El Tecolote

07/08/2025

It’s our birthday month! 🦉✨

To celebrate 55 years of independent community journalism, join us for a birthday fundraiser on Friday, August 22!

There will be cumbia, palomas, sheet cake, a piñata and plenty of good company.

El Tecolote celebrates 55 years of bilingual, community-rooted journalism. Join us for a fundraiser and support local Latino-led reporting.

02/08/2025

During their final practice at Crocker Amazon Soccer Fields, the team behind El Farolito Soccer Club trained with fire. Players shouted instructions and sprinted across the field, fighting for every loose ball. The intensity was matched only by the camaraderie between them. The scene is a glimpse into what makes this team extraordinary: chemistry, confidence and community.

Tonight at 5 p.m., El Farolito will face Hickory FC at the historic Kezar Stadium as they fight to defend their NPSL title and cement their legacy in Bay Area sports history.

But El Farolito’s path to the championship isn’t just about soccer. It’s a story of immigrant grit, sacrifice and the power of community.

Read the full story at the link in our bio.

📝+📸:   with .io 

01/08/2025

He hadn’t moved anything in the house. Their bed was still unmade — it had been like that for days, he said, since the last night they slept in it. Her shoes, tossed near the front door. In the kitchen, their dishes still sat untouched in the sink. He said he couldn’t bring himself to wash the ones they had used to eat breakfast before they left the house that last morning.

“We didn’t know this was the last time she was going to come back,” he told El Tecolote. 

For the past weeks, Roberto has been sleeping on a friend’s couch, too distraught to spend the night alone in his house. 

In July, Roberto’s wife Sandra was arrested by ICE during a routine check-in appointment at the agency’s San Francisco field office. Since then, she has been held in a detention center, waiting for updates on her pending asylum case.

“For them, it’s very normal. But the result is a home destroyed,” Roberto said. “I’m really depressed. I haven’t eaten in days. I’m not hungry, I don’t want to eat anything.”

“She’s my family,” he added. “She’s my home.” 

Follow the link in our bio to read more about how one couple’s journey to build a life together was upended by a single ICE check-in.

📝: .duranf with
📸: with .io

30/07/2025

Despite California’s strong tenant protections, vulnerable immigrant renters are terrified to invoke them out of fear they’ll be deported.

28/07/2025

ICYMI: On Friday, Latino homeless families celebrated a major $30 million win for emergency rent subsidies and extended shelter stays, a victory they helped secure alongside Supervisor Jackie Fielder.

26/07/2025

“Over the past year, I’ve watched my RV community be targeted, harassed, and evicted. Not by accident, but by design.
It began on Bernal Heights Boulevard, where our small group — about 12 RVs with individuals, families, and pets — lived in relative peace. We shared meals and watched each other’s things while folks went to work.

Then came a wave of 311 complaints: reports of sewage, parking issues, even allegations of harassment we believe were fabricated. Police soon followed. Then came the public shaming.”

Follow the link in our bio to read the op-ed by longtime RV resident Armando Bravo Martinez.

📸:  with .io 

24/07/2025

Homeless families in San Francisco are celebrating a major $30 million win for emergency rent vouchers and extended shelter stays — a victory they helped secure alongside Supervisor Jackie Fielder, who announced the new investments today.

“We’re very happy because we need the rent subsidies, we need to be safe,” said Brenda Córdoba, leader of the homeless nonprofit Faith in Action Bay Area. But, she added, the work continues: “There are 3,000 homeless children in San Francisco.”

The new funds come after months of organizing by families and advocates, and include:
* 125 new rent subsidies for homeless families
* A revised Length of Stay policy that extends how long families can remain in shelters
* A grievance and appeal process for families denied shelter extensions
*
Supervisor Fielder introduced the counterproposal after the Mayor’s Office had moved to reallocate $88 million from family homelessness services to adult shelter and hygiene. Her plan restored $30 million for families and transitional-age youth, plus $9 million for homeless adults.

“This win would not have happened without homeless families coming to City Hall themselves to tell their stories and organizing the community,” Fielder said in a statement. “It’s been a priority of mine to end family homelessness in San Francisco, and I know that with these families at the helm, we are well on our way.”

21/07/2025

Portrait artist Alexa “LexMex” Treviño set out to photograph an individual or group representing each of the 33 countries of Latin America.

It is her gift back to the Mission community: “Each portrait is a love letter to the places and people who hold our stories. A reminder that our culture is alive, rooted, and unshakable.”

Her upcoming show, Existir es Resistir, opens July 25 at Acción Latina, the nonprofit arts and media organization that also publishes El Tecolote.

A portrait photographer by training, Treviño brings studio-quality lighting and cultural precision to the streets of the Mission, carefully lighting different skin tones and highlighting traditional regalia — details often overlooked in mainstream photography.

In doing so, she’s stepping into a gap, putting her subjects first, and investing both physical and imaginative labor to honor the people who shape the Mission as home.

“Latinos are not a monolith,” Treviño says. “Our diversity is not a fracture — it is our power.”

✨ EXISTIR ES RESISTIR
📅 Opening Night: Friday, July 25 | 5–9pm
📍 Location: Juan R. Fuentes Gallery, Acción Latina (2958 24th St, SF)

17/07/2025

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed a sweeping set of ordinances on Tuesday, finalizing the city’s $15.9 billion budget for the next two fiscal years.

While Supervisor Connie Chan, chair of the Budget and Appropriations Committee, described the result as a “balanced proposal” that protects housing investments, advocates say the measures will deepen hardship for low-income and immigrant communities.

Among the changes: controversial restrictions on RV parking; fee increases that could burden street vendors and working-class residents; amendments to Prop C rules that shift control over homelessness spending; and a philanthropic grant for immigration defense.

Follow the link in our bio for a full breakdown.

📝: Maura Corkery, Erika Carlos
📸:  with .io 

15/07/2025

San Francisco calls itself a sanctuary city, but recent ICE raids, police comments and silence from the mayor’s office tell a different story.

Read the op-ed at the link in our bio.

📝: Laura Padilla, Kate Bueler
📸:  with .io 

03/07/2025

G.H., 51, has spent more time in the hospital than at home.

In 2022, the Salvadoran woman was pushed off a two-story building during an episode of domestic violence. The fall shattered her ankle and permanently damaged her back and hips.

Her doctors say she’ll never fully recover. But Medi-Cal, California’s low-income health insurance program, has helped her access multiple surgeries, physical therapy and treatments like acupuncture to manage her injuries and chronic pain.

Now, she fears she’s about to lose that care.

On July 2, the U.S. Senate approved a spending bill that would slash federal healthcare benefits for immigrants. These cuts, combined with California’s own Medi-Cal rollbacks, are pushing immigrant healthcare closer to crisis.

Follow the link in our bio to read more.

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📝: .duranf with

28/06/2025

One of the Mission District’s most recognizable fruit vendors, gray-haired Óscar Olguín, 56, has opened his first storefront: What’s Up, Coco.

The compact, 275-square-foot space sits directly across from his usual corner at 2669 Mission Street, close enough not to lose his regulars.

Olguín and his wife spent years saving to open the shop, investing $20,000 in refrigeration, supplies and setup. They now pay $2,800 a month in rent — an expense Olguín hopes to cover with just a few days of steady sales.

Through it all, he remains ever the optimist.
“El sol brilla para todos,” he says with a smile.

The sun shines for everyone.

Read the full story at the link in our bio.

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