Second shelter in place doesn’t stop Sonoma

As I write this, we are one week into the second round of sheltering-in-place, just in time for the holidays. For families, especially those unable to visit and support one another through sickness or mourning, this is a painful time. And for whom is it not? What about people unemployed or facing the threat of eviction?

Members of the Sonoma Valley Fund have started the new Catalyst fund to support organizations serving those in crisis, recognizing, as Simon Blattner told the IT, that this will be the most difficult winter we have yet seen.

Responding to cries for help with evictions, including that by the Sonoma Valley Housing Group, Supervisor Susan Gorin writes that this challenge will be taken up by the Supes in January. In her heartful newsletter to constituents, she has expressed her deep sympathy for everyone during this rough time. She has been holding regular zoom meetings with the Latinx community and with those affected by the Glass Fire.

Sonoma ingenuity and perseverance has never failed this jewel of the Valley, but with this second wave of sheltering in place just in time for the holidays, workers and local business owners alike are hard pressed.

Girl and the Fig, a highly successful venture, has been one of a handful of restaurants that have met the challenges of outdoor dining through the dry autumn months, but at a significant cost. In perhaps its first coverage of local business, Dave Ransom notes in his newsletter, Sonoma Weekly Update, hitherto dedicated largely to the fate of tenants and workers, that owner Sondra Bernstein has had to sell the farm (literally) and the food truck to stay afloat.

Perhaps it’s a sign of the times that folks from both sides of the economic aisle are finding that we all share we are all in this together, all interdependent even if the rich are better cushioned from the blows.

It’s a mess, and incoming president Biden is facing emergencies on many fronts. Luckily he has wealthy supporters, including the members of the World Economic Forum about to launch the Great Reset of the global economy which, if it succeeds, will transform society in earth shaking but not necessarily pleasant ways. But the Reset is gaining little media attention thus far. (Please see my blog in the Sonoma Sun for more on this.)

In such a turbulent environment, monthly presentations of the Sonoma Valley Historical Society have been a sort of oasis.

“History gives depth to a community,” says president Patricia Cullinan, “an avid reader,” who this fall called in speakers from the diverse cultures that helped shape what might otherwise be a “homogeneous” suburban town.

Last month, Peter Meyerhoff, a Sonoma dentist and historian, spoke about Solomon Schocken, the pre-eminent Jewish entrepreneur. In October, Gordon Chang presented findings from his new book, Ghosts of Gold Mountain.

On December 5, Carrie Gibson delivered a brilliant presentation, based on her NY Times bestseller, El Norte, the Epic and Forgotten Story of Hispanic America.

Podcast:

Her encyclopedic study reveals Spain’s enormous role in colonizing this continent, which was more extensive and earlier than England’s role. Yet the British colonies on the East Coast receive all the credit for settling the New World. Spain’s importance is indeed a forgotten history. Spain occupied more than half the land mass of this continent, in an empire that stretched from Florida all the way to California and as far North as Vancouver.

During the 18th century, while colonies on the East coast were engaged in revolution, the Spanish were pressing on toward the Pacific.

With the recent surge of animosity toward immigrants from Mexico and Central America, Gibson’s research offers a much needed perspective on our national heritage. Of course the Spanish empire was built with crushing indifference to the rights of Native people, and the labor of poor Mexicans who came here in hope of a better future, as they still do today.

The SVHS was formed in 1937 and has some 250 members.