Remembering the I-Hotel

Today is the 32nd anniversary of the fall of the International Hotel. The I-Hotel was an anchor institutions in the once thriving San Francisco Manilatown, home to more than 10,000 Filipino immigrants. The International Hotel provided low-cost for mostly Filipino seamen, farm and cannery workers, houseboys, and single working men, many who came to the US in the 1920's. Many of these men lived at the I-Hotel until their 60's and 70's when they were forcibly evicted by the Sheriff on August 4, 1977.



The I-Hotel and San Francisco's Manilatown were obliterated by gentrification efforts of bussiness interests and City officials, who looked at Manilatown as the site of the "Wall Street of the West." By raising rents, evicting small bussinesses, and using the City's Redevelopment Agency, Manilatown was destroyed until only the I-Hotel and 50 elderly Filipino residents remained, ready to defy any eviction order. Their struggle for worker and low income housing,as well as the fight to save Manilatown drew the attention of thousands of people who used their bodies to block anyone who tried to evict the elderly tenants. Despite the Sheriff going to jail for refusing the carry out the eviction order, on August 4, 1977 300 baton-wielding and horse-mounted police broke the human blockade surrounding the building, and forcibly evicted 50 elderly tenants. Many of the evicted tenants died shortly after from health complications that come with being forced into inadequate housing after an eviction, and many were never able to acquire stable housing after the I-Hotel.



The site of the I-Hotel stayed vacant until October 2005, when a new I-Hotel was completed and now provides over 100 units of low cost senior housing as well as a community center.

Today we remember all those fought for land, life, and housing in San Francisco's Manilatown, especially all those who have passed....

Bill Sorro....PRESENTE!
Al Robles.....PRESENTE!