Richard Segovia stands in front of his house on 25th and York streets, known as the "Latin Rock House," in San Francisco in April. The home is covered in a large mural honoring dozens of musicians tied to the Mission District's Latin rock scene, which Segovia has helped preserve for decades.
Beth LaBerge/KQED
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The house is unmissable. Its colorful exterior, a painted forest of faces.
Latino artists, activists and musicians, suspended mid-motion, grin down at passersby. A spotted jaguar sprawls across the garage door. Around the border of one of its windows, a message is written in all-caps: "It takes the hood to save the hood."
This is the "Latin Rock House," an enduring tribute to the culture and history of the Mission District, one of San Francisco's oldest — and most dramatically gentrified — neighborhoods. Last month, San Francisco lawmakers unanimously declared the Latin Rock House a historic landmark, formally protecting the Spanish-style home from being painted over, altered or destroyed by future owners or developers without the city's permission. The house has been the site of jam sessions and musical creation, community festivals and celebrations and ongoing efforts to engage the city's youth in music. It's also a home, where Richard and Tammy Segovia live.
"Now we can say this piece of the city is ours," said owner Richard Segovia, 72, a fifth-generation San Franciscan who was born and raised in the Mission.
"This is for us," he said. "Our culture. Our music. Our people. It's amazing."
Among San Francisco's more than 300 historic landmarks — including the Golden Gate Bridge and colonial-era Mission Dolores church — there are several residences. Most are traditional in style or notable for the historic events that happened within. The city's most recognizable historic homes may be the row of pastel Victorians known as the Painted Ladies, which were included in the opening credits of the sitcom Full House.
None look like Segovia's house of Latin rock.
In a neighborhood that has seen decades of redevelopment, skyrocketing home prices and the displacement of thousands of Latino families, this mural-wrapped home is more than a marker of the Mission's cultural vibrancy. It's a stake in the ground, Segovia said. A sign to tourists and transplants of what this neighborhood has long represented.
"This house is like the whole neighborhood. You see it from the outside and you think wow, such a beautiful painting," Segovia said. "But then you come inside and you spend some time and you realize all the culture and history that was built here."
The Mission District is one of San Francisco's oldest enclaves. Originally the homeland of the Ohlone Indians, the Mission was taken over by Spanish settlers in the 1700s and so named after the Catholic church at its center, now known as Mission Dolores.
In the centuries that followed, the Mission went from Mexican farmland to immigrant stronghold as waves of working-class European families moved into the neighborhood following the Gold Rush in the mid-1800s. After the great San Francisco fire of 1906 wiped out much of the city's downtown, the Mission transformed into a commercial district. Over the next several decades, Mexican American families poured in and set down roots.
In 1950, only about 11% of Mission residents would have been considered Latino, according to the California Migration Museum, but by the 1970s, that number had swelled to nearly half.
The "Latin Rock House," owned by musician Richard Segovia, in San Francisco's Mission District in June.
Beth LaBerge/KQED
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Segovia's family moved into the house in 1963. He was 10 years old.
