The future SFFCC and Victoria Manolo Draves Park

As we wandered the SoMa looking for La Boulange earlier...

I noticed a building across Mission street with a big black board...

Jollibee and Red Ribbon Bakery, SoMa

[Update - Closed since late 2011]

As we were heading there we saw Red Ribbon Bakeshop and Jollibee (the Philippine version of KFC and McD's) and figured we'd hit those places up before we left for Berkeley. [note, the SF Yelp link shows that the Red Ribbon AND the Jollibeeis closed! What?]

Red Ribbon is connected to Jollibee. I'd never been to a Red Ribbon before actually, not even in San Diego. Even Plaza Bonita has Red Ribbon and Jollibee (as well as Chow King).

Of course, I took a photo with the Jollibee but it's not posted here. Why? Because I'm grabbing it's striped crotch and making a totally goofy face, totally embarassing TC but not Bert because he's used to my freaky antics. Heh.

I bought some sweet bread (ensaimada) for my cousin who were were planning to meet later that afternoon. Turns out that she was mega sick so we didn't visit her and ended up leaving half of the bread with Thane.

After I bought the ensaimada, we walked over to the Jollibee part. We only wanted something small. I thought about Dennis and his Jollibee post. Even when I'm on vacation, I still read my fave bloggers! So, Dennis's post came out the day before (Oct. 2) and I figured we'd try it out!

This was a sign in the restaurant. I don't like bangus (milk fish) because there are too many bones. I'm sure this Crispy version was boneless though. I still don't like it.

Here's the Ensaimada from Red Ribbon - sweet brioche topped with cheese, margarine and sugar. Lots of cheese as you can see.

Bert got the Chicken Joy 2 piece with 1 side and a soda ($5.79) and a halo halo ($3.95) for TC. I like the bee on the cup! We all shared the chicken but TC was more interested in her halo halo which had ube ice cream, macapuno, green jelly cubes, red beans, jackfruit strips, crushed ice and milk. We wanted something to tide us over before crossing the bridge.

Ooh, I love ube but I can get this anytime in San Diego.

The side were the fries which weren't that great. Kinda bland. The chicken was all right but not as good as KFC because the skin didn't have as many crunchies as KFC.

View of the Red Ribbon side from our table in Jollibee.

The day before, the Padres lost to the Giants. We won that Saturday but lost on Sunday. Boo. Damn you Tim Lincecum!

It was starting to warm up that morning and looking to be a very sunny day...Leaving the Mission parking garage on 5th which was near the Metreon.

Goodbye Jollibee! (TC took this shot from the back window)

Yerba Buena Gardens...someday we'll check it out!

Who else ate at Jollibee (not this location, duh):

Here's an old one, Kirk and his Missus went to the National City location back in Oct 2005!
However, he went back more recently to the new location at the Plaza Bonita foodcourt in August 2009
Mary from Foodies: A Southern California Food Blog went to the Mira Mesa location back in Sept 2010

I didn't think Jollibee's was all that great. I like my mom's fried chicken way better (and food blogger Michael's Killer Fried Chicken mix). If I had to choose a fast food version of fried chicken, I'd choose KFC. Don't really like Popeyes or Church's (too greasy). Jollibee's halo halo was pretty good but I didn't want to get too full since we planned to hit up several places for snacks...

"Ang Lipi ni Lapu Lapu" mural

On the corner of Bonifacio and Lapu Lapu Streets is an eight story building. Built in 1978 and formerly called the Dimasalang House (named after the the Caballeros de Dimasalang, a Filipino mason organization established in the 1920's), the building is now known as the San Lorenzo Ruiz Apartments which provides housing for low income seniors, many of whom are Filipino. It was funny but frustrating because we passed it up a few times while we were walking around taking photos of the street signs. I kept telling Bert, I know it's around here somewhere. It's a tall building. We felt so dumb! So as we turned the corner and looked up at the tallest building in this tiny area, we finally saw it...

Measuring 90' by 25', the mural's official title is "Ang Lipi ni Lapu Lapu" (The Descendants of Lapu Lapu). It was painted by Johanna Poethig, who is white but was born in the Philippines to missionary parents; she is also fluent in Tagalog! Commisioned by the Mural Resource Center of San Francisco in 1984, the mural was also painted with the help of Vic Clemente and Presco Tabios.

A bit of triva about Presco Tabios - He was a Filipino American Manilatown activist who was featured in a small role in Wayne Wang's landmark film, "Chan is Missing" (1982). Presco Tabios is in the scene where a young Asian American cabbie goes to a Manilatown senior center seeking information about a man who mysteriousl disappeared with all this money. The scene is very sweet and is a time capsule with all of the elderly Lolo's and Lola's dancing to Los Lobos' version of the romantic Mexican bolero, "Sabor a Mi".

Here's the top most portion of the mural. You can see the Philippine eagle; beneath it's right wing are the islands of the Philippines covering most of Apolinario Mabini's suit. The colors of the mural have faded with time but it was still awe inspiring to see this in person and to gaze up at all of this Philippine and Filipino American history depicted on a wall.

Detail of Manilamen "dancing the shrimp". Many of the images here were taken from archived photos, many of them featured in the groundbreaking book, "Filipinos - Forgotten Asian Americans, A Pictorial Essay" (1982) by Fred Cordova (Uncle Fred is the co-founder of the Filipino American National Historical Society, aka 'FANHS'). That book changed my life. I mentioned it during a post last year, "Sad News, Howard Zinn died today".

Back to "dancing the shrimp". This was a method used by Manilamen to remove the heads and shells of shrimp as they were prepared for sun drying. The Manilamen were descendants of those native Filipinos who were recruited as shipbuilders, sailors, and navigators, traversed the Pacific Ocean with Spaniards during the Manila-Acapulco Galleon Trade. Many of them jumped ship to escape the brutality of the Spaniards, ending up in the port cities of Acapulco and Veracruz in Baja California. Some of these escaped Manilamen crossed the Gulf of Mexico and ended up in Louisiana where they have over ten generations of descendants of the Manilamen. Manila Village as seen on the sign was the first and oldest established Filipino settlement in the continental United States and blew down in a hurricane in 1915.

Featured below are Philippine national heroes and the namesakes of the streets, Dr. Jose Rizal (in suit), Melchora "Tandang Sora" Aquino (shown tending to a wounded revolutionary),  Apolinario Mabini, and lastly Andres Bonifacio (with right up upraised). Below is author and labor activist, Carlos Bulosan ("America is in the Heart", 1946), a bride (maybe a post WWII war bride?), 1930's boxer Francisco Guilleda (aka "Pancho Villa"), San Francisco native, Vicky Manolo Draves who won 2 Olympic gold medals in diving at the 1948 London games. There is a nearby park named after her that we did not have enough time to check out. Below Draves are several professionals and the man with the flat top and glasses is Larry Itliong, leader of the Filipino Farm Workers, the AWOC, which later merged with Cesar Chavez's NFW to become the United Farm Workers (UFW) in 1965..

You can see the Filipino farmer in the conical hat, along with a Navy man, and a college graduate. Near the tree, an Alaskero, a farm worker, and a nuclear family (photo taken from the front cover of the Cordova book).

An interesting story about that photo (the original photo also includes about a half dozen men also sitting on those steps) which was taken by Frank Mancao, a manong from Stockton. The "little girl" in the photo, was the daughter of Frank and she was in her 80's when I met her at the 2002 FANHS National Conference in LA. She gleefully told me, "That's me on the book cover!". Sadly, I found out later that she died several years ago in a freak accident.  I met both her and her sister at that conference at their roundtable workshop. They, along with several other elderly Filipino Americans, spoke about their experiences growing up in the Central Valley and having to compete with "Arkies" and "Okies" for jobs. The older men talked about never having to go hungry during the Great Depression because, even though they were poor and literally lived on the "wrong side of the tracks", they survived by growing their own vegetables and fruits and by eating cuts of meat that white Americans didn't like as well as the "throwaway" parts. It was really cool listening to their stories. These manongs and manangs were the children of migrant workers, born and raised in the U.S. and had no trace of any Filipino or Ilocano accents. Many of my generation aren't used to seeing and hearing older Filipinos who've been here since the late 20's or early 30's.

At the bottom left corner of the mural is Lapu Lapu himself.

The artists' signatures:

One last look...

More info about the mural:

Johanna Poethig

Artist info and slides of the newly finished mural in 1984

A more detailed writeup on the mural:
History is Written on the Walls" by poet Barbara Jane Pulmano Reyes, one of Thane's grad school friends from Cal.

What a morning! One day TC will thank me for all of these historical forays!

Time for a snack!

SF - Day 3: Filipino Street Signs in the SoMa

In the ethnically diverse South of Market (SoMa) district in San Francisco where many Filipinos reside, is a small enclave of streets named after Philippine national heroes along with an 8-story high mural. I was curious about these street signs as well as the mural which I googled and and saw some nice engagement photos of a young Filipino American couple on this photographer's website.

This was our last day in SF and we'd be flying home later that evening. I had a checklist of things for us to see and do and eat. So, first off was checking out the street signs!

Dedicated in 1979 by the city of San Francisco, these streets were named after important figures in Philippine history which also paid homage to Filipino community. Mabini Street is named after Apolinario Mabini, a revolutionary leader who wrote the plan for the Constitution for the first Philippine Republic. He also served as the country's first prime minister at the end of the 19th century.

Corner of Bonifacio and Mabini.

Bonifacio Street is named after the nationalist and revolutionary leader Andres Bonifacio, the founder and leader of the KKK (Kataataasang Kagalangalang Katipunan), a secrety society aimed at overthrowing Spain which had colonized the Philippines for over 300 years. Of note, the official name of the Filipino American student organization at SDSU is AB Samahan with AB originating from Andres Bonifacio.

Corner of Tandang Sora and Bonifacio. Tandang Sora is the nickname of Melchora ("Sora") Aquino, a female revolutionary leader. Tandang comes from the Tagalog word, "matanda" (old); she was 84 when the Philippine Spanish Revolution broke out in 1896. She housed, nursed, and fed revolutionaries as well as allowed them to have secret meetings in her home.

Corner of Mabini and Bonifacio:

Corner of Bonifacio and Lapu Lapu. While Lapu Lapu is also the name of a fish, it is first and foremost the name of the first Filipino to successfully repel foreign invasion. Lapu Lapu was a datu (chieftain) in Mactan in Cebu. He and his men are attributed to having killed Magellan although (there is some historical dispute as to whether Lapu Lapu was THE one to kill Magellan), therefore cutting short the Portuguese invader's plan to circumnavigate the globe. He's been featured on a stamp as well as honored with a statue to commemorate Magellan's defeat.

Corner of Rizal and Lapu Lapu. Rizal Street is named of Dr. Jose Rizal, another Philippine national hero who was executed by the Spaniards in 1896. More of a reformist, he didn't advocate for true independence from Spain as Bonifacio did. If he did, he would have lost many of the rights and privileges of his social class as he was one of the elite; a mestizo who spoke several different language and was educated. Bonifacio on the other hand was like a Filipino Malcolm X. Independence "by any means necessary". Rizal's novels (Noli mi Tangere and its sequel El Filibusterismo), written in the colonist's tongue (Spanish) were scathing social commentaries of Spain. Of course the Spaniard ruling class were pissed off and shot him to death by firing squad.

Located within this small area is the San Lorenzo Ruiz Center Apartments. San Lorenzo Ruiz is the first Filipino Saint and martyr. Turns out he was persecuted by Japanese during the late 17th century. He was canonized in 1987 by Pope JP2. If you go to any Catholic church with a large Filipino population (St. Charles, St. Michael's, Good Shepherd to name a few), there is most likely a statue or painting of San Lorenzo Ruiz.

Sidewalk stamped "Mabini":

We had a lot of fun walking around here. There were quite a few elderly Lolos and Lolas taking their morning walks. The tall buildings in the area provided much needed shade except at the intersection of Lapu Lapu and Rizal where it became blazing hot since it faced the sun. It was also right to a tall mural which I'll feature in my next post.

More info about the SoMa District:

Rodel Rodis's blog, Telltale Signs, "Welcome to SoMa"and a tiny bit of info from Virtual Tourist.
More detailed info can be found through this document from Wildflowers Institute," Outside In, Inside Out" by MC Canlas. I had the pleasure of meeting MC many years ago (not like he remembers me though!). But I sure do remember him because he gave a me a FREE and signed copy of his book, "SoMA Pilipinas Studies 2000 in Two Languages" about ten years ago at an event that I no longer recall. When in FANHS, I found that I got some perks as a book blurbist (I can't bring myself to say "reviewer").

An SFist article that caused a bit of a reaction "Double Your Lapu" (I think the guy who wrote it was just plain ig'nant);
And a reaction article to the one above, "SFist Blogger Makes Fun of Lapu Lapu Street in SF"

Up next, Philippine history condensed onto a ninety foot wall..