Chicano
Murals in Salinas, California by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget
“Why
didn’t the Weekly ask you to write
about the murals in Salinas?” asked my friend as we drove through the lettuce
fields from the resort town of Monterey to the capital of America’s lettuce
industry – Salinas, California.
“I
was miffed about not getting that article, but I think they were leery about
sending a woman to barrio even if she speaks Spanish,” I answered, smiling
about the staff of the Monterey County
Weekly.
I
liked the article that C. Kevin Smith had written, though, and printed out the
mural mile map that went with the article and planned an outing for my daughter
Florence and one of my friends who did collaging journals.
“You
can get some colorful photos for your journal,” I said to get a navigator in
Salinas in pre-GPS days.
So,
we drove to downtown Salinas and headed towards East Salinas.
There
were thirteen places listed on the mural mile map. I was able to park the car, so we could get
out and take photos at eleven of the mural stops. One of the murals was under a highway
overpass and hard to get to. We followed
the map with the need for a few U-turns and windings through the neighborhood.
Murals
were credited to Arturo Bolaños, Jayne Cerna, Phillip
Tabera, Yermo Aranda, Jesus Leon, and José Ortiz.
José Ortiz explained how Chicano murals, an urban art form
pioneered in Los Angeles and San Francisco, are composed as public art in a
video from the Museum of Monterey called The
100 Story Project – José Ortiz: The Muralist Tradition (available on
youtube).
Ortiz, for example, meets with the community to discuss
commissions for input on subject matter and composition. Ortiz teases out what is called the invisible
history, which often differs from what is in the history books. The saying that the victors write the history
books is often true.
Once the community input has been done, Ortiz draws the mural due
to his expertise acquired from years of practice, but his colleagues and
community members help with the painting.
Chicano murals made this way beautify bleak urban landscapes and honor
and uplift neighborhood residents.
The invisible history of Salinas came through in many images of
round Aztec calendars, images of the Virgin of Guadalupe in her blue mantle,
the eagle which appears on the Mexican flag, barbed wire, fields of food,
pre-Columbian pyramids, and US flags.
Ortiz explained that the barbed wire represents the border in the 100 Stories video.
All these images connect Hispanics to their Mexican past while
rooting them in the United States.
Mexico offered many people few opportunities and like my own ancestors
in Virginia, the people coming here knew they had or have to succeed, because
there was no going back.
The murals by José Ortiz were Florence’s favorites and mine as
well. The all looked to the future with
their child-oriented themes. The mural
entitled Los Niños del Sol (Children
of the Sun) at the Women, Infant, and Children (WIC) office has images of
children with rays of sunshine reflecting back to the sky that get wider as
they reach heavenward.
Another mural by Ortiz at the Natividad Elementary School is
entitled Los Niños Cosmos (Cosmic
Children). This mural made me think of
Aztec priest-astronomers. I thought it
was an encouragement to do well in school.
Chicano muralism is a unique American art form, but does draw upon
Mexican muralism and pre-Columbian muralism for inspiration. Like the art of ancient Greece, the
architecture of the Mayan and Aztec Empires was painted. Pre-Columbian muralism was art made to
perpetuate and preserve a ruling elite.
Muralism in Mexico differed from the pre-Columbian use of the art
form in that it was not used to perpetuate an existing social order. Instead, Mexican muralism was used to create
a new nation after the Mexican Revolution.
Mexican muralism was begun in the 1920s and lasted till the
1970s. Three artists in particular were
associated with Mexican muralism – Diego Rivera (1886 – 1957), José Clemente
Orozco (1883 – 1949), and David Alfaro Siquieros (1896 – 1974). These artists largely decorated public
buildings of the new Mexican government with the intention of teaching a
largely illiterate public how to become a democratic nation after centuries of
oppression.
What unites the muralist tradition of the Chicano movement, the
Mexican muralists, and pre-Columbian muralism is the use of line to define
image outlines instead of blending them together as you would do in pastel
work. Exuberant colors link these
traditions as well. Muralism as a form
of expression has persisted for centuries among populations of Mexican and
Mesoamerican descent.
Drawing is extremely important in the perpetuation of this art
form as much of it originated in sculpture on architecture. José Ortiz began a school shortly after the Weekly wrote about the murals in East Salinas. The school is devoted to the arts, especially
drawing.
When I became youth services librarian of Monterey County, I asked
Ortiz to do cartooning workshops around the county in addition to loading the
library system with books devoted to drawing cartoons and manga to help
perpetuate this tradition as well.
I took Florence to several of his workshops, saying, “You can use
drawing to do story boards for film, video games, and animated films for
movies, documentaries, or even teaching people how to do things.”
Ortiz is a master teacher, who knows how to pass on artistic
traditions at his Hijos del Sol studio for youth in Salinas. I think he is a Monterey County treasure.
By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
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