“You look like you know something about this neighborhood.”

“Oh yeah…I’ve lived here since 1970.”

“What brought you here?”

“Well, in a round about way, I’ve been and activist my whole life. In Puerto Rico, I was part of the independence movement. I was born in Puerto Rico in 1946, I moved to New York City in 1954. I was there until my mother died in 1962. After that I went back to Puerto Rico and became more politically active. It was a very intense time. We thought there was going to be a revolution, and I was very much a part of that. Then I got expelled from the University of Puerto Rico in 1967, so I returned to New York City and became a part of the Anarchist movement. We were called “The Up Against the Wall Motherfuckers.” It was somewhat like the Yippies, except the Yippies wanted more publicity. We were street activist that shunned publicity. It got to be to hot for us, so we broke up. Finally I became really disillusioned with leftist politics so I got involved with music and started organizing more cultural events like art shows and stuff.”

“So what are the biggest political issues in San Francisco now?”

“Well certainly the anti-eviction issues. The people that live here are being pushed out by dot com people. Basically it’s becoming gentrified. I don’t want to live in poverty, but I can’t afford it. And neither can my friends, so they have to move to Richmond. I’m 66 years old now, my perspective has shifted.  I no longer believe in revolution or pacifism. I think it’s a waste of time. There will always be wars. This is a reality. A lot of the people I grew up thinking were revolutionaries turned out to be just thugs.”

“So if you don’t believe in revolution or pacifism, and all these leaders are thugs-“

“-what do I believe?”

“Yeah.”

“It’s a form a nihilism, it’s not that I don’t believe in anything. It’s that I question everything. Lenin’s mentor, this guy named Nikiyev, believed that you had to destroy everything and then start building everything up from scratch.”

“Do you believe it’s possible to create something new without destroying everything that came before it?”

“I live here now man, being exploited by a white man, or a black man, or a Puerto Rican man is all the same. They’re all gonna exploit me and oppress me. In a way, I’m much more interested in Buddhism. They teach that everything is an illusion. Don’t get suckered out.”