The International Hotel lives on: funding needed for community programs

IT HAS BEEN 38 years since the forceful eviction of scores of elderly Filipinos and Chinese from San Francisco's International Hotel, the last bastion of old Manilatown.

The Manilatown Heritage Foundation was founded in 1994 to preserve the legacy of the historic Manilatown district of San Francisco and to preserve the legacy of the 1977 International Hotel Eviction. 

The foundation currently produces family-friendly, working-class affordable and community-sustaining educational programs in the areas of Arts & Culture, Historic Manilatown History & Legacy, Health & Wellness and Affordable Housing Advocacy.

In order to continue to offer these services and programs the foundation has launched a fundraiser through Booster, so even if you're in Europe, Alaska, Chicago or the Eastern Seaboard, you can help keep these programs free. The goal is to raise $5000 by August 18. The first 50 donations will get a commemorative yellow t-shirt with the iconic I-Hotel logo used during the struggle to preserve the hotel.

Originally used in the 1970s as a symbol of community solidarity around the I-Hotel eviction protests, the Tiger Logo is an iconic symbol for the I-Hotel community. The yellow and red T-shirt being featured this summer matches the Tiger Logo textile used during the 1977 protests and which continues to be displayed at the I-Hotel Center as one of its beloved artifacts. 

With the August 4th Eviction Commemoration just days away and with 2015 being the 10-year anniversary of our new International Hotel, this shirt would be a great way to show your continued support for affordable housing and tenants rights.

August 4th is an important historical date that ignited the Tenants Rights Movement in the United States. Over 3,000 people created a human barricade on August 4, 1977 to prevent the eviction of 196 mostly Filipino and Chinese low-income senior tenants of the International Hotel residential complex.

Equally important was that the I-Hotel became a rallying cry for scores of young Asian Americans by honoring their elders and learning about their past; all of which was nurtured by the growing Asian American student movement on college campuses that led to the Third World Student Strikes in the late 1960s and eventually to the creation of ethnic studies at various U.S. colleges.

The hotel struggle touched a nerve with many young people of the day. Among the veterans of that youth movement are current San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, who was a young lawyer at the time of the evictions, and Superior Court Judge Rod Quidachay, who was a student leader at San Francisco State. Many others entered into careers in education, social services, journalism and politics to continue serving the community. 

Ultimately, the I-Hotel was torn down and remained as an empty pit for decades (So what was the rush in tearing it down?). Ironically, on the site today is affordable housing. That is where MHF has its home base as the I-Hotel Manilatown Center, located at the site of the original International Hotel: 868 Kearny Street, San Francisco, California. 

Long live the I-Hotel.

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