Near the Van Ness entrance was a village of performers from Somaliland. They danced and shook spears on the ballyhoo stand but did little business. About thirty Issa Somalis had arrived in February 1915 on a ten-month contract. Two months in, still unpaid, they stopped performing. The Exposition's concessions division ordered them out, and when they did not go, its assistant director, Mr. Bryan, called in the immigration authorities. Guards loaded the villagers onto a Fadgl auto train, the little train that ran inside the grounds, and took them to the Yacht Harbor, where a government tug carried them to Angel Island. They were never paid for the two months they had worked. On October 9, 1915, twenty-three of them were put aboard a ship at New York and deported to France. Todd's account of the episode is written in the racist language of its time.
Their compound, combined with the space of the failed Selig Wild Animal Arena next door, was given to Henry Garcia and Martin Goni for "the Streets of Seville". It had a cabaret cafe with the dancer Estrellita and a Plaza de Toros for bloodless bullfights. The show had flair but too little capital. The bulls learned where the gate was and waited there to be let out. It closed after taking in a little over $10,000.
No photograph of Somali Village (later Streets of Seville) has turned up yet in the public-domain archives this site draws on. If you know of one, or hold one, send it over and it will be credited here. Meanwhile the photographs page holds 410 pictures of the fair, more than the film uses.
Where it stood
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Somali Village (later Streets of Seville) stood at about 37.80269 N, 122.42626 W on today's map. The whole fairground over the city →