"When I got involved it was the last building on the last block that was once San Francisco's thriving Manilatown neighborhood," said DeGuzman, now 54 and board president of the Manilatown Heritage Foundation. "Once they tore it down, there was nothing. No sign, nothing."

"The Manilatown community that we once knew is gone, as a result of gentrification, and just the elderly who once were there and aren't with us anymore," said [Bill Sorro], 62, who abandoned a dancing career to move in with I-Hotel tenants in 1970. "So it's absolutely essential that we try and keep the memory of Manilatown alive for future generations, because there isn't a Manilatown left from Seattle to San Diego.

With new generations of Filipinos and others joining to reclaim the spirit of Manilatown, "there's a certain justice to that," Sorro said, "because as an elder now, knowing there are young people behind us -- like how the I-Hotel tenants looked to us and shared with us -- it really does give you a lot of hope and a lot of encouragement and a lot of strength to continue. And that's the nature of the struggle we're in. It's a continuous struggle."

Police had to drag 29-year-old Emil DeGuzman by his feet that morning in 1977 to evict him from the I-Hotel, a low-income single-room-occupancy hotel at Kearny and Jackson streets that had housed elderly Filipino and Chinese immigrant men since the 1920s.

"When I got involved it was the last building on the last block that was once San Francisco's thriving Manilatown neighborhood," said DeGuzman, now 54 and board president of the Manilatown Heritage Foundation. "Once they tore it down, there was nothing. No sign, nothing."

Now a quarter-century later, construction has begun on a new International Hotel that will include 104 units of low-income senior housing and a cultural center for the city's ethnic Filipinos.

Hundreds are expected at the construction site Sunday afternoon to join DeGuzman and others in commemorating not only the 25th anniversary of the brutal eviction, but also a reclaiming of the spirit of Manilatown.

"We're talking a generation ago when this eviction happened," said DeGuzman, a San Francisco native who was studying at the University of California, Berkeley when I-Hotel tenants received their first eviction notices in 1968.

DeGuzman moved into the hotel and struggled with the tenants against the building's absentee landlord, a Thai liquor tycoon who planned to raze the property for more profitable commercial development.

The lot remained vacant for years after the building's demolition until a local housing group secured funding to build low-income housing at the site. St. Mary's Catholic Church -- the city's oldest, located just blocks away in Chinatown -- will construct a grade school, chapel and gymnasium at the site, along with the new 14-story I-Hotel. The building is scheduled for completion in 2004.

Adorning the new building will be murals and a tribute to former tenants of the old I-Hotel -- projects that need about $200,000 to get off the ground, said Bill Sorro, vice president of the Heritage Foundation. For its cultural center, the Foundation will need an additional $750,000.

Sunday's commemoration will also mark the start of fundraising efforts, he said.

"The Manilatown community that we once knew is gone, as a result of gentrification, and just the elderly who once were there and aren't with us anymore," said Sorro, 62, who abandoned a dancing career to move in with I-Hotel tenants in 1970. "So it's absolutely essential that we try and keep the memory of Manilatown alive for future generations, because there isn't a Manilatown left from Seattle to San Diego.

"Unlike Chinatowns, Japantowns and Koreatowns, there isn't anything that says we were here," he continued: "So we're trying to reinvigorate some of that history ... so that young people will have something to say, "This place right here, my grandfather came here.' And as Asian Americans, it's essential we do that."

After Sunday's commemoration, more events will continue throughout the week to recognize the history of Manilatown, said Rex de Guia, who is handling publicity for the events. A procession will make its way toward the I-Hotel site for a candlelight vigil Wednesday night, followed by a walking tour on Thursday and a "talk-story" event on Friday.

"That a community was destroyed and obliterated -- that's a historical fact that will forever be a detrimental thing that happened to the Filipino American community," Sorro said.

But with new generations of Filipinos and others joining to reclaim the spirit of Manilatown, "there's a certain justice to that," Sorro said, "because as an elder now, knowing there are young people behind us -- like how the I-Hotel tenants looked to us and shared with us -- it really does give you a lot of hope and a lot of encouragement and a lot of strength to continue. And that's the nature of the struggle we're in. It's a continuous struggle."

I-Hotel Commemoration Events

* Tonight (Aug. 1): Fundraiser with poetry, music and dance. $10 donation. II Pirata Bar and Restaurant, 2007 16th St., 8:45 p.m.-2 a.m.

* Sunday, Aug. 4:25th-annual commemoration of the I-Hotel eviction. Mayor Willie Brown will open the commemoration. Events include poetry by Janice Mirikitani, former I-Hotel resident Al Robles and Norman Jayo; and music by the Palabuniyan Kulintang Ensemble, Kiwi and Charlie Chin. Portsmouth Square (at Kearny and Washington streets), 1-5 p.m.

* Wednesday, Aug. 7: Candlelight vigil with spoken word and poetry. Participants will meet at Market and Kearny streets at 7 p.m., then walk to the I-Hotel site at Kearny and Jackson streets.

* Thursday, Aug. 8: Walking tour of old Manilatown. Meet at the I-Hotel site (at Kearny and Jackson streets) at 7 p.m. Tour runs about two hours.

* Friday, Aug. 9: Talk-story gathering with former Manilatown residents. Offices of Chinese for Affirmative Action on Waverly Place between Clay and Washington streets, 7 p.m.

* For more information, visit www.manilatown.org/aug4th

Photograph (Maggie DeGuzman, Roy Recio, Emil DeGuzman and Rex de Guia)