Carnaval in San Francisco 1997

 Here are a few photos I took from the annual San Francisco Carnaval which takes place in the Mission District (the Latino area which has rapidly become gentrified and has lost its diverse character) in San Francisco, CA.

As I recall, these events used to take place in June. I was attending school in the area during this time period, in the mid 90s to the early 2000s, and used to attend this event regularly. I probably still have piles of other negatives to scan from these events. These photos are from 1997. 

There are local samba groups in the area, and they would parade down the street. Also, you would see a few Mexican dance groups, a few Caribbean groups, and also, a variety of other groups, including bellydance. There were never very many bands, as in, marching bands. However, the presence of Samba was very notable, including one group whose name I remember, "Fogo na roupa" (fire in the clothes). 

Since today was a rainy day, I spent it scanning negatives. I want to store some of these photos on this blog. I'll upload them to other locations too. They keep my mind off the sadness of family loss, especially the loss of my aunt.