Radio Habana Social Club Door

Last week, the calendar tolled May 5th which is celebrated by the Mexican community and now, many other communities as the festive Cinco de Mayo.  The date is significant to the Mexican community as an annual celebration held on May 5th to observe and commemorate the Mexican Army’s victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla, on May 5, 1862, under the leadership of General Ignacio Zaragoza.  Much to the confusion of that date’s significance it should not be confused with the Mexican Independence Day, which occurs on September 16.   In the United States, Cinco de Mayo has become associated with the celebration of the Mexican-American culture while in Mexico, the commemoration of the battle continues to be mostly ceremonial, such as through military parades.

So, what does one do on Cinco de Mayo?  The drive to San Francisco’s Mission District where parking can be challenging on any day is reason enough to discourage a visit there but we had not visited our favorite Taqueria restaurant located in that area for at least a couple of years so Cinco de Mayo became a reason to satisfy a food craving.  Off we went on the day after Cinco de Mayo.

Scarfing down Eating our tacos and burrito required that we walk off the extra calories so we walked for several blocks to see what had changed in this area (not many changes in the Mission except for new restaurants and closures of older ones) so it was time to head back to the car.  About a block from the car there it was, the missing Cinco de Mayo festival on the next block over from where we visited the restaurant.  We walked the few blocks of the festival and I got my door find for this week’s Thursday Doors.

Thursday Doors for the uninformed, is a magical site created by the Door Wizard, Norm Frampton.  Norm conjured up this portal and got something akin to a flash mob to post weekly sightings of doors from all over the world.  If this kind of thing turns you on, by all means find Norm’s Thursday Doors website, read his current and past posts and click on the blue frog key to open the portal to other doors and join the fun by posting your own doors.

Back to the Cinco de Mayo doorscursion find.  This odd-looking facade and door led to the Radio Habana Social Club.  We didn’t enter it because it was closed but the Yelp website comments states that this was a very small comfy bar that serves some Cuban food and it was decorated by all kinds of kitschy stuff hanging from the ceiling and walls.  The outside facade should help your imagination.

Coincidently, more doors next door (pardon the use of the word “door” more than once in a sentence).

Well, it’s Cinco de Mayo so why shouldn’t people wear a sombrero or two?

I was surprised to find a San Francisco Community College campus here but the artwork certainly looks like an Aztec piece or something from Mexico or South America.

Also found the Salvation Army doors here.

And to end this post, even the pet dogs seem to get into the celebration spirit and dye their tails blue (like the lady’s hair in the photo above).

Thanks for visiting my blog and thanks to Norm 2.0 for his Thursday Doors blog.  For more blogs and photos of doors by others please go to: Thursday Doors.