Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Machete trouble at La Jolla High

People don't get Santiago

Detail from Santiago's Del Mar Gnome in an English Forest. "That's him," says Tresha Souza.
Detail from Santiago's Del Mar Gnome in an English Forest. "That's him," says Tresha Souza.

Santiago, La Jolla’s Darger of the Hedgerows, lives most of his life in a sanctuary he carved for himself amid the dense trees and underbrush separating a kindly Frenchwoman’s home from the busy street on which she lives. (He stores his belongings in her garage.) His bag, his weightlifter’s belt, his can-grabber, and his coat-hanger hang from the branches, through which he can watch the sun set into the Pacific as he sits and sips his beer. He likes to listen to the birds; other sounds — including the human variety — are less welcome. “The women always torture me with their noise,” he says.

His sister lives alone in a big house on Ellentown Road, just up the coast. He used to live with her, but he got into an argument with her husband, whom she has since divorced. “She threw a piece of wood at me and he threatened me with his nunchucks,” recalls Santiago. “So I said, ‘I’ll take this machete and chop you up.’ They took me to court and evicted me! Then they wanted me to come back; they had eight cats and four dogs that needed taking care of. But I was so full of hatred. For eight years, I didn’t talk to them.”

Sponsored
Sponsored

A machete got him in trouble again more recently, though this time, no threats were involved. His friend Tresha Souza — he fell in love with her daughter at the Coogan Family Aquatic Complex on Nautilus, then started volunteering with Tresha’s charity — tells the story:

“I’m watching TV in bed in my pajamas at 7 p.m on a Monday, and my phone rings: ‘Santiago has been arrested at La Jolla High School!’ I get in my car and go down the hill, and there are ten cops and a helicopter, and they’ve closed the street. Santiago is scared to death; they have him handcuffed and they have a dog on him. He’d gotten permission to clear where the bushes had grown over the sidewalk — he doesn’t like that — and he waited until everybody left for the night, when he felt it was safest. But someone saw him hacking away and called the police. The officer was mean; she was accusing him of being on drugs. I said, ‘No, he’s autistic,’ and he said, ‘I’M RETARDED!’ They gave the machete back and he did a fantastic job. I got home and my husband said, ‘You’re in your pajamas.’ I said, ‘I know. And there’s a machete in the back of my car.’...

“People don’t get him,” says Tresha, who has been helping Santiago for the past nine years: through applications for government aid, through housing searches, through court cases, through surgery on a blown-out knee, through attacks by local bullies, and through his own elfin temperamentality. “I get him. He’s a lot of work — he’s demanding, he’s controlling, he calls me constantly — but he’s a good guy. He’s a little soul that needs nurturing. He has nothing, but I’ll go to church and he’ll be there with roses for me.”

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Mang Tomas, banana ketchup barred in San Diego

What will happen to Filipino Christmas here?
Detail from Santiago's Del Mar Gnome in an English Forest. "That's him," says Tresha Souza.
Detail from Santiago's Del Mar Gnome in an English Forest. "That's him," says Tresha Souza.

Santiago, La Jolla’s Darger of the Hedgerows, lives most of his life in a sanctuary he carved for himself amid the dense trees and underbrush separating a kindly Frenchwoman’s home from the busy street on which she lives. (He stores his belongings in her garage.) His bag, his weightlifter’s belt, his can-grabber, and his coat-hanger hang from the branches, through which he can watch the sun set into the Pacific as he sits and sips his beer. He likes to listen to the birds; other sounds — including the human variety — are less welcome. “The women always torture me with their noise,” he says.

His sister lives alone in a big house on Ellentown Road, just up the coast. He used to live with her, but he got into an argument with her husband, whom she has since divorced. “She threw a piece of wood at me and he threatened me with his nunchucks,” recalls Santiago. “So I said, ‘I’ll take this machete and chop you up.’ They took me to court and evicted me! Then they wanted me to come back; they had eight cats and four dogs that needed taking care of. But I was so full of hatred. For eight years, I didn’t talk to them.”

Sponsored
Sponsored

A machete got him in trouble again more recently, though this time, no threats were involved. His friend Tresha Souza — he fell in love with her daughter at the Coogan Family Aquatic Complex on Nautilus, then started volunteering with Tresha’s charity — tells the story:

“I’m watching TV in bed in my pajamas at 7 p.m on a Monday, and my phone rings: ‘Santiago has been arrested at La Jolla High School!’ I get in my car and go down the hill, and there are ten cops and a helicopter, and they’ve closed the street. Santiago is scared to death; they have him handcuffed and they have a dog on him. He’d gotten permission to clear where the bushes had grown over the sidewalk — he doesn’t like that — and he waited until everybody left for the night, when he felt it was safest. But someone saw him hacking away and called the police. The officer was mean; she was accusing him of being on drugs. I said, ‘No, he’s autistic,’ and he said, ‘I’M RETARDED!’ They gave the machete back and he did a fantastic job. I got home and my husband said, ‘You’re in your pajamas.’ I said, ‘I know. And there’s a machete in the back of my car.’...

“People don’t get him,” says Tresha, who has been helping Santiago for the past nine years: through applications for government aid, through housing searches, through court cases, through surgery on a blown-out knee, through attacks by local bullies, and through his own elfin temperamentality. “I get him. He’s a lot of work — he’s demanding, he’s controlling, he calls me constantly — but he’s a good guy. He’s a little soul that needs nurturing. He has nothing, but I’ll go to church and he’ll be there with roses for me.”

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Aaron Bleiweiss: has guitar, has traveled

Seattle native takes Twists and Turns to assemble local all-stars
Next Article

San Diego seawalls depend on Half Moon Bay case

Casa Mira townhomes sued after losing 20 feet of bluffs in storm
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader