Climate RWC – July 2022

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P u b l i c a t i o n Profile: Casa Circulo Cultural Spotlight: A Wild Ride Opinion: America's Long Night

ISSUE EIGHTY THREE • JULY • 2022

Sequoia Hospital's Cardiovascular Unit

Keeping the Heart Beating

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Check out the daily news and read Climate Magazine at: www.climaterwc.com Some of the local businesses where you can pick up a copy: Fox Theatre Fox Forum Stuff on the Square Powerhouse Gym La Tartine restaurant Ralph's Vacuum Nick the Greek Peet's Coffee Tea Spoon

History Museum Sakura restaurant San Mateo Credit Union RWC Post Office Phil's Coffee Patty Shack CZI Building Harry’s Hofbrau County Courthouse

2 · CLIMATE · June 2021

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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR•

With this issue, I am stepping down after six years as Climate’s editor. More accurately, I am stepping “back.” Before I got the job, I’d written stories for Climate, and didn’t see myself as editor material. But in all the years I’ve spent in journalism (don’t ask), editing a high-quality magazine that is so loved and appreciated by this community has been the single-most satisfying thing I’ve done. I’ve greatly enjoyed working with the editorial team, seeing how Climate’s excellent writers every month turn their assignments into fascinating, beautiful prose. And, of course, interacting with our readers is always interesting and instructive.

Taking over as editor, starting with this issue, is longtime Climate contributor Scott Dailey. Scott began his journalistic career more than five decades ago, when, at age 14, he hosted a local sports show on KYTE radio (now KKIQ) in his hometown of Livermore. Scott was won numerous awards in journalism, advertising, public relations and music (in addition to writing, he plays and teaches piano and clarinet). He’s interested in everything, and is as big a stickler for accuracy as I am. He’s also addicted to baseball metaphors. So, Scott — welcome to the ballclub.

Even as Scott strides to the plate —now he’s got me doing it! — I’m not going away. I’ll still be writing for Climate. My first assignment, in fact, is in this issue. So, as the von Trapp children sang in “The Sound of Music,” so long, farewell, but also, “auf Wiedersehen” — until we see each other again.

J

Janet McGovern

Janet, in the words of the old country song, “How can I miss you if you won’t go away?” Seriously, what an act to follow. Along with our phenomenal creative director, Jim Kirkland, Janet has created a spectacular, informative and entertaining publication that covers our region with courage, insight and a splash of humor.

It’s no coincidence that the San Francisco Press Club last year awarded Climate first place in overall excellence for magazines and trade publications throughout the greater Bay Area.

Janet has always given our writers room to develop intriguing stories on a wealth of topics. Beyond that, she’s a joy to work with — smart, funny, encouraging and always thoughtful when a sticky problem comes up. And, without a doubt, nobody writes better headlines.

Finally: This issue, appearing just before the Fourth of July, offers a perspective on “The Star-Spangled Banner.” The essay benefited greatly from research by Prof. Mark Clague at the University of Michigan. So, a well-earned plug: This past June 14 — Flag Day — publisher W.W. Norton brought out Clague’s new book, “O Say Can You Hear: A Cultural Biography of the Star-Spangled Banner.” Clague also discusses the song and its significance on the website, StarSpangledMusic.org.

With that, as my late father-in-law (another big baseball fan) liked to say: Take two and hit to left.

Scott Dailey, Editor July 2022 ·

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FEATU RE Sequoia's Cardiovascular Unit

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SPOTLIGHT A Wild Ride

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PROFILE Casa Circulo Cultural

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OPINION America's Long Night

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AROUND TOWN............20 HISTORY......................30

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On the cover: Cardiac surgeon Dr. Luis Castro at work in the operating room at Sequoia Hospital.

Photo courtesy of Sequoia Hospital.

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Neighbors helping - since 1938 July neighbors 2022 · CLIMATE ·5

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Stop by Shops On Broadway for breakfast, lunch or dinner before or after Downtown Redwood City’s Summer Events! We’re right across the street from all the action! Dine in or order to go!

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6 · CLIMATE · July 2022

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July 2022 ·

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Dr. Chad Brodt performs a a procedue.

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Excellent Care,

Close to Home Sequoia Hospital has built a cardiovascular program of distinction.

By Elizabeth Sloan

Photos courtesy of Sequoia Hospital

Suppose the unthinkable happens. Heaviness in the chest. Pain radiating down the left side. Shortness of breath; dizziness; nausea. A call to 911. The ambulance; lights and sirens; a nerve-battering ride to the hospital.

Most people know the signs of a heart attack, and that’s a good thing. Heart disease is still the leading cause of death in the U.S., and a heart attack is an emergency likely to befall almost 2,000 people living in San Mateo County this year.

County residents are lucky in one way. They have not one but two world-class medical centers — Stanford and UC San Francisco – within 30 miles. But in the case of an emergency, chances are the ambulance is headed someplace closer to home. If the emergency is a heart attack, and the destination is Sequoia Hospital in Redwood City, the patient got lucky again.

July 2022 ·

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• Sequoia’s Heart and Vascular Institute is acclaimed regionally — and, in some dimensions, nationally — for three major branches of cardiovascular medicine: • Conventional cardiac surgery, which includes coronary bypass, heart valve replacements/repairs and other corrections to the structures of the cardiovascular system.

• Interventional cardiology, which uses catheters (tiny tubes threaded up the arteries) to view and repair vessels, unblock arteries and restore blood flow. (Angioplasty, which uses a catheter and an inflatable balloon to unblock arteries, is a prime example.)

• Cardiac electrophysiology, which addresses abnormal heart rhythms with implantable defibrillators and pacemakers, and also employs “radiofrequency ablation” — using heat to create scar tissue that disrupts misfiring electrical signals.

Sequoia’s cardiac surgical service consistently ranks in the nation’s top 10 percent as assessed by Healthgrades, a company that uses data on mortality and complications to rate physicians and hospitals. Sequoia’s interventional cardiology team has performed more than 2,500 catheter-based procedures. And its electrophysiology team is especially deep and distinguished, having performed more than 7,000 ablations.

Perhaps more telling, Sequoia’s cardiovascular program is a regional referral center. Physicians throughout Northern and Central California send patients to Sequoia for treatments that their local hospitals cannot provide. Often, the cases are complex, and earlier treatments have failed.

If the array of capabilities seems unusual for a community hospital, it is. How did cardiovascular medicine at Sequoia get so good?

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Dr. Thomas Fogarty

History took an intriguing turn in the early 1980s. That’s when Thomas J. Fogarty, a visionary surgeon-inventor, was looking for a place to push the envelope in what was possible for treating heart patients.

An Intriguing Origin To answer that requires a look at history, and the unusual alchemy that sometimes happens when talent, vision and need come together.

In the late 1930s, when southern San Mateo County had a burgeoning population but no acute medical care nearby, a group of citizens urged the Redwood City Council to do something. The residents’ efforts resulted in the 1946 creation of the Sequoia Healthcare District, whose mission would be the building and operation of a community hospital.

For funding, the question was put to the residents of the cities that would form the district: Redwood City, Belmont, San Carlos, Menlo Park, Portola Valley, Woodside and Atherton. Voters agreed to a 1.3-percent assessment of their property

taxes, construction commenced, and Sequoia Hospital opened in 1950.

Art Faro, current member of the district’s board and former CEO of Sequoia Hospital, says the organization was the first hospital district in California. The hospital opened with a few more than 100 beds, Faro recalls. In the early days, he says, demand was high and the district’s residents enjoyed both priority and a discount.

History took another intriguing turn in the early 1980s. That’s when Thomas J. Fogarty, a visionary surgeon-inventor, was looking for a place to push the envelope in what was possible for treating heart patients.

Say Fogarty’s name, and the first response might be wine, and that beautiful winery up on Skyline. Both true. But in medical annals, Fogarty is known for something quite different: Invention of the Fogarty embolectomy catheter (also known as the “balloon catheter”), perhaps the best-known of Fogarty’s 60-plus patented inventions.

As a teenaged scrub technician at Cincinnati’s Good Samaritan Hospital in the 1950s, Fogarty, now 88, saw what happened when surgeons treated blood clots by cutting them out.

“Too many patients were dying with the old way— about 50 percent,” he remembers. “I thought there must be a better way.”

He found it, attaching a tiny, inflatable balloon to the end of a very thin tube. The tube was threaded up the patient’s artery to the site of the clot, the balloon was inflated, and blood flow was restored.

That first device was primitive compared with what followed. And even though acceptance and adoption took a while, the impact ultimately would be phenomenal. The age of interventional cardiology was underway.

• A Remarkable Flow of “Gifted People” In 1980, seeking a place that would support his innovator’s mindset and focus on patient care, Fogarty left the Stanford medical faculty to become chief of cardiovascular surgery at Sequoia. To entice him, hospital officials upgraded Sequoia’s operating rooms and cardiac catheter lab, and made beds available for cardiac patients.

But the program’s transformations really lay in who Fogarty persuaded to follow him — a rare collection of medical innovators with complementary skills.

John Simpson, a renowned interventional cardiologist, is credited with improving Fogarty’s original balloon catheter, and re-defining the field of angioplasty. Recruited from Stanford in 1981, Simpson joined Edward T. (Eddie) Anderson, another Stanford-trained cardiologist who’d been at Sequoia for a few years.

Vincent Gaudiani, a standout cardiac surgeon fresh out of his Stanford residency, joined the team in 1982. Electrophysiology pioneers Roger Winkle and Hardwin Mead were also lured from Stanford and launched Sequoia’s cardiac electrophysiology program in 1984.

All wanted to work with Fogarty.

Many (like Fogarty) felt constrained by academic medicine, with its requirements to teach, publish and serve on committees.

The Sequoia group “was all focused on patient care,” says Fogarty. “And that’s good for innovation.”

“We built an incredibly strong cardiovascular program that persists today,” adds Mead, who still practices at Sequoia.

“It really was a magical time.” Adds Gaudiani, “These were gifted people. I was very fortunate to be a part of the complementary system.”

“Plumbing and Electricity” There’s an old saw that cardiology is about two things: Plumbing and electricity. Sequoia’s early team established leading programs in both — surgery and angioplasty

F E AT U R E •

Dr. Vincent Gaudiani

“We developed a regional reputation for being able to do things that other places couldn’t do.” that treated the heart’s structural problems, and electrophysiological procedures that fixed the electrical malfunctions.

When patients could be treated with angioplasty or electrophysiology, they were. “But you can’t treat everything with a catheter,” says Gaudiani. “Those (surgical) cases came to me.” That escalation — from less invasive to more invasive — “is the classic way heart surgery should be done,” he says. “We developed a regional reputation for being able to do things that other places couldn’t do.”

Two other things distinguished that early group, according to current Sequoia CEO Bill Graham: A devotion to evidence-based medicine, and an effort to train the next generation. “They used patient data to improve their care,” says Graham. “They captured data, reviewed data and made changes to find better ways to care for their patients. We do that a lot more now. But it wasn’t as common back in the eighties.”

They also sought to build the next generation of talent. “If you look at the physicians here today,” says Graham, “all of them connect back either directly or indirectly to Fogarty, Winkle and Simpson.”

Cardiovascular medicine marched on, and Sequoia continued to evolve. With surgery, says Gaudiani, “In the early days we mostly did coronary bypass — about 80 percent of the cases. Mitral valve repair (patching or replacing the vessel between the heart’s two left-side chambers) had not even been thought up yet. That came in around 1986. Major aortic surgery was five years after that.” (The aorta is the main artery that leads away from the heart.) Eventually, another Stanford-trained surgeon, Luis Castro, joined Gaudiani. “The two of them pioneered a lot of new techniques,” says Mead.

On the coronary-intervention side, Simpson and the team continued to push the limits of angioplasty, including Simpson’s invention of the more guidable “overthe-wire” catheter, and the use of stents (tiny tubes placed in arteries to keep them open). Winkle and the electrophysiologists were on the leading edge as well, mapping electrical anomalies of the heart, implanting defibrillators (first used clinically in 1980) and, in the 1990s, pursuing radiofrequency ablation. This last technology was a game-changer for patients with arrythmia (abnormal heart rhythm). Before, says Mead, “Basically the only thing you could do for patients was give them drugs and hope that the drugs worked.”

Ablation is an essential tool for treating a condition that appears to be on the rise: Atrial fibrillation. “A-fib”— an arrythmia caused by electrical signals firing from abnormal places in the heart — often goes undetected. It can occur in otherwise healthy people, and presents a dangerous increase in the risk of stroke.

“The prospects for curative treatment have improved so much over the past 20 years,” says Mead. “And the earlier you do ablations, the easier it is to cure people.” In addition to the 7,000-plus procedures performed by Mead and the team, the group has published more than 70 peer-reviewed papers on the subject. The doctors see paJuly 2022

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F E AT U R E •

tients referred by other physicians from hundreds of miles around; Mead estimates the team completes “two to four of these procedures every day of the week.”

Community Medicine Versus Academic Medicine It’s strange to think Sequoia’s cardiology program might not have happened if Fogarty had not left Stanford. In the big, confusing landscape of healthcare delivery in America, what is the place of the community hospital compared with that of the academic medical center?

“There’s a need for both,” says Fogarty, who returned to Stanford in 1993 to continue exploring another of his inventions: A stent for treating abdominal aortic aneurysms. (An aneurysm is a bulge that forms in blood vessels, making them susceptible to a possible rupture.) Many of the Sequoia physicians concur: Teaching hospitals, with their abundant resources, can do a lot. But their bureaucracies can be hard on innovative thinkers. And their clinical environments are not always the most comfortable for patients.

“There may be some complex medical cases that we might refer to an academic center,” says Graham. “If you need a heart transplant, you go to Stanford.” But he is confident of Sequoia’s ability to deliver care that is both high tech-and high-touch.

“We have a unique environment,” he says. “In a community hospital, you have much more direct and personalized interaction with the caregivers.” In a 2012 tribute film that honored his career, interventional cardiologist Anderson — a physician widely revered by his patients — called Sequoia “my home away from home. It is a warm, personal place.”

Mead agrees. “Our hospital has a wonderful culture,” he says. “I think it stems from the fact that the physicians have this cooperation (rather than competition), and that filters down to the staff. Patients pick up on that.”

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Bob Paul

“You know what the cardiologist (at another hospital in San Francisco) said when he heard who was treating me? He said to me, ‘Why would you go with the B team when you already have the A team?’”

Patients’ Choice One such patient is Bob Paul, a 40-year resident of San Carlos. In 2019, struck by leftside pain while he and his wife were enjoying a theater night in San Francisco, the former firefighter knew exactly what was happening — and where he wanted to go.

“I had my wife drive us down the Peninsula, past San Francisco General Hospital, in a pouring rain, to Sequoia,” he says.

Whisked into a cardiac care unit “within five minutes,” Paul was quickly diagnosed with a blocked artery, underwent angioplasty and had a stent inserted.

Released the next day, he experienced no complications. But the episode was followed by a diagnosis of atrial fibrillation.

Mead and his colleagues recommended an ablation; Paul sought a second opinion.

“You know what the cardiologist (at another hospital in San Francisco) said when he heard who was treating me?”

Paul asks. “He said, ‘Why would you go with the B team when you already have the A team?’” One ablation later, Paul’s A-fib was gone — along with the blood thinners he hated.

So how does a patient choose — assuming he or she has a choice of where to be treated?

In general, choose the doctor, not the hospital, says Gaudiani. “The institution doesn’t treat you. The physician does.

Ask yourself, ‘Who is the person I trust to do this?’”

And how to figure out that person?

Use your network and ask a lot of questions, says Mead. Don’t rely on website biographies. “Even if you don’t know medicine, you probably know somebody who does,” Mead counsels. “Ask about the physician’s experience with the procedure you need. How many have they done? What is their success rate? What is their complication rate?” If the doctor can’t or won’t answer those questions, says Mead, “My advice is to walk out the door.”

What Lies Ahead Most prognosticators say the future of cardiovascular medicine will rest on a mix of interventional advancements; minimally invasive “smaller-hole” surgery (multiple small incisions to replace traditional openheart surgery); a better understanding of the human immune system; and harnessing the emerging powers of regenerative, or stem-cell, medicine.

But one huge factor for heart patients, current and future, is decidedly un-technological: Prevention and wellness. To understand that, it’s helpful to circle back to the beginning of the story: The Sequoia Healthcare District.

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Sequoia CEO Bill Graham

“We have a unique environment. In a community hospital, you have much more direct and personalized interaction with the caregivers.”

In 1996, when Sequoia Hospital merged with the Catholic Healthcare West chain (now Dignity Health), the district and its tax revenues were no longer needed to own and operate the facility. So it pivoted to a new mission: Better basic health for the 220,000 residents who now live within its boundaries.

The district’s 1.3 percent of property taxes — roughly $15 million per year — now flows into community-health initiatives such as low- and no-cost clinics; hiring of school nurses; mental-health and wellness programs; and nutrition, health literacy and disease prevention across all ages. Last year, the district granted $7.9 million to roughly 70 different nonprofit partners who form the region’s healthcare safety net.

For heart patients, such preventive measures are critical. Monitoring blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar are all actions patients can take to stop heart disease before it starts.

“Our mission is to keep people out of the hospital,” says district CEO Pamela Kurtzman. “We partner with Sequoia Hos-

pital in delivering a continuum of care. We are serving the same patients.” Through the district’s work, she adds, data show health outcomes for local residents have improved over time.

From his vantage point of more than 70 years in medicine, Fogarty believes “we have just scratched the surface” of the possibilities for cardiovascular care. “Interventional medicine will get less and less invasive,” he predicts. “We have just kind of touched it.”

Gaudiani, now affiliated with El Camino Hospital in Mountain View, believes surgery will continue its “smaller-hole” evolution. But complex surgery will always have its niche, he says. To make sure future surgeons are ready, he is building a video-based system that teaches trainees in the art and science of “big-case” cardiac surgery.

As understanding of the human immune system advances, prospects should also improve for transplant recipients, who may be freed from a lifetime of anti-rejection drugs. And in the far-out category: Stem-cell medicine may make donor organs obsolete. In that scenario, medical sci-

entists will simply grow new organs from the patient’s own cells, perfectly matched in genetics and immunology.

Mead marvels at it all.

“We used to tell patients that the one thing we can’t change is your genes,” he says. “Well, now we can. There’s a medicine that’s been approved — actually a shot you can take twice a year — that literally changes the genes in the liver that produce cholesterol.”

The transformations, he believes, are just beginning.

“There will always be a role for physicians doing what they need to do,” Mead says. “But there’s no question that the conjunction of industry, biotechnology and the medical-device world is going to continue to do things we cannot even imagine right now.” C

July 2022

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By Scott Dailey

OPINION•

The National Anthem and America’s Long Night

San Francisco Giants manager Gabe Kapler recently joined others in professional sports who have protested during the pregame playing of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” In late May, the Associated Press quoted Kapler as saying, “I don’t plan on coming out for the anthem going forward until I feel better about the direction of our country.”

Kapler paused his dissent on Memorial Day, explaining his personal obligation to honor and mourn the veterans who have defended our country. The following day, he remained in the dugout.

With Independence Day arriving this month, Kapler’s discussion of his original decision in a long blog post made me reassess my thoughts about boycotting the anthem. I was disturbed when former San Francisco Forty Niners quarterback Colin Kaepernick started sitting through it during the 2016 NFL preseason. I believed then that he was exploiting his media stage to disavow the country that, for all its deep flaws, especially involving the police and people of color — one of Kaepernick’s criticisms — also enabled a young man of mixed race to be adopted, receive a public-university education and earn a fortune playing professional football.

Then, on May 25, 2020, Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd.

As a country, we have not been the same since. Now, multiple mass killings within just weeks — at least one of them apparently motivated by inexecrable racial hatred — again have left us filled with feelings of impotence and rage. When will it end? When — and how — will we make it end?

Ever since Kaepernick sat, the anthem has become a flashpoint.

To many, the sight of players kneeling is abhorrent. But it’s also understandable. “The Star-Spangled Banner” is one of our most important national symbols. When we are asked to sing it, we are undeniably being asked to celebrate our nation.

Like all Americans at this moment, the Giants’ Kapler doesn’t feel much like celebrating. “I am not okay with the state of this country,” he wrote in an impassioned post entitled, “Home of the Brave?”

In particular, his thoughtful and wide-ranging essay took Congress to task for failing to ban assault weapons. As for the connection to “The Star-Spangled Banner,” he said, “I’m often struck before our games by the lack of delivery of the promise of what our national anthem represents.”

No argument here. And yet: Consider how the anthem came to be. Many know that an attorney named Francis Scott Key wrote the lyric while on an American vessel that was being detained by the British after Key had helped negotiate the release of an American

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prisoner during the War of 1812.

What most people don’t know is that Key matched his words to the British tune, “To Anacreon in Heaven,” which was so popular that its melody already had been used for more than 130 songs in the United States.

We are told that on September 13, 1814, Key had been watching the British navy’s 25-hour bombardment of Fort McHenry in Baltimore Harbor. Less than a month before, King George’s troops had torched the President’s mansion (not yet called the White House), the Capitol, the Treasury Department and the buildings that housed the departments of war and state. Whatever the wisdom of declaring war on Britain, the Americans had their hands full.

The next morning, writes musicologist and historian Mark Clague of the University of Michigan, “Key rose … and through the lens of his spyglass saw his nation’s 15-star, 15-stripe flag waving defiantly over the fort. He was elated and relieved, certain that God had intervened.” Over the following two days, Key wrote, “Defence of Fort McHenry,” later to be called, “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

The lyric — and it really is a lyric, not a poem — consists of four long stanzas. It’s the first one, generally, that people sing (or not). That stanza and the next two mainly ask questions.

The opening phrase, “O, say, can you see,” in fact begins a four-line inquiry in which the apprehensive American lawyer wonders if the stars and stripes are still “gallantly streaming.”

To me — both historically and personally — it’s significant that Key’s poem poses more questions than answers. In essence, it asks, “Are we still here? Are we all right?”

On that early morning in 1814, the answers had to be, “Yes, barely” and “No, not yet.” For that reason, I have long viewed “The Star-Spangled Banner” not as a song of mindless, patriotic jubilation, but an expression of grim-faced determination at a time of crisis. To its other existential questions, add this one: Can we pull through? The final verse — almost no one knows it — ends hopefully, predicting that the flag “in triumph shall wave.” But as the British pulled out from their failed attack, it was still far from certain — and despite his momentary euphoria, Key must have known it.

A century-and-a-half later, the country faced the latest in its long history of crises. The assassination of President John F. Kennedy was not the first catastrophe of the 1960s, nor would it

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OPINION• abroad and assassinations and riots at home, is often considered the country’s most divisive except for the time of the Civil War. Now, I wonder. When I view the sixties, it’s often with the young person’s eye I had then. Hate and fury were offset by idealism and hope. Yes, there was Watts and Detroit and Kent State. But, for a time, there was also Dr. King. There were the Beatles, Aretha Franklin and “Hair.” As the decade ended, Neil Armstrong kept President Kennedy’s promise and took one giant leap on the surface of the moon. Even as Vietnam blazed under American napalm, Armstrong laid a plaque that read, “We came in peace for all mankind.”

Today, I see none of the optimism that countered the sixties’ many tragedies. Beyond the horrors we have recently witnessed, the country is paralyzed by virulent and universal cynicism and distrust. Again, we have strong reason to ask, “Can we pull through?”

At times like this, the national anthem reminds us of what we have already endured. No matter how people may feel about singing it just now, “The Star-Spangled Banner,” at its heart, portrays the fragility of our democratic enterprise. Often, we have been at war with ourselves. Yet, despite our many perils and losses, we remain standing, even if it may feel more like staggering.

Are we still here? Yes, barely. Are we all right? No, not yet.

be the last. A week and a day after Kennedy’s death, football fans from Stanford and the University of California gathered for the annual “Big Game” between the two traditional rivals. The contest had been postponed from the previous Saturday, and the mood was somber. Sensing what was needed, Stanford’s new band director, Arthur P. Barnes, reached into his files for an unconventional arrangement of the national anthem he had written while teaching at Fresno State University. It had been performed just a couple of times in Stanford Stadium. But if ever a time cried out for a reprise, it was now.

Jon Erickson, formerly Stanford’s bursar and now director of Stanford Stadium and other campus athletic facilities, played in the band that day. As he recalls, the pregame memorial ceremony included a full 60 seconds of silence. Then, as if from nowhere, a solo trumpet player mournfully sounded the anthem’s first two lines. (My father, who went to the game, was reminded of “Taps.”) The woodwinds crept in, joined gradually by the brass and percussion as the piece, infused with a haunting, Mahler-esque harmony, built slowly to a stirring close.

The near-sellout crowd appeared stunned. “I’ve never heard such a loud silence,” Barnes said shortly before he retired in 1997.

“All the sportswriters said they had lumps in their throats.”

On that day, I had just turned nine years old. When the sixties ended, I was 15. The decade, dominated by the Vietnam war

C

y

necting Commu n o t C A BRIDGE TO nit r A UNDERSTANDING FIRST ART EXHIBITION

at the CZI Community Space, 801 Jefferson St. Redwood City

7 San Mateo County Artists

Jose Castro Elizabeth Gomez Winsor Kinkade ■

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Pedro Rivas Lopez Manuel Ortiz ■

Maria Sanchez Laurie Satizabal ■

ART EXHIBIT DATES & HOURS July 28 and August 25 11:00am–1:00pm Open camera Scan code Register

Online registration is required three days in advance.

Questions? admin@rwcpaf.org

July 2022

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SPOTLIGHT•

A Wild Ride

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SPOTLIGHT•

Business leaders and Redwood City officials try to address a tricky situation downtown.

By Janet McGovern

It’s Critical Mass without a political statement — but with fireworks and, sometimes, fists. It’s groups of flashy but sometimes irresponsible kids on bikes — though not “outlaw bikers.” It’s yet another manifestation of teenagers with pent-up energy being cooped up too long because of the pandemic. And it’s spun out of control into the heart of Redwood City, where struggling businesses and an understaffed police department are trying to work with it.

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hen the downtown area was redeveloped some two decades ago with Courthouse Square as its showplace “living room,” Redwood City found itself the Peninsula’s new place to go. It attracted throngs to concerts, festivals, movies and live theater, or to enjoy the blossoming restaurant scene. Even pre-Covid, kids were coming there to hang out, too.

But when pandemic-related restrictions turned downtown into a ghost town, observers say, young people began to fill a vacuum that turned out to be ideal for bike-riding, including wheelies and awesome tricks. But a benign activity has taken an ominous turn in recent months. Po-

lice and business people report vandalism and other criminal activity, from fighting to setting off commercial-grade fireworks.

Police Chief Dan Mulholland says the problem got worse in April and May, but adds that the situation has improved as a result of both enforcement and outreach through community groups, schools and parents. “We want to have a positive relationship with our kids,” he says. Still, he cautions, “We can’t have disruptive behavior.”

Unruly Conduct Regina Van Brunt, executive director of the Redwood City Downtown Business Group, has watched in dismay as benches, tables and chairs — things that can be

thrown — have been removed from Theatre Way and Courthouse Square. She says she knows people who have become afraid to come downtown for fear of being intimidated by roving bicyclists who ride up alongside drivers or perform bike stunts in the street and on the Square with no apparent concern for who’s in the way.

“They want Courthouse Square,” Van Brunt asserts. “They want to be able to be there all the time. They’re out to make a reputation for themselves.” The situation has gone on “way too long,” she adds, “but now it’s become vicious and violent.”

Looking back on the city’s investment in a revitalized downtown and the challenges businesses have weathered to stay open, Van Brunt says, “We’re just July 2022

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shocked that this has happened.” She says groups of 30 to 40 cyclists typically show up in the mornings and leave a little after 9 p.m., possibly because they have curfews at home.

Perhaps the most serious incident happened on May 20, when, police say, 150 to 200 youths crowded into Courthouse Square. Some began igniting fireworks and blocking sidewalks and streets.

When the police asked the bike-riders to disperse, items were thrown at them. Two suspects were arrested, and two officers were assaulted. The noise was so loud that Fox Theatre manager Ernie Schmidt asked the 700 patrons who were attending a talk by 2014 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai to stay inside until the situation de-escalated.

Across the street from the theater, frightened history-museum staff were told to leave by a side door, according to Mitch Postel, president of the San Mateo County Historical Association. “We’ve had homeless people sleeping on Courthouse Square,” Postel says. “But this is the first time that staff has actually felt threatened.” The building was hit with graffiti, which was later removed.

About 40 business owners and others attended a Downtown Business Group-sponsored meeting June 8 with city representatives to air their frustrations and ask for help. The city has a twopronged approach that involves engagement with the kids, as well as enforcement.

Since then, some business representatives have seen improvement, but wonder how long the police department, which is down nine budgeted positions pre-pandemic, can sustain the more proactive presence.

One business owner, who asked not to be identified, thinks it’s too early to tell how effective the response will be.

The bicyclists, some wearing masks and hoods, seem to treat the police response as a cat-and-mouse game, he says. People

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SPOTLIGHT•

Perhaps the most serious incident happened on May 20, when, police say, 150 to 200 youths crowded into Courthouse Square. Some began igniting fireworks and blocking sidewalks and streets.

When the police asked the bike-riders to disperse, items were thrown at them. committing crimes are difficult to identify, and with so many avenues of escape, the cyclists can scatter and then return after the police have moved on.

Re-Funding the Police The city, which is dealing with revenue shortfalls and unexpected Covid-related expenses, is trying to rebuild police staffing to pre-pandemic levels. City Manager Melissa Stevenson Diaz in June proposed amending the 2022-23 budget to restore five of the nine vacant officer positions, four of them possibly next year. (One officer position comes in at $277,693, all benefits included. A public hearing and adoption of the budget were set for June 27, after Climate’s press time.)

Schmidt was among several who spoke at a June 13 city-council meeting, urging that all nine slots be filled.

“You have an excess of 12 officers following the kids all night until (the youths) just give up and go home,” Schmidt told the council. “But we all know that this is expensive. And, more important, we have officers being called in from their days off.

Mandatory overtime is being required of police officers. These officers are working 16-hour workdays.”

Council member Diane Howard, who was in the Fox Theatre the night of the uproar downtown, responded that she supports “providing our police with the manpower and equipment to keep our streets safe. It’s got to be a top priority for us. I understand there’s a substantial cost in hiring more officers, but not doing so will cost us more.”

Howard also attended the business group’s meeting, along with Mulholland and two members of the city manager’s team. Assistant City Manager Alex Khojikian outlined efforts to bring in parents, schools and nonprofits such as the Redwood City Police Activities League and Redwood City Together to connect with the kids. The objective, he said, is to create constructive alternatives and programs as an incentive, so long as the negative behavior subsides.

"Rather than rely solely on traditional methods of apprehension and detainment,” Mulholland said in a news release, “the Redwood City Police Department trusts that relationship-building to foster a collaborative approach is more effective for addressing this immediate concern."

Kids Lacking Alternatives To state the obvious: It’s summer, school’s out and, almost inevitably, kids get bored.

In a way, the situation in downtown Redwood City is reminiscent of the classic 1950s movie, “The Wild One,” in which Marlon Brando portrays a member of a motorcycle gang that takes over a California town. Asked what he’s rebelling against, he responds, “Whaddya got?”

Ivan Martinez, who grew up in Redwood City and is executive director of the Police Activities League, has met with some of the kids over burgers and fries to find out who they are, why they congregate downtown and how they, the city and local business people can build trust and partnerships. The kids told him they don’t

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have a park where they can ride bikes. The only arcade is in the movie theater, and they say it’s too expensive. Other entertainment options in the city have disappeared; the Redwood Roller Rink, Malibu Grand Prix, Mel’s Bowl and a downtown pool hall have all closed.

Martinez thinks most of the 200-plus bicyclists, who range from middle-school age to their early twenties, live in Redwood City and North Fair Oaks. They are not gang members, he says. Some who arrive via Caltrain from as far as Mountain View and San Jose lived locally pre-pandemic, and want to hang out with their old friends.

“It’s all about a sense of belonging,” Martinez says. “They want to be kids.

They want to have fun. They want to ride bikes.” Being able to execute difficult maneuvers on Courthouse Square gives them visibility. Martinez adds, “They want people to see them. … A lot of these kids are so skilled. It’s amazing to see what they do with their bikes.”

Wheeling Wonders That fancy technique is on display in a video posted on social media of young cyclists cruising San Mateo County streets in groups — riding only on the rear tire, balancing one foot on the handlebars or switching feet between the pedals and the rear-gear hardware. But other scenes in the video are alarming. They show riders crossing the double yellow line into oncoming traffic, seemingly oblivious to the danger to themselves — or to the terror of drivers seeing a kid on a bike coming head-on.

Martinez has been meeting with some of the young people and has identified a few leaders. If they are willing to “help us take care of our community,” he says, perhaps a bike event or festival could be organized. “We want to let them know that we’re here and we’re treating

SPOTLIGHT•

“They want people to see them. … A lot of these kids are so skilled. It’s amazing to see what they do with their bikes.” this as a partnership,” Martinez says. Little by little, youths acting as mentors can get out the word that “this is not how we treat our home.”

Pastor David Shearin of Street Life Ministries agrees that a lack of youth programs is a factor. But, he adds, so is a lack of consequences. “I think the majority of them are just followers,” he says, “but there is a core group of bad kids, and there’s no penalty.” He also supports filling all nine police vacancies.

Two summer months lie ahead, and bringing on new officers will take time.

However, Mulholland says four currently budgeted vacancies are already in the process of being filled. How quickly new cops can be on the street depends on who they are, whether a veteran from another department versus someone fresh out of the police academy.

Not Heavy-Handed In the meantime, the department has added resources, including plainclothes officers observing the scene downtown. The

cops and nonprofit teams are trying to help kids understand why some of their behavior on bikes is disruptive. Though some community members want more arrests, Mulholland says officers have to be mindful that a few kids want to bait them into an aggressive response and create a flashpoint.

“We’re trying to have a balanced approach,” he says.

Other city staff, meanwhile, are working with local organizations to come up with programs and activities, in collaboration with the kids, according to Khojikian.

At the same time, if the fireworks, fights and other disruptive activities continue, he says the city will have to reassess.

The situation took a while to develop, Khojikian notes, “and it’s going to take a while to be able to fix the issue, as well, right? That’s what we’re working on, and I know we’re actively in that process right now.” C

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AROUND TOWN•

Nobel Laureate Speaks at the Fox Theatre Pakistani activist and 2014 Nobel Prize-winner Malala Yousafzai spoke in May at the Fox Theatre about her international campaign for girls’ education. Interviewed by California State Assembly Member Kevin Mullin, Yousafzai described growing up in a country where, according to the United Nations, 53.6 percent of women are denied education, training and employment.

Yousafzai didn’t back away from discussing the difficulties and dangers she has experienced in her efforts to obtain equal rights for girls and young women.

The most harrowing incident came in 2012, when Taliban gunmen boarded a bus she was riding and shot her in the head. After recovering, Yousafzai won the Nobel Peace Prize at age 17, becoming the award’s youngest recipient.

Below: Guests greet Yousafzai backstage.

Right: Kevin Mullin interviews Malala Yousafzai.

San Mateo County Celebrates Juneteenth President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, freeing all slaves within the Confederacy. Almost twoand-a-half years later, on June 19, 1865, Major General Gordon Granger of the Union Army arrived with his troops in Galveston, Texas, and ordered freedom for the approximately 250,000 enslaved people in the Confederacy’s last state that officially permitted slavery.

San Mateo County officials and others from the community celebrated Juneteenth, a federal holiday since last year, on June 3 with a flag-raising at the San Mateo County Civic Center in Redwood City. Speakers included San Mateo NAACP President Rev. Lorrie Owens, San Mateo County supervisors Carole Groom and Don Horsley, and former Supervisor Rose Jacobs Gibson. Performing “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” also known as the Black National Anthem, were local singer and former San Mateo NAACP President Marie Davis and her son, Garrick Davis, leader of the band, Garrick Davis World Blues.

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Top: Marie Davis and her son Garrick sing the Black National Anthem.

Left: Rose Jacobs Gibson speaks.

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AROUND TOWN•

Community Observes Memorial Day at Union Cemetery Memorial Day was celebrated on May 30 at Union Cemetery in Redwood City, honoring those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for their country. On hand to present the colors were Boy Scout Troop 149 and Yerba Buena Chapter 1 of E Clampus Vitus, a fraternal organization dedicated to preserving the history of the American West.

Speakers included Chris Beth, Redwood City’s director of parks, recreation and community services; Rev. Dennis Logie of Sequoia Christian Church; District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe and local historian Jim Clifford.

Also at the event, Eagle Scout Elliott Lee described his unique, high-tech project that lets visitors scan barcodes at numerous gravesites and learn the stories of those buried there.

Concluding the celebration was the "firing of the anvil,” a tradition in which gunpowder is ignited between two anvils, launching one of them 10 feet into the air.

Top right: Eagle Scout Elliott Lee. Top: Rev. Dennis Logie, historian Jim Clifford and keynote speaker Steve Wagstaffe.

Left: Children placed flowers on graves.

Far left: Spectators anticipate the firing of the anvil.

Music Lovers Rock at PAL Festival Left: Youth singers from Riekes Center in Menlo Park.

The Redwood City Police Activities League on June 18 celebrated Part II of its 25th anniversary party with its yearly music festival.

With food and drink on hand in Courthouse Square, revelers danced to the tunes of youth singers from the Riekes Center in Menlo Park; PAL's own Zumba group; and music by Faithfully Live, a Journey cover band.

"This is a fundraiser made possible by community sponsors who have not only supported this event but PAL through out the year," said Executive Director Ivan Martinez.

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AROUND TOWN•

San Carlos Throws a Parade The 40th Hometown Days in San Carlos erupted in a parade on May 21, after being delayed three years by Covid-19.

“This is a kick-back, have-fun gathering to see all your friends and neighbors, let the community gather and have a good-time sort of celebration,” said former three-time San Carlos Mayor Don Eaton.

The event was started in 1979 by a group of residents that included another ex-mayor, Pat Bennie. The tradition continued with the parade, which now features floats, school bands, youth sports teams and other proud participants who traverse through downtown San Carlos. This year's weekend-long event, held mainly at Burton Park, included games, jump houses and a pet parade, among other attractions.

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AROUND TOWN•

"March for Our Lives" Advocates Gun Control Led by youths calling for stricter gun laws, the nation’s second "March for Our Lives" on June 11 included a reported 450 events across the United States. A rally in front of the Redwood City Public Library downtown began with an estimated 200 people who then marched through the central commercial district chanting, “Hey, hey! Ho, ho! The NRA has got to go!” and hoisting signs that read, “Enough is Enough,” “Guns DO Kill Children!” and “Disarm Hate.”

“After all the school shootings, we want to show that youth do have power and a say, and that the politicians’ time is up and we demand change," said Kaaya Minocha, a senior at Saratoga High School in Saratoga and lead coordinator of the local event.

“It's all about saving lives,” Minocha continued. “We are a non-partisan organization, and don't favor one party over the other, but want to see meaningful gun legislation to avoid the next Sandy Hook, Parkland or Uvalde” — a reference to mass murders of students at schools in Connecticut, Florida and Texas, respectively.

Aficionados Check Out Amazing Autos The Redwood City Downtown Business Group’s car show on June 11 attracted admiring spectators who strolled among 75 classics while enjoying music from rock band Wild Child along with a tempting variety of food and beverages.

“This was our event to give the community a little summer fun,” said Regina Van Brunt, the business organization’s executive director. Afterwards, no cars were reported stolen, although more than one guest might have had a few ideas.

July 2022

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PROFILE •

Celebrating the

Day of the Dead — and Much More

By Don Shoecraft

Culture keeper, youth steward, exercise emporium, arts center — many nouns attach to the business of Casa Circulo Cultural on Middlefield Road, south of Costco in Redwood City.

One is of particular note: Bargain.

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PROFILE •

Redwood City’s Casa Circulo Cultural blends a powerful mix of art, activities and tradition.

A

ided by a partial sponsorship from the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office, the nonprofit organization offers low-cost classes in art, music, video production, salsa and Folklorico dancing, sewing, boxing, taekwondo, cooking, gardening, Spanish, English and a potpourri of creative endeavors for youth and adults ages 5 to 90.

Perhaps of greatest renown is how, in just a decade, Casa Circulo Cultural has elevated the Mexican celebration of Día de los Muertos — the Day of the Dead — to a communitywide event in Redwood

City. By now, most residents understand that Día de los Muertos is a joyful festival of the living that’s rooted in Mayan, Aztecan and Olmec tradition dating back a thousand years and more. (The Olmecs, who settled the tropical lowlands of Mexico, are credited with Mesoamerica’s first major civilization.)

For the center’s founder, Verónica Escámez, the culture of “Día” is a font of respect, the spring from which all things flow, a current of blessings for ancestors, the living, friends, family and community, whatever the ethnic makeup of those

who celebrate it. For example, the annual November 1 and 2 Día de los Muertos festivities in Courthouse Square and the adjoining musem of the San Mateo County Historical Association have featured Chinese and Russian altars honoring and nourishing the dead.

A Continuing Evolution Casa Circulo Cultural has evolved tremendously since it began as a theater group in 2009. “The adults who came Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays started doing ornaments for the band,” Escámez recalls.

July 2022

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• “Little by little, they started doing dance classes and – poof! -- now we are there.”

Escámez says every Día celebration displays what clients have learned throughout the previous year. Art and painting classes incorporate masks and decorations. Dance rehearsals include Folklorico routines typical of Mexican culture performed at Día events. Sewing courses teach technique for making costumes and props. And video production builds skills for documenting the events.

The purposeful economy of effort helps explain the outsized influence of Casa Circulo Cultural. San Francisco is now part of its sphere. Some 15 years ago, San Francisco Symphony Curator Martha Rodríguez-Salazar helped present the orchestra’s first Día de los Muertos celebration. She continued to expand it and brought in more community partners, which 11 years ago came to include Casa Circulo Cultural’s dancers and artists.

The Redwood City organization is now at the heart of the symphony’s Día events. On its website, the ensemble describes its partner as “a vibrant, multi-disciplinary art organization dedicated to creating cultural programming reflective of the experiences of the Latino communities of the San Francisco Bay Area.”

On the day of the symphony’s performance, youth and adults from Casa Circulo Cultural march — in regalia they made themselves — in the Día procession down San Francisco’s Grove Street. Handmade decorations from Casa Circulo Cultural’s clients decorate Davies Symphony Hall’s windows and walls, as do oversized masks, skulls and other objects painted in the style of 19th--century Mexican engraver José Guadalupe Posada. In the past, the symphony’s patrons have also been offered a photo op in Casa Circulo Cultural’s “Catrines y Catrinas” picture booth, a clever deployment of painting, sculptural, sewing and photographic skills learned at

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PROFILE • Widely admired in Mexico, Escartiz is Casa Circulo Cultural’s primary artist.

His presence at the center is impossible to miss. High on an interior wall, bas reliefs of colorful fish are arranged around an easily recognized replication of the underwater vessel from the movie and song immortalized by the Beatles. The message is obvious: We all live in a yellow submarine.

Verónica Escámez recently celebrated 13 years of Casa Circulo Cultural.

“Adults started bringing kids to rehearsal because they didn’t have a place to take them,” she said. “I thought, ‘Well, let’s see what we can do.’ So we did something with the kids, too." the center. (The Spanish word “catrine” refers to a well-dressed person. “Catrina” describes an elegantly attired skeleton.)

Connection with a Famous Sculptor Prominent among the sculptures every year at the concert hall are several by Mexico City-born artist Fernando Escartiz, who now lives locally. Last fall, hordes of visitors photographed his “We Are Stardust” Día installation, a monumental sculptural artwork that made it look as if a meteorite had smashed into the roof of the art kiosk in Courthouse Square.

Escartiz’s intent was to capture the instant of impact and destruction. It demonstrated, he told the Almanac newspaper, that "there has to be death for there to be life.”

A Family Enterprise Perhaps it made a difference that it was his mother who asked Escartiz to volunteer.

As the doña of her family — and Casa Circulo Cultural — Verónica Escámez can be persuasive. Her invitations are particularly compelling to relatives, so much so that at the center, “relative” and “volunteer” are practically synonymous. And if Casa Circulo Cultural seems to operate in creativity overdrive, it’s because the family and other staff members are hyper-creative.

Anna Lee Mraz Bartra is Escámez’s daughter-in-law. She holds a doctorate in sociology, and was a 2020-21 fellow in the Research Justice at the Intersections program at Mills College, which was scheduled to complete its planned merger with Northeastern University on July 1. She’s also CEO of Peninsula 360 Press, a news outlet for the Latino community, and teaches media classes there to children and adults. Mraz Bartra also recently graced Escámez with a granddaughter.

Peninsula 360 Press began in 2020. It was founded by one of Escámez’s sons, journalist Manuel Ortiz Escámez, who is also a board member of Casa Circulo Cultural — unpaid, as are all the organization's directors. Administrative advisor and fellow board member Florence Ortiz is Escámez’s granddaughter, and program aide Sofia Ortiz is Escámez’s cousin.

Another son, taekwondo instructor Gerardo Ortiz, teaches adults and also

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Nataly Diaz readies her class for painting.

children as young as five. His teams have advanced to competitive levels, and his martial-arts students have harvested many gold medals.

Others — not related to Escámez — at Casa Circulo Cultural include Arturo Samayoa, who teaches salsa dancing; Roxana Escamilla, Sonia Martinez and Hanny Crespo, art; Asael Merlin, piano; Andres Garcia, guitar; Roberto Cruz, singing; Gretel Gagnon, cooking and gardening; Magaly Lopez, sewing; Asminda Zavala, embroidery; Daniel Saldivar, boxing; and Wendy Segovia, program coordinator.

But family started it all. And, like many stories of familial enterprise, this one began at a dead end.

Starting Over In late 2008, Escámez had lost her job working for an immigration attorney in San Francisco. In scarcely a moment, she had nowhere to go and nothing to do. In Mexico City, she had long been a teacher and principal in a government-sponsored school. (She came to the U.S. in 1989.)

Now, in Redwood City, she wanted to have fun. In May 2009, she started a theater group in her garage for “people in my community who normally have nothing to do but work.”

Often, it was loud — and that was a problem. “Noise,” she laughs, “was some-

PROFILE •

Cassanera Espinoza teaches traditional dance.

thing my neighbors did not want to hear.

So they started sending the police. We would be rehearsing to the point where we knew the police would come, (and then) we started singing ‘Happy Birthday.’”

In December 2009, she approached Redwood City Community Services Manager Bruce Utecht about using the old Veterans Memorial Senior Center on Madison Avenue for theater space. She got it in exchange for helping with the bingo games there. Two years later, Casa Circulo Cultural moved to a warehouse on East Bayshore Road in Redwood City. Then, in June of last year, the organization used small grants and community help to acquire its new place in North Fair Oaks.

Of the center’s evolution, Escámez says, “Adults started bringing kids to rehearsal because they didn’t have a place to take them. I thought, ‘Well, let’s see what we can do.’ So we did something with the kids, too. Saturdays, we started giving classes. We had adults, we had kids, and one thing led to the other.

“Fortunately, we had a lot of volunteers,” she continues. “One wanted to teach art, one wanted to teach dance, and one of my sons did sculptures, and, well, we just got together. Since then, we’ve been growing and growing.

Teaching Leadership “Our principal thing is, through the arts, to get kids involved in the community and inspire them to be leaders,” Escámez says. “The Hispanic community is a little bit more shy than other cultures. So, for example, if we have an event, usually our emcees are the kids.”

The center’s approach to language additionally reflects its mission to bring families and cultures together.

“All our kids speak English,” Escámez notes. “When they are around 11 years old, they start losing the connection with parents that don’t speak English.” Thus, kids at the center receive instruction in Spanish, and adults, in English. “We try to do the connection between the two cultures,” Escámez says, “and make the little ones feel proud of where they come from.”

The approach is not bi-cultural. It’s not cross-cultural. It’s Casa Circulo Cultural-cultural. As much as the center cultivates awareness of the Day of the Dead, it also respects other traditions. Beyond honoring Día de los Muertos, kids also celebrate Halloween.

“They need to know all their cultures,” Escámez says. “They need to know all their traditions, too, so they know the difference.” C

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SPOTLIGHT•

REDWOOD CITY EVENTS

Music on the Square Music in the Park 6/3 through 9/2 Fridays, 6:00pm-8:00pm Courthouse Square

6/22 through 8/24 Wednesdays, 6:00pm-8:00pm

Movies on the Square

Pub in the Park

Art on the Square

Kids Rock!

Sounds of the Shores

Redwood Symphony

7/17, 7/8, 7/22, & 8/26 Fridays, 5:00pm-8:30pm Courthouse Square

6/26, 7/24, & 8/21 Sundays, 11:00am-1:00pm Courthouse Square

WWW.REDWOODCITYEVENTS.COM

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6/9 through 9/1 Thursdays, 6:00pm & 8:30pm Courthouse Square

6/26, 7/24, & 8/21 Sundays, 5:00pm-7:00pm Marlin Park

RedwoodCityEvents

@rwcparks

@rwcevents

@CityofRWC

6/4, 7/16, 8/6, & 9/10 Saturdays, 11:00am-4:00pm Red Morton Park

6/25 Saturday, 6:00pm Courthouse Square

Subscribe to our weekly entertainment eNews www.redwoodcity.org/newsletter

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C L I M AT E •

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July 2022

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H I S T O•R YC LbI M y A J iTmE • Clifford•

Soldiers Trained in Menlo Park Fought in Russia During World War I Even with war raging in Ukraine, few people today may remember that American troops once fought in Russia — Siberia, to be exact. About 3,000 soldiers from Camp Fremont, a sprawling World War I training camp that occupied parts of Menlo Park and Palo Alto, served in one of the strangest and least-known chapters of American history.

Most accounts of Camp Fremont note that the vast majority of men who trained there arrived in France too late to fight in a war that bled Europe for three years before America joined the Allies in 1917. Although few Camp Fremont soldiers saw action on the Western Front, at least 353 American troops died in the little-known Russian campaign, according to the website, The Great War 19141918 (www.greatwar.co.uk).

One of the best accounts of the American troops’ experience in Russia is, “Golden Gate to Golden Horn: Camp Fremont, California, and the American Expedition to Siberia of 1918.” It was written by Col. William S. Strobridge, a military historian who died in 2006. There’s a copy in the San Mateo County History Museum, on Courthouse Square in downtown Redwood City.

“Siberia had none of the aura of France,” Strobridge wrote. “November’s armistice on the Western Front increased a sense of isolation among men living in box cars along the Trans-Siberian Railroad after marching so recently in San Mateo sunshine.”

There’s little left of Camp Fremont, where more than 42,000 soldiers went through basic training. The camp hospital is now part of the Veterans Health Administration complex on Willow Road.

The camp YMCA building was moved

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to El Camino Real and became the Oasis Beer Garden, now closed. The best-known remnant is the MacArthur Park restaurant, off El Camino near Stanford. Designed by famed architect Julia Morgan, the structure was once a “hostess house” where soldiers could visit relatives.

According to Barbara Wilcox, author of “World War I Army Training by San Francisco Bay: The Story of Camp Fremont,” traces of the camp’s training trenches can be found today. “They practiced trench warfare on a maneuver ground, complete with dugouts and underground galleries on the site of today’s Stanford Linear Accelerator Center National Laboratory south of Sand Hill Road,” she wrote.

Wilcox added that trenches and dugouts “emerge after heavy rains,” and ammunition still turns up. An unexploded artillery shell was unearthed in 2010 by a crew digging a swimming pool near the Palo Alto Hills Golf and Country Club.

Why were men sent to fight in a virtual wilderness? Historians have debated that question ever since America’s soldiers returned from Russia in 1920. The usual answers have included protecting American property, keeping the railroads working and helping trapped Czech troops who wanted to continue fighting the Germans after Russia pulled out of the war. Other

nations, including England and Japan, also sent troops to Russia.

Communists regarded it as an “invasion” designed to crush the Russian Revolution.

According to the U.S. Militaria Forum (a website devoted to all things military), Gen. William Graves, who commanded the American forces, tried to maintain “strict neutrality” when it came to clashes between the White and Red armies.

(During the civil war that followed the revolution, the Red Army was communist and the White Army was anti-communist.)

The general’s policy was probably wise. A commentator on the website notes that only around 8,000 U.S. troops were in Siberia at any time, so the Americans would have had a hard time “fighting in anything larger than a minor skirmish.”

The author adds that the White forces’ personal conduct was little better than that of the Red Army, and “in some cases (was) much more violent and cruel.”

Graves, who was the commanding officer at Camp Fremont when he was named to head the force in Russia, wrote a book entitled, “America’s Siberian Adventure,” published in 1931. He reported that most Russians, except “the autocratic class,” appreciated that his soldiers avoided taking sides. However, he said offensive behavior by troops of other nations placed the mass of Russians “solidly behind the Soviets.”

(Note: While researching this article, I realized I had a brush with history. My family owned an American Remington rifle that was made in 1917 and was supposed to go to the Czarist forces but was never shipped to Russia. The gun, stamped with the Czar’s crest, belongs to a relative who test-fired it a year or so ago and reported it “in fine condition.”) C

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