Council Names Park for ‘Culture Bearer’

In a momentous decision that almost wasn’t reached at all, the Healdsburg City Council voted 4-0 to name the Saggio Hills park after Native artisan, historian, linguist and “culture bearer” Laura Fish Somersal.

Four names were broached to the Council for its final decision at the Oct. 21 meeting—Smith Robinson, Pomo-Wappo Park, Parque de la Luna for former mayor Abel De Luna, and Fish Somersal. A recent change to the city’s facilities naming conventions allowed De Luna—who is still alive, and in fact showed up at the meeting with his wife, Emilia—to be considered.

Despite Robinson’s acknowledged contributions to Healdsburg’s community and national visibility as one of the few (if not only) Black men in town during the 1940s and 1950s, and the current appreciation of Pomo contributions in public statements, it came down to the two representatives of their respective people and culture, Hispanic and Native.

Somersal’s name was the preferred recommendation of the City’s Parks and Recreation Commission at the Aug. 29 meeting. However, a substantial amount of public comment was received from backers of De Luna prior to the meeting, many of them duplicates, and the public-speaking portion lasted more than 40 minutes.

With Mayor David Hagele recused because his Parkland Farms home is within 500 feet of the park, the remaining four councilmembers were initially split on their preference, raising the possibility that the decision would be put off to a date uncertain.

But after much heartrending conversation and not a few tears, the voices of the Native peoples prevailed over the advocacy of Healdsburg’s considerable Mexican-American residents. The two councilmembers who had initially favored naming it for Abel De Luna, Chris Herrod and Evelyn Mitchell, changed their preference to allow the resolution to pass. It did so at 8pm, as several dozen assembled Pomo, Wappo and other Native peoples voiced their support.

However, De Luna’s contributions did not go unacknowledged: far from it. Acting on a suggestion from Councilmember Herrod, the Council agreed by unanimous consent to direct City staff to craft a resolution renaming the Healdsburg Community Center after De Luna, and to bring it back to the Council as soon as possible.

Tributes and Discussion

Holly Hoods, the executive director of the Healdsburg Museum and Historical Society, once again gave a detailed and at times poignant overview of the naming options, as she did at the Parks and Recreation Commission meeting in late August.

Her perspective on De Luna was especially notable in that his contributions to Healdsburg are still being felt today. Not only was the first Hispanic elected member of the City Council and the city’s first Hispanic mayor, in the late 1970s, but made his mark as a businessman and communicator.

He started La Luna Market, where Casa del Sol is now, because he wanted people to know that Latinos were capable of running an efficient business. As a community voice, he was founder of the first Spanish-language radio station in the county, K93-FM. Many of the public comments in his favor pointed to these accomplishments, and the message they sent to Mexican-Americans and other Spanish-speaking residents that there were other opportunities for them than labor, calling him a “visionary” and an exemplar of the American Dream.

The voices for Somersal were just as numerous, and just as personal. A relative to many in the close-knit Pomo-Wappo community, she played an important role not only among Native peoples but in acting as a bridge between the two worlds, Native and White, through her linguistic, artistic and cultural skills. She was born in 1892, and died in 1990, but from the tears and tributes it was clear her spirit lived on in the people she loved.

Though Vice Mayor Mitchell, acting as chair asked that people refrain from applauding other comments, it proved impossible to enforce. Most of the comments were met by a response that alternated between soft polite applause for the supporters of De Luna and an expressive “Ooh!” approval from supporters of Somersal.

Reaching Consensus

For almost an hour, the city council received an education from its constituents on the unacknowledged history of their world, the worlds of Native peoples dispossessed, and immigrants overlooked. The whitest faces in the room were on the dais, with the notable exception of Ron Edwards (who doubled down by claiming Native ancestry through a Powhatan grandmother). Regardless, the emotional public testimony affected all of the sitting councilmembers to some degree.

All seemed moved by the testimony of those who knew, or know, the Pomo culture-bearer and the Latino businessman. That De Luna was a candidate at all was somewhat unusual – the city’s 2002 Park Naming Policy forbade naming parks after living individuals, but in 2022 the City Council directed staff to lift that limitation.

Although the four councilmembers were at first evenly split between favoring De Luna (Herrod and Mitchell) or Somersal (Edwards and Kelley), the prospect of a tied or “no-decision” vote coming out of the process was clearly unpalatable.

The obvious lack of either Spanish or Native names on Healdsburg’s maps was a notable incentive to reaching a compromise. Chris Herrod took the lead in identifying a number of places in town that lack distinctive names altogether, from the Memorial Bridge to the Community Center, Railroad Park, and what he called South Plaza (meaning perhaps West Plaza Park).

That led to the council’s final decision, to name the new Saggio Hills development park after Laura Fish Somersal, and direct staff to present a formal resolution as soon as possible to rename Healdsburg Community Center for Able De Luna.

“I am very pleased with the outcome of last night’s meeting,” said Museum director Hoods the next day. “The first woman! The first person of color! The first Native American!”

She also noted that though the park naming process, for the first time the city established a direct contact with the Mihilakaune Pomo (Dry Creek Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians). “They are a federally recognized tribe, a sovereign nation, so the fact that it was a respectful positive experience is important to diplomatic relations,” said Hoods.

Information on construction at the park and other information can be found at healdsburg.gov/saggiohillspark.