paying a visit to alcatraz

just take a quick look at the pictures above and you get the idea of what it´s like to wander around alcatraz island these days. tourists everywhere - and you can buy t-shirts and dvd´s on almost every single corner. "the rock" with nicolas cage and sean connery for 23 bucks - now that´s what I call a bargain! nevertheless, the former state penitentiary is worth a visit. kept in service from august 1934 until march 21st, 1963 it provided food and shelter for villains such as al capone and robert "the birdman" stroud. needless to say, the cells were small and the food was bad (if you plan to go to alcatraz one day I encourage you to pay 5 dollars more for the audio tour - some hilarious anecdotes are waiting for you). and hey, that´s about it. it´s a prison and not disneyland so what do you expect? but there´s more. abandoned after 1963 the buildings on the island began to decay. while the government was not sure what to do with it, alcatraz was considerd to be either a casino, a shopping mall or the ground of a west coast version of the statue of liberty. but before it eventually became part of the golden gate national recreation area and got opened for puplic in 1973, alcatraz was birthplace for a vital native american movement, the United Indians of All Tribes Foundation (UIATF). Indians in San Francisco Bay area started an attempt to occupy the island and to assert their claims for the creation of a native american cultural center on alcatraz. similiar actions were taken in and around seattle at that time. against the background of the vietnam war, us citizens and the media paid a lot of attention to this civil rights movement and it was not until late 1970, 18 months after the "invasion", that the UIATF left alcatraz. even though the island itself was not converted into a cultural center, the native american movement was able to enforce other important institutions. for example, the "daybreak star center" in seattle "became a nucleus of activity for the local and regional Indian community", see www.unitedindians.com.

this is just one example of how an ordinary tourist attraction can offer more than just a quick pleasure of sensation. oh, and I am sure that even the golden gate bridge hides some interesting stories - but I don´t know any and so it´s just some boring red bridge with lots of traffic to me...

(thanks to dominik for the pictures).