Carnival 2015 San Francisco Californie
The birth of the Carnival in the streets of San Francisco.
LAWRENCE, Adela Chu and others first Precita Park Carnival 1979.
On February 25, 1979, a wind, cold and rainy Sunday in San Francisco, about three hundred drummers and dancers dressed in colors and many forms, paraded around the Precita Park in the Mission District Maybe for passing uninformed, everything seemed to be a crazy, hippy, leave it to dance half-naked-in-the-park event for revelers, however, was the culmination of months of planning and rehearsing the carnival in city until didn t have one and can now boast of hosting, if not the greatest, certainly the most diverse parade of carnival throughout the country, if not the world.
How did it come about that fact happen Why has it happened in the Mission District to start a question leads to another and all point to Adela Chu, which can easily trace his dream carnival in his childhood in the city of Colón, Panama.
I was three years old, remembers Adela, it was time carnival, and my mother was sewing costumes, like every year, she sewed these cute pink tutu with a big red valentine on the bodice, and I wanted to wear a sooooo bad but I was told I was too young for carnival I think about that time my dream carnival began and I took this dream with me wherever I went for that, several years later, when I was living in San Francisco, a chance I had to carnival, I would go for her people loved it too, which was probably why I thought San Francisco would be the ideal place to start a tradition carnival spirit was there, drummers, dancers and I knew a lot of them because I was a samba teacher I guess you can say that the samba school was my way of keeping my dream alive carnival.
Keep the dream alive, or at least try to do so, Adela staged his first carnival in San Francisco at the Masonic Temple in 1976, the same year, with Ana Halprin Dance Company, she organized a carnival show at 24 Street BART station and the following year, with the help of Chalo Eduardo, she took in Ocean Beach carnival where everything has become a sort of Burning Man event.
Then, in 1978, Adela went to Brazil When she returned, it was like I had no choice A city like San Francisco without carnival didn t make any sense to me.
For all practical purposes, then, let's say the San Francisco Carnival story began when Cristina de Oliveira, a dear friend and former student samba Adela, invited him to spend Carnival in Rio In fact, we could as well say that the history of San Francisco Carnaval sources of the invitation letter of Cristina, which Adela, after all these years, still knows by heart, grammatical errors included and every time she said it out loud, it still feels like the beginning of the most fantastic fairy tale.
Dear Adela will happen Carnival at the end of the month so you can anytime come Because I, my friends, the Sun and Yemanja are here waiting for you P S came quickly, everyone waits.
I first thought Adela was crazy, man I mean there are hundreds, thousands of years of dance tradition in Brazil, Panama, Trinidad and carnival all countries, you know what I mean you can not just create a carnival day to day more, one thing is to dance in a classroom setting, but it is something to take to the streets and make it real and I not mean to put anyone down, I mean I was a drummer in all of Adela samba classes, so I knew she had the best of intentions, and his students had the biggest hearts, but they really couldn t and the samba they had no idea what carnival is all about Perhaps the reason is that Adela is so amazing, man Carnival in San Francisco février Give me a break, the man.
Orlando Hernández was, indeed, the most faithful drummer Adela Chu and probably not the only one who thought she was a little carnival realistic in its expectations as a drummer, though, he had to be aware, although he didn t mention that the drum circles around the parks of San Francisco Bay was the best training ground for anyone who wants to take a carnival parade in the streets in the same vein, the carnival was regularly cooking in various dance studios in the seventy years and was ready to come out.
While rehearsals began under the supervision of Adela, she wasn t create or import an event as well just give drummers San Francisco and dancers a chance to gather a little more focused and organized was and is his gift to San Francisco the rest resembles a tapestry of diverse carnival dreams and traditions, with Adela s, began to feel quite at home in the Bay area.
If one could say, whereas with Adela came the African-flavored carnival Colón, Panama and the Brazilian inspiration that encompasses everything the same way, with Marcus Gordon, main collaborator and Adela, after San Francisco's artistic director carnival for fifteen years, came to the Caribbean Carnival in Harlem which must be added the names of Jose Lorenzo, Marlene Rosa Lima, Bira Almeida, Chalo Eduardo Claudio Araujo and many other exuberant dancers and musicians and dedicated carnival without which could have occurred, but have never established such deep roots.
Marcus Gordon, who led the drummers first Carnival and played a major role in the organization in the following years.
In this regard, when we say that the last Sunday in February 1979 Adela Chu gave birth in San Francisco Carnaval in Precita Park, perhaps all that we say is that it has provided a face, a location and pathos an array of historical agents, all coinciding in a city that was then preferred to use way to Frida Kahlo described San Francisco, the city of the world and must include even the time between all these ingredients that contribute to birth carnival for that day, typical of winter and often been in this city, he seemed inhospitable covered the sun came out, however, as the drummers and dancers were about to tour the park and when they finished, the rain fell with a vengeance like to remind them that, despite the fact that they had successfully staged the first carnival of the mission, it was still far from finding a home so us as a most suitable location in time and space.
Speaking of time and space, in the seventy years, the mission was a great, predominantly Latino neighborhood is experiencing a gradual transformation into a place of encounter few alternative bohemian cafes just opened There was no Rainbow chic organic products store opened restaurants near Roxie cinema, which, moreover, visibly struggling to position itself as an art movie house and forget his home porn movie past, however, the most signs undeniable change, came from the presence a strong and hard defiantly dykes on bikes along the streets of Valencia and punks, lying on sidewalks around 16th Street as a post-modern iguanas with their red, purple skin and green hair terrible and ominous breath.
In the opposite corner of this social and economic struggle, representing the past were pit bulls low riders included, of course, a barrio aristocracy disappearing live their last days as the Mission's kings, and on Sunday with using fellow low riders from all over the Bay area cruising Mission Street and literally turn it into a bumper to bumper car and the Rucas fashion show in full makeup and tight dresses , cramped, the Vatos showing the folds pressed their zoot suit, and their cars, yes, especially their cars turned into rolling Baroque art facilities.
The cops, needless to say, did not see these Pachuco parades with good eyes In fact, they found that it was them or us.
Mission and 24 at the time Low Rider, c 1980.
Meanwhile, Filipinos, other ethnic group with extensive roots in the barrio, began to move to exotic places like Serramonte and Daly City And, yes, they have also led large, imposing, the spiffed cars, preferably Camaros and Trans Ams with tons of chrome and roaring engines, they only led high, not low they loved their cars to look as if they were on stilts they also liked the mullet sporting great, often called Manila Falls.
music wise, disco was big, so was the rock, funk and salsa punk was at its most inspired when the Vietnam War began to disappear from memory and Nicaragua Sandinistas were revolutionaries of the day and all these changes were beginning to reflected and depicted on murals and placas while Adela Chu, Pam Minor and Elaine Cohen Carnival provided inside Babar Cafe on Guerrero Street.
Yes, Adela laughing and talking together, Cafe Babar was probably the closest thing to our headquarters It's so funny, so amazing, really, how we put it all together in this coffee, I do not think we've had only one official meeting you know, we talked on the phone too if I'd had to endure, however, endless meetings and coordinating committees and things like that, I swear I did never done.
Today, Adela Chu lives in Oahu, Hawaii The African-Chinese ethnicity has acquired a majestic style Polynesian The thin, wiry, with long legs and flat chest dancer twenty-something has become a Bodacious, round and strong the Hawaiian beauty can be a healthy tinge of nostalgia his days California infuses his memories out of it, it's not affectation when she talks about her time in San Francisco, or the creator of one of the most colorful events and tied with San Francisco Chinese new year Parade and Gay Pride Parade.
Yes, San Francisco in the late seventies writers wrote texts, art performance was hot, life was a succession of events, the merger is the key word when musicians jammed together, and minorities, including those struggling for equality of ethnic orientation, gender or sexual begun to taste the fruits of their long and often cruel struggle, a struggle that exactly three months before Carnival has undergone one of its most tragic blows with the assassination of Mayor Moscone and supervisor Harvey Milk and if is to make things even more morbid unfathomable, the Jonestown Massacre in Guyana, where hundreds of Bay Area residents would die, would take place during the same week of November 1978 .
The show must go on, if Adela Chu continued rehearsals and kept recruiting all the help she could get more he came to day Carnival, the more she realized she needed someone with real expertise in the tumultuous art of dancing and partying on the streets that took her to Jose Lorenzo, when the most visible Brazilian musician and talented dancer and carnival entrepreneur in the Bay area.
Then, a few weeks before Carnival, Jose Lorenzo back, can you believe He told me he found another concert, a paid gig, and he left, he even took with him my best drummers and dancers.
At that time, the accidental appearance of Marcus Gordon turned a disastrous impasse in a winning equation carnival, all thanks to Beatriz Ross gave Adela Chu telephone number.
What I can tell you that I was desperate and Marcus really came through I mean, he literally bailed.
Marcus Gordon not only returned with impeccable timing, but also had powers perfect to transform dream Adela carnival in a clear and palpable reality, it was a real conga of Fundamento in Yoruba tradition with a simple personality from a strong sense of humor and organizational skills well groomed polite throughout many years of largest teaching percussion, he brought with him the best drummers in the Bay area.
Well, at the time, all conga players, we all knew, Marcus Gordon said that I knew John Santos, José Flores, Yele and Teddy Strong Dolores Park Aquatic Park was also popular, but that was more of shade trees playing good players gathered in Sproul Plaza in Berkeley, which is where I met some amazing people like Babatunde Lea, Tobajee, Malonga, Bill Summers and many others There was a huge culture drumming in San Francisco Bay he had nothing to envy to any other city in the country, including New York, which is where I came in 69 If you were a drummer in the seventy years, the San Francisco Bay was the ideal location.
And I think I drummed teaches at Berkeley High and Laney College when Adela Chu invited me to join with Boby Céspedes and other musicians, we had a group called Coco Santo It was basically a set Santeria Afro-Cuban, but we could also play guaguancó and comparsa we could play something, really with this group, my students, drumming, John percussionists Santos and colleagues José Flores drumming students, Chalo's and dancers Adela, that's how we put together CARNIVAL in Precita Park.
Ironically, because Marcus was a novice Yoruba priest, he could not wear a suit or perhaps it is more appropriate to say that he could wear a special suit that is why in all images of the first and the second Carnival, Marcus was all in white, running like a general on the field, omnipresent and imposing, wearing clothing that probably adapted its Carnival savior role better than any other suit he could have chosen.
Music and dance are key ingredients carnival but without costumes, carnival is not carnival and costumes, in the seventy years, you went to the bank Costume in Western Addition or Pam Minor, which later became director of the Bank since Costume Carnival.
I remember that we had five dollars for all participants, Pam Minor remembers, and with this money, we went to the Costume Bank to make our own costumes, all at the last minute when another Oh, yes, we have had a few late nights in the Bank but ourselves all sewed, including drummers, who at first, but they were a little me, sew all got into it with Conga Phil gave the example Anyway, for the first carnival, I am in charge of the costumes, public relations, it seems so glamorous, oh and get the permit from the city and because of the winter solstice that password I organized a month earlier two I called the Bring Back the Sun Parade.
Pam Minor remembers the phone call Adela Chu morning parade of the winter solstice, and in fact awakening because the drums were already underway and I need all the friends and dancers that I could get a hold of So I made sure Adela heard the battery on the phone because I knew it would get him out of bed immediately Don t ask me if we ended up with a group of drummers, Pam Minor is silent as if trying to deceive his memory by remembering that is a big hole in my story but we had them and we went into the block twice, I think.
This may sound strange, but anyway, this year we had a very cold, dark winter One morning I had the realization that it was me and my friends to bring the sun Just like it sounds crazy ah Sometimes, you just do what you have to do I told my friends, hey, listen, if we do not do well on the morning of the winter solstice, I had a route for the parade and police permit which is why Adela trusted me with the city permit business to carnival, since I had this whole experience, right.
Pam Minor did obtain the police permit for carnival, but only to parade on the sidewalks, which might explain why the parade took place mainly inside the park on the grass And as befitted carnival of birth, excitement and a feeling of not knowing what to expect and percussionists united dancers as they gathered in the park.
Crowd west end Precita Park, Marcus Gordon in white in the middle.
There was no high expectations, to ensure that there were no tanks or in place, there were these huge paper mache masks, provided by the Mission Cultural Center, who added the only larger than life touch to the event, apart from the irrepressible enthusiasm exponentially participant that the group has increasingly so, time Jose Flores group Los Dandies, wear these clown outfits pachuco with bowlers, is came banging on the hill to join Marcus Gordon drum players in red and white, the multicolored rainbow comparsa, the Comparsa green money and wacky led by Margaret of Jesus, back Tribe Carajas in red, Susubaes wearing bird masks and Yemanja Comparsa in classic white, blue and silver, and Sir Lawrence Washington, wearing an outfit grand marshal of all kinds, began to lead the parade, one could say that at that time he there was no Rewind Carnival was born in the Mission District.
Recalling this and other carnival parades where he played the role of Grand Marshal Sir Lawrence Washington said.
I used to take Adela samba lessons in the mission I was a dancer and performer myself, which is probably why Adela asked me to lead the parade Well, because I 'm very large and easy to identify in any case, I used to do crazy things in the streets of San Francisco My wife Jennifer and I had group called ART, renewable Theater America and we call all our friends and dancers staging these massive events all over town well, no wonder I was chosen to lead the carnival and I knew we could not t compete with Brazil or any of the major countries of the carnival, you know, but at the same time, we had an honest desire to have our own carnival So I just tried to embody the spirit of local carnival It was my job and one of my biggest thrills was all these children hear me screaming p hile I was walking along Wow, man, I wanna be like you What you must do to be in front of the parade.
If one could say that the royal presence of Sir Lawrence was the closest a carnival king who presides at the celebration, but no one could play Adela Queen Fittingly, she and Pam Minor had worked queen costume of 'outer space, all shiny with silver highlights and a cap of inspiration birds and a glittery silver cape, which Adela wore over a leotard golden She knew it was her time to shine and guide and make everyone at home to celebrate life in all its ephemeral beauty tragic and comical because that's what is all about carnival.
From dream to reality of reality more than reality.
One thing that people forget when talking about an event, especially a historical event, the context and the San Francisco Carnaval didn t come out of the blue I mean, of course, it was possible due to the effort of Adela Chu and Marcus Gordon, but the large number of people involved and volunteer, those who really possible here carnival had all along and they were greatly helped by nearly a decade of funding for the arts.
This is Carole Deutch, who in 1979 was director of Precita Park Community Center.
At the federal level you CETA Then, in the state, you had the California Council of Arts, which thanks to artists and activists like Peter Coyote, Francis Coppola and Luis Valdez, to name a few funded all types of artistic and individual artists local projects, you had the Fund San Francisco and then you had people like us, working time in the community center of the Precita valley where we had art classes, mural classes, dance classes, drumming lessons This is why when Adela and Marcus came to ask me to use the gym for rehearsals, we not only have welcomed the arm we are open have participated and have everything to do it maybe all I'm saying is that carnival Couldn t have chosen a better time or a better place to be born.
Carole Deutch was, indeed, a privileged witness and help at birth Carnival She also was so impressed and excited by what she saw that she essentially took charge of the newly formed committee to prepare Carnival parade next year the initial committee also included, by the way, Adela Chu, Marcus Gordon Pam Minor, Sir Lawrence Washington, Lou de Matteis and John Santos, who at the time taught percussion in Precita cultural center consideration amid the most inhospitable resounding success of the first carnival weather, the committee wisely decided to move to April 13 Carnival regarding the parade route, they arrived at the conclusion that it time to Mission Street.
For the second Carnival, then, different comparsas, musicians and tanks gathered around Capp Street and 26th Street From there, they were supposed to make their way across Mission Street, turned 19 Street and arrived at Dolores Park, where they had prepared a stage for a concert in the afternoon allowed the committee had obtained, however, allowed them to use only half of Mission Street and the other half was to remain open for normal circulation parade along Mission Street, however, and people spontaneously joined in, it has grown to the point that the traffic came to a standstill and there was nothing the police or the dancers could do.
I guess word had spread around, said Rachel Ross, who played the MC stage carnival in Dolores Park friends had brought friends and those friends had brought more friends and it was just a lot of people I do not think that each of us expected this turnout.
At one point while the low-riders, accustomed to cruising and power Mission Street, took charge and led the parade safely in Dolores Park.
Lou Dematteis official carnival photographer, something crucial to say at this moment in the history of San Francisco.
Well, it was all just amazing from the start, at ten in the morning, for example, when we told the people to gather, there was hardly anyone there by eleven, we were more that the same people who made the first Carnival in Precita Park So I thought, well, it's going to be a small but at least it's going to be at noon, though, when the show was to begin, all these people I participated t where and as we paraded along Mission Street, more and more people will join what I can tell you that it was just one of those moments where I felt so lucky to be part of something like that, i mean, to attend the 19th Street and Dolores Park covered with people, all singing and dancing to the experience of such a spontaneous explosion of a true spirit of carnival in a city that until then had never had the time came, I would say, if he There was a carnival doubt take root in San Francisco, which was what Carnival was here to stay because the people of San Francisco cisco had overwhelmingly decided that was the case.
Again, however, a victim of its own success, Carnival had to look for a more suitable location Neighbors of Dolores Park had been overwhelmed by the amount of people and that they will not allow carnival takes place in their neighborhood again face to this challenge, the committee broke into two seemingly irreconcilable camps the ones who wanted to take the civic center carnival and those who believed it belonged to the Mission and t shouldn be taken away.
Civic Center Proponents acknowledged that the proposed location lacked comfortable, flavor barrio as part of however, the space-wise identity Carnival, they said the Civic Center is a practical and intelligent solution, it was also a move that could help Carnival become a real city business, a party that belonged to San Francisco as a whole and not just a neighborhood despite its cold architecture, grand and impersonal, despite the long way to the parade to go, they thought the Civic Center has provided a reasonable home for Carnival and they won.
For the fourth year, the committee also decided that Carnival dates back to the Heartbroken Civic Center, Adela left the Carnival Committee This time, she did not dance or parade with a group for it, taking Carnival away from the Mission was the betrayal of his dream Carnival was his gift to the Mission and it wouldn t be another way.
I am grieving inconsolably, Adela said that I participated, but, but in a very private way, illegal I mean, I have not told anyone that I dressed like a blue mermaid with a big tear blue grease off my right eye and I went walking along the parade by myself, I did not do at the civic Center Then a few months later, I went to Amsterdam to play with a salsa band, and life took me away from the Bay area.
As for the rest of the committee members, with the exception of Marcus Gordon, they all left after the fourth carnival, overwhelmed by requests time and dedication and lack of monetary incentive did they know that carnival become a true corporate sponsored event and the heartbreaking struggle between the Mission and the civic Center would remain constant until 2002, when the mission finally win.
Interestingly Adela Chu and Marcus Gordon are not the first to stage a San Francisco carnival parade Two years ago, Connie Williams, a native of Trinidad and longtime resident of San Francisco, had organized a parade carnival Caribbean inspired in the Western Addition fact that he didn t take root, however, doesn t mean it shouldn t be honored and remembered as a pioneer in San Francisco carnival.
In the same vein, we must also remember Michael Rios mural congueros Los Cubanos, the first mural in the city on the Mission carnival And although it no longer exists and very few people even remember, he started a illustrious tradition that now includes iconic murals as Daniel Galvez Carnival on the corner of 24th and South Van Ness whose images are based, moreover, on photos taken by Lou Dematteis, and the mural Carnival on Harrison and 19th Street, designed and painted by Emmanuel Montoya, Carlos and Josh Sarantitis Loarca.
Mural Daniel Galvez Carnival 24th and South Van Ness.
There were also posters that came with Carnival of posters designed and printed by Nancy Hom, local artist and founding member of Kearney Street shop in Chinatown.
And finally, back again to the first carnival of the Mission, going back, in fact, fat Tuesday, February 27, 1979, that day, Adela led a small dance show and drummer for several blocks along the San Francisco waterfront to launch a box of dead sardines in the bay because, as she says.
Everything comes from the ocean and has to go back and Panama, where I come from, Mardi Gras el Burial of the Sardine And if you don t return sardines at sea, Carnival has not come back and I was not will take every opportunity So, with all the dancers and drummers I could gather, we paraded along the bay a cold and miserable rainy day and everybody was cold and tired and wet and angry against me and thought that I was crazy to do all this for a stupid sardines, death.
The birth of the Carnival in the streets of San Francisco, birth, street carnival, francisco.
Бирт, 41372 Нидеркрюхтен, Германия