#4: Park Postcards Podcast | Episode 4 - Crissy Field

"They gave us little solar lamps, since it was getting dark. We could see the sun setting on the sea. The day was something very special, very magical." - Matilde Tellez, Good Samaritan Hear our rangers Mariajose and Fatima with special guest Matilde Tellez's audio postcard remembering their magical Crissy Field moments.

"They gave us little solar lamps, since it was getting dark. We could see the sun setting on the sea. The day was something very special, very magical." - Matilde Tellez, Good Samaritan Hear our rangers Mariajose and Fatima with special guest Matilde Tellez's audio postcard remembering their magical Crissy Field moments.

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TRANSCRIPT:

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Park Postcards Podcast Episode Four Crissy Field Transcript Introduction : Ranger Mariajose Welcome to a new podcast from Golden Gate National Recreation Area called “Park Postcards.” Each episode will introduce you to what makes each park site unique, through the voice of community members who have visited, and our park rangers who work there. We aim to highlight the work we do to connect our local community groups to the special places in our park, and what these places and experiences mean to them. We hope that through listening to these “audio postcards”, you get excited to visit Golden Gate National Recreation Area in a healthy and safe future! You’re tuned in to our fourth episode and second special Spanish language Park Postcards Podcast. This is Ranger Mariajose with you again. The beauty of our outreach work is collaborating with diverse community members and newcomers to introduce them and welcome them to their National Parks. This episode I have the pleasure of introducing you to one of our greatest community leaders who has connected families to the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and our team for over a decade! Matilde Tellez, a community program manager at Good Samaritan of San Francisco and CARECEN, San Francisco’s Central American Resource Center. Let’s hear one of Matilde’s favorite park memories, an evening harvest program with Ranger Fatima in the Fall of 2019. Community member Matilde Tellez: Hola mi nombre es Matilde Tellez, promotora comunitaria y en esta actuación les voy a hablar de crissy field. Ranger Mariajose: Matilde has shared her audio postcard with us in Spanish but we’ve added a bit of podcast magic and have translated it too. Let’s hear from my mom Ana Cristina, who has voiced Matilde’s translation. Take it away mom! Interpreter – Ana Cristina Alcantara voicing Matilde Tellez in English: Hello, my name is Matilde Tellez, community promoter, and in this audio I am going to talk to you about Crissy Field. Crissy field has a community resource center where there are various activities, such as resource fairs and events. One of those events was the harvest night hike to give thanks for the end of the harvest. We want to thank the rangers and all the staff in advance, as they make it possible for Latino families to come to the center, and they provide us with transportation and different activities. I have taken families from the Central American Family Resource Center and the Latinos Independientes group from the Good Samaritan, and one of those Crissy Field activities we attended was the walk I mentioned. Upon arrival we carried out an art activity where adults and children participated and had a lot of fun. Another of the activities was the walk where they gave us little solar lamps, since it was getting dark. We could see the sun setting on the sea. The day was something very special, very magical. The children were delighted with their lamps and we love that they take it into account that some people can walk fast, others moderately fast and others slower and we appreciated that. At the end of our walk they gave us a small dinner with food that the first people prepared to celebrate the end of the harvest. It was something very special. Since Fatima has the ability to tell us stories, we paid great attention. Apart from those stories, she taught us this song that goes like this: Matilde Tellez Sings in Spanish: Lunes y Martes Miercoles 3 Jueves Viernes Sábado 6 y domingo 7. Ana Cristina sings in English: Again: Monday and Tuesday Wednesday is 3 Thursday and Friday Saturday 6 and Sunday 7. Matilde Tellez closes in Spanish: De nuevo nuestro agradecimiento para todo el personal de guardabosques, todo el personal que atiende Crissy Field y gracias por mandarnos el transporte para poder acudir a las actividades. Ana Cristina in English: Once again we give our thanks to all the ranger staff, all the Crissy Field Center staff, and thanks for sending us the transportation to be able to attend the activities. Ranger Mariajose: “Thanks for the translation Mom!” Ana Cristina: “De nada! Con mucho gusto, you’re welcome it’s my pleasure.” Ranger Mariajose – Transition : Wow! What a great experience Matilde! I can imagine how magical that Harvest Night Hike must have been! Oh Crissy Field, the picturesque lively stretch of land that welcomes thousands maybe millions of visitors every year to San Francisco’s iconic Golden Gate Bridge, Palace of Fine Arts, and Fort Point. People love a casual stroll, a bike ride, flying a kite. Even furry friends and wildlife enjoy rolling around the grass, sands and chilly salty waters. Up next is our own Ranger Fatima Colindres who will share the rich natural and cultural history of the place that she’s had the joy to work at since 1998! Ranger Fatima Colindres - Crissy Field Interpretive history: Hello podcast listeners, my name is Fatima Colindres. I am a park ranger with the Community Outreach team at Golden Gate National Recreation Area. I love working at this park because I get to bring community groups out to one of my favorite park sites, Crissy Field, and share the story of the dramatic transformation of this place through the years. Crissy Field has gone through many transformations through time. In the time when all of San Francisco was Ohlone land, Crissy Field was a huge marsh, connected to other marsh land which circled the entire San Francisco Bay. The area now known as Crissy Field was a rich, and ecologically diverse wetland. Early Spanish conquerors wrote in their journals that there were so many bird species, that if there was a loud noise, like a gunshot, the whole sky would turn dark with birds taking flight. They also named the area ‘La Isla de Las Fresas” or “Strawberry Island,” because the land was covered with beach strawberry. For 70 years after the Spanish/Mexican arrival, the area continued to be a marsh until the Gold Rush, when people moved to this area in huge numbers, and the landscape changed dramatically. It went from a bird haven on the Pacific Flyway, to one of the first garbage dumps of the city of San Francisco. The new Americans did not see the marsh as a treasure, a natural protector for our city and Bay. They did not understand that this marsh provided vital habitat to so many birds, plants, and even humans. They did not realize back then that the marsh would help prevent flooding and would serve as a natural filter protecting the Bay’s fish from ingesting contaminants carried in run off after heavy rains. Instead they saw the area as a wasteland, to be filled in. The army did not have the funds to fill in the marsh as fast as they would wish, but with the help of the city, the marsh was finally filled in with the city trash left over from the 1906 earthquake, just in time for the construction of 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition world’s Fair. As you can imagine, it was a grand event, to celebrate the opening of the Panama Canal, and to show the world that the City by the Bay had been able to recover after the devastating earthquake and fire. There was an airfield and a racetrack built to showcase new technological advances in travel. The fairgrounds included rides and pavilions and palaces dedicated to everything from art, science and culture. Only one building remains from that event, the Palace of Fine Arts. After the 1915 Exposition ended, the Army took back the area and maintained it as an airfield until 1937. During those early years of aviation, the area was christened as “Crissy Field,” in honor of one of those early pioneers of flight, Major Dana H. Crissy. In 1937, after the Golden Gate Bridge was completed, the airfield was no longer a safe place to land and take off, because of the large obstacle in its path. So, it transformed again, this time to a helicopter landing area. Eventually the area became part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area in 1972. Thanks to a partnership between the National Park Service, and the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, the area was transformed once again by 2001. During the 4-year restoration project, over 80 tons of waste were removed from the marsh, the original racetrack-shaped grassy airfield was restored, and a small portion of the marsh was brought back signaling to birds that it was safe to return. With the help of thousands of volunteers that came to “help grow Crissy Field,” the native plants came back too. Since Crissy Field has been restored, it has become a beloved spot for recreation on the San Francisco shoreline. Since I started working at the park 20 years ago, it has been my pleasure to bring countless groups out to their national park, to experience this unique place. I love seeing visitors play on the sand, go bird watching, or snap the most amazing photos of the iconic Bridge. I also love to share the natural and cultural stories of this place through my interpretive programs. Before it’s time to say goodbye, I remind visitors that we need their help to keep the marsh healthy and clean by recycling, reducing, reusing and composting, to ensure their trash doesn’t end up in the marsh ever again. I hope this episode has sparked your curiosity to visit Crissy Field. And when you do, we encourage you to bring and wear your facemask, and keep proper physical distance from others. Stroll the Promenade, explore the boardwalks over the marsh, look for signs describing the native plants and learn their medicinal uses, but please don’t pick them! Together let’s make sure this place remains for all to enjoy. Bye Bye! Ranger Mariajose Concludes Podcast: Thank you Matilde and Ranger Fatima for sharing your favorite memories of Crissy Field and thanks again friends for tuning into this special fourth episode of Park Postcards Podcast! I hope you will join us again on future episodes that will feature other park sites around the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Stay tuned for our next episodes, which we’ll hear from Ranger Jackson Lam, from Alcatraz, featuring Ranger Cordelia Vargas from the Marin Headlands and beyond that we’ve got an incredible line up of episodes with voices from our park partners the Presidio Trust and the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy and their very own program participants who can’t wait to also share their Park Postcards. Until then, recreate responsibly in your National Parks!