El Tecolote

2 days ago | eltecolote.org | Ian Firstenberg

Earlier this month, Mayor Daniel Lurie released a two-year budget proposal that slashes $185 million in spending in an attempt to close San Francisco’s projected $800 million deficit. But behind the numbers lies a brutal truth: this budget abandons the city’s most vulnerable residents while protecting the powerful. Three major cuts target labor standards enforcement, public works and homelessness services. Each one strikes at the heart of San Francisco’s working-class and immigrant communities.

1 week ago | eltecolote.org | Mariana Duran

From feathered danzantes to folkloric dancers in billowing skirts, dozens of performance troupes filled the streets of the Mission District on Sunday for San Francisco’s 47th annual Carnaval parade. This year’s theme, AfroMundo, centered the African diaspora — highlighting the deep cultural ties between Black and Latin American traditions through music and dance. Thousands of San Franciscans lined sidewalks to take in the spectacle.

2 weeks ago | eltecolote.org | Mariana Duran

It was hard to miss the relentless drumming on Tuesday evening — even when it came from the third floor of the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts (MCCLA). For many of the people walking into the building —  from teenagers in sports leggings to grandmothers holding their grandkids’ hands — the rhythm seemed like a calling. Inside the studio, dancers sashayed to the front before lining the room’s perimeter, following the steps of lead dancers wearing sarongs over their leggings.

3 weeks ago | eltecolote.org | Ian Firstenberg

A few years ago, a friend and I were driving through Manteca, an old agricultural town in the Central Valley, when we spotted something out of the ordinary. We’d just left his mechanic’s and turned a corner when we pulled up to an unassuming brown building with slate roof tiles. In the driveway sat a massive RV — not the suburban adventurer type, but something more militant. It was black and white, clearly marked as a police vehicle.

3 weeks ago | eltecolote.org | Mariana Duran |Beatriz Hernández

For eight years, Martha Regidor sold fruit, dried fish and candy at the 24th Street BART Plaza. Last week, however, she said city officials told her she could no longer sell there. She relocated to a different stretch of Mission Street — already crowded with vendors — leaving behind her long-established customer base.