Read this excerpt from "Painting Freedom on the Walls.”When a wave of Mexican settlers began to come to San Diego in the 1890s, many of them made their home in an area known as Logan Heights. Soon that area was called Barrio Logan. (In Spanish, a barrio is a neighborhood.) At first, Barrio Logan was a neighborhood of homes and shops that stretched from well inland all the way to San Diego Bay, and the people had access to the beach. Then, during World War II, the beach was closed. In the 1950s, the city changed the zoning of the area so that industry could move into the neighborhood. Soon, the barrio was spotted with noisy, dirty junkyards. In the 1960s, Interstate 5 and ramps for the San Diego-Coronado Bridge cut Barrio Logan in half. About 5,000 homes were destroyed in the process.By this time, the residents were very angry about the terrible damage to their barrio. They protested loudly. Finally, the City Council of San Diego promised them a park to help make up for the damage. The council set aside land for that purpose. And then, in 1970, bulldozers arrived to turn the land into a parking lot. A student, Mario Solis, saw them, asked what was going on, and started spreading the word. Within a few hours, there were 250 people in the park, blocking the bulldozers.The people of Barrio Logan won their battle and got their park. They planted cactus and other native plants, but there was something missing. An artist named Salvador Torres came up with the idea of putting murals on the concrete pillars that supported the freeway. Chicano Park was born.The murals of Chicano Park are filled with the colors, the history, and the heroes of Mexican America. They are painted by professional artists and by community groups. There is even one mural painted entirely by children. They are visible reminders of the Mexican cultural heritage of the city.
Read this excerpt from "Painting Freedom on the Walls."California was first settled by Native Americans and, later, by Spanish and Mexican explorers and missionaries. In fact, California was once part of Mexico, and Mexican cultural traditions were very strong. But after California became a part of the United States, those traditions were deliberately ignored and neglected.Murals have been the perfect way to make the Mexican history of California visible again. Chicano Park in San Diego and Balmy Alley in San Francisco are places where murals bloom like wildly colored cactus flowers against the grey background of the city. And each of these places has a story.
Read this excerpt from "Painting Freedom on the Walls."The murals of Balmy Alley in San Francisco celebrate two heritages at the same time. The first murals in this alley were painted by Mexican women. Patricia Rodriguez, Graciela Carillo and other women artists had not been able to get any support from the men who were painting freedom murals in the city. They wanted to show that women could create great murals, too.The women chose to paint about the lives of women and children, to celebrate nature and beauty. "We had the freedom to paint whatever we wanted,” says Patricia Rodriguez, "and we chose the beauty of women and their Mexican and Latino cultures.” A neighbor gave them permission to paint the back of a garage. The only paint they had was outdoor house paint they got from neighbors. To get some brighter colors, they went to other artists and traded for what they needed.
Read this excerpt from "Painting Freedom on the Walls."There are many ways to honor a heritage, express a yearning for freedom, and celebrate a culture. Art is one of the most positive of those ways, and public art is one of the most effective. A remarkable illustration of this truth is the “freedom mural.” This kind of public art that has been created by the Latino community of California for more than half a century.Since a mural is a large painting on a wall, you need a wall to make a mural. It’s easy to find a wall in most California cities. There are blank walls on the sides of buildings and bridges and overpasses. And there are a lot of bright, sunny days that are perfect for painting pictures of everything from mountains to flowers to cultural heroes. There is also something very important in California that was made invisible for a long time.
Read this excerpt from "Painting Freedom on the Walls."When a wave of Mexican settlers began to come to San Diego in the 1890s, many of them made their home in an area known as Logan Heights. Soon that area was called Barrio Logan. (In Spanish, a barrio is a neighborhood.) At first, Barrio Logan was a neighborhood of homes and shops that stretched from well inland all the way to San Diego Bay, and the people had access to the beach. Then, during World War II, the beach was closed. In the 1950s, the city changed the zoning of the area so that industry could move into the neighborhood. Soon, the barrio was spotted with noisy, dirty junkyards. In the 1960s, Interstate 5 and ramps for the San Diego-Coronado Bridge cut Barrio Logan in half. About 5,000 homes were destroyed in the process.By this time, the residents were very angry about the terrible damage to their barrio. They protested loudly. Finally, the City Council of San Diego promised them a park to help make up for the damage. The council set aside land for that purpose. And then, in 1970, bulldozers arrived to turn the land into a parking lot. A student, Mario Solis, saw them, asked what was going on, and started spreading the word. Within a few hours, there were 250 people in the park, blocking the bulldozers.The people of Barrio Logan won their battle and got their park. They planted cactus and other native plants, but there was something missing. An artist named Salvador Torres came up with the idea of putting murals on the concrete pillars that supported the freeway. Chicano Park was born.
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