Salvadorian Artist Seeks To Expose Housing Problems In San Francisco Through His Art via Telemundo

Fego Navarro made a documentary in which he shows the stories of people in their most vulnerable moments, there are those who have lost everything and seek refuge in the streets of La Misión.

Original Post
https://www.telemundoareadelabahia.com/noticias/local/hispano-busca-exponer-problemas-vivienda-san-francisco/2365545/

Por Nathalie Vera, TELEMUNDO 48 • Publicado el 12 de enero del 2024 • Actualizado a las 6:24 pm del 12 de enero del 2024

A Hispanic artist seeks to expose the housing problem experienced in the Bay Area through his music and poetry.

Fego Navarro knows there is something many San Francisco residents have in common: a lack of affordable housing.

“I was born in San Francisco, my mother was born in La Mission, so it is a story that is very personal for me because I have seen how it has affected our community,” said Fego.

As part of his new documentary “Re-entrification”, Navarro tells the stories of people in their most vulnerable moments, there are those who have lost everything and seek refuge in the streets of La Misión.

“A woman who spoke in our documentary had two children, she was Mexican and went through a very difficult process where she had to raise these two children alone,” Navarro said. “It is a story that obviously impacted me as an immigrant family. I also know my father, my family is from El Salvador, and everything he suffered to get here to this country, to give us a future,” Navarro indicated.

Re-entrification seeks to expose the effects of gentrification in the La Misión district as many struggle to maintain their homes, and the cultural heritage of the city where they grew up.

Navarro explained that they decided to paint this image incorporating music and poetry from local artists.

“We spoke with our group and said we can add poetry because I believe that art and poetry is a way to combat and tell history in a new way,” explained the artist.

“When I saw it, it brought me a lot of emotion because I live here, I go to La Misión, I know these people, and seeing something very vulnerable and very private, I entered the homes of these people,” said Elisa Rodríguez, singer and songwriter. .

Elisa is one of the artists who often collaborate with Fego's organization, Lyrical Opposition.

“Lyrical Opposition has given me a space to express myself and be part of very important things,” said Elisa.

She says she has also been involved in efforts with other organizations seeking to provide housing assistance.

“Everyone knows that San Francisco is a very beautiful place. “Everyone wants to come here because it is a place of art, beauty, culture, but there is also that hard part that the people who live here cannot pay their rent,” Elisa pointed out.

It is the complex reality of the great city of San Francisco that Lyrical Opposition seeks to continue to showcase through art.

Because they know that music and poetry can awaken emotions, solidarity and perhaps even the change they seek.