415 Zine’s Laine and Alfredo, Part 1 (S7E13)

Alfredo Sainz’s grandfather came to US from Chihuahua, Mexico, in the Bracero Program during World War II. That family then migrated from El Paso, Texas, through New Mexico and Southern California, then as far north as San Francisco.

In this episode, get to know Fredo and his 415 Zine co-founder and co-publisher, Laine Wiesemann. We begin Part 1 with Fredo.

Fredo and his brother were his family’s first US-born members, making them both Chicanos. Most of his mom’s family immigrated to the US, but many family members on his dad’s side still live in Mexico, mostly in Guadalajara.

His grandfather followed the work, which lead him to San Francisco in 1946. He worked in construction, eventually bringing his wife and children, including Fredo’s mom, to live with him.

Fredo’s family settled in Excelsior near Crocker-Amazon Park. He attended Sacred Heart. After high school, he moved to Daly City and then the Sunset, where he lives today. Many of his high school classmates are still in SF.

He’s never lived anywhere else, though his family did spend summers in Mexico, something Fredo remembers fondly. His grandfather still had a ranch there where they would stay. They’d set out right when the school year ended, and return right before the fall semester began, with a side trip to K-Mart for school clothes, of course.

I ask Fredo if he’s ever been tempted to live somewhere else. He expounds on an emphatic “No!” Then he talks about a BBQ spot out near the ocean close to Doggie Diner where he was introduced to peach cobbler.

Next, we turn to Laine and her story. She’s from the Central Valley—Sanger, California, near Fresno. The family later moved north to Linden, near Stockton. Both her parents were train engineers. Her mom was one of the first women engineers, in fact.

Laine visited San Francisco a lot during her high school years. She remembers crossing the Bay Bridge and being awed. She has memories of her dad taking her and a friend to Amoeba Records.

She’d been doing art since she was little, but really started getting into it when she was in high school. In her freshman year, she did commissions. After graduation, she moved to Chico, where she says she “learned how to party.”

A friend of hers had moved to The City and her boss was coming here, so, with those things in mind, Laine decided it was time. She moved to San Francisco in 2008.

That boss ended up not moving here after all, so Laine had to find work upon her arrival here. She was able to do that relatively easily. Though she’d worked at Trader Joe’s in Chico doing her store’s art, by the time she got to San Francisco, she took a break from art. She worked for a caterer doing special events. And it was at that job that Alfredo and Laine met.

I ask them what year that connection was made, and the fact that they both struggled to remember says a lot. Deep friendships can do that. They ballpark it as 2009 or 2010, before the Giants won their first World Series in SF. A small subset of their coworkers were artists, and they all formed a tight social circle.