Chicano Park murals receive a freshening up

Anyone who thinks Occupy Wall Street is likely to fizzle and be forgotten should take a cue from Chicano Park, a movement that started in 1970 and is still going strong. San Diego’s venerable outdoor Latino art museum is currently undergoing restoration of its murals, said to be ready by its 42nd anniversary April 22, 2012.Victor Ochoa, who helped to spearhead the Chicano Park movement, was born in East Los Angeles. He was once deported to Mexico for “the crime of being Latino,” but before the 1970 uprising, Chicano Park was a desolate plot under the Coronado Bridge scheduled to become a California Highway Patrol substation.

Chicano Park is world famous for its passionate Toltec and Chicano murals. Vibrant images of indigo, cadmium and cardinal speak insistently to viewers, even those passing at 65 mph on nearby Interstate 5.

Unlike the term Mexican-American, Chicano implies a certain pride and responsibility one cultivates for being Mexican, Ochoa said, specifically for Mexicans away from home. Ochoa said he has identified himself as a Chicano since 1966.

Ochoa said Mexicans are portrayed in the media as traficantes (drug dealers) as well as “dirty, lazy and negative.” Chicano Park’s art demonstrates Mexico’s heritage of pride, honor and hard work.

“What’s on the murals is like an open book, it contains certain aspects of our history,” he explained.

Chicano Park started out from the ombligo (belly button) of Barrio Logan.

“It was somewhat like a hub,” said Ochoa. “There was a lot of Mexican influence in the barrio (neighborhood), tortillerias on street corners, and Spanish movies playing in the theaters. In years past, the only way to get tortillas was to go to the barrio.”

Life was sweet for the people of the barrio, until the federal government built the I-5 and I-15 freeways through their community. Then came the state of California with the Coronado Bridge. Almost 5,000 people lost their homes.

“Nobody came and said ‘We want to build this huge bridge on top of you. We want to annihilate you once and for all with something so big your humanity will just wither up and die’,” said Ochoa.

A slab of concrete just on the outer corner of what was left of the barrio was the one of the few free spaces residents had. A long-promised access corridor to the bay never happened. The substation was the last straw, Ochoa said, and the citizens fought back. Loganistas blocked bulldozers and occupied the site. They were soon joined by Chicanos and their supporters from Los Angeles, San Jose and beyond. Occupiers began to paint murals on the bridge supports.

“During the ‘60s there was a movement of people and an art movement parallel to the Chicano movement,” Ochoa said.

Painting started without permission. Artists have been painting bridge supports in Chicano Park for 42 years now without censorship.

“I see art as a tool for some of the solutions— immigration, racism, knowledge of our own history, (being) bilingual, police brutality, gentrification,” said Ochoa.

Today the goals of Chicano Park remain rooted in its past and the Spirit of the Chicano Movement is still very much alive in the bold murals and festive celebrations.

Restoration of the murals is scheduled to be finished by April 22, the 42nd anniversary of the park. Ochoa expects 25,000 people to attend.

“Cutting expression out makes us a weaker people,” Ochoa said. “In that spirit, let’s use the tools of art as means of expression to strengthen us as a whole and to lead by example.”

Chicano Park is a dynamic example of strength through art.