Murals
Carlos Almaraz Estate. Cesar Chavez with Carlos Almaraz as he works on a convention mural for United Farm Workers. 1973
"So we went back and sure enough, he said, "What do you want to do?" I said, "Well, I want to do a big banner, very political, very like a big political cartoon, blown up, so that people can see. . ." We're talking about farmworkers who don't read, you know, they do read some Spanish but not a lot. I said, "Let's get a picture across to them of their own struggle."
- Carlos Almaraz, Chicano artist, "Interview with UFW Muralist, Carlos Almaraz.", 1987.
Almaraz, Carlos. United Farm Workers Mural. 1973.
“I was able to look at American society[...] with a different perspective because I was not an Americano. I was made into an American[...] I still have that interest in seeing two societies often separate and at other times seeing them merged into one image. Some of the work that I have reflects this.”
- Carlos Almaraz, Chicano artist
Group photo of the artists in the exhibition Los Four: Almaraz, de la Rocha, Lujan, Romero, 1974. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Balch Art Research Library.
Los Four joined to form a collective artists group active during the Chicano Art Movement. The four consisted of Frank Romero, Carlos Almaraz, Roberto de la Rocha, and Gilberto Lujan. However, they were later joined by Judithe Hernandez.
Los Four Exhibition. 1974.
“Our first effort was an experimental mural project on a garage door across the alley from the building I shared with Graciela Carrillo at 54 Balmy Alley in 1972. And our experiment was to see if we could collaborate as muralists and draw large scale designs. At the same time there were no fancy mural paints, so we used outdoor house paint we got from neighbors. For the bright colors and to complete our palette, we bartered paint from various artists.”
- Patricia Rodriguez, Mujer Muralista
Mujeres Muralistas - Graciela Carrillo, Consuelo Mendez, Patricia Rodriguez, and Irene Perez. Photo by Linda Wilson.
“When they started doing murals, the Mujeres Muralistas, they started doing murals in the neighborhood and that was the first group of women muralists that started collaborating with each other actually going large scale murals in the neighborhood. [...] I saw how they collaborated by working around the theme and each of the artists, there were four or five members. They all shared their ideas with each other and came up with a unified design that included all their ideas. I thought that was a wonderful way of working together as a team and collaboration.”
-Susan Cervantes, founder and director of the Precita Eyes Muralists, Telephone interview, 2021.
“The group that came together, we did our first mural together and that's when we called ourselves Precita Eyes. There was no one person who designed it; it was a collaboration and so everybody’s ideas were in the murals. We said well how are we gonna sign them so we said Precita Eyes because Precita is the geographic area, eyes is what we use to visualize with and murals is what we do. Every mural that we’ve ever done has been Precita Eyes murals. We didn’t know that that was going to stick for more than 40 years. We just did it at that moment and then one led to another and another.”
-Susan Cervantes, founder and director of the Precita Eyes Muralists, Telephone interview, 2021.
Precita Eyes Muralists. Women's Building. 1984.
“Well it's the same process that I was inspired by when I was working with the Mujeres Muralistas. That’s where you develop a theme and then everybody draws out their ideas. We do workshops with the communities that we’re serving in. Sometimes we’re working with communities that just want to have an experience doing a mural together. Maybe they’re not painters. They’re not artists. Maybe they have little or no drawing or painting skills. We do workshops with these communities and they decide what the themes are gonna be and what it is they want to see in their mural.”
-Susan Cervantes, founder and director of the Precita Eyes Muralists, Telephone interview, 2021.
Precita Eyes Muralists. Everett Middle School 75th Anniversary. 2004.
“We do a lot of restoration. That's really important to the community here to maintain and preserve some of the cultural assets that are in the Mission.”
-Susan Cervantes, founder and director of the Precita Eyes Muralists, Telephone interview, 2021.
Precita Eyes Muralits. ¡Sí Se Puede!, Cesar Chavez Elementary School at 23rd St. and Folsom. 1995.
“Sometimes we have community come and paint their murals. So we have community days, they come out and paint for a day right after we transfer it onto the wall. Then the artists do the final touches on it, finish it and put a protective coating over it. Then the community celebrates their mural.”
-Susan Cervantes, founder and director of the Precita Eyes Muralists, Telephone interview, 2021.
"This is not just abstracts or just pillars of different colors. They each have a message and an idea. They tell a story. They mark a special event. They speak about our fears and our hopes. It's our culture. That's what is on the walls."
-Mario Torero, Chicano muralist and printmaker
Torero, Mario. Colossus mural, Chicano Park, 1974. Photo by Marianne Peterson.
Benavides, Smiley. Tribute to Allende. Chicano Park, 1974. Photo by Todd Stands.
Chicano Park shows how important artwork is to a community and how it can bring people together.
De Vargas, Tony. Chicano Pinto Union. Chicano Park, 1978. Photo by Todd Stands.
Montoya, Jose. La Familia. Chicano Park, 1975. Photo by Todd Stands.
“… when you’re working in these spaces it’s really important for the people to see a reflection of themselves in the work around them.”
- Betsy Casanas, New York artist and educator
Several Artists. Quetzalcoatl. Chicano Park, 1973. Photo by Todd Stands.
Travers, Martin. Naya Bihana, 2002. Photo by Chris Carlsson
Miranda Bergman and O'Brien Thiele. Culture Contains the Seed of Resistance which Blossoms into the Flower of Liberation. 1980. Photo by Chris Carlsson
"For Chicanos a lot of it was laying claim to a heritage in Latin America that was really glorious or ‘we have this rich history’. That was great and that was empowering, but we see how with Balmy Alley the murals that they have there couldn't make that same idealization and romanticization of Latin America because they were creating images of Latin America, specifically Central America, during a time of civil war."
-Katynka Martinez, Chicano Studies professor at San Francisco State University, Videoconference interview, 2021.
Bergner, Joel. Un Pasado que aún vive, 2004. Photo by Chris Carlsson
Norling, Jane. Darles Armas y Tambien Ensenarles a Leer. 1984. Photo by Chris Carlsson
“That’s important to think about also now with whatever artwork that is being created by Latinx artists that: are we still at the stage of romanticizing our heritage or are we really thinking critically about what’s going on in our country of origin or parent’s countries of origin and what are the tension among the different countries? I hope artist today are really honest about that and ready to engage in that discussion through a visual medium.”
- Katynka Martinez, Chicano Studies professor at San Francisco State University, Videoconference interview, 2021.
Ybarra, Alberto. Corazón de Campesinos. 2018.
Murals are documentations of history through visual masterpieces. Not only does artwork educate but also shows relevant messages about race, ethnicity, and class.
“I think murals are going to continue to thrive in all different kinds of forms and I think the community mural art process will continue. We see whenever there’s a really strong social cause, artists will come out. Just recently because of the pandemic and people boarded up their businesses, all the artists came out and started painting on those canvases right on the street. I think that having opportunities to do monumental art is special. There needs to be more of that. I think we need more organizations that support that and also more funding from the city. Also from the government to support the visual arts in particular community mural art in schools and community centers."
-Susan Cervantes, founder and director of the Precita Eyes Muralists, Telephone interview, 2021.