Sausalito’s First Sister City: Viña del Mar
Monday, July 25, 2011 at 08:14PM by Larry Clinton
The following column is based largely on research prepared by Sausalito resident Michael Moyle. The majority of source materials for this history are in the archives of the Sausalito Historical Society.
President Dwight Eisenhower held a White House conference in 1956 to promote nongovernmental contacts between people in the US and overseas. This conference led to the establishment of the Sister Cities International organization.
In early 1958, Sausalito Mayor Howard Sievers attended a League of California Cities meeting where the People-to-People program was discussed, and brought the concept back to Sausalito. Later that year, City Councilwoman Marjorie Brady was appointed chair of a City Council committee to study a possible sister city program. Soon the
Sausalito Citizens’ Committee for the People-to-People Program (the “P2P Committee”) was organized, under the direction of Mrs. M. Justin (Gladys) Herman. Mrs. Herman was the wife of urban planner M. Justin Hermann who soon was appointed by Mayor George Christopher to head the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency. Today, he is memorialized at Justin Herman Plaza at the foot of Market Street.
The P2P Committee studied various possible sister city candidates. “The preference was soon narrowed to South America because of its importance and because teaching of Spanish had just been introduced in Sausalito’s elementary schools,” according to comments by Representative Clem Miller of California in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Mrs. Herman noted: “Chile appears to be the country in which it would be most likely to find a waterfront community which would possibly affiliate with Sausalito.”
Eventually, contact was established with Viña del Mar. Rep. Miller reported that the mayor of Viña, “took up the idea with equal enthusiasm.” So the relationship began.
In February, 1960, the City Council renamed the old Depot Park “Viña del Mar Plaza.” A kick-off ceremony was held at the Alta Mira Hotel attended by, among others, Sausalito Mayor Howard Sievers, Mrs. Herman, and Chile’s Consul General in San Francisco. Chilean artist Luis Guzmán presented a statute of a Chilean woman to Sausalito as a gift commemorating the event. This was years before Sausalito developed a second sister city relationship with Sakaide, Japan.
In May of that year a magnitude 9.5 earthquake hit Chile. While Viña del Mar did not suffer any significant damage, thousands of Chileans were killed by the quake and the resulting tsunami; property damage was measured in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Sausalito staged an earthquake relief fundraiser and forwarded the proceeds to the U.S.
Ambassador to Chile in Santiago. Ironically, another devastating earthquake struck Chile in May of last year, almost exactly 50 years later, and Sausalito again staged a relief drive to aid victims.
The Chilean naval training ship La Esmeralda visited San Francisco in May, 1978. La
Esmeralda’s captain delivered a framed metal seal bearing the inscription: “The Mayor of Viña del Mar (Chile) to our Sister City Sausalito – Official Visit of the Esmeralda – San Francisco, May 1978.” The framed seal is now on display at City Hall along with other artifacts from the Sister City program. La Esmeralda returned to San Francisco Bay this week, and the ship’s band played at a ceremony at Viña del Mar Plaza on the 21st.
Virginia Reginato, mayor of Viña del Mar, and other visitors will attend the Jazz & Blues by the Bay event on Friday evening, July 22.
Mrs. M. Justin Herman and Mr. Robert McCabe, Master of Ceremonies, at a 1961 celebration marking first anniversary of the affiliation of Vina del Mar, Chile, and Sausalito, California as Sister Cities.
Photo courtesy of Sausalito Historical Society
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