The Mission District

So we're kind of cruising along, me and America. Everyone's out of work, everyone's living in their parents' bedrooms, everyone's going to happy hour and skipping Friday night. No idea when this whole 'recession' thing is going to end. Peter Donohue, economist extraordinaire, tells me it's getting worse before it gets any better. Things are a little... up in the air, you might say.

Erik and I spent today with Caleb, his eight-year old be-mohawked cousin, cruising the Mission District 'cuz we had nothin' better goin' on. So for those of you that don't live in San Francisco (I know you're out there), the Mission is where you want to be. And what I mean to say by that is, it's where Caitlin wants to be.

The neighborhood was first settled by Whitey back in 1776, when the Spainards came to town(they built San Francisco de Assi, after which the neighborhood was named). It morphed into a blue collar community with the gradual addition of the German and Irish who Gold Rushed over from the motherlands. It even benifited from Central Americans workers, who moved in after finishing out their terms with Californian companies building the Panama Canal down south. The 'hood has always had a card up it's sleeve because when the rest of the city is lost in fog, it will sometimes poke it's head through into a sunny spot.

Today, the Mission rocks. By the 1950's, Chicanos and other Latinos had become the area's predominant ethnic group, blessing us with a taqueria on every corner and organic mangos four for a buck up in the grocery stores, even the year of our lord 2009. And other, Caitlin-friendly species have become endemic as well, such as the urban hipster. You wouldn't believe the bike shops down here- oh, the colored frames, oh, the wheel walls.

I actually feel compelled to give you my top 5 Mission District hit parade.

1. Paxton Gate, 824 Valencia Street
a taxidermy/florist shop brought to you by the most florid, twisted, pretty fever dreams. Sample goods include a stuffed cat wearing a prom dress and caniverous plants, both ready to be taken home and become your best friend! They just opened up a kid's store down the block, heady.

2. 826 Valencia Street, 826 Valencia Street
author Dave Eggers (he of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, the best titled book ever), has created this string of kid's writing workshops across the country. They all have business fronts to raise money for the childrens. 826 Valencia is a pirate shop. If you go, you must dig on the small theater whose screen has been filled by a big old fish tank. Original stories about the tank's inhabitants have been framed on the wall and I like them.

3. Amnesia Bar, 853 Valencia Street
lots of obscure beers, free bluegrass Mondays. Stand near the front so you can see the barefoot, hillbilly dancers get down.

4. the Precita Eyes Mural Project, here there and everywhere
around the Mission, you'll find narrow alleyways covered street to street with bursts of hot art that make late night bar cruisers stop and stare. Precita Eyes gives kids and other Missionites the power to make their neighborhood colorful, and the resulting wall coverings give us all reason to be proud.

5. Mariachi's, 508 Valencia Street
this taqueria on Valencia Street beat out Thrift Town, the mega-used clothing store not only on the basis of it's delicious Mazatlan fish burrito but also because all their bottled beer is the same price. Bud Light? $2.99. Pacifico? $2.99. Anchor Steam? $2.99. Only in San Francisco...

So... how did I get on that track? Oh yeah, being broke and stuff. Well, if I had a job, I wouldn't have had the time to bomb around down here and formulate a top 5 hit parade for you all. I wouldn't be in this awesome coffee shop with Erik and Caleb drinking beers in the middle of the day and enjoying the freaks and hippies wandering by the plate glass windows. I guess the main thing is the uncertainty involved in not having a gig to fill your time. A grid on which to plan your day.

But seriously when did I, she of the ever diminishing bank balance, get uncomfortable with unemployment? Since when was the freedom to wander a bad thing?

Silver lining not so hard to find here,

Love,

Cait

Learning About The World Around Us: Edition Guatemala

A few notes on the history of Guatemala (completly and totally swiped from the ¨Culture¨ section of my Footprint Central America guidebook), interspersed with my shots of it´s people and their miraculous textiles:

-Guatemala is comprised of two broad social/ethnic groups: ladinos, or those who speak Spanish and wear modern, ¨Western¨ clothing and the indigenos, who adhere to the tounge and customs of Mayan tradition. Indigenos make up 40%-60% of the country´s population today.

-Like in most countries on this here crazy Earth of ours, Guatemala´s indigenous population has been subject to extreme harassment and institutionalized displacement. This tradition dates back to the arrival of the Spanish in 1524, who conquistadored Mayan lands and forced the Mayans to work plots once their own and pay crop tithes to their new, belligerant neighbors. As recently as 1931, ´anti vagrancy´ laws were instituted, requiring indigenous individuals to work 150 days a year on the farm of a ¨landlord.¨

-Teacher Juan Jose Arevalo, after being elected to Guatemalan presidency in 1944, instituted new liberal institutions like an Office of Social Security and acceptance of all political parties. These were surprisingly unpopular ideas with some folks. He somehow survived 20 military coups.

-But as far as hapless liberals go, Jacobo Arbenz Guzman, takes your need-to-know-about cake. This is because Guzman, Arevalo´s successor, was the first to challenge American business megolith United Fruit Company. He did it by expropiating under-utilized land from corporations, reimbursing them for the land´s stated value and turning it over to the landless poor. Sadly for them, United Fruit had been under-reporting the value of their acres for years for tax purposes, like by a factor of twenty. Goodbye, fallow banana fields!


-Obviously, our country and proud parent of these lights of capitalism would not stand for this clear act of Commie Reds. Deciding Guatemala was no longer conducting its business in a satisfactory manner, the US opened military strikes on the country in 1954. They exiled Arbenz, the democratically elected leader of his country, and opened to door to 38 years of armed conflict between the forces of the new government and the pissed off landless poor.

-Though this may not be news to any of my readers at home, seen from the standpoint of Latin America, the United States sucks.

-Since a peace treaty was signed in 1996, Guatemala has made certain gains towards healing the wounds of a country torn by civil war. Mayans have assumed something much more in resemblence of fair representation in government. Rafael Colom, upon his most recent election as the country´s president, promised to put forth a ¨new Mayan face¨on the administration of Ecuador.

-But sadly, we´re hitting Guatemala at what would appear to be the end of tranquil political times. Following the recent murder of a politically-involved attorney, a posthumous video was played at the man´s funeral in which he claims to have been killed in relation to a client who sought to expose government corruption. In the clip, he fingers the president, his wife and staff. The bombshell has led to marches of thousands of white-clad protestors through Guatemala City, calling if not for the resignation of Colom, than at least a thorough investigation into the matter. So who knows, we may be witnessing regime change in action here.

***

In more personal news, we continue to be stuck in San Marcos after a day trip yesterday to the town of Santiago Atitlan, where the men are renowed for their kick-ass embroidered, bestriped shorts.

Check it out, this cat has a nature guide´s worth of tropical birds embroidered on his. I stared, perhaps more than strictly polite. He rocks.


Again, becoming quite a fan of Mayan style. They are brilliant social crusaders and fashionplates from since back when that word didn´t even exist. In light of this newfound obsession, I had my Mayan horoscope read the other day. I am a White Spectral Wind, which is very exciting.

Con Amor,
Your favorite White Spectral Wind,
Caitlin

Learning About Our Surroundings: Ecuador!

Rolled from up north into Quito, the country´s capital, this week and was thrust suddenly into a big, soupy political to-do. Ecuador´s presidential election is on Sunday and if the standard deluge of sign wavers and billboard ads isn´t enough to pull people´s attention fully onto the race for prez, the sale of alcohol has been banned for the three days leading up to voting.

But dearth of booze has been good for my guide book reading. And honestly, after learning about the past century in Ecuadorean politics, I can see why they´d like to keep this year´s election as sober as possible. Although perhaps they´d like to keep an eye on those wacky clergy and the military as well. I shall entitle these findings...

SLIGHTLY HECTIC HAPPENINGS IN ECUADOR´S PAST

- Way back in 1875, President Gabriel Garcia Moreno, an arch-conservative typified by his actions denying citzenship to non-Catholics, was machete-d to death in front of his presidential palace.

- A few years later, in 1911 President Eloy Alfaro is assasinated and his body is dragged through the Quito streets and burned, to much fanfare. Alfaro, the polar opposite of Moreno, had introduced secular education, civil marriage and ended capital punishment in Quito, somewhat ironically given his distasteful end.

-1931-1948: Ecuador goes through no less than 21 different governments.

- Peru´s attempts to claim a vast portion of Ecuador´s land for itself results in skirmishes between the two countries beginning in the 40´s and lasting well into the 1990´s. Relations between the two countries are now normalizing.

- 1950´s and 60´s: Jose Maria Velasco Ibarra is elected to the presidency 4 times. He is deposed by military coups... 4 times.

-1997-2005: 3 presidents are deposed. No blood is shed, a fact that my guidebook tells me Ecuadoreans are ¨quietly proud of.¨

-1999: Hyperinflation grips a hold of the country and the president declares plans to switch official currency to the US dollar. He is deposed by the military. Three days later his sucessor is named and ¨dollarization¨ proceeds unimpeded. They´ve stuck with their own coins however, with the characteristic Latin American penchant for massive small change the size of golf balls.

-Currently we are rocking with President Rafael Correa, a 46-year old economics professor. Correa, the clear front-runner in this weekend´s elections, is doing ¨a terrible job,¨ according to yesterday´s taxi driver.

***

Well, at least Ecuador´s proven it has options. Almost makes you appreciate our US dynasty system of electing our leader. Easier to keep track of who´s up in the White House when you´ve only got to learn a few new names a decade.

Oh, and p.s., I bought a $450 plane ticket this week! Bet you can´t guess where it´s going...

Heart,

CD

Fun Facts About Colombia

This is me right now, loving Colombia. We´re in Taganga, a tiny town up north where goats roam the streets and you can buy a meal that will feed a hungry, discerning person for $2 involving fried plantains and shredded fish.

Yesterday we took a motor boat so small it was silly out to Parque Nacional Tayrona. We saw flying. fish. I thought those only existed in certain Super Mario games, but hey, go figure.

The Parque... I mean, here´s the pics I got of it. Whoa. And those don´t even have the beach in them. We´re headed back out tomorrow morning with hammocks and minimal gear to camp in the palm trees, straight guerilla out there into the beyond civilization.
I was reading my travel guide (shocking, I know) about the history of this place and I´m going to play the same game with you as my poor travel buddies. It´s called ´Look How Crazy The Country We´re In Is´. Enjoy.

Did you know! Colombia had a civil war (one of many that´s rocked the country) in 1948 called ¨La Violencia.¨ It killed 300,000 people.

Did you know! In 1982 Colombia elected Pablo Escobar to Congress. His gang, the Medellin Cartel, had it´s own political party and two newspapers. It took 1500 special forces 499 days to track him down and kill him. That was after he was done sponsoring legislation, of course.

Did you know! Guerillas (guerillaing for a vast array of causes) control 40% of the country.

It´s crazy how beautiful the people in this country are for the absolute terror they´ve been through over the last... I don´t know, forever.