San Diego, CA
How Dutch Indonesians Found Their Home in San Diego | San Diego Magazine
The savory scents of Indonesian ayam pedis and Dutch bitterballen and the convivial tunes of The Tielman Brothers drift over the Mission Bay as a winding line forms under the bright blue tents that cover the Dutch Indos in San Diego potluck buffet. Kids run around, their parents lounging in lawn chairs, as conversations weave from Dutch to English. A couple in their 90s dances on the grass. It’s a party—or actually, a kumpulan.
Today’s kumpulan (Indonesian for social gathering) is the brainchild of Valley Center native and third generation “Dutch Indo” Andrea Matthies, 51. Matthies founded the social group Dutch Indos in San Diego in 2014 to connect the large—but fragmented—local Dutch Indonesian community. “Most Indos of my generation grew up in English-speaking households, not really knowing much about their background,” Matthies explains. She wanted to get back in touch with her Dutch Indonesian roots and community. As it turns out, others did too.
But what is Dutch Indonesian is not exactly easy to answer. “It usually takes me about 20 minutes to explain it to someone,” Matthies laughs. Her spiel usually goes something like this: Her grandparents, Herman and Paula MacMootry, immigrated to America in October 1960 with their four teenage children, including Matties’ mother, Brenda MacMootry-Gruber. The family departed from the Netherlands, but they all had been born in the Dutch East Indies, a former Dutch colony now known as Indonesia.
The MacMootrys were part of a mixed Eurasian community, known as Dutch Indonesians or “Indos.” When Indonesia declared independence from the Netherlands in 1945, the Indo community was violently targeted by nationalist soldiers, and many fled to the Netherlands. But the Netherlands was not the most welcoming place for the nearly 350,000 Dutch Indonesians who moved there. Dutch politicians openly questioned their ability to integrate, and many struggled to find work in the midst of a post-war job shortage.
Families who wanted to move to America initially faced strict visa regulations for Asian immigrants. They had to prove that at least 75 percent of their ancestors were of European descent. But when a major flood hit the Netherlands in the 1950s, a special refugee act opened up tens of thousands of American refugee visas. Although the act was meant for displaced Dutch farmers, the Dutch government put thousands of Dutch Indonesians on the list and actively encouraged more to apply.
A government film titled Een Plaatsje In De Zon (meaning “a place in the sun”) promoted California as the place to be: a distant paradise “where the sun almost gives a continuous representation of what you have always imagined your new home to be.” San Diego specifically, with its leisurely lifestyle, proximity to Tijuana, and bustling market scenes with fresh produce that Dutch Indonesians knew from back home, would make a fine home. From the late 1950s to early 1960s, about 35,000 Dutch Indonesians packed their bags and left for the United States.
Most Dutch Indonesians adapted to their new life as quickly as possible, speaking English and raising their kids as Americans. But in San Diego, the first ever Indo club in America, the DURF, kept a piece of home alive.
“DURF stands for Dutch Recreational Fellowship,” explains Matthies, who is currently making a documentary about the club with her husband. Friends of Matthies’s family, Fred and Edith Attinger, founded the club in 1961. They organized elaborate dinners, dances, and plays and even invited local politicians to their events.
At its height, DURF had more than 100 members and regularly featured in local media. “My grandmother volunteered in the kitchen and my mother and aunt took part in dances and skits,” Matthies says. She still remembers attending the DURF’s Fourth of July celebration as a child. But as her generation lost interest, membership dwindled. The club folded in 1981.
Matthies eventually began researching her family tree and reconnected to family members in the Netherlands. She learned more about Dutch Indonesian history through The Indo Project, which makes information available for English-speaking Indos. At the annual Holland Festival in Long Beach, she met more Dutch Indonesians who had grown up in the US and began hoping to help the Indo community in San Diego celebrate their heritage.
“I wanted to revive DURF’s spirit with Dutch Indos in San Diego,” Matthies says. What started as a Facebook group where local Indos could connect and exchange stories is now a thriving community with biannual and well-attended kumpulans. Looking at the people gathered in Mission Bay, Matthies feels proud seeing so many honoring their ancestors’ food, music, stories, and love for socializing.
“Who knows how long all these generations are going to be together in one spot?” she asks. “Now is the time to enjoy it.”
The next Dutch Indos in San Diego kumpulan takes place Sunday, June 9, at Playa II in Mission Bay. For more information, see their Facebook page.
SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — As the Muslim community prepares to celebrate Eid al-Adha next month, a San Diego teenager is working to bring comfort and joy to children impacted by the recent tragedy at the Islamic Center of San Diego.
Seventeen-year-old Sarah Abdin spent the past week fundraising, shopping and assembling nearly 100 Eid goodie bags for students at the mosque’s elementary school.
While many teenagers are focused on final exams, Abdin said she spent some nights working until 2 a.m. to make sure every bag was ready in time for the school’s upcoming graduation celebration.
The project was inspired by the recent shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego, where children were present during the incident. Abdin, who attended the mosque as a child, said hearing about what students experienced motivated her to take action.
Each bag contains a variety of treats, activities and gifts intended to help children celebrate Eid, one of the most important holidays in Islam.
Abdin said community members quickly rallied behind the effort, helping raise funds and support the project. After days of shopping and preparation, she and her sister spent several hours assembling the bags ahead of delivery.
The goodie bags are expected to be distributed during the elementary school’s graduation festivities in early June.
Abdin said she hopes the gesture serves as a reminder that the children are surrounded by a community that cares about them and stands beside them during difficult times.
The fundraising effort received widespread support, helping cover the cost of the goodie bags and allowing organizers to expand their reach to more students.
How interesting that Donald Trump is deporting Brown people who pay taxes and contribute to our economy (though they will never reap any benefits from those taxes) and instead is using our tax money to import and set up South Africans (none of whom are anything but White) who have never contributed to our economy. Could skin color perhaps have something to do with this policy?
— Nita Herpolsheimer, San Diego
California’s assault weapons ban may have helped limit the ability of two attackers to take lives at the Islamic Center of San Diego last week, according to a prominent gun control organization.
But the executive director of a San Diego gun rights group said the fact the attack even happened is proof the ban failed.
What the two don’t dispute is that the video from the attackers’ livestream shows one of them using a rifle that appears to comply with California’s strict gun laws. While authorities have not confirmed what models of firearms were used in the attack, representatives of the two organizations identified it as a semi-automatic Ruger Mini-14 rifle.
KPBS is not publishing the video, which authorities have not released, the names of the two teenage suspects or their writings, where they wrote they were motivated to conduct the attack by a number of sex and race-related grievances. They wore emblems associated with white supremacists and neo-Nazis and lashed out in their writings against women, Jewish people, Muslims and LGBTQ+ people.
They wrote they were inspired by the 2019 attack on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, that killed 51 Muslims. In their writings, the suspects said they wanted to replicate the Christchurch attack in San Diego.
The attack in Christchurch prompted New Zealand to change its gun laws.
Semiautomatic rifles sold in California have to meet certain criteria that other states don’t require.
The barrels must be at least 30 inches long and may not have collapsible or folding stocks. They cannot have a pistol grip behind the trigger, nor one attached at the forward part of the rifle.
And they cannot have a magazine that holds more than 10 rounds.
“From everything I saw from the video, (the rifle) looked like it met those criteria and looked like a very stock firearm that you could purchase at many dealers here in California,” said Steve Lindley, a policy advisor for the Brady Campaign.
Lindley spent almost 30 years in law enforcement, according to his biography. He worked for the National City Police Department and spent eight years leading the Bureau of Firearms at the California Department of Justice.
Lindley said features such as pistol grips make rifles more lethal.
“Over time it makes it easier for the shooter to have the firearm to their shoulder and in their hands,” he said. “Less fatigue, and it lines up a little bit better with your eyesight. The capacity of the magazines and other features on the firearm make it more accurate and easier to use in close quarters.”
The video shows the body cam operator firing the Mini-14 until it appears to jam. He struggles to clear the chamber and appears to remove and reinsert the magazine. He works the bolt, apparently unable to chamber a new round.
As the video continues, he continues to struggle with the bolt of the rifle before giving up, drawing a handgun and stepping outside.
The attackers never made it beyond the lobby, where about 100 schoolchildren and staff were inside the center. Authorities say they were delayed by the three men killed in the attack: Mansour Kaziha, 78, Nadir Awad, 57, and armed security guard Amin Abdullah.
The Islamic Center of San Diego
“Looking at the reality of this, a good guy with a gun stopped a bad guy with a gun from killing a lot of kids. Full stop,” said Michael Schwartz, the executive director of the San Diego County Gun Owners PAC.
“The assault weapons ban that California has implemented clearly failed — it didn’t stop these two people,” he said.
Schwartz described the features banned by California as “cosmetic” and that the semi-automatic rifles function the same regardless of their stock, grips or magazine size.
“The idea that … the (high-capacity) magazine ban stopped them from getting a high-capacity magazine … there just isn’t any evidence or proof,” he said.
While high-capacity magazines can’t be bought or sold in California, Schwartz said anyone can travel to the next state over and buy as many as they want.
Although the Mini-14 used in the attack is capable of accepting 30 or 40-round magazines, said Lindley, the shooters appeared to only have a California-compliant 10-round magazine.
“If you have ten round magazines, you have ten rounds to shoot before you need to change magazines,” he said. “If you have a 30- or 40-round magazine, you can shoot 30 or 40 rounds before you need to reload.”
That’s important, Lindley said, because when shooters stop to reload, it gives victims time to either escape or attempt to subdue the attacker.
Schwartz said that didn’t affect the Islamic center attack.
“If he had a bigger magazine or he had a pistol grip or whatever, it wouldn’t have changed the outcome of this at all,” he said.
Lindley played a part in crafting more than 100 gun bills, according to the Brady Campaign. He said with so many guns in the United States, authorities can’t stop shootings — all they can do is try to limit the damage.
“We can prevent a lot of victimology by lowering the capacity of the magazines,” he said.
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