El Rinconcito de Aurora

It must be called for what it is and the public must, at least, know about it.

The behavior of the San Francisco Archdiocese Corporation Sole on the matter of Our Lady of Guadalupe's Sanctuary in San Francisco is below contempt. Even by the loosest standards to measure human behavior, theirs, on December 12, 2011, is beyond the pale.

To wit: On November 15, 2011, Señorita Clementina Garcia Landgrave, personally hand-delivered a letter to the Office of the Archdiocese requesting them to open the Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, (Located on 906, 908 and 910 Broadway St. San Francisco in the Russian Hill District. So members of our Community could honor Our Lady on her day by serenading her with the traditional Mexican Mañanitas, following in a primarily Mexican San Francisco tradition that started 87 years ago (December 12, 1924). It followed a 480 year old tradition of honoring her that started in the Great Tenochtitlan, now Mexico City, at El Tepeyac, where our Mexican-Native-American Ancestors had been honoring her for far longer than that, to even before the genocidal european invasion.

A staff person took the letter from Srta. Clementina, dated and signed its receipt.

Last Dec. 12, Monday, we did arrive at the Church and found its doors closed and locked.

We can not think of anywhere in the world where there is a temple dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe that has been closed on a December 12, even without asking; in our culture and traditions, it is a given. And it happened in San Francisco California.

In our hearts, albeit laden with sadness, it didn't make a difference in fulfilling our commitment to our devotion, we knew we'd be there, rain or shine, open or closed doors, we wanted to do what our ancestors have been doing for so long; and we did.

For The Record: I learned today, Tue. Dec. 13, 2011, from a reliable source, that a letter from the Archdiocese dated Nov. 30, 2011 was received on Fri. Dec. 9. The envelope's Postmark is Dec. 7, 2011. In it, according to my source, it names our church and Dec. 12, but no answer to the petition of 'if they would please open the doors of the SF Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe so we could honor her as is has been traditionally done in that church and on that Day'.

Instead it says that 'devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe is a most precious treasure of Hispanic Catholic Spirituality". It suggests not to be devoted to any particular 'building', like this one 'that once served as a place of worship', pointed to the pilgrimage from South San Francisco to the San Francisco Cathedral (Aprox. 10mi.) Held on the Saturday closest to December 12 and urging us to go to other parishes which also have the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

There are several factors at play worth considering for the purpose of a closer understanding of past incidents that culminated in the event of Dec. 12, 2011.

The Church was built in 1875 with the money of Mexicans who were then living in that area - around a street aptly named Street of The Mexicans - and their allies, mainly from Spain and Portugal to receive Ministry in Spanish. It was burned to the ground in the fire of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. The framed image of our Lady survived the fire because a young Mexican couple rescued and buried it in the ground, thus preserving it for the temple that was rebuilt in 1912. It is probably the first church in SF built with reinforced concrete.

Citing decline of churchgoers mainly due to changing demographics and over the pleadings and objections of the parishioners, it was closed in 1991 alongside 3 other parishes in the first round of church closings in the San Francisco Archdiocese. Upon learning that the Archdiocese was going to sell Our Lady of Guadalupe Church and that it may even be demolished (High price value land), members of the Latino Community mobilized to stop the sale and possible demolition. The two year struggle that ensued ended in 1994 when they saw the result of their efforts in petitioning and lobbying the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and The Historic Preservation Commission, when the church was designated San Francisco Historical Landmark # 204. Under this status the sale was stopped and non-parish uses for it were considered.

The Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989 caused slight damage to the building that housed the St. Mary's Chinese School, hence the children had to be relocated until retrofitting upgrades and repairs to the building were made, the church of Our Lady fit the bill, albeit cramped, it could provide temporary shelter for them - the parishioners were told - their requests that the church be returned to the community were put aside because it was for the children's need. Fittingly, it was Our Lady of Guadalupe Church that was going to provide refuge for them. 

No soon after a three year term for housing the school was agreed on, word came down from the Archdiocese that it was going to be for five years, members of our community protested the unilateral change of terms to no avail. Church Officials estimated that the retrofitting costs to the old building were prohibitive, a decision was made to sell the old building and with its sale proceeds buy an empty lot and build a brand new school building. It turned out to be sixteen and one half years that the school was housed at Our Lady's Church. The St. Mary's Chinese School brand new approx. $27 million total cost, 4 1/2-story building was ready to be occupied in June 2011.

Prior to this, over the past few years through 'friendly' channels in the Archdiocese, word was coming out that the Archdiocese planned to sell the church as soon as it was vacant again. Attempts to have the Archdiocese inform us of its plans for the church, or to acknowledge that members of our community wanted to have the church for our community. Or to have an opportunity to talk or negotiate were futile. Back in the 90s, our community's representatives made a serious offer for the church to the Archdiocese. Nothing came out of it. Early 2011, we were still trying to get a meeting with legal representatives of the Archdiocese to discuss the final disposition of the church, or at least to let us know their plans for it. 

In a letter dated June 3, 2011, from F.A.N.S. de Guadalupe and the Latino Heritage and Landmark Preservation Foundation to the Archdiocese, in reference to a January 31, 2011 letter where they requested a meeting to discuss the sale of the church, was answered on February 28, 2011 in a letter from Monsignor Tarantino, Vicar for Administration/Moderator of the Curia, granting a meeting with him and father Moisés Agudo, archdiocesan vicar for Spanish-speaking, to be held on March 11, 2011. 

During this process and also early this year, we discovered an online listing for the sale of Our Lady of Guadalupe, referred to as St. Mary's Chinese School (A former catholic parish) For $3.5 million, listed for sale on 11/19/2010 and Set Off-Market on 3/18/2011. But for whatever reason, on the meetting of March 11, 2011, when queried about the listing and why we were not being told by the Archdiocese about it, a factually incorrect statement was made, "That the church was Off-Market", that statemente was made a week before it went Off-Market. Our representatives let it go at that. It was not until 05/03/2011, in a letter from Reverend Monsignor James T. Tarantino who told us what they were not going to do "There are no plans now or in the future to reopen the church building as a parish or for any other religious purposes", to "Strongly encourage" Us and "Solicit our help" To support an Icon of the Italian-American Community, The Shrine of St. Francis, and pointing out the "Numerous other parishes named after our Blessed Mother that our Mexican-Latin-American communities should attend", but no answer to the question of whether or not, the Archdiocese of San Francisco Corporation Sole, still considers the sale of this church a viable option.

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