Latin American | Fotoeins Fotografie

Posts from the ‘Latin American’ category

Mission District, San Francisco, California, USA, fotoeins.com

Fotoeins Friday, SF Mission: Nuestros muertos no se venden

“El Día de los Muertos” (The Day of the Dead or All Souls’ Day) takes place annually on 2 November in memory of all who have passed away. The 1st of November is known as All Saints’ Day or All Hallows’ Day; the evening before on 31 October is “All Hallows’ Eve(ning)” whose original Celtic name got shortened to “Hallowe’en” and subsequently “Halloween”.

I’ve been in the City for only a couple of days (2024), and I’ve been moved by the number of orange marigolds, whose Aztec legend stated the sight and scent of the bright orange flowers would lead the wandering dead back to their living families. However, a sobering and pointed sentiment is expressed with this mural in the Mission District: “nuestros muertos no se venden (our dead are not for sale).”

I made the image above with a Fujifilm X70 fixed-lens prime on 1 Nov 2024 with the following settings: 1/1000-sec, f/8, ISO2000, and 18.5mm focal length (28mm full-frame equivalent). This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-whI.

SF Mission: La Victoria Panadería & Pan de Muerto

Above: “La Victoria” mural painted in 2024 by Timewizard & Tressprays.

There’s something very familiar about a family-run bakery: the look, the warmth, the smell, the taste. As a product of Chinese immigrants and growing up next to (Vancouver’s) Chinatown, I have a very soft spot for their bakeries: every bite of the sweet and the savory are living memories of “home”.

On a wander through San Francisco’s Mission District on All Saints Day (2024), I find myself in front of the mural called “La Victoria” adjacent to the bakery with the same name. My eyes light up at “pan dulce” (pastries). Already aware of the “Día de Muertos” holiday, I turn the corner to see the stack of “sweet bread” in the window display, including the “pan de muerto” (bread for the dead) and the “cross of bones” on top of each “pan”. The holiday is a memorial and celebration of the dead. Small altars accompanied by golden brown pan de meurto and brilliant orange marigolds symbolize the connection between living and dead, allowing the dead to find their way back “home”.

To the amusement of the women behind the counter, I order and hold a pan de muerto in my hand, before digging into the slight crunch of the thin crust, delighting in the sugar sprinkle and orange tang in the glaze, and revelling in the soft interior of the bread. I’m grateful for a small glimpse of traditions in the Mexican-American community.

• November 1: Día de Todos los Santos, All Saints Day.
• November 2: Día de los Muertos, Day of the Dead.
• I’d learn later about the bakery’s journey to its present location.
• I enjoyed reading about pan dulce and pan de muerto from The Other Side of the Tortilla.

La Victoria Panadería.

Pan dulce.

Pan de muerto with the “cross-bones” on top: glorious, delicious.

Location

• La Victoria: 3249 24th Street (at Capp), since 2019
• BART lines Blue, Green, Red, or Yellow to station “24th Street Mission”
• MUNI bus 14 or 14R to stop “Mission Street and 24th Street”
• MUNI bus 48 or 67 to stop “24th Street & South Van Ness Avenue”

( View this location on OpenStreetMap )

I received neither prior support or post-visit compensation for this content. I’m happy to pay for the pan, and I’m not asking for free pan; what am I: a dum’ colonizer?! I made all images above on 1 Nov 2024 with an iPhone15. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-wl3.

Fotoeins Friday, SF Mission: ¡Vamos Gigantes!

In 2007, a local artists’ group from the city’s Mission District, Precita Eyes Muralists, completed this mural to cheer on the city’s Giants (Gigantes) and honour the long-standing presence of baseball in San Francisco, and to recognize how the city’s deep roots in baseball goes back to the 1920s and 1930s when the Pacific Coast League team Mission Reds played their home games in former Seals Stadium in the district at the corner of 16th Street and Bryant Street.

“Todos somos creados iguales, solo algunos crecemos a ser Gigantes.”
(All of us are created equal, but some grow up to be Giants.)

I made the images above with an iPhone15 on 19 Dec 2024. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-wiF.

Balmy Street Murals, Mission District, San Francisco, California, USA, fotoeins.com

Fotoeins Friday, SF Mission: “Mission Makeover”

“Mission Makeover“, by Lucia Gonzalez Ippolito and her father Tirso Araiza, painted originally in 2012 and restored in 2022. This mural is one of many featured in the Balmy Street Murals on Balmy Street between 24th and 25th Streets in San Francisco’s vibrant and culturally diverse Mission District.

I made the images above on 1 Nov 2024 with an iPhone15. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-wlx.

Cypress Street Murals, Mission District, San Francisco, California, USA, fotoeins.com

Fotoeins Friday, SF Mission: “Mission Love 2.0”

At the corner of 24th Street and Cypress Street is the 2023 mural “Mission Love 2.0” by Josué Rojas with Anthony Jimenez. From 24th Street, this mural is a lead-off to a stretch of murals on Cypress Street between 24th and 25th Streets. Prominent is the date 1989 October 17 for the 6.9 magnitude earthquake whose epicenter was near Mt. Loma Prieta in the Santa Cruz area.

I made the image above on 1 Nov 2024 with a Fujifilm X70 fixed-lens prime with the following settings: 1/125-sec, f/9, ISO1000, and focal length 18.5mm (28mm full-frame equivalent). This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-wiF.