WEBVTT

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[music]

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The Mexican murals in Chicago
actually began in 1967,

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with a friend of mine

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uh… him and I shared a studio and he was working
out of one of the European progress centers

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with a group of young people. And they did
a wall on 18th and Halsted on a bank

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till the summer of ‘67. His
name was Mario Castillo

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is now an instructor in
Champaign, Illinois.

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And then the second wall that was
done was done on the Europe…

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Side of the urban center itself. Both of those walls
were the first Mexican walls we done in Chicago.

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Casa Aztlan was supposed to be like,

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a place where uh… the Mexicanos, Chicanos,

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persons of Latin decent can go to
for information or help or advice,

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you know, to problems. The front of
Casa Aztlan is just mostly Indian design

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with uh… Patlan and I would
just let the kids do

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what they wanted to do on it.

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The wall on 16th and Blue Island was a first suggestion
by some of the young people of the community

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and they felt that it was necessary
to make some kind of statement about

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struggles that were going under the
community at that time between gangs.

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There was a real war going on.
So they decided that maybe

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show stressing some kind of peace of
relation between both cultures might help.

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Most of the murals that we were done in Mexico
were done during the time of the revolution.

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They also were, you know, saying something

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very personal about the revolution, the
struggle of the revolution. I think, you know,

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like some of the one’s in the Mexican community,
saying exactly the same thing. Of course,

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they’re not saying it about an
actual revolution here, you know.

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But they are saying something about the struggle
of the people, the existence of the people,

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and what’s going on with the people, you
know. So in that way, they are similar.

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I became interested in Mexican muralists

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when I was about 10,

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mainly because of the force of their work,
kind of powerful feeling of their work.

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And also, that it was related to,
directly to Mexican History and Culture,

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to the things that had happened
that I really never knew about.

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So I be, also became interested at the same time in the
history and the culture uh… then I went to school in Mexico

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for a while and I even more interested because I
was kind of living with the… with the same art,

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the art that I have been interested
in earlier. The final I guess,

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decision was having met one
of the lased living muralists

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and I just decided that since
people from Mexico were so uh…

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close to that work, it would
relate just as well here

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than the United States.

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[music]

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This wall was pretty easy to get.

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The owner had really been involved in
with the community and some of the things

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that had been happening in it.
Santino was very, very nice

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and he brought lunch for the kids, you
know, several times and he didn’t restrict

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the people at all to what they wanted to put (inaudible),
and he said, put anything you wanted in the wall

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because it’s yours. The
wall on 16th Street,

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I did most of the sketching on that. That’s the first time I’ve
done that working with a group. Ordinarily, the group will plan,

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paint, design, the whole wall itself.
This wall,

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I felt since it was going out of the
community, had to say something

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uh… more than a design or more obvious

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than some of the work that the
young people have been doing.

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Got several donations from paint companies,

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first of all, which has kind of become a yearly
thing now. Also, the uh… community arts foundation,

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so then here was, here in Chicago

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from other parts of city, helped
out with materials and support.

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[music]

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Uh… Some of the community

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helped donating like, brushes.
We got some ladders from uh…

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previous mural project we did on beside
of a company, and the paints came from

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uh… some of equivalents we
used came from (inaudible).

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[music]

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The young people who worked on the wall uh…

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this summer were people who were involved in
with the Neighborhood Youth Core Program.

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A few of the people who worked on the wall, of course, were
just dedicated to the wall stick with it all the way through.

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[music]

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For some of them, it’s the very first
time (inaudible) we can get a brush

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and some paint. You know, but they’re able to
work with this ‘cause many a times in schools

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uh… they… they make art so hard.

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And so many kids discouraged and they
just say, \"Well, I hate art.\" You know,

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and so they’re… they’re confronted with this,
you know, they are able to produce something.

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You know, I think it changes their whole attitude,
you know. So I think it’s a very rewarding

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and gratifying experience with the person to be able to
know that he can do something and it’s gonna be someplace

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where it can be seen publicly.
Doing murals, you know,

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could help me, could help the
community, to build up. And for me,

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it could help me to deliver my talent more.

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I think, first of all, the work
of art is really beautiful

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and it’s uh… self expression of some
kind which I really don’t understand

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to tell you the truth. I like the
pictures because they’re beautiful.

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I really don’t know what the stars in the stripes mean
‘cause the Mexican flag doesn’t have any stars at all.

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That to me, it symbolizes the
American, the American flag.

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Oh, maybe a lot of all the revolution
took part may be in night…

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in the night time. It really shows a
crash, a clash of different cultures

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and I think the flags of
United States has dominated

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for so many years. I guess, the
skeletons would be the dead soldiers

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are skeleton. I think the skeleton means
that the Mexican people they fought,

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even if they had to die
for their independence.

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Well, during the process of the
revolution, you can see the like the red,

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in the form of uh… a pool of blood. Like the man who set
away and his arm like he’s celebrating, he’s happy now.

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I like especially the part where
uh… the man is on the horse

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throwing his arms like in the air
with bullets around his chest.

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And that, that’s a pretty good
example of a… a revolutionary man.

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I feel like a Puerto Rican, that
uh… their cause is our cause.

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I think somehow, in United States,
you get lost and divide material

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and you tend to lose your identity.

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La causa, the cause, the cause of…

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of the movement to re-conquer our
education, our history, our culture.

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[music]