Oh, you guys, where to begin? I know we’re all reeling right now. So much pain, and suffering, and loss, and frustration, and anger, and shock, and heartache. It’s a lot. Too much. Let’s all be gentle right now. And strong. And helpful. Kind.
I know that doing something can help shift feelings, especially when things feel so out of control. The past week, I have been working hard on putting together a fundraiser for Mexico earthquake relief on Friday October 13th, SF ❤️ MX, and let me tell you, there is a lot of joy to be found when you help out. I have been so ecstatic and grateful for all the generous help and donations and kindness that has been extended to the fundraiser. We started selling tickets last night, and people have been so thoughtful with the sliding scale, it makes me well up.
Back in 1994, I was a recent graduate from UCLA and living in a Hollywood apartment with a couple of roomies. The Northridge quake rolled into town at the ungodly hour of 4:30am (why is it always in the middle of the night?) and scared the living hell out of me. I thought Loma Prieta was bad, but this was really a beast of a quake. For a few moments, when that thing just wouldn’t stop, I thought I was going to die—all I remember was yelling “I’m not ready!” as the apartment crashed all around me. But it finally stopped after 20 endless seconds, and I was okay. My place was pretty thrashed, with huge cracks in the walls you could see outside through—it was red-tagged a couple of days later. I ended up hiring two big strong guys to help me get some of my things out in the middle of the night and loaded all my roommates’ things into storage (they were on a trip to Australia).
After a week of dealing with shock and aftershocks and PTSD and sleeping on my friends’ couches, I decided to head back home to the Bay Area—my dad came down to get me at the word “go.” I lived with my parents in San Mateo for nine months and looked for work until I was able to move into a place of my own in San Francisco in September of 1994—that was 23 years ago.
Thanks to some assistance from FEMA, I was able to get back on my feet with some purchases, like a kitchen table, some dishes, bedsheets. I said to myself that I wasn’t allowed to bitch about paying taxes for 10 years, because that assistance was so immensely helpful in starting over. It was kind of amazing.
It’s why I am so committed to helping Mexico with this earthquake relief fundraiser. Mexico doesn’t have FEMA to help people get their lives back in order. So many people have lost their apartments in the quake, their homes, their shops…let alone the hospitals, schools, and other necessary buildings in their communities. And let’s not even talk about the loss of life and loved ones. It’s so heartbreaking. We need to give them a hand, to show how much we care for our precious neighbors, in spite of our current administration that is fixated on a wall and deportations.
I hope you’ll take a look and read through today’s post about the fundraiser. We appreciate anything you can do to help. Tremendous thanks to Cambria Gallery for hosting it in their beautiful showroom! I will keep updating you on participants and more.
And for those of you coming to this Friday’s sold-out opening party at Donato & Co., I can’t wait to see you!
Con mucho amor! Marcia Gagliardi
One of my favorite ladies at Fonda Margarita in Mexico City—she fed us so well! And with so much love—I remember her coming by to check and see if I liked the chicharrón en verde. XO! Photo: © tablehopper.com.View tablehopper Newsletter from Tuesday, Oct 3 2017
