Sunday, December 28, 2008

Winter Sky 2


Esta Noche is a venerable San Francisco institution, the only Latino gay bar in the city. On 16th between Mission and Valencia. When I first moved to the Castro in the late 1990s my Puerto Rican roommate warned me never to go to this bar. He said it was low-life, full of hookers and dangers. Of course that is where I immediately went. I haven't been inside it now for years but walk past the bar itself almost every day and am haunted by remembered entanglements ignited at Esta Noche & sustained against all reason by something specifically pertaining to Esta Noche. But it wasn't exploitation, or I don't think so, it was more like loyalty. High hopes for romantic epiphany descending into stubborn loyalty.