Tough Gin Joint: A Survival Fight : Vista’s El Sombrero Under Fire Due to Crime, Tough Customers

The greasy sign in the window of the El Sombrero Cafe indicated that the drinking establishment had received an “A” rating for cleanliness from county health authorities.

In a bizarre complement to the window sign, the owner of the bar in this city’s downtown has posted a hand-lettered admonishment inside--written in Spanish--directing the patrons to “act educated, don’t spit on the floor.”

The signs reflect the incongruities of the controversial saloon, which law enforcement officials call the focal point for criminal activity in this city’s toughest neighborhood.

The El Sombrero is a cafe in name only, and its “A” rating was debatable, in fact so contrary to the appearance of the place that the county last week replaced it with a “B.”

Sheriff’s Department officials say that the South Santa Fe Avenue bar, which is frequented by a mixture of illegal aliens, whites and Mexican-Americans, is in an area they consider Vista’s worst crime district.

Indeed, one official said that the contingent of deputies in Vista spends most of its time “stamping out brush fires” that erupt in or near the bar, which he characterized as a mecca for drug trafficking, prostitution and violent crime.

But if the area is rampant with crime, it too, is laced heavily with incongruities.

Across the street from the El Sombrero is a Vietnamese market and a dance and exercise studio for tots and women, most of them Anglos. The evening exercise sessions at the studio usually attract a small gathering of men, who stand outside, laugh and stare through the slats at the leotard-clad women.

El Sombrero owner Sal Gonzales, a lifelong Vista resident, says that the Sheriff’s Department and the City Council, which wants to close the bar, “are passing the buck to me.” Gonzales admits that criminal activity is a problem in the area around the bar, but he complains that “we get blamed for anything that happens in the area.”

The City Council and the state Alcohol Beverage Control Board succeeded two years ago in shutting two other troublesome bars on the same block. The El Sombrero also was ordered closed by the council, but Gonzales appealed and the bar was allowed to remain open with some restrictions.

In the latest incident that may or may not have involved the El Sombrero, a sheriff’s deputy was wounded last month with his own gun during a scuffle with a narcotics suspect in the bar’s parking lot. The deputy’s partner killed the suspect, and the dead man’s companion fled but was later arrested.

Gonzales said the two suspects were not patrons of his bar. Sheriff’s Department officials say the two men were Indians from Valley Center, and concede that they were not representative of the clientele that normally frequents the bar.

But the shooting has prompted Vista officials and others in the community to yet again call for the bar’s closure.

The council has scheduled a public hearing for Oct. 28, the first step in a series of bureaucratic moves that city officials hope will result in the El Sombrero being declared a public nuisance and ordered closed.

Two weeks ago, the city advised Gonzales of the hearing by posting a notice on the front door of the bar. Moments later the bar was abuzz with talk of a possible closure .

Although the bar attracts a bevy of what local officials call unsavory characters, most of its clientele appears to be illegal aliens who are attracted by the bar’s Latino flavor. There is no question that it is a tough gin joint.

Recently, a visitor to the bar watched as two particularly inept pool players dragged out a game. One of the players, a bearded man with a cowboy hat, missed an almost sure shot, prompting a chuckle from an observer who was watching the game from a bar stool.

A friend of the pool player was sitting in a booth with one of several women of questionable reputations who hang out in the bar. Casually, almost nonchalantly, the stocky friend walked from the booth and without warning kicked the stool out from under its stunned occupant.

A crowd of men quickly gathered around the two adversaries. A stream of sunlight entered through the open back door, weaving through the cigarette smoke as it made its way to the bar, and bounced off the shiny blade of a knife that appeared in the crowd. But before the incident could escalate, a beefy barmaid leaned across the bar and called a halt to the nonsense with all the authority of a drill sergeant.

“I’ve worked in Vista since 1960, and it’s always been a tough bar,” Sheriff’s Lt. Jim Hartshorn said.

Gonzales, who has owned the bar for 20 years, said that the El Sombrero is the oldest bar in Vista and has traditionally been a Latino hangout. The El Sombrero follows the tradition of many bars in Mexico, serving customers half a lime and a salt shaker with every can of Tecate beer ordered.

The salt shakers also lend flavor to the bar, whose worn and patched booths symbolize the Spartan quality of the dingy saloon. The homemade shakers are barreled green bottles of Mickey’s Malt Liquor that have been recycled for their present use. The screw-on caps have been punctured with half-a-dozen oversized holes, which allow the salt to cascade out.

“Twenty years ago, most of my customers were local Hispanics, and some gringos. But now I’m getting a lot of illegals who come here because it is a Hispanic bar,” Gonzales said. “Some of them are troublemakers, but that’s not my problem. I’m not responsible for the illegals being here. That’s an immigration problem and they should be stopped at the border.”

Occasionally, the Border Patrol drops in unannounced at the El Sombrero, but always between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m., said Gonzales. Two young men were swapping stories about the last time they were snared by Border Patrol agents and laughed about the verbal and physical abuse they said is directed at Mexican aliens by the agents.

One of the men turned toward a pencil-thin, elderly man who is shooting pool. Could the old man still outrun the migra? asked the younger man.

The old man, his gaunt face crisscrossed with creases and other tracks left by age, answered without looking away from the three-ball he is about to dunk: “I don’t have to run anymore. I’ve got my papers.”

Councilwoman Gloria McClellan and Hartshorn say that Gonzales has asked authorities on several occasions to police the bar. Gonzales says that he has even called immigration authorities to arrest illegal alien customers.

Hartshorn acknowledged that Gonzales has been cooperative with the sheriff, but he is quick to point out that Gonzales also has a responsibility to run a peaceful establishment.

“As long as he attracts this kind of people--I mean the rowdies, drug pushers and troublemakers--he’s going to have a problem,” Hartshorn said, adding that most of the arrests in the area around the El Sombrero involving illegal aliens are for public drunkenness, while almost all of the narcotics arrests involve local residents and other U.S. citizens.

Many of the bar’s patrons, including those women who are not shy about approaching men for sex, appear to be illegal aliens who cling to their customs and culture. Hartshorn said that most of the men who frequent the El Sombrero are single.

One young man with sad, droopy eyes, played every sad song on the jukebox as he downed several bottles of Budweiser. After a while a heavyset woman with a fixed smile and lots of eye makeup motioned him to the bar stool where she was sitting. After a few whispers, the two walked out.

“Darn it, it’s illegal to have drug deals going on and prostitution. . . . I’ve seen the street gals propositioning the guys. They were turning tricks at $10 a shot,” said McClellan.

McClellan, who was instrumental in the closure of the Sundowner bar on Vista Way and the shutting down in 1978 of an adult bookstore next door to the El Sombrero, wants the El Sombrero and nearby Rancho Vista Hotel closed. McClellan and some law enforcement officials have charged that the hotel is used by prostitutes who work along South Santa Fe Avenue and in the El Sombrero.

She said that she is ready to employ the same tactic against the two businesses that resulted in the closure of the bookstore:

“We picketed that baby for nine months and closed it,” said McClellan.

One of the restrictions placed on the El Sombrero requires the bar to close at 7 p.m. The barmaid announced closing time and the players at the two pool tables grumbled about not being able to finish their games. Near the back entrance of the bar, an inebriated man in dirty work clothes adjusted a plastic hard hat and leaned over a giggling, overdressed woman leaning against a wall.

The man put a hand in a jeans pocket, shows her several crumpled bills and the two walked out together.

Above them is an aged and yellowed sign that reads: “Red light district will close June 3 to allow girls to attend policemen’s ball.”