Our Stories
Centro Cultural De La Raza & Chicano Park Murals By Rita Sanchez Professor Emerita Mesa College
As Chicano Park murals flourished, Yolanda Lopez, who became a highly recognized artist and scholar, mentored a group of young girls to paint a mural. They called themselves Mujeres Muralistas. Other women painted murals on their own. In 1974, Charlotte Hernandez Terry reproduced a small drawing by Rico Bueno onto an 8-foot wall under the bridge. It was called “La Tierra Mia,” and became a prized logo for Chicano Park. Antonia Perez joined nine male muralists who painted a mural on the outside wall of the Centro Cultural. Hers was a monumental graphic design called “El Sol.”
San Diego’s Mural Arts Movement demonstrated the pride and power of the people. Their creativity and expression is part of our history. The murals at Chicano Park came into existence in 1973, three years after Chicano Park was founded in Barrio Logan.
Chicano artivist Salvador “Queso” Torres was the visionary of the murals at Chicano Park and the driving force to secure a cultural center in Balboa Park.
Since 1970, Chicano artists Salvador Torres, Mario Torero, Victor Ochoa, Jose Gomez, Guillermo Aranda, David Avalos, Guillermo Rosette, Felipe Adame, and others brought a spirit of camaraderie to Chicano Park and the Centro Cultural de la Raza. It began with spontaneity and expression emphasized by the Indigenous “Quetzalcoatl” by Torres at Chicano Park, and with “Dualidad,” a grand scale mural at the Centro, which took Aranda 13 years to complete.
Girls Education by Mujeres Muralists led by Yolanda Lopez
From 1973–1975, Norma Montoya painted “Niños de Aztlan,” with Charles “Gato” Felix. The women of the Royal Chicano Air Force artist group (RCAF) from Sacramento painted “Women Hold Up Half of Heaven.” Socorro Gamboa designed the mural “Sueño Serpentino.”
Torres helped form an artists’ collective that included women—Toltecas en Aztlán. It was from these roots that the Chicana/o artist movement grew.
Centro Cultural De La Raza (All photos courtesy Latino Legacy Foundation)
Women Hold Up Half of Heaven by Royal Chicano Air Force women’s artist group (RCAF)
Curandera Fronteriza by Patricia Aguayo
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San Diego Latino Legacy – Timeline • Milestones • Stories
Chapter 5 – The Chicano Cultural Renaissance
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