One of Santa Ana’s most famous Chicano murals is a step closer to being restored.
However, several council members are still expressing concerns.
Earlier last month, preserving the mural wasn’t the case.
According to several city council members, city staff suggested in May that it be destroyed and recreated amid the new $25 million Memorial Park Aquatics Facility.
That uncertainty triggered questions among vocal residents.
Immediately after Voice of OC published a story on the controversy last week, city officials issued a press release, stating the city “can” preserve the mural in its current location.
But there are still plans that need to be ironed out.
Alicia Rojas, a local artist who brought the potential removal to the limelight openly worries the management construction contract that will be voted on this week by city council members has no mention of the historic mural.
“It needs to be amended,” said Rojas, who, along with other artists, has been restoring murals in Santa Ana in recent years.
The contract is up for approval this Tuesday – and the lack of any mention of the mural project is worrisome to local experts because that kind of restoration requires trained attention.
“They need to hire somebody who understands what needs to happen with the wall on an art level, not just a construction level,” said Rojas.
“If we’re going to go on the basis of the city saying they’re preserving the murals that it should, it needs to be reflected in blueprints because blueprints are how building gets done. It doesn’t get done on a handshake and in a verbal agreement,” said Council Member Johnathan Hernandez.
“Where is this mural in our renderings?” questioned Council Member David Penaloza when asked about the construction contract.
City Spokesman Paul Eakins said the contract up for approval on Tuesday is just for the construction management and inspection services.
But the lack of any reference to the mural is making people ask: What’s the next step? Is there an independent contract that includes the mural’s design phase? Is there a timeline? What kind of preservation will go into the mural?
Earlier this year, Councilman Penaloza, along with Councilman Benjamin Vasquez, said they asked city staff to look into preserving the mural during a city council meeting.
Months later, city staff decided the best approach was to have the Vasquez family recreate the mural inside the new development, meaning the actual mural would be taken down, according to Penaloza, who represents the ward where the art is located.
“I thought, if it’s good enough for the family, and as long as it’s recreated–that’s okay,” said Penaloza.
But then Penaloza says that suggestions from Rojas, his colleague, Vasquez, and concerned community members shifted his perspective.
“The way that it was relayed to me by Public Works was basically saying, ‘Hey, we met with the family and it was agreed, Yeah, they said it was agreed, that they would recreate the mural, and I was like, okay, they came to a mutual [understanding].”
“But, I didn’t probe, I didn’t, I didn’t ask what the conversation was, or did we give options [to the family]?” said Penaloza, who hopes the city can also look to create preventive measures that protect public art.
“It’s definitely important that as a city, we have that conversation of when this occurs in the future with any murals in the city that we have guidelines on how to preserve them from the get-go; it shouldn’t be a question of: Do we want to preserve this mural? Or is there an interest to preserve it?
“No, it should be part of the conversation from the very beginning with any city project.”
Councilwoman Jesse Lopez, who says she is no expert in mural preservation, heavily relied on the advice of the commissioners, like Manny Escamilla, and artists, like Rojas, to advise her when she heard about the recreation of the mural through an email in May.
The artists and commissioners immediately had questions.
“Why aren’t they protecting the mural?” they asked.
“Why are we investing city resources, and replicating it, when there are different techniques out there that can be vetted to ensure that we protect the integrity of the mural and the originality of the mural?”
With this feedback, Lopez was prompted to question city staff.
“Nothing in concrete had been shared with the community or with the council about how the mural was going to be protected,” recalls Lopez.
However, the Vasquez family has approaches to keeping the legacy intact: recreation or preservation, as they have done with their father’s past works.
But preservation is the goal, says Rosemary Vasquez Tuthill, daughter of Emigdio.
“Like I have said, if you had a Diego Rivera, it would not be the same if you recreated it– even if it was a family member. Yeah, it’s nice, and everything but it’s still not the original,” said Tuthill.
Hernandez agrees.
“I find that erasing the mural and having it recreated is completely disrespectful to the contributions of Mexican Americans.
Because if our stories are that easily dismissed, you can paint over a mural, and then contact our kids and say, ‘Hey, we got rid of your dad’s mural, but would you like to recreate it on a wall he did not touch?’ I don’t think that’s the same thing.”
Santa Ana has over 200 murals logged in its Travel Santa Ana database, including the Chicano Gothic Mural, where tourists can take self-guided tours.
The city’s identity is heavily intertwined with its status as the city of arts and culture.
When murals like these are destroyed, said Rojas, it robs residents of their legacy.
It also loses out in terms of revenue.
“I think the reason why it hasn’t been looked at as something that can generate revenue is because our community in our county and our country still doesn’t see value in brown stories,” says Hernandez.
Councilwoman Lopez said it’s time to change that, especially in Santa Ana.
“We really need to have somebody that works for the city that appreciates the true value of arts, that understands the benefits, the economic benefits that these murals and the public are bring to our city,” she said.
“We cannot proclaim to be the city of arts and culture, and turn around and try to do these things, and only have a response because of the community’s backlash. We cannot proclaim to be a city of arts and culture that does not understand the intrinsic value that our art brings to our community.”