Civic Engagement Community Project City Terrance

 Street art is a form of art that tends to express itself in the culture and ideals of its region and time. It is meant to be permanent and temporary; it is intended to capture the viewer’s engagement with it to feel a connection or challenge a perspective within their society. Certain artworks reflect the communities from which they originate. 

The Site

Within the neighborhood of City Terrace, in the streets of City Terrace and Van Pelt, you can find a couple of murals. One was a portrait of Vanessa Guillen, one of the soldiers in old uniforms from a newly formed Mexico. What intrigued me the most was a new mural being created at the time, which depicted a man who closely resembled Antonio Aguilar. At first, it looked like it was being taken out, but as time passed, it was being made, and I found it interesting how quickly it was done. It took them a week and a half to complete the work. Another picture resembles La Virgen Maria, the Virgin Mary.

Field Work

The Antonio Aguilar mural, created by Noe Viramontes and Saul Viramontes, depicts a legendary Mexican singer who performs songs known as Rancheras. In the picture, you can see that it is set in a desert plain area with a horse rider on the back, and at the top left and right, what appears to be a mask with beards and a pear-shaped object in its mouth. Where the man in the horse is small, the image of Antonio Aguilar is a large silhouette, which makes him the primary focus of the mural, highlighting his importance and pivotal role in Latin American culture, as well as his deep affection in Mexican culture. It is intended to demonstrate the strong connection this community has with its Mexican culture, featuring numerous images of heavily Mexican-themed art. With little phrases at the bottom of it like “El Chivo”, “Cuando dos Almas”, “Lamberto Quintero”, a song sung by the singer, and many more phrases. Another picture was a portrait of Vanessa Guillen. In the artwork, a portrait of her features Mexican symbols, including the symbol of the Mexican flag, the eagle grasping a snake, and La Virgen María. Juan Solis created it with the assistance of Niños del Cielo, Martin and Sonia Villegas, Guillermo Contreras, and the Garcia Family Foundation. It features the phrase “Justicia para Vanessa Guillen y todas las mujeres,” which translates to “Justice for Vanessa Guillen and all women.”

The theme of this show is one of remembering this person and the tragedy she endured as a woman, not just as a woman, but as a woman of color. The person in the background displays both the US flag stars and the symbol of the Mexican flag, indicating that she is of Mexican American descent. Given that the community is predominantly Mexican, seeing this portrait and the suffering she and her family endured resonates more deeply with them. It's also a piece of its time, showing and portraying the message and tragedy that happened to Vanessa Guillen. Another painting I looked at around the area was the Mercado Hidalgo painting above the market. This painting features both colonial soldiers and indigenous people. The theme of this piece is that everything seems to be warped, and everything is almost blending, suggesting that the community is blending itself with both Mexican culture within the community and American culture within it. There is so much going on in this artwork that it appears chaotic, with one end featuring all the elements together, as if it's an image combining them, and the other end depicting an old man holding up a torch with the Virgin Mary on its side. Finally, the last piece is a picture of someone who resembles La Virgen Maria, but has a tanned and darker skin tone than most depictions of the Virgin Mary. The theme is religious because it features an image of The Virgin Mary, and the background is bright and yellow, creating the illusion that holy light emanates from behind her, lending her a divine, saintly, and godly presence. The robe she is wearing features stars and roses, conveying a sense of purity in the picture, as she looks up, facing heaven. She is telling us something divine is up there looking at us.

Critical Analysis

When examining these paintings, we can observe that the pattern in most of them is Mexican-inspired artwork. It makes sense why this part of Los Angeles has so many of these artworks when most of the people who live in this community come from Mexico and are of Mexican descent.  As the artworks demonstrate, the representations they seek are rooted in a Latin American approach, yet heavily influenced by and representative of Mexican culture. With the images of the Eagle grabbing the snake, the mural of Antonio Aguilar, and the artpiece of Hidalgo, we see that these pieces speak to a community that its Mexican residents heavily influence. It showcases the history of Mexico's beginnings with the Hidalgo painting, the impact of Mexican culture on the world through its music, featuring Antonio Aguilar, and the hardships faced by Mexican-American women, as exemplified by the case of Vanessa Guillen. Many of these artworks were privately funded because they are located in numerous privately owned buildings. The shift of Los Angeles itself can be seen with these murals compared to somewhere in Echo Park, where the murals are more colorful and more of a painting of Los Angeles, whereas here the paintings have Mexican-inspired artwork; you can tell you are in East LA with the artworks they have on their walls and buildings. The artworks here are relatively new, due to the way they are made, and the quality of the images is still relatively new compared to the Hidalgo painting, which is very faded and has some of the paint coming off. In contrast, the other three look newer. Overall, the murals here convey the type of people and culture you can experience here, a mixture of Latin American culture that is vast and diverse, yet blends and works in harmony to create a beautiful culture within its communities.

Proposal

I like this community as a whole, in terms of what it does and shows to the public; it takes pride in its roots, where its people come from, and the culture it brings here. The colorful designs and famous figures of Mexican culture, along with its religious aspects, featuring La Virgen Maria, are lovely to see. However, I believe it should also show more of Chicano art in itself because it tends to delve deeper into Mexican lore and not Chicano lore, for example, like instead of having a mural of Antonio Aguilar, why is there not one of the Brown Berets groups and people who lived and influenced these communities to become what they are now. There is a public library in this area, and it would be excellent to see a painting of the Brown Berets or of a famous figure who was born and lived in that area. The community itself is colorful and prides itself on its Mexican heritage, which I love. However, it would be nice to see other aspects as well, and add more of Latin America itself, as the region is vast and has many beautiful things to showcase. The community itself is vibrant, and the artwork around buildings gives it life. Every time I drive here, I know I am close to home. The paintings themselves are used as a guide that leads me home. Seeing the Antonio Aguilar and Vanessa Guillen painting shows me that I am home.