In the aftermath of the shootings at El Tin Tan last night, reader Alicia recalled a Mission Local piece from a couple years back which details the bar’s very special standing in the Mission and abroad:
When Pedro Ruiz arrived here twelve years ago, his only possessions were a bag of clothes and a slip of crumpled paper: “El Tin Tan, 3065 16th Street, San Francisco,” it read.
Ruiz had come from Yucatan, Mexico and El Tin Tan—a dusty bar between Mission and Valencia Streets where Spanish and Tecate are on everyone’s tongues and mournfulrancheras howl on the jukebox—was his only contact in America. But he didn’t come for a cerveza. He came for a job.
Informal meeting places where immigrants gather and hear about job opportunities have always been vital to settling in America. Despite its humble appearance, El Tin Tan is one of these places, famous throughout Pedro’s home state of Yucatan as a key stop in the United States for Latinos hoping to escape poverty in their home countries.
P.S. El Tin Tan, not to be confused with El Tim Tam.
[Photo by Mission Local alum Armand Emamdjomeh]
I prefer Tim Tam.