From Street Spirit

Tony, Street Spirit Vendor for 25 years

By Janny Castillo, BOSS Community Organizer

Today, Tony is inside. He has a bed at a Berkeley Food and Housing Project. Our interview took place at the BOSS Multi-Agency Service Center (MASC). Tony was raised in foster care; he left home at the age of 15.  He wanted to get out and see the world for himself, to experience it like his mother told him to. This story starts with the ending, very quietly and with absolute seriousness Tony shared, “There are only two things I miss; my mother and my eyesight.”

Tony has been a homeless advocate since the early 1980’s. In those days the Bay Area police were especially abusive. Among other things, they would tell the homeless, regardless of color, where they could and could not sleep. Tony made it his job to educate the homeless on what their rights were. He helped turn abandoned houses into homes for homeless women and children.

Later, Tony helped organize the Oakland and San Francisco Chapters of the National Union of the Homeless, He moved to Berkeley to help Curtis Bray mobilize the homeless community. Together they taught homeless rights and organized rallies to insure those rights. 

He became a Street Spirit vendor in the late 1980’s. The selling of the paper became crucial in helping him get to medical appointments, to see his relatives, to get to interviews and more importantly to raise enough money to continue his advocacy work. Tony will tell you Street Spirit sells very well at rallies and demonstrations.

He has met many interesting people while selling the street sheet. He knows people in radio, music production and lyric writing. His customers include doctors, lawyers and even policeman. The majority of my customers love Street Spirit, Tony said. It is not misleading; it is very informative and has articles on a variety of subjects. Some like reading Street Spirit just for the poetry; it gives them the opportunity to stay in touch with the plight of homeless in the bay area. He has met and sold his paper to Green Party members, Barbara Lubin from Middle East Children’s Alliance, Michael Frontai, a local rap artist.

Tony has been homeless since 1983.  I’ve been living here and there. Some of the Berkeley store owners let me sleep in their doorways as long as I keep it neat and clean. Tony is very grateful for the folks at Trinity church who have been an integral part in helping him survive. Most of his family members are deceased except for three sisters who live close by. His immediate family is the staff and friends at Trinity and MASC. Tony has known boona cheema, BOSSs Executive Director for many, many years. He speaks highly of her, to describe her he simply stated; boona will sit and listen to me.

As if his life was not hard enough, Tony has been going blind for over a year. The doctors told him he has badly damaged nerves and a serious case of glaucoma. They also told him there is nothing they can do. I deal with it like this, He says, “I walk by faith not by sight.” He has much respect for Street Spirit. On really good days Tony can sell 50 to 80 papers. Street Spirit helps me buy food, do my laundry and make phone calls. It has been a really great help to me.

Before he lost his sight, the article that touched him most was the Suicide of Mary Jesus written by Terri Messman, Street Spirit editor. It was a story of a woman that had lost her housing and jumped from the Oakland Tribune Tower; a story that was hardly covered in the other newspapers.

In closing, Tony said, “If I was a millionaire, I would donate all my money to Street Spirit and BOSS.” We wouldn’t want all your money, Tony but Street Spirit and BOSS could use the help. Thanks for sharing your story; I guess it’s our turn to be encouraged.

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