Sunday, September 23, 2007

Newsom's Latinos and Mirkarimi's Koreans



Early Friday evening was a hive of activity in the City Hall area, with a few spectators such as the masked man above watching the collaborative of mayoral challengers debate on the Civic Center plaza lawn.



H. Brown, pictured above with Josh Wolf, Wilma Pang, and Kenny (the Clown) Kahn, has a brilliant wrap-up of the event over at his SF Bulldog site (click here).



In the rotunda of City Hall, City Treasurer Jose Cisneros and Mayor Gavin Newsom were giving dumb speeches honoring "Latino Heritage Month," which started on September 15th.



Catalina Garcia from Univision was there (above) as were a 25-year-old lobbying group called the Instituto Laboral de la Raza (click here for their website). It seems they started off as an advocacy group for low-paid Mexican-American workers but over the years they seem to have been co-opted by the organized power structure of San Francisco almost completely. Their current major mission, from the looks of their website, seems to be giving out awards to the powerful at $200-per-person "awards" dinners every year.



At City Hall, they were giving out awards for Latino "Business Leadership," and the winners were three Mexican restaurants: Casa Sanchez, L's Cafe, and Regalito. Newsom strung together a condescending cascade of cliches and then posed for a few fans before disappearing.



He was followed by the Xitlalli, Danza Azteca group who at least made a mighty drumming noise in the rotunda.



On the second floor, Supervisor Mirkarimi was hosting his monthly art show, and September's installment was called "Women Artists in Action."



It was being held in conjunction with two concurrent shows at Somarts and the Japantown "Miyako Mall" (click here for more info).



It's being curated by a group called KAWAWA (click here for their website), which is an acronym for Korean American Women Artists and Writers Association.



Now that's a mouthful.

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