owner in this case, CREI Holdings, says it will provide a financial incentive of $14,000 to residents who leave by January 31, 2025. Those who leave by March 31 or April 30, will receive $7,000 and $3,000, respectively, though many tenants say it's not enough time or money, according to a […]
Judge denies motion to ease house arrest of Jon Jacobo
A San Francisco judge on Thursday denied a motion to loosen the home detention conditions forJon Jacobo, a once-rising star in San Francisco’s politics who was arrested on Aug. 5 for alleged sexual assault. “The motion is denied to the extent that it asks for relief from home detention and [ankle] monitoring,” said San Francisco Superior Court judge Kenneth Wine this morning. “It’s the seriousness of the charges that’s really driving my decision. There are a number of victims with very serious charges.”Jacobo, a longtime Mission District community leader, was first publicly accused of rape in 2021. This April, he resigned from his executive position at affordable-housing developer TODCO, soon after three women accused him of rape and abuse in a San Francisco Standard story. He was arrested on Aug. 5, 2024. Jacobo today showed up in the courtroom in casual clothes […]
Pam Bondi named as new AG pick after Gaetz drops out
Former Rep. Matt Gaetz, President-elect Donald Trump's pick for attorney general, said Thursday he is withdrawing his name for the role -- just a day after Gaetz spoke with Republican senators on Capitol Hill about the nomination process.Trump has named Pam Bondi, the former attorney general of Florida, as his new pick for the role.Another controversial Cabinet pick, Pete Hegseth, is on the Hill on Thursday with Vice President-elect JD Vance to make his case for the secretary of the Department of Defense job.Meanwhile, Trump continues to announce his picks for top jobs inside his administration.Latest DevelopmentsNov 21, 6:56 PMTrump nominates Pam Bondi as new AG pickTrump has nominated Pam Bondi as his new pick for attorney general, after Matt Gaetz withdrew from consideration earlier Thursday.Bondi is the former attorney general of Florida, serving from 2011 to 2019 and marking […]
Mission Local bags two Society of Professional Journalists awards
This here publication last week took home two more awards from the Northern California branch of the Society of Professional Journalists for in-depth coverage and analysis of the sort you expect — and demand — of us. Senior editor Joe Rivano Barros and former data reporter Will Jarrett were honored in the “Explanatory Journalism” category for the mammoth effort of tracing and documenting the Russian dolls-like series of interconnected organizations funneling billionaires’ dollars into San Francisco politics. Joe Rivano Barros, who with Will Jarrett won for the Big Money SF work. Photo by Abigail Van NeelyThe series, titled “BigMoneySF,” included Rivano Barros’ profile of Neighbors for a Better San Francisco, the largest donor over the last several election cycles, and Jarrett’s interactive chart, a stunning accomplishment requiring months of work unearthing reams of financial data structured in a manner so as to render it […]
US airline flight crews confident and angry as unions seek richer contracts
By Rajesh Kumar Singh CHICAGO (Reuters) - Alaska Airlines flight attendant Rebecca Owens works 10 hours a day but only gets paid for half that time - a legacy of a common U.S. airline policy to pay cabin crew members only when planes are in motion. Owens, and thousands of cabin crew like her, wants that to change. In August, 68% of Alaska flight attendants in a ratification vote rejected a contract that would have increased average pay by 32% over three years. It was also the first labor agreement that would have legally required airlines to start the clock for paying flight attendants when passengers are boarding, not when the flight starts to taxi down the runway. Delta Air Lines, the only major U.S. airline whose flight attendants are not in a union, instituted boarding pay for its flight […]
Related
‘Like a teddy bear’: Bob Lee’s friends testify to drug use, character
Two former colleagues and friends of Cash App founder Bob Lee testified today that while the homicide victim used drugs, Lee was not aggressive or erratic. The testimony countered a narrative from his alleged killer that Lee first drew the knife that killed him. Nima Momeni, the man on trial for Lee’s murder, has testified that Lee attacked him with a kitchen knife over a “bad joke,” about spending more time with his family rather than going to a strip club and that Momeni redirected the weapon toward Lee. Momeni’s defense team rested its case earlier this week. Prosecutors today called three rebuttal witnesses to testify to Lee’s character, as well as a San Francisco police captain intended to discredit a former sergeant who on Tuesday testified in support of the plausibility of Momeni’s self-defense claim. Kristina Champion, who worked with Lee when […]
Judge denies motion to ease house arrest of Jon Jacobo
A San Francisco judge on Thursday denied a motion to loosen the home detention conditions forJon Jacobo, a once-rising star in San Francisco’s politics who was arrested on Aug. 5 for alleged sexual assault. “The motion is denied to the extent that it asks for relief from home detention and [ankle] monitoring,” said San Francisco Superior Court judge Kenneth Wine this morning. “It’s the seriousness of the charges that’s really driving my decision. There are a number of victims with very serious charges.”Jacobo, a longtime Mission District community leader, was first publicly accused of rape in 2021. This April, he resigned from his executive position at affordable-housing developer TODCO, soon after three women accused him of rape and abuse in a San Francisco Standard story. He was arrested on Aug. 5, 2024. Jacobo today showed up in the courtroom in casual clothes […]
Mission Local bags two Society of Professional Journalists awards
This here publication last week took home two more awards from the Northern California branch of the Society of Professional Journalists for in-depth coverage and analysis of the sort you expect — and demand — of us. Senior editor Joe Rivano Barros and former data reporter Will Jarrett were honored in the “Explanatory Journalism” category for the mammoth effort of tracing and documenting the Russian dolls-like series of interconnected organizations funneling billionaires’ dollars into San Francisco politics. Joe Rivano Barros, who with Will Jarrett won for the Big Money SF work. Photo by Abigail Van NeelyThe series, titled “BigMoneySF,” included Rivano Barros’ profile of Neighbors for a Better San Francisco, the largest donor over the last several election cycles, and Jarrett’s interactive chart, a stunning accomplishment requiring months of work unearthing reams of financial data structured in a manner so as to render it […]
‘Slow Streets, Fast Friends’ mural comes to 20th St. in the Mission
Sign up below to get Mission Local’s free newsletter, a daily digest of news you won’t find elsewhere. Josue Rojas hovers in the air above the ground, gingerly balancing his stomach on a stool while holding his paintbrush in one hand, face towards the asphalt. He says it’s better than being on all fours. “It’s particularly brutal work,” says Rojas. “I’m on my knees six to eight hours a day and, now that I’m in my mid-40s, it’s not that easy to bear.” Rojas has spent the past week working between bursts of rain to create a street mural on 20th and Florida streets for the “Slow Streets, Fast Friends” project of the SF Parks Alliance nonprofit, which commissions murals on slow streets throughout the city.The mural was finished this past weekend, and now adorns the block where Atlas Cafe, the Southern […]
SFMTA board approves new Valencia bikeway—but few are happy
The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s board unanimously approved the new curbside Valencia Street bike lane on Tuesday, and admitted that the transit agency should have been more cautious with experiments in merchant corridors.That experiment — a bike lane running up the center of the street — had pitted transit advocates against shopkeepers. Now cyclists and the Valencia Corridor Merchants Association were finally on the same page: Neither were fans of the new design.“The [merchants association] cannot officially support the side-running bike lane,” said Manny Yekutiel, president of the Valencia Corridor Merchants Association, which has fought the old design. Yekutiel was one of dozens who spoke up in the three-hour-long meeting held at City Hall.Yekutiel, echoing long-held concerns from merchants against streetscape changes, said the new design will get rid of a lot of the parking spots on Valencia Street. […]
Banderas flags
Banderas flags Source: missionlocal.org
Be the first to leave a comment