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Sarah Maya De Guzman, 14, lay bow on string, striking a lingering chord both plaintive and passionate. A hush descended as the young violinist played her heart out for her emotionally charged listeners, a few of them former billiard buddies to her grandfather, most of them allies and admirers of her father. Some of them were her peers, who like her, were performers at a reunion last month marking the 25th year since the tenants of the International Hotel were forced out of their home.
As the incoming Lowell High School freshman stroked her violin, poet Al Robles read her ode to the struggle that galvanized the Filipino American community in San Francisco and sired generation after generation of activists throughout the country.
August 4 is seared in the hearts and memories of those who fought but failed to halt the eviction of the elderly and ailing tenants of the International Hotel in 1977. Five years after having served the first eviction notice, the owners demolished the property. To this day the ground on Kearny and Jackson Streets lies vacant. But not for long, city officials vow, giving community advocates reason to rejoice.
"The building disappeared but the spirit did not," an exhilarated Mayor Willie Brown told a rainbow crowd Aug. 4 at the first of weeklong commemoration rites in Chinatown's Portsmouth Square. He praised the "keepers of the heritage, that demonstrated the commitment to building affordable housing" in his city.
Brown was not alone in saluting the "activist-developers and the Church" that crafted a plan that won the approval of all involved in the process. Supervisors Tom Ammiano, Chris Daly and Aaron Peskin each took their turn on stage, promising support to rebuild the landmark.
Across the street, in a rare Sunday activity, two bulldozers rumbled up and down the old I-Hotel site, clearing away debris and hauling out bricks to be stored at a Pacific Gas and Electric Co. substation for use in the new building. After almost three decades of several false starts, Manilatown Heritage Foundation President Emil De Guzman's optimism seemed justified this time.
A Magical Day
"It's a magical day," De Guzman, Sarah's father, gushed after receiving Brown's proclamation of I-Hotel Day, a complete reversal from the city hall reception...