1 February 2016 Dear Friends, All of us at The Da Camera Society

THE DA CAMERA SOCIETY
1 February 2016
Dear Friends,
All of us at The Da Camera Society look forward to seeing you on Sunday, February 7th at
Tamayo Restaurant & Art Gallery in East L.A. when the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet perform at
2:00 & 4:00 PM (1 hour each).
These Chamber Music in Historic Sites concerts serve as an anchor for the Society’s East
L.A./Boyle Heights Festival. The festival focuses on the Chicano Mural Movement and includes
a self-guided driving tour of 12 murals along Cesar Chavez & Olympic Boulevards (60-75
minutes); docent-led shuttle tours focusing on 3 nearby murals (1 hour); the opportunity to meet
muralists from the Chicano Mural Movement along with the next generation of artists; access to
the Festival Multimedia Room (at Tamayo’s, East side of building); and a packet with
essays/articles discussing the history of the Chicano Mural Movement in Los Angeles.
Optional Reception & Dinner
A 5:15 PM RECEPTION in the upstairs Art Gallery and 6:15 PM DINNER in the main dining room
follows the 4:00 PM concert. The reception and dinner are available for a separate purchase
($50). Details were sent to you separately. Dinners are still available for purchase until close of
day Friday, February 5th (call 213-477-2929).
Directions & Parking
Directions and parking info are included with this letter, including directions to the beginning of
the self-guided driving tour of murals. Please note that a portion of the 101 FWY will be closed
through Downtown Los Angeles. Read the directions carefully and plan your route.
East L.A./Boyle Heights Festival Packet
The Chicano Mural Movement had it’s beginnings in the 1960’s and resulted in more than 400
public murals throughout the East L.A./Boyle Heights area and beyond. Your festival packet is
your guide for the day. Take a moment to review the packet, identify what interests you, and plan
your afternoon.
The East L.A./Boyle Heights Festival has FOUR major components, including the choice of a selfguided driving tour OR a docent-led shuttle tour of area murals:
•
Self-guided Driving Tour of Murals: The self-guided driving tour focuses on a dozen
murals — most of them along a 3-mile stretch of East Cesar Chavez Ave., and a few
locations on East Olympic Blvd. near Tamayo's. Short descriptions are included in the
festival packet. The festival MAP is on the inside cover; the attached inset maps pinpoint
the mural stops and include more detail.
The tour starts on Cesar Chavez Ave. (immediately East of the 5 FWY) and continues
East (past the 710 FWY) to Mednik Ave., where you'll take a right and head South to
Olympic Blvd. (Mednik becomes Arizona Ave. along the way). The entire tour stretches
more than 6 miles and takes a minimum of 20 minutes to drive with normal traffic — that's
20 minutes without stopping at all to view murals. You should allow a minimum of 60-75
minutes to take the self-guided tour. Sunday afternoon traffic has the potential to be
slow in the East L.A. area.
You may wish to park and get out of the car to view a few of the murals — some of them
are best viewed from across the street. Keep your eye on the clock — it's easy to loose
track of time during the drive — make sure you're back at Tamayo's for the concert you're
ticketed to attend (2:00 or 4:00 PM).
•
Docent-led Shuttle Tours Focusing on 3 Murals: Throughout the afternoon, one-hour
docent-led tours will be available. Shuttle tours leave from the Tamayo parking lot.
Current muralists, street artists, and founders of the Chicano Mural Movement will all be
on hand to lead these one-hour tours. Each tour will focus on 3 nearby murals; plan to
exit the shuttle for each mural to enjoy the guided presentation. Tours will leave at
12:00, 12:30, 2:00, 2:30, and 4:30. Each shuttle holds 25 passengers; access is limited and
will be on a first-come-first-served basis.
•
Festival Multimedia Room (12:00 to 6:00 PM): On site at Tamayo’s you’ll find the
Festival Multi-Media Room. This room has it’s own entrance (left side of Tamayo’s front
patio). Stop by to meet and chat with artists from the Chicano Mural Movement, and to
view short videos about the movement’s history on large monitors.
•
Essays & Articles: Included with your packet is a short overview of the Chicano Mural
Movement along with background and history about some of the “leaders & players”.
We’ve also included reprints of some interesting news articles related to the movement
and murals (including articles about the recent “mural ban” and lifting of the ban).
Will Call & Extra Festival Packets:
The Will Call Table – with plenty of extra festival packets — will be located in the Festival
Multimedia Room at Tamayo’s, starting at 11:30 AM.
Please do not hesitate to call The Da Camera Society offices (213-477-2929) if you should have
any questions.
We look forward to seeing you this Sunday at Tamayo’s!
The Da Camera Society
DIRECTIONS & PARKING INFO
Tamayo Restaurant & Art Gallery
5300 E Olympic Blvd., Los Angeles 90022
+ + DIRECTIONS TO TAMAYO’S + +
CLOSURE of the 101 FWY:
The 101 FWY through Downtown Los Angeles will be closed for 40 hours beginning Friday,
February 5th at 10:00 PM as construction crews demolish a portion of the 6th Street Viaduct. The
freeway will be closed from the interchange with the 10 FWY (near Union Station) to the
interchange with the 5 FWY (South of Downtown).
The onramp to the 101 from the westbound lanes of the 60 FWY will also be closed.
This means that if you are coming from the San Fernando Valley you will not be able to take the
101 FWY South to the 5 FWY; you should take the 134 FWY to the 5 FWY South.
FROM THE 5 FWY SOUTH (South of the 710 FWY Interchange and near the East L.A./City of
Commerce Border): Take the Atlantic Blvd./Eastern Ave. exit. At the bottom of the exit, turn
right at the stoplight and drive North. After crossing back over the freeway, follow the Atlantic
Blvd. signs overhead, driving several blocks to Olympic Blvd. Turn right onto Olympic and drive
one block East. Tamayo will appear on your right, just before Goodrich Ave. Turn right into the
Tamayo parking lot, just before the restaurant — valet attendants will park your car.
FROM THE 5 FWY NORTH: Take the Atlantic Blvd. North exit. At the bottom of the exit, turn
left at the stoplight and drive North — this becomes Atlantic Blvd. at the next stoplight. Follow
the Atlantic Blvd. signs overhead, driving several blocks to Olympic Blvd. Turn right onto
Olympic and drive one block East. Tamayo will appear on your right, just before Goodrich
Ave. Turn right into the Tamayo parking lot, just before the restaurant — valet attendants will
park your car.
++ DIRECTIONS TO BEGINNING OF THE SELF-GUIDED DRIVING TOUR OF MURALS + +
SEE ABOVE: CLOSURE of the 101 FWY
FROM 5 FWY SOUTH: Drive SOUTH on the 5 FWY towards Los Angeles and exit 135B for the
10 FWY East San Bernadino, toward San Bernadino; keep right and follow the signs for Chavez
Avenue. Turn right onto State St. Then, turn left onto E Cesar E Chavez Ave. and drive to 2242 E
Cesar E. Chavez Ave. at Breed Street where you will find STOP #1 on the MAP for the SelfGuided Driving Tour of Murals.
FROM DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES: Drive SOUTH on 110 FWY and merge onto the 10 FWY
East. Keep left at the fork to stay on the 10 FWY East, follow signs for Interstate 5N to
Sacramento / Interstate 10E toward San Bernadino. In 1.6 miles take exit 135B toward Cesar
Chavez Avenue. Turn Right onto E Cesar Chavez Ave. and drive to 2242 E Cesar E. Chavez Ave.
at Breed Street where you will find STOP #1 on the MAP for the Self-Guided Driving Tour of
Murals.
East L.A./Boyle Heights Festival
Sunday, 7 February 2016
S e lf Gu id e d Driv in g tou r:
Mura l s of East L . A . & B oy le H e ig h ts
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Dangler Ave.
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Mott St.
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Eastern Ave.
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Record Ave.
Michigan Ave
Mathews St.
Cesar Chavez Ave.
Herbert Ave.
Soto St.
Breed St.
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Gage Ave.
1st St.
Chicago St.
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Eastman Ave.
Ditman Ave.
Indiana St.
Inset 1
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Blvd
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Tamayo
Restaurant
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C hicano Mural Mov e me n t: A B r i e f Ov e rv i ew
Six-year-old Heriberto Aguilar stands at fence at his Estrada Courts home, January 21, 1982. The mural was painted in 1978 by El
Congresso de Artistas Cosmicos de las Americas de San Diego and restored in 1996 by Mario Torero and Carmen Kalo.
The Chicano Mural Movement originally grew out of a larger political context in the 1960’s reflecting the
national liberation struggle of the Mexican-American that was formalized by Chicano political figures such as
Cesar Chavez. As a whole the murals of East Los Angeles expressed the nationalistic ideology of the Chicano
Movement through their use of pre-Columbian and Mexican Historical subjects.
The mural movement in East Los Angeles, which surfaced at the end of the 1960’s functioned with the conviction
that art can affect social change. The muralists strove to address the community’s values, problems and goals.
This resulted in a creation of over 400 murals intended to instill a new pride among Chicanos toward their
community. Popular iconography included the Virgin of Guadalupe as a symbol of independence taken from the
Mexican Revolution; Aztec imagery reflecting the advanced state of this culture; local Chicano heroes such as
Ruben Salazar; and other “freedom fighters” such as Che Guevara and Pancho Villa.
Artistically, the greatest influence on the Chicano
Mural Movement was the art of the Mexican muralists –
Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro
Siqueiros. These artists were all actively involved with
the ideals of the Mexican Revolution of 1910 and the
rising trend of nationalism in Mexican art. Stylistic
influences on Chicano artists can be seen as well as
direct borrowing of images and subject matter.
– Maria Luisa de Herrera, 2008
David Alfaro Siqueiros, José Clemente Orozco and Diego Rivera
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Ear ly L e a d e rs a n d P lay e rs
A number of individual artists and collectives helped shaped the Chicano Mural Movement here in the greater
Los Angeles area. Below, we are focusing on two “artist collectives” who had a particularly strong impact on
The Movement, and Self Help Graphics, a community arts center in East L.A., which was a primary center that
incubated the nascent Chicano Art Movement and remains important today.
East Los Streetscapers
East Los Streetscapers Public Art Studios is a
muralist art collective and fine art studio based
in East Los Angeles. Its members have executed
over twenty murals and large-scale public
artworks, primarily in the Los Angeles area. East
Los Streetscapers grew out of the Chicano Mural
Movement of the 1960s and 1970s, a strand of
muralism that “began as an arm of struggle of
claiming urban space” for Chicanos.
David Botello and Wayne Healy
It was founded by Wayne Alaniz Healy and David
Rivas Botello in 1975. Alaniz and Botello met in elementary school, and when in the third grade, collaborated on a
mural. However, they lost touch when Botello’s family moved to nearby City Terrace. In 1969, Botello co-founded
Goez Art Studio, “the first” Chicano art studio, with Jose Luis Gonzalez and Juan Gonzalez. In 1973, he painted
Dreams of Flight, one of the early murals at Estrada Courts in East L.A.
In 1968, Healy earned a Bachelor’s degrees in aerospace engineering and mathematics from Cal Poly Pomona. He
went on to earn a Master’s in mechanical engineering from the University of Cincinnati in 1973. He began working
with Mechicano Art Center in East Los Angeles, and in 1974, painted the mural Ghosts of the Barrio at the Los
Angeles housing project Ramona Gardens. He has since earned a Master’s of Fine Arts from California State
University, Northridge and created numerous screen prints with Self-Help Graphics & Art.
In 1975 Healy and Botello teamed to form Los Dos Streetscapers. They were soon joined by other artists such as
George Yepes, Paul Botello, Rudy Calderon, Rich Raya, Ricardo Duffy, Charles Solares and Fabian Debora, which
occasioned the renaming of the group to “East Los Streetscapers.” While collaborating artists have come and
gone, Healy and Botello have remained the core of the group.
In 1990, Healy and Botello founded the Palmetto Gallery to provide exposure for younger artists. East Los
Streetscapers have also sponsored projects for barrio youth.
Los Four
Los Four was a Chicano artist collective during the 1970s and early 1980s in Los Angeles, California. The group
was instrumental in bringing Chicano Art to the attention of the mainstream art world.
The Chicano artist collective Los Four originally consisted of Frank Romero (b. 1940), Carlos Almaraz (1941–1989),
Roberto de la Rocha (b. 1937) and founder Gilbert Luján (1940–2011). Judithe Hernández (b. 1948) became the
official fifth member of Los Four immediately following the group’s history-making exhibition at the Los Angeles
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County Museum of Art (LACMA). Judithe Hernández had become acquainted with Carlos Almaraz when they
attended graduate school at Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles and he introduced her to the group. With the
addition of Judithe Hernández, Los Four became one of only two major Chicano artist collectives to include a
woman, the other being ASCO (Willie Herron, Harry Gamboa, Jr., Gronk, and Patssi Valdez). In writing about the
early history of Chicano art in his Reflection on the Chicano Art Movimiento, A Primer: by Armando Vazquezhe
wrote, “In Los Angeles there were two seminal art groups that would forge a new Chicano art sensibility”. The
first was Los Four, which included Carlos Almaraz, Gilbert (Magu) Lujan, Roberto (Beto) de la Rocha, Frank
Romero, and Judithe Hernández. All of Los Four’s members were college-educated political activists who with
other artists formed the intellectual vanguard of the Chicano art movement in the 1970s. Vazquez notes” It is
safe to say that this grouping of artists, known collectively as Los Four, “legitimized” Chicano art in the Anglo
American art world…” “Today, Frank Romero, Carlos Almaraz, Gilbert Lujan, and Judithe Hernández represent
a group of Chicano artists who have attained international respect and are admired for producing original and
exceptional bodies of work.”
After the untimely death of Carlos Almaraz in 1989, the group has shown together less actively. In 1994, the
remaining members were reunited for an exhibition entitled Los Four: Twenty Years Later at the Robert Berman
Gallery. All of the members of Los Four have enjoyed successful solo careers as visual artists and have exhibited
extensively in the United States, Latin America, and Europe. In 2011, Los Four was honored for their contribution
to the art of Los Angeles “L.A. XICANO: Mapping Another Los Angeles” at the Fowler Museum. The exhibition
was one of eight specifically honoring the contributions of Chicano artists as part of the sweeping arts initiative
known as “Pacific Standard Time: The Art of Los Angeles 1975-1980”. Each artist of this historically significant
group is responsible for bringing well-deserved recognition to Chicano Art and, in no small way, have been
instrumental in paving the way for the Chicano/Latino artists that have followed.
Exhibitions and Public Art
After having had well-received exhibitions in the Los Angeles area, the group’s breakthrough came when LACMA
made the decision to mount a major Los Four exhibition titled Los Four: Almaraz, de la Rocha, Lujan, Romero
(Feb. 26–Apr. 7, 1974). In doing so, LACMA became the first mainstream museum to recognize the importance of
Chicano Art as a unique school of American art.
Along with their exhibitions, the members of Los Four are responsible for many of the most well-known murals of
the period. Frank Romero painted several murals around Los Angeles, including Going to the Olympics on a wall
of the Hollywood Freeway in downtown Los Angeles. The mural, originally created for the 1984 Olympics, was
vandalized over time and “whitewashed” by CALTRANS as part of their graffiti abatement program. In 2013, the
Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles restored the popular mural along with 5 others on the freeway.
Judithe Hernández painted twelve murals in the Los Angeles area
between 1969 and 1982, two of which were painted in collaboration
with Carlos Almaraz at the Ramona Garden Housing Projects. In
1976, she was one of the artists who painted the first 1000 feet of
the Great Wall of Los Angeles. In 1981, she was commissioned by
the Los Angeles Bicentennial Committee to create the City’s official
bicentennial mural commemorating the founding of the City of Los
Angeles in 1781. The 3-story mural “Recuerdos de Ayer, Sueños de
Mañana” was painted on the north facade of the Brunswig Building
next to the Placita Church on Spring St.
Carlos Almaraz also painted numerous significant murals in the Los
Los Four, (l-r) Robert “Beto” de la Rocha, Carlos
Almaraz, Frank Romero, Judithe Hernández
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Angeles area. With John Valadez, he painted the 200-foot-long Return of the Maya in Cypress Park, La Adelita in
the Ramona Gardens Housing Project with Judithe Hernández, and California Dreamscape (completed after his
death). He and Judithe Hernández also painted murals for Cesar Chavez and the United Farmer Workers Union.
Three members of Los Four have received major public art commissions from the Los Angeles County
Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LAMTA). In 1990, Gilbert Lujan designed the Hollywood Red Line Station
at Hollywood Blvd & Vine Street. In 1995, Frank Romero painted a mural for the Wilshire/Normandie Station.
And in 2013, Judithe Hernández was awarded the coveted commission to create 24 large scale individual mosaic
panels for the Downtown Santa Monica EXPO Line Grand Terminus Station at Colorado & 4th Street. “The
station at the edge of the continent” will be three blocks from the Santa Monica Pier and is expected to be one
of the most traveled light rail lines in the U.S. Completion of the station is scheduled for 2016.
Self Help Graphics & Art (“Art Transforms Communities”)
Self-Help Graphics & Art, Inc. is a community arts center in East Los Angeles,
California, USA. Formed during the cultural renaissance that accompanied
the Chicano Movement, Self Help, as it is sometimes called, was one of the
primary centers that incubated the nascent Chicano art movement, and
remains important in the Chicano art movement, as well as in the greater
Los Angeles community, today. As a center of culture, SHG also hosts
musical and other performances, and organizes Los Angeles’s annual Day
of the Dead festivities. Throughout its history, the organization has worked
with well-known artists in the Los Angeles area such as Los Four and the
East Los Streetscapers, but it has focused primarily on training and giving
exposure to young and new artists, many of whom have gone on to national
and international prominence.
Sister Karen Boccalero
In 1970, the artist and Franciscan nun Karen Boccalero started producing prints in an East Los Angeles garage
with Chicano artists Carlos Bueno, Antonio Ibáñez, Frank Hernández, and others. They decided to work together
to promote community arts and the work of local artists, to use art as an instrument of social change in the
barrio, and to establish a cultural arts center. The artists had their first exhibition the following year at an East
Los Angeles shopping center called El Mercado. In 1972, the organization, which until that time went by the name
Art Inc., was renamed Self Help Graphics & Art when it found a home in a suite on the third floor of an office
building at 2111 Brooklyn Avenue in Boyle Heights. The 2,000 square-foot (186 m2) space was financed by Order
of the Sisters of St. Francis, who donated $10,000. The following year, the space was expanded to 9,000 square
feet (836 m2) with a grant from the Campaign for Human Development.
The first official activity of the organization was an inaugural batik and
silkscreen workshop that ended with a group exhibition. Participating
artists paid a small fee and provided their own materials. Thus began
the Self Help tradition of instructing budding artists in graphic arts
techniques. Shortly thereafter, funds provided by the California
Arts Council allowed the hiring of artists Peter Tovar, Fernando
Amozorrutia, Carlos Bueno, Victor Du Bois, Jeff Gates, Linda
Orozco, Jesse Rays, Carla Webber, Silvia Chavez, Michael Amescua
and Linda Vallejo as arts instructors. It should be noted that the first
Day of the Dead Celabration in the USA began in 1974 at SHG.
Artists working at Self Help Graphics
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At first, material support for Self Help was scarce. Boccalero
raised funds from Beverly Hills art enthusiasts and sought
donations from art stores, museums, and Catholic organizations.
In 1974, the artists realized that in order to accomplish their goal
of creating a permanent home for a community arts center, they
would need the support of major institutions such as theNational
Endowment for the Arts. Boccalero attended grant-writing
workshops and hired professional administrative staff, including
a bilingual office manager supplied by the American GI Forum’s
SER-Jobs for Progress.
In 1979 Self Help relocated to its former location in a large building
Artists at Self Help Graphics’
on the corner of Cesar Chavez Avenue (formerly Brooklyn
Barrio Mobile Art Studio
Avenue) and Gage Street. The building, which is owned by the
Archdiocese of Los Angeles, was previously home to the Catholic
Youth Organization, which rented space for dances and meetings. Under the terms of the lease, which was
renewable every ten years, Self Help was to pay one dollar per year in rent. According to cultural historian
Kristen Guzmán, “From […] correspondence involving Sister Karen and members of her community, as well as the
Franciscan priests of Santa Barbara and Oakland, it is evident that the Church was vital to Self Help’s existence
in this period”.
The former Self Help building contained a gallery, Galería Otra Vez, a printing room, office, studio space for
artists-in-residence, and storage areas in two stories. Today the exterior walls of the building are adorned with
embedded ceramic pieces, mosaics, and murals. The large statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe that stood in the
parking lot has been relocated to the new building. The mosaic work was done by the late artist Eduardo Oropeza.
Boccalero functioned as executive director until her death in 1997. A significant revival has been in process since
2007, including a major relocation from the former facility on Cesar Chavez Avenue to a new location in Boyle
Heights, adjacent to downtown Los Angeles.
To learn more about Self Help Graphics and their many programs, visit selfhelpgraphics.com.
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East L . A . /Boy l e Heig h ts Fe st i va l S e lf- Gu i d e d Mu ra l To u r
The following self-guided driving tour focuses on a dozen murals – most of them along a 3-mile stretch of
Cesar Chavez Ave., and a few locations on Olympic Blvd., near Tamayo’s. The tour starts on Cesar Chavez
Ave. (immediately East of the 5 FWY) and continues East (past the 710 FWY) to Mednik Ave., where you’ll
take a right and head South to Olympic Blvd. (Mednik becomes Arizona Ave. along the way). The entire tour
stretches more than 6 miles and takes at least 20 minutes to drive with normal traffic – that’s 20 minutes
without stopping to view murals. You should allow a minimum of 60-75 minutes to take the self-guided tour.
Sunday afternoon traffic has the potential to be slow in the East L.A. area. You may wish to park and get
out of the car to view a few of the murals – some of them best viewed from across the street. But keep your
eye on the clock – it’s easy to lose track of time during the drive – make sure you’re back at Tamayo’s for the
concert you’re ticketed to hear (2:00 or 4:00 PM).
1
Resurrection of the Green Planet
2242 E. Cesar Chavez Ave.
SW corner of Cesar Chavez Ave. & Breed St., El Pavo Bakery exterior.
Ernesto de la Loza, Assisted by Sandra de la Loza, Gloria Guerrero, Nikki Michel, and Rene
Olmos, 1991. Acrylic.
“Murals have healing powers,” Chicano artist Ernesto de la Loza believes, and concern for the environment is a
theme that often shows up in his work. He has been painting walls since 1974 when he worked as mural artist and
project director at Estrada Courts housing project in East Los Angeles. Trips to Europe and Mexico as well as
classes locally in art, architecture, ethnic studies, and social science have all influenced his continuously evolving
painting style. “Resurrection of the Green Planet” is a call to protect and preserve the earth. It also has another
title: “Tercer Piedra Desde El Sol” (“Third Stone from the Sun”). As you can see this one has been tagged over
along the top and bottom, but the middle portion remains intact.
Continue on E. Cesar Chavez Ave. one block to E. Cesar Chavez Ave and Soto St. to view murals #2 & #3, which
are across the street from each other.
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El Corrido de Boyle Heights
2300 E. Cesar Chavez Ave.
SW corner of Cesar Chavez Ave. & Soto St., Payless Shoes Source.
East Los Streetscapers (David Botello, Wayne Healy, George Yepes. Assisted by Paul Botello,
David Morin, and Ismael Cazarez.), 1984. Acrylic on stucco.
Only in East L.A. would a churrigueresque façade double as a 17x80 foot canvas to convey the flavor and romance
of the history of Boyle Heights. “El Corrido de Boyle Heights” is the third mural to occupy this same wall. In
1974, Frank Romero started the tradition when he covered 200 square feet with a giant spray can heart. In
1978, the Citywide Mural Project enlisted the talents of artists John Valadez, Barbara Carrasco, Glenna Boltuch
(Avila), Carlos Callejo, Leo Limon, George Yepes, and Rod Sakai to paint “Our People” (70’ x 16’), which was
unfortunately destroyed when Payless had to bow to new earthquake codes and add steel beams to reinforce
the building. The current mural is a testament to joy, in particular the joy of music. A corrido is a traditional
ballad-style Mexican song, and here it inspires local musician Margarito Gutierrez (descendant of mariachi Vargas
de Teclitlan), who plays his virtuoso fiddle while El Piporro wails on the accordion, Joe Alaniz (1933-1967) attacks
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a plate of shrimp and garlic, and a newlywed couple dances. The entire effect is both earthy and mystical; the
muse of music watches over her people and thanks to el corrido, the world is a better place.
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No Greater Love
2403 E. Cesar Chavez Ave.
NE corner Cesar Chavez Ave. & Soto St., Ramirez Pharmacy exterior.
Paul Botello, 1992.
Sacred iconography and fantastic visions rendered with beautiful, painterly technique. Artist Paul Botello was
what you might call a mural prodigy; at the age of eight he began painting them with his older brother David.
Botello has done major murals both in the U.S. and abroad, and has taught the art of mural painting in colleges
and universities. He describes this work as “an alchemy of science and religion, unifying man and woman with
nature and God. It attempts to connect spirituality with a society in need of peace.”
From E. Cesar Chavez Ave. and Soto St., drive East six blocks to N. Evergreen Ave. for stop #4 on your right.
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El Rescate
2934 E. Cesar Chavez Ave.
SW corner Cesar Chavez & Evergreen Aves.
John Zender Estrada, 1994. 2 panels.
Born in East L.A. and raised in South-Central, John Estrada (born 1966) works as a Los Angeles Conservation
Corps muralist and teacher through the group’s ‘Clean and Green’ and ‘Creative Solutions’ programs. “El Rescate”
means “The Rescue.” Who is being rescued, and from what? Who is the rescuer? Is that a bronze eagle or a
bronze vulture? The artist provides no commentary about this work, obviously preferring to leave it to the viewer
to decide on its meaning. Around the corner is another newer mural, featuring an untitled spray paint mural by
Keo, Zeal, Esae, Vox, Lotus, Cuz, Size, Make, Bash, and Kater, 2005.
Continue heading East on Cesar Chavez Ave. for one mile to S. Gage Ave. Mural #5 is located just south of East
Cesar Chavez Ave.
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Tonatiuh – Brown Unity
3734 E. Cesar Chavez Ave.
SW corner of Cesar Chavez and Gage Ave. across from the former/original Self Help Graphics Building.
Arturo Gonzalez, 2003.
In Aztec mythology, Tonatiuh is the Sun God and leader of Tollan, or heaven. Tonatiuh was a demanding deity,
threatening that the sun would refuse to move through the sky if his appetite for human sacrifice was not met.
Back in Aztec days, it’s estimated that 20,000 people were sacrificed each year to appease Tonatiuh and other
gods. But Tonatiuh can also be seen as a powerful unifying force, in whom resides the vast energy of creation,
warmth and sustenance.
From Gage Ave., continue East on Cesar Chavez Ave. to see the original home of Self Help Graphics (on your
right). To view Mural #6, we recommend parking and viewing from the corner of Cesar Chavez and Herbert Ave.
looking West toward the Self Help Graphics building. Mural #6 is located on upper portion of East facing wall,
above a taco stand.
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6
Former/Original Self Help Graphics Building Mosaics
3802 E. Cesar Chavez Ave.
SE corner of Cesar Chavez & Gage Aves.
Eva Cockcroft and Alessandra Moctezuma.
Self Help Graphics & Art started with a small group of artists working out of a garage in East Los Angeles in the
early 1970’s, dedicated to creating art that reflected the cultural values and spirit of the local Chicano community.
It has become a pre-eminent center for cultivating young Latino artists who seek to learn printmaking, exhibition
and training. Self Help Graphics has moved to a new facility featuring ongoing events and classes listed at
their website: www.selfhelpgraphics.com “Self Help has provided authentic artistic self-expression for two
generations in a community where arts education has been devastated, producing over the years a vibrant,
important collection of prints by recognized and emerging Eastside artists.” (elaguide.org)
Walk East another 100 feet for the ideal viewing spot – face West as you look up to see #7.
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Homenaje a Siqueiros
3818 E. Cesar Chavez Ave.
Upper East-facing wall of former/original Self Help Graphics, above taco stand. Eva Cockcroft
and Alessandra Moctezuma (recreation of D.A. Siqueiros mural). In memory of Dr. Otto E. Sperling
and Yolanda Garcia Rubio.
“The mural is a recreation of the long-hidden and partially destroyed mural by famous Mexican muralist David
Alfaro Siqueiros at Olvera Street.” (elaguide.org) Siqueiros was a member of the famed collective that included
Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco, who were known for their large murals in fresco that established the
“Mexican Mural Renaissance” in the 1920s - 1940s. A passionate revolutionary and Stalinist, Siqueiros wanted to
create art that was both nationalistic and universal. He had a love/hate relationship with the Mexican Communist
Party, and was also known for his assassination attempt on Leon Trotsky in 1940, which resulted in his exile from
Mexico. The beautiful reproduction allows the views to experience Siqueros’ masterpiece America Tropical as if
it had never been whitewashed in 1938.
Continuing in your car, proceed for three miles East on Cesar Chavez Ave. past Record Ave. to Hazard Ave. at
Cesar Chavez Ave. Mural #8 is on your left on the exterior of the Quinn Public Library.
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Tree of Knowledge (read!)
3965 E. Cesar Chavez Ave.
NW corner of Cesar Chavez & Hazard Aves. Exterior of Anthony Quinn Public Library.
Teresa Chacon, Josefina Quezada & Chicana Action Service Center, Assisted by Thelma Heavilin
Sanchez, Susan Valdez Torres, Rosa M. Quezada, Patricia Rivera, Vivian Sanchez, and Herlinda
Bustamente. 1978. Acrylic.
In “Tree of Knowledge”, learning feeds the minds and imaginations of people of all ages depicted. The imagery is
both whimsical and pointed; giant tree trunks become library shelves, and flaming yellow-orange-red demi-orbs
issue from them, radiating a powerful glow. That the readership is female is no accident; knowledge is power, and
the more knowledge women have, the more self-actualized they will become, as intimated by the grown woman’s
hair, which seems to spring from the tree with the orange-red heat of knowledge. Note: This L.A. County branch
library sits on the former site of the home in which actor Anthony Quinn grew up after he moved to East L.A.
from Chihuahua, Mexico, at age four (Robin J. Dunitz, in Street Gallery, 1993).
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Drive slightly less than one mile as you pass under the 710 Freeway and arrive at mural #9 on your right. You
may park to view #9, and, when you are finished, walk East to Arizona Ave. and turn right (South) to view stop #10
alongside the Maravilla Meat Market façade.
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La Vida Breve de Alfonso Fulano
4716 E. Cesar Chavez Ave.
SW corner of Cesar Chavez & Arizona Aves. Centro Maravilla Community Service Center façade.
Goez Art Studio; Robert Arenivar, Jose-Luis Gonzalez, Juan Gonzalez, David Botello, 1975. Acrylic
on stucco.
The title of this mural translates to “The Short Life of John Doe” and it tells the story of the community of
Maravilla, one of the earliest settlements in East L.A., and originally home to people fleeing religious persecution
in Mexico. The tranquility and open space of the fields and mountains of earlier times contrasts with the noisy,
congested urban environment of Los Angeles, with its trolley cars, crowds and street scenes both colorful and
claustrophobic. The tale is told through the eyes of one anonymous old man, who recounts the history of the area
and the changes that have taken place over the years.
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Open the Curtains
4732 E. Cesar Chavez Ave.
SE corner of Cesar Chavez & Arizona Aves. on the Maravilla Meat Market façade.
John “Zender” Estrada, Tribute to Cesar Chavez. 1995-6. Acrylic.
In your car, continue two blocks to N. Mednik Ave. where you will turn right. In 1.6 miles, Mednick will become S.
Arizona Ave. Turn right onto E. Olympic Blvd. and travel .2 miles, where you will make a slight right onto Mines St.
Straight ahead is Sloan’s Dry Cleaners and mural #11.
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Cuidense Amigos (Read Between the Lines)
4539 E. Olympic Blvd.
NW corner of Olympic & Ford Blvds. Sloan’s Dry Cleaners Exterior.
David Botello, 1975. Acrylic on Stucco.
This mural is a statement on modern-day electronic distraction, and its possible antidote – a return to one’s
cultural heritage via the antiquated avenues of reading and thinking. The predominant color is light blue/aqua,
giving the mural a mystical aura. In Botello’s vision, “a Chicano worker stands enslaved by modern technology
while his family watches television, mesmerized by images of sex, violence, and patriotism. In the center, a young
boy sits reading about Mexican history. Behind him the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl swoops down from the sun to
encourage him.”
Make a left turn onto S. Ford Blvd. and a quick left back onto Olympic Blvd. Drive six blocks until you will see the
San Francisco Catholic Church on your right. Mural #12 is inside the small parking lot on the East wall.
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12
St. Francis
4800 E. Olympic Blvd.
SW corner of Olympic Blvd. & Ferris Ave. Located on west wall of Frankie’s Market in the parking
lot of the San Francisco Catholic Church. Unknown artist/date.
Continue East to Tamayo Restaurant, 5300 E. Olympic Blvd. To see Mural #13, please park at the restaurant and
walk East on Olympic Blvd. to Goodrich Blvd., exercising care when crossing Goodrich Blvd.
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Orgullo de Nuestra Herencia (Pride of our Heritage)
5400 E. Olympic Blvd.
SE corner of Olympic & Goodrich Blvds. TELACU Headquarters Exterior.
Goez Art Studio (designed by Frank Martinez, project director Jose-Luis Gonzalez), 1983. Ceramic tile.
Adorning the entrance of Telacu’s towering glass edifice, this mural gives the illusion of stained glass. It is, however,
fashioned of ceramic tile. With rich color and symbolism, “Orgullo de Nuestra Herencia” is a visual overview of
the history of the Mexican-American people from before the conquest of Mexico by Cortez to contemporary
East L.A. Its bold, fluid ascending lines suggest upward mobility and limitless opportunity; the eye follows it all
the way to the top of the building, and continues toward the infinite space of sky, clouds…heaven? Or is heaven
here on earth, a creation of the people working together?
TELACU is a non-profit community development corporation founded in 1968. It is self-sustained by TELACU
Industries, a for-profit family of companies, which provide the economic means to fulfill TELACU’s mission. Through
its businesses, services and partnerships, TELACU creates dynamic opportunities to rebuild and enhance the
communities it serves. TELACU’s mission of providing greater opportunities continues to be realized through
the creation of new jobs, responsive financial institutions, expanding businesses, quality affordable housing, and
educational opportunities for young people and veterans in East Los Angeles.
We hope you enjoyed this beautiful neighborhood and its rich cultural examples of public art. See you at the
concert!
FOR ANOTHER VISIT… or through a tour offered by the Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles
Estrada Courts
located North of Olympic Blvd., immediately East of Soto St.
Completed in 1942, Estrada Courts is an early example of Garden City planning principles in public housing. The
Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA) commissioned a seasoned team of garden apartment
architects and planners to design a complex spanning three blocks in Boyle Heights. The apartments were
intended to address the housing shortage that resulted from the rapid growth of wartime industries, one of a
handful of garden apartment projects that were fast-tracked for completion in the early 1940s. In 1954, the site
was expanded to allow for additional housing.
In 1973, Estrada Courts began mural projects to combat gang activity. Many youth, some gang members, and
volunteers painted nearly 50 murals here. The Estrada Court murals are often considered “the site of the 1970s
birth of the Chicano Mural Art Movement,” according to Isabel Rojas-Williams, Executive Director of the Mural
Conservancy of Los Angeles.
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Many of the murals are visible as you drive by on Olympic Blvd., or as you drive around and through Estrada
Courts. It’s well worth a visit to Estrada Courts, on a tour offered by the Mural Conservancy (self guided tours
are not recommended). Or, if you’re driving West on Olympic towards Downtown, you’ll have the opportunity to
view a number of these vibrant murals overlooking Olympic Blvd., East of Soto St.
A few of the murals at Estrada Courts include:
• Mural of Children by Charles Felix
• Two Flags by Sonny Ramirez (1973), located at 1364-6 Grande Vista Ave at Olympic
• In Memory of a Home Boy by Daniel Martinez (1973), located at 3328 Hunter St.
• Dreams of Flight by David Botello (1973-78, repainted in 1996), located at 3441 Olympic Blvd.
• The Sun Bathers by Gil Hernandez (1973), located at 3287 Olympic Blvd.
• The Artist by Daniel Haro (1973)
• Moratorium – The Black and White Mural by Willie Herron & Gronk (1973)
• We Are Not a Minority by El Congreso de Artistas Cosmicos de las Americas de San Diego (Mario Torero,
Rocky, El Lion, Zade) (1978, repainted in 1996).
Learn More
To learn more about murals throughout East L.A., Boyle Heights and beyond, or to take a docent-led tour,
contact one of the following groups dedicated to education, conservation and restoration:
• Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles, muralconservancy.org
• Social and Public Art Resource Center, sparcinla.org
Print Sources:
“East Los Streetscapers”, Wikipedia, 2016; “Los Four”, Wikipedia, 2016; “Self Help Graphics”, Wikipedia, 2016; “Estrada Courts”, Los
Angeles Conservancy, 2016; Much of the information about the murals in the self-guided tour was gathered from the Mural Conservancy
of Los Angeles and the Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC).
Images:
Child in front of mural [Courtesy of Los Angeles Public Library]; Siqueiros, Orozco & Rivera; David Botello and Wayne Healy [Courtesy
of ChicanoArtCollective.com]; Los Four; Sister Karen Boccalero; Artists at Self Help Graphics; Artists at the Barrio Mobile Art Studio
[Courtesy of Self Help Graphics]
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Is a policy shift in the picture for Los Angeles murals?
By Reed Johnson
Los Angeles Times, 2013
Later this summer, following years of legal skirmishing and politicking, the Los Angeles City Council is expected
to vote on whether to lift its decade-old ban on private-property murals.
Some questions surrounding the proposed ordinance have been around since at least 1932, when the Mexican
muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros painted his polemical masterpiece “América Tropical” in downtown Los Angeles,
which was subsequently whitewashed and finally restored last year.
Among them are: What happens when an individual artist or property owner’s free-speech rights collide with
another group’s aesthetic preferences or personal views? Who gets to decide what’s art and what’s “vandalism” —
elected officials, cultural appointees, police officers, neighborhood councils? And, ultimately, what sort of openair visual environment does Los Angeles want to foster?
“We look to Paris or we look to Florence, they have their gorgeous public art, right?” says Isabel Rojas-Williams,
executive director of the Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles, which supports the new measure. “Why can’t we
do that? Why can’t we have our own Sistine Chapel on the streets?”
Yet in other, significant ways, the landscape in which the proposed ordinance is being debated is very different
from that of 2003, when the city’s ban went into effect — let alone from the 1930s or the early ‘70s, when a
proliferation of murals and street art began to dramatically alter many neighborhoods.
As a result, some issues have become more complex than before, and the path toward a law that addresses
those issues may be even less clear than it was in the past when the city repeatedly tried, and failed, to clarify
its policies.
To begin with, muralism in Los Angeles is far from an endangered species. Despite the city’s ban, and notwithstanding
the whitewashing of hundreds of existing murals over the last decade, scores of other new murals and streetart projects have gone up throughout the region during the last 10 years. Some local artists who support the
ordinance believe that street art will continue to flourish whether the City Council lifts the current ban.
“I have a mural lined up I’m supposed to do, across from LACMA, coming up in August,” says Greg “Craola”
Simkins, a South Bay artist who concocts surreal confabulations of Pop art and Old Master paintings, and whose
work adorns art galleries, video games and toys as well as urban walls and Melrose Avenue alleyways. “If people
in the right places say, ‘You can paint this,’ you can show up and nobody’s going to mess with you.”
The draft ordinance, whose leading sponsor has been Eastside Councilman José Huizar, would allow for the
creation and preservation of original art murals and “public art installations,” but not commercial advertising on
private property.
A sticking point has been whether to allow new murals to be rendered on single-family (R1 zoned) structures.
Another crucial provision likely to be in the final draft would protect hundreds of existing murals under
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a grandfather clause. The R1 provision has alarmed other elected officials, who fear that it could lead to an
onslaught of new murals in neighborhoods that historically haven’t wanted them.
Public attitudes toward muralism and its aesthetic kinfolk, graffiti and street art, have evolved considerably over
the last several decades as these forms have been assimilated into popular culture. Mural art and graffiti, a
facet of hip-hop culture, have been widely commercialized, now used in advertising and graphic design to hawk
hamburgers, basketball shoes, energy drinks and Hollywood movies.
“When we all started doing it, we weren’t trying to be in galleries, we weren’t trying to impress the people on the
hills with the money,” Simkins says. “We were just painting to talk to each other, leaving marks, like, ‘Oh, check out
this.’ It was like a sport. And now people are interested in it and want to hang it on their walls.”
For some, street art has become a lucrative and name-branding practice, performed not only by amateurs and
crews but also by globe-trotting artist-celebrities such as Banksy, the Brit whose works are shown in museum
exhibitions and can fetch millions of dollars.
Last month a satirical mural stencil by Banksy titled “Slave Labor (Bunting Boy),” which was originally rendered
on a discount shop’s wall in North London and later sliced off, was purchased at auction by an unknown buyer
for $1.1 million. The sale provided the latest example of the commodification of street art, and set Twitter feeds
ablaze with commentary as to whether the genre is losing some of its underground cachet and socially critical,
outsider stature.
“Street art and graffiti art has completely been embraced and absorbed into popular culture and disseminated
globally, while at the same time still being criminalized,” says Sandra de la Loza, a multimedia artist whose 2011
LACMA show, “Mural Remix,” presented a visionary mash-up by sampling and recombining elements of ‘70s
Chicano murals.
Veteran L.A. muralist John M. Valadez, who belonged to a group of pioneering Chicano art-provocateurs in
the 1970s and ‘80s, suggested that some city policies governing public art are outdated, unsophisticated and
confusing, in part because they have failed to keep pace with changing technologies, popular attitudes and the
blurring of various commercial and non-commercial artistic strategies.
“To use a spray, you’re like some kind of an outlaw. If I use a brush it’s, ‘Oh, well then, you’re doing a mural,’” he
said.
De La Loza sees similar contradictions toward street art. “It’s ironic that despite its immense appeal and
embracement by many textures of society, the last ones to accept it are the art world, and also the judicial system
and city policies remain hostile to it,” she said.
Indeed, major museums were among the last holdouts in granting recognition to muralism and street art. But in
recent years Southern California museums have devoted entire exhibitions to them, such as the massive “Art
in the Streets” show at L.A.’s Museum of Contemporary Art in 2011. That institutionalizating process has been
celebrated by some, but viewed by others as the de-fanging of a previously renegade art form.
Meanwhile, new forms of graffiti- and mural-based art have continued to multiply, among them skateboard art,
tattoo and body art, and sticker art. Richard and Rosanna Ahrens, owners of Sticky Rick’s in Boyle Heights, are
among the leading purveyors of vinyl silk-screen sticker art, a quietly booming sub-genre. Whimsical stickers,
generally ranging in size from big-toe-shaped to postcard width, are increasingly being used by individuals, groups
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and start-up businesses not only to decorate cellphones and laptops, but also to promote products and ideas,
create brand names, and to trade and circulate through social media.
Just as street art no longer is associated solely with any ethnic group, it also is no longer the exclusive intellectual
property of any one social class. From East L.A. to Koreatown and the San Fernando Valley, murals have become
a transglobal art form, incorporating Japanese manga art, Korean and Brazilian cartoon characters, traditional
Chicano iconography and many other influences.
“A lot of the people that we work with, they have some kind of corporate job,” Richard Ahrens said. “They work
for Xbox, they do magazines, they do layouts, and their fun thing is stickers. Or to go along with their product or
new brand.”
But in spite of all these shifts, what may finally decide the ordinance’s fate is a persistent belief in some quarters
that murals are symptoms, if not causes, of urban decay. During the 1980s and ‘90s, gang members learned that
one way to keep their tags temporarily safe from graffiti-abatement crews was to spray them on existing murals.
That slowly led to a conflation of mural art with graffiti art.
“In L.A. we’ve been bombarded with a 20-year sound bite of ‘graffiti equals criminal activity,’” De La Loza said.
Museum exhibitions and pop culture spinoffs may widen peoples’ understanding of the history of muralism and
street art, and their sense of its possibilities, she believes, “but in terms of actually changing policy, I don’t know,”
De La Loza said. “That’s a whole different ballgame.”
L.A. to spend $750,000 to conserve
public murals and paint new ones
by Deborah Vankin
Los Angeles Times, 2015
Los Angeles will announce a new Citywide Mural Program on Tuesday that calls for $750,000 to be spent on
the restoration and preservation of historic fine art murals as well as the development of new ones.
The Department of Cultural Affairs program, which will run through June 2016, is an outgrowth of the city’s
2013 ordinance allowing new murals after a nearly 10-year ban, said Danielle Brazell, the department’s general
manger of cultural affairs.
“Once it passed and murals were no longer illegal, we had a new set of guidelines in which the city could get
behind murals once again,” Brazell said. “For close to a decade, there were no resources to restore fine art
murals or commission new ones. This is something the mayor put in the budget last year and the City Council
supported it.”
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L.A. is considered a mural capital with a deep tradition of communities expressing themselves through public
art. The new mural initiative, Brazell said, is meant to generate civic pride and an awareness for these historic
works, many of which are 30 or more years old.
The funds include $400,000 that will go to the Social and Public Art Resource Center, or SPARC, and the
Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles. The two nonprofit groups will conserve 11 murals that have been damaged.
The work will include applying an anti-graffiti coating to protect the artwork from vandals.
“Our office conducted a survey to establish a ranking of historically significant murals,” said Felicia Filer,
Cultural Affairs’ director of public art.
SPARC, which will restore nine murals, has begun conservation on seven, including Roderick Sykes’ 1989
“Literacy,” Yreina Cervantez’s 1988-1989 “La Ofrenda” and George Yepes’ 1989 “Mujer del Este de Los Angeles.”
The Mural Conservancy will tackle conservation of the 1973 collaboration between artists Willie Herrón III and
Gronk titled “Moratorium: The Black and White Mural,” in Boyle Heights, as well as Judithe Hernández’s 1977
“Homenaje a Las Mujeres de Aztlan,” a collaboration with Carlos Almaraz of the Ramona Gardens Housing
Project.
The new program provides $300,000 for 15 City Council offices to commission new works or to conserve
existing ones. They also will use the funds for documentation and educational outreach, Filer said.
“We heard a lot from the mural community that there needed to be a mural education program re-educating
the public about the murals that exist within their communities,” Filer said. “So the council offices are beginning
to look at ways of doing outreach -- things like mural tours, artists working with youth on new projects, social
media efforts, college students conducting surveys of murals in their district.”
The remaining $50,000 for the new program will go toward clerical administration on the mural projects.
“Los Angeles has a rich collection of murals that explore our stories and leave a recorded history,” Mayor
Eric Garcetti said in the city announcement. “Murals are one of our most vibrant forms of public art, and this
sizable investment will help us to both conserve many of our city’s fading murals and create new ones for
Angelenos to enjoy.”
SPARC founder and artistic director Judith F. Baca noted that some may say Los Angeles doesn’t have a heart
or a civic center. “But it’s unique in that it has many hearts, many community centers,” she said. “What the
murals do is they put a face on these places. The murals give us a kind of grass-roots vision of place and who
we are as a people.”
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New Mural by East Los Streetscapers Marks
125th Anniversary of Whittier College
by Ed Fuentes
KCET, 2012
With street art becoming a dominate movement in the local mural scene, a new work that uses the Chicano
craft of bringing buried community stories to the earth and walls – and keeping the a neighborhood relevant
– is a rare gem.
Sometimes the best way to keep that Los Angeles mural tradition alive is to rely on the established masters.
That is the case with East Los Streetscapers, David Botello and Wayne Healey, who just completed “The Poets
Wall,” a new work dedicated October 28 in celebration of the 125th anniversary of Whittier College.
The 11.5 feet by 48 feet mural by Botello and Healey, with assistance from Benjamin Botello, Wenceslao Quiroz,
and Jose Gutierrez, had its content driven by students taking the course “Politics, History and the Arts in Latin
America,” led by Professor Deborah Norden and Associate Professor Jose Orozcol.
“We stirred up an appreciation for all that goes into making a piece of public art,” said Botello, admiring how
some student’s enthusiasm made a diligence of attending once a week meetings during finals and over the
summer.
During those meetings, students brought in researched images reflecting events and regional culture, ranging
from the college’s namesake, John Greenleaf Whittier, alumnus Martin Ortiz, to the retired mascot Friday the
Squirrel. Landscapes of campus landmarks, and the view of downtown Los Angeles from Turner Hall, balance
the piece. Objects such as a Richard Nixon campaign pin and Whittier College seal mix in with students
participating in campus ceremonies, signs pointing to countries around the world.
“Our design elements were similar to before, but this time we made use of the computer and Photoshop
in a more stylistic way, by changing colors as we crossed over compositional lines. We also made use of
many complementary softer colors and the school’s colors: Purple and Gold.” Said Botello. “The far right side
featured an altar for Dia de los Muertos, which was a suggestion from both Latino and Anglo students. It was
a hard sell to include any ‘skeleton’ images from the Regents viewpoint. But they did like the altar idea, when
we came up with it.”
It’s is not the voice of the underserved, but shows how an underused process can still guide a contemporary
rich and complex visual image to mark a site’s history.
“East Los Streetscapers has always sought to connect themes of past history and their evolution into today’s
society,” Healy said to me. “Our very first mural as a team is a classic example. Painted during the U.S.
Bicentennial of 1976, ELS presented a West Coast version of a largely East Coast commemoration. We reached
back to the Olmecas and presented a chronological parade of imagery up to the Chicano Mural movimiento.
That’s a ‘bicentennial’ of 3000 years.” That particular mural, “Chicano Time Trip,” dated 1977, is still located at
the corner of North Broadway and Daly Street in Lincoln Heights.
“’Poets’ Wall’ isn’t about David or me,” said Healy before the mural was dedicated. “We presented ideas and
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held the brush, but it was the students who initiated this project. I want students to look at ‘Poets’ Wall’ as
though it’s their very own looking glass. I want them to lay claim to it.”
Taking content driven by the community and unearthing missing history is becoming a lost craft. The purpose
of those early murals was to get local stories out to the public. “It could not be more up to date since the
principal iconography came from the students themselves,” said Healy. “I like to think that that shows we’re
still making progress.”
Self Help Graphics & Art draws up big 40th-anniversary plans
By Reed Johnson
Los Angeles Times, 2013
As Gabriel Tenorio sat outside Self Help Graphics & Art one recent morning, painting fanciful faces on hollowedout squashes and melons, his thoughts turned to death and rebirth.
Tenorio was among dozens of volunteers gathered to make Day of the Dead altars for Self Help’s popular
neighborhood festival honoring ancestral spirits. Between their labors, volunteers sipped coffee and scarfed
down hunks of fresh pan dulce. A recording by the genre-mashing L.A. band El-Haru Kuroi drifted from inside
Self Help’s 3-year-old home, a remodeled former sea urchin packing plant on 1st Street in Boyle Heights across
from a Metro Gold Line station.
“These are dried-out gourds that now have a new life,” said Tenorio, an artist, musician and former interim director
of Self Help during some of the darkest days of its 40-year history.
Much the same could be said of Self Help, one of the most influential and enduring cultural enterprises to
emerge from the Chicano self-empowerment movement of the 1970s. Eight years ago, Self Help seemingly had
one foot in the grave and the other on a plátano peel. Beset by financial shortfalls and staff layoffs, with a leaky
building and sagging morale, the “artist-driven, social justice-based” workshop and community cultural center
was briefly forced to padlock its doors.
But this year, marking its four-decade anniversary, Self Help appears to have resurrected itself. Its budget, which
plummeted from $708,000 in 2002 to $231,000 in 2007, has rebounded to about $380,000, said Evonne Gallardo,
the center’s executive director since 2009. From a skeletal staff of two full-time workers in the mid-2000s, Self
Help has grown to four full-time employees and roughly a dozen contracted artists, with about 50 affiliated artists
in total.
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Over the coming months, Self Help will be exploring its 40 years of existence and mapping its future with
exhibitions, workshops, round-table discussions and other events.
“We feel like a small start-up. I think it’s an exciting position,” said Gallardo, an East L.A. native who previously
worked with LACMA Director Michael Govan when he ran the Dia Art Foundation in New York. She’s also a
flamenco dancer.
“I can’t paint or draw for a lick, but I know that feeling of the creative process,” Gallardo said with a laugh.
Comparing Self Help to a band of Silicon Valley garage entrepreneurs may raise eyebrows, but it suggests the
ambitious vision of Gallardo and her board of directors.
While keeping faith with its Latino roots, Self Help is seeking to broaden its identity to reflect the city’s evolving
demographics. While preserving its artistic origins as a print-making and art-production center, Self Help also
aims to branch into creative technologies directed at a generation that lives on hand-held devices and gravitates
more toward conceptual art, performance art, digital graphic design and sticker and skateboard art than it does
to serigraphs.
Like their predecessors, some of these young artists are painting murals and making silk-screens, but they’re also
fabricating miniature digital art galleries on Flickr and Instagram.
“There is an opportunity to unpack what’s been going on with artists in the past 15 years,” Gallardo said.
“Generation X and Generation Y artists kind of got, not ignored purposefully, but just kind of like there were
other things on the table at the time.”
Two second-generation artists, Dewey Tafoya and Becky Cortez, were among the Day of the Dead altar-making
volunteers. Tafoya, 40, offered a visitor a tour of his temporary studio at Self Help, where he is a resident artist.
Occupying a former refrigeration room, the studio now holds a T-shirt printing machine and samples of poster
designs Tafoya made with UCLA students for an HIV-prevention awareness campaign.
Asked how he joined the Self Help community, Tafoya replied, “I think it’s one of those things where the name
kind of speaks for itself: Self Help. I think anyone has that chance if they’re willing to work in an environment
where everybody else is working. Because a lot of artists want to hide themselves away.”
Cortez, also 40, who was helping young students to make masks, said that the exchange of knowledge and
creative passions between Self Help’s elder and younger artists is mutually beneficial. “Our generation was just
so much more removed from the handmade and crafts,” she said.
Self Help arose at a time when Chicano artists had few outlets for their work and were largely ignored by most
museums and commercial galleries. For decades it was overseen by its founder, the chain-smoking, tough-minded
Franciscan nun Sister Karen Boccalero, a painter and silk-screen artist who started working with East L.A. artists
out of the garage behind the home she shared with other nuns.
Under her guidance, Self Help nurtured a generation of young artists, including John Valadez, Frank Romero,
Judithe Hernández, Gronk, Patssi Valdez and Jose Lozano, who forged an iconography of Chicano art and went
on to have international careers.
After Boccalero’s death in 1997, Self Help struggled to reorder its financial house and chart a new course for
advancing its mission of “social change through art.” At the same time, it was undergoing a generational turnover.
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“A couple generations of artists felt that this was really theirs, and there was, I think, a hard transition to letting
go,” Tenorio said.
In moving forward, Gallardo wants Self Help to maintain its legacy while “continuing trying to be innovative.”
That means preserving traditions like the Día de los Muertos celebration, and retro-fitting the Barrio Mobile Art
Studio, which the organization is reviving with a two-year, $80,000 James Irvine Foundation grant. The traveling
print-making studio, which Self Help launched in 1974, has been on hiatus in recent years.
But in the next couple of months, Self Help plans to buy and customize a new trailer that will zip around L.A.
offering workshops in print-making and mobile-phone art to high schools, colleges, community-based organizations
and a handful of corporate clients. The initiative will provide a new revenue stream to augment the money Self
Help gets from print sales, fundraising events and corporation and foundation support, which has taken a hit
during the Great Recession.
Self Help’s physical relocation also has inspired the nonprofit to rethink priorities. Its new single-story headquarters,
with 13,500 square feet of space, is nearly as large and functionally more practical than its beloved, tile-clad
former home at Cesar Chavez and Gage avenues. Self Help had occupied that site for 30-plus years, rent-free,
until Boccalero’s Franciscan order, the Sisters of St. Francis, lost faith that the beleaguered institution would be
able to regroup and sold the building to a private investment firm.
The new structure sits strategically at the western fringes of the burgeoning Boyle Heights arts district, which
enfolds programmatically bold venues such as Eastside Luv bar, the eclectic Espacio 1839 music and accessories
store, Corazon Del Pueblo arts and education center and Casa 0101 theater.
“We were on an island before,” said board member Valarie de la Garza. The move, she continued, has “put us in
a different situation where we need to evaluate what we should be doing and not doing.”
One upcoming exhibition in particular may encapsulate that process. For several months, a small group of
affiliated artists and staffers have been combing Self Help’s collection of hundreds of prints, trying to choose
40 “germinal” works that will narrate the organization’s 40-year journey and showcase its artistic range. A May
exhibition is planned.
It’s part of what board member Karen Mary Davalos calls “remixing” the print collection and re-contextualizing it
for a new era. Meanwhile, Jose “Joe” Alpuche, Self Help’s longtime master printer, said he’s enjoying collaborating
with young digital-age artists who may never have made a print before.
“They may be a little skeptical at the beginning, but once they start seeing the process they get so inspired and
hungry for more,” he said. “And being able to see young people coming on board with fresh ideas keeps me fresh
too.”
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This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.
To find out more about how NEA grants impact individuals and communities, visit www.arts.gov
This afternoon’s concerts are cosponsored by Sally & Irwin Goldstein.
Special thanks to our host for this afternoon’s concerts: Humberto Veloso, owner of Tamayo Restaurant & Art Gallery. Additional
thanks to our friends and Community Partners who assisted with the planning and execution of this afternoon’s festival: Jose
Luis (“Joe”) Gonzalez; Juan Rodriguez, owner of KGB Studios & Gallery; Dr. KarenMary Davalos of Self Help Graphics; and
Naomi Okuyama.