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Few images can better simultaneously represent Material Spatial Practices, Representations of Space, and Spaces of Representation, Accessibility, Distanciation, Appropriation, and Domination of Space than this one of the fishing boat "Nicky D". According to Deanna Paoli Gumina, Italians from the provinces of Liguria, Sicily, Calabria, and Naples were attracted to San Francisco, California by the fishing, and had established their hegemony in the industry between 1850 and 1870 (1978:79). It was the Sicilians, at first with Genoese agents, who developed the business into one of the most profitable in California. During the latter part of the 19th century this particular space near Fisherman’s Wharf was known as "Italy Harbor" as Italians, originally crammed into the steep sides of the bay side of Telegraph Hill, overflowed into the valley and formed the North Beach "Italian Colony". A hundred years later in the Ethnic Theme Park, I found only faint carnevalesque traces of the illustrious maritime Italian Colony remaining near the wharves at the base of Columbus Avenue, such as numerous Italian restaurants. In Columbus Park, opposite St. Peter and Paul’s Church where some masses were still said in Italian, I saw early morning crowds of Chinese practicing tai chi. In 1989, "Italian" North Beach was compressed by an expanding Chinatown, a gentrifying Telegraph Hill, low-income housing, and a large public recreation area. |
