Homeless statues find home at Lake Merced

by Charlie Phillips

During a meeting May 19, the SF Recreation and Park Commission unanimously approved the permanent placement of two statues at Lake Merced - King Carlos III of Spain will be moved to the Lake Merced Boathouse and Juan Bautista De Anza to the Sunset Circle overlooking the lake.

It was about eight years ago the statues began to fall on hard times. Before, then they had enjoyed a virtually untroubled existence. The De Anza equestrian sculpture arrived in town first; it was a gift from the governor of the state of Sonora, Mexico in 1967. The statue of Carlos III was a gift from King Juan Carlos of Spain in 1976. For nine years they shared space at Justin Herman Plaza, located at the foot of Market Street near the Ferry Building.

In 1997, the SF Arts Commission was asked by SF Department of Public Works (DPW) to relocate the statues. The reconfiguration of the Embarcadero roadway and the redesign of the plaza prompted the request. The statues were removed and placed in storage in 1998.

In 1999, the Arts Commission put into play a proposal to locate the De Anza and Carlos III statues on the Dolores Street median, near 16th Street. It seemed like an ideal location, but many disagreed.

Some non-profit organizations located in the Mission District were divided. To the Mission Housing Development Corporation, the statues were "inappropriate symbols" while to other groups, the Amigos De Anza and Los Californios, the King Carlos III and Jan Bautista De Anza statues were "important and noteworthy figures."

Although there are no tribes of Ohlone Indians located in San Francisco, neighboring tribes were contacted. The East Bay Ohlone tribe said the statues "told the true historic story of early California," while the Santa Clara Ohlone tribe said that the statues were culturally insensitive to indigenous people.

At the municipal government level, during 1999, 2000 and 2001 meetings were held, reports were written, recommendations were made, withdrawn and remade. The Planning Department, DPW, Arts Commission and the Board of Supervisors' Transportation and Land Use Committee flipped the Frisbee back and forth.

It would seem that the staff of the San Francisco Native American Center tipped the scales when they found "this project particularly offensive given that there are Native American graves near the site."

In 2001, legislative analyst Gabe Cabrera concluded the proposed resolution to be "a policy matter for the Board of Supervisors." Things ground to halt and the statues remained in storage.

Most of us know something about De Anza. There are schools, boulevards, streets and colleges named for him all over California. He was born in what we now call Mexico, in 1735. As a captain in 1774, he led an expedition from Sonora, Mexico through present day Arizona and established an overland route to the coast of California. By 1775, he had reached Monterey.

While in Monterey, the Viceroy, alarmed by reports of incursions by the English and Russians, dispatched De Anza and his troops northward to build a defensive outpost. In 1776, the Presidio of San Francisco was established in the name of Carlos III at the same time a new nation was being born on the East Coast.

We may not be as familiar with Carlos III, but he was intimately involved in the early history of our country. As the king of Spain from 1759 through 1788, he is classified by historians as one of the "enlightened monarchs" of the 18th century and is regarded as the greatest Borbon King of Spain. Under his reign, civil and colonial administrations were reformed and Spain prospered. Revenues tripled and the population reached 11 million. Perhaps chief among his enlightened actions was when he allied the kingdom of Spain with the American colonists in their revolt against Great Britain in 1779.

Currently, city departments are working together to move the statues from the West Side Pumping Station to a less hostile environment along the shores of Lake Merced. A site chosen, according to Rommel Taylor, project manager for the Arts Commission, because of it's proximity to the Juan Bautista De Anza Trail.

Taylor is working with DPW to get the sculptures in-place before a Professional Golf Association (PGA) golf tournament in October. At that time, many of the top golfers in the world will descend on the Harding Park Golf Course to battle it out on national television.