The San Jose Sharks have come up with a nifty giveaway for its eighth annual Los Tiburones Night on Saturday, when the team celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month while facing the Anaheim Ducks at SAP Center. Every fan will get to take home a Hot Wheels-style lowrider car — painted teal, of course, and emblazoned with the Sharks logo.
Pretty cool for a sport in which the signature vehicle is a Zamboni.
The lowrider is just one part of the celebration of the Bay Area’s Latino and Hispanic cultures. Mariachi Tequila de San Jose will perform before the game, and there will be arts and crafts activities on the concourse, courtesy of the School of Arts and Culture at the Mexican Heritage Plaza. Grupo Folklorico los Laureles will perform on the ice during the intermission.
One of the highlights of the celebration is always the specialty jerseys created for Los Tiburones, and this year’s certainly don’t disappoint. They’re designed by fiber artist Alyssarhaye Graciano, the visual arts curator at downtown’s MACLA gallery, who reinterpreted the jersey’s logo and other features like piñatas. Autographed jerseys will be available for fans to bid on through the weekend at sharksjerseys.givesmart.com, with proceeds benefitting the Hispanic Foundation of Silicon Valley.
The Sharks won’t be wearing Graciano’s jerseys during the game but will don the “Cali Fin” uniforms, which include a pattern on the sleeves and jersey bottom that’s similar in appearance to the textile work used in serapes, a thick shawl worn in Mexico.
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The team has been embracing its Latino fanbase beyond the annual Los Tiburones nights, too. Back in May, the Sharks collaborated with the city on the Cinco de Mayo parade and celebration at Emma Prusch Farm Park; lowrider shows have been hosted outside the arena; and last month, the Sharks Foundation kicked off Hispanic Heritage Month by making a $30,000 donation — in honor of its 30th anniversary — to Rebuilding Together Silicon Valley, with foundation volunteers pitching in to help renovate the home of Gilroy resident Dorothy Cardenas. (No, they didn’t paint it teal.)
PURDY ON THE NINERS: It would be wrong to talk about “our beloved Los Tiburones” and not mention my retired colleague Mark Purdy, who originated and popularized the phrase because he honestly thought the team should embrace the valley’s Latino heritage. Purdy may have retired from daily journalism but he’s still writing, with a new book out on a different Bay Area sports franchise.
With “The San Francisco 49ers: An Illustrated Timeline,” Purdy and co-author Jeff Suess, trace the history of the team from its beginnings all the way through the glory years of the 1980s and ’90s and up to last February’s Super Bowl loss to Kansas City.
On Saturday, Purdy will have a book signing at an important spot in 49ers history: Santa Clara University, where freshmen Tony Morabito and Al Ruffo met on the first day of school in 1928 and tossed around a football in front of the mission church. Some 16 years later, they drew up papers for a pro football franchise and Morabito raised $25,000 to make the 49ers a reality. Purdy will be stationed at almost the same spot where the pair met from noon to 1:30 p.m.
He’ll also have book-signing programs at History Park in San Jose (6 p.m. Oct. 22) and the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library in downtown San Jose (6:30 p.m. Oct. 24).
EXHIBITION WITH BITE: It seems fitting to wrap up a Sharks hat trick with news that Empire 7 Studios in Japantown is opening a new show Saturday featuring work by famed urban artist Nychos, who created the stunning — and slightly disturbing — “Bleed Teal” deconstructed shark mural on two walls of the Modera apartment building on The Alameda in 2019.
SAN JOSE, CA – July 25: Shoppers walk underneath Austrian muralist Nychos as he paints a six-story tall, shark mural on a new building near the SAP Center in San Jose, Calif., Thursday, July 25, 2019. Commissioned by the local hockey team and coordinated by Empire 7 Studios, the mural has an unveiling planned for August 1. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)
The exhibition, “Selachimorpha,” includes a new painting that pays homage to that shark mural, but there’s a lot more to the show, with pieces featuring other animals that are significant to Nychos. The exhibition runs through Nov. 2, and the artist will be at the opening reception, which runs from 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday at the gallery at 525 N. 7th St.