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Emil De Guzman Book Talk. Red Sky: Recollections of the International Hotel
Come hear longtime community activist Emil De Guzman discuss his new book, “Red Sky: Recollections of the International Hotel” which chronicles the Filipino and Chinese community’s struggle for low cost housing in San Francisco’s historic Manilatown district.
First as a student activist in 1968, then International Hotel Tenant Association member, and eventually distinguished community leader, De Guzman shares his recollections of the 9-year fight to save the International Hotel (I-Hotel), which stood on the last remaining block of San Francisco’s historic Manilatown community, and the campaign to fund and rebuild low-cost housing for the elderly 28 years after the I-Hotel eviction and demolition in 1977.
Background: In 1968, 150 elderly Filipino and Chinese tenants from the Manilatown district of San Francisco began a nine-year long, anti-eviction campaign against Financial District encroachment. Widespread student and community grass-roots support imprinted this event as a milestone in Asian-American and housing advocacy history.
The campaign culminated in the deployment of over 400 riot police, mounted patrols, anti-sniper units and fire ladder trucks in a 3:00am eviction raid on August 4, 1977. A 3,000 person human barricade was brutally cleared away by authorities before tenants were physically removed from the premises.
The almost 10 year struggle to save the International Hotel from 1968-1977 became a rallying cry of the newly developing Asian American Movement of the 1960s/70s. Three decades later, due to the organizing efforts of tenants and community organizations, the new I-Hotel opened its doors on August 26, 2005, providing 104 units of low-income housing. The new I-Hotel exists today as a secure, reasonably priced and well-maintained building that serves the needs of low-income elderly tenants.
De Guzman’s recollections are filled with passion and hope as he remembers the valiant Filipino and Chinese tenants who made the decision to stand and fight against big corporate interests and the widespread community support they built.
Event Links
Tickets: https://go.evvnt.com/3280756-0
