Yesterday, I gave a tour of Orange County's endangered Chicano murals to Carol Wells, head of the Center for the Study of Political Graphics, and Timothy Drescher, one of the preeminent mural scholars in the United States. Wells got in contact with me at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books after reading my op-ed piece in the Times attacking Fullerton City Councilmember Shawn Nelson for mouthing off about the murals on the Lemon Street pedestrian overpass just north of the AMC 20 Theaters complex. Drescher was interested in visiting all the way from Berkeley after Wells told him about the situation.
It was a splendid (though overcast) afternoon, as I took them from Fullerton to Placentia to Anaheim. Drescher proclaimed all the murals wonderful (he was especially taken with the the massive Placentia effort, which had motifs of various Mexican muralists), scoffed at Nelson's assertion that the Fullerton murals promoted gang violence, and basically served as a much more enthusiastic advocate than any of the Chicano art All-Stars in Los Angeles I predicted wouldn't give a shit about helping their brethren in la naranja. Drescher vows to fire off a letter to the Fullerton City Council and lend his considerable weight to help preserve the Lemon Street murals. Que viva la causa, my ass. For those of you who care, Fullerton will hold a public hearing about the murals at the Maple Community Center May 27 at 7pm.
May 8, 2008 11:40
Great news.
May 8, 2008 16:26
Hey, it's really great to see people taking an interest. I've put it on my calendar and will try to be there.
May 9, 2008 08:40
It's time for la communidad to take the fate of the murals into it's own hands. Don't wait for those patronizing pendejos over at City Hall to do it for you. This is about neighborhood empowerment!
Find a qualified art conservator, start raising the necessary funds, develop a restoration schedule and a protection plan; and then request a matching grant from the Fullerton Redevelopment Agency.
May 9, 2008 18:49
I always wondered about that ugly mural in Los Ninos park...
May 10, 2008 09:04
Gus, I've linked this page over on my blog. You can link to it by clicking on my name. It's up on the present post, which I've sent to PamKeller. And once Pam gets it, she'll send it to everyone else.
The murals should be a source of pride for the entire city. Once again, Dave is right. Hope the book signings are going well. Try to leave Tucson intact. Hope you were easy on the folks in Sac and Pasadena. I'm off to cover a fashion show in Santa Monica today.