It’s easy to think that once a street mural has been painted over or faded away it’s permanently gone.
Yet Carlos Rogel has made a life out of restoring what most people think is never coming back.
Protecting urban landscapes.
Rogel has spent the past 18 years in public art, restoring murals all over the world, including Los Angeles, where he is the current grantee of the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs MuralWorks Program.
This year, Rogel has landed in Santa Ana to save more with his team at MuralColors.
Three murals, to be exact.
Two Sergio O’Cadiz murals, one at Monroe Elementary and another at Freemont Elementary, were both made in the 1970’s.
The third is a set of murals along Civic Center Dr, created by Chicano youth in the 1990s.
These are just a few of the hundreds of murals that exist in the city of Santa Ana.
How Santa Ana Came Into Focus
Restoring a mural has many moving parts, according to Alicia Rojas, a muralist and art conservationist with Santa Ana Artist(a) Coalition who is helping lead three Chicano art conservations in Santa Ana.
“We have to bring different parties together. That’s what the Santa Ana Artist(a) Coalition does. You have the artists, the next kin of the artists–if the artists are deceased– and then we need restorationists, preservationists,” explained Rojas, who was looking at conservationist candidates for the job in Mexico at one point.
But then Rojas came across Rogel.
Their partnership began when Roja’s Costa Mesa “Poderosas” mural, paintings of influential Latinas, was a victim of a hate crime.
The mural was defaced with the words ‘White Power.’
“Carlos, the CEO, and Davida, the COO of Muralcolors, reached out to me, on Instagram and told me they knew how to get rid of the graffiti,” says Rojas.
Through that conversation, Rojas also explained the restoration projects she was doing in the city of Santa Ana, and they hopped on as the preservationists, says Rojas.
The Science Behind Saving A Mural
All murals are different.
Some are structurally falling apart as the years go by; water damage, graffiti lives on some of them or layers of unoriginal paint have been brushed over the public art.
But the job to preserve is more than just painting and cleaning up a mural.
“There’s a science to it,” says Rojas.
“We tend to think that materials are limited, and once erased, they are gone, but they are not. They’re in people’s memory, and with the Santa Ana Artist (a) Coalition work, their partnership with community archives, and their ability to recall that imagery, the mural is never gone. It’s there,” says Rogel.
“If the material is still physically there on the wall, you can bring it back.”
Which means, aging Chicano murals in Santa Ana have a chance at a second life.
Pilar O’ Cadiz, Sergio O’ Cadiz’s daughter, had extensive conversations with Rogel and Davida Persaud, the COO of Muralcolors, who explained the chemistry behind her father’s works at Freemont and Monroe Elementary.
“At the Freemont mural, at the time of point, my father created the molds and stained the molds so the dye went into the concrete,” explains Pilar, “So the dye of the concrete is the original dye that he put in, and was painted over.
They [MuralColors] were able to remove the paint layers and unveil the original color that Sergio O’Cadiz created.”
The revitalization process uses special soaps and gel chemicals manufactured by Muralcolors to rejuvenate aging murals.
“I don’t think folks generally realize that paint isn’t chemically bonded to each other. They’re just sitting on each other. It’s like, kind of like, very strong, sticky– but you can chemically control those bonds, release them, and manipulate them with temperature and steam using a variety of different solutions that will either swell or contract, liquefy, or gel them. There’s a lot we could do,” says Rogel.
“When you can do that predictively, you can get 90 percent of an original piece that has been overpainted. You can have twenty layers of paint, but you can get behind it.”
The process of restoring a mural looks different every time, but it almost follows a rule of thumb.
They assess the condition of the art, research the historical context, document the mural with a medium format camera, and lastly, ask themselves, “Who owns the wall?”
After the preliminary assessments, then comes the treatment.
Depending on the wall’s condition, Rogel and his team will decide what kind of chemical wash is needed to restore it to its original state.
Sometimes, the wash is customized to the needs of the wall structures while also using pressure washing techniques.
“Depending on the condition of the wall, we’ll be able to recommend the particular cleaning. So the cleaning part of some murals are so fragile that you’re not able to wash them because it would come off,” Rogel says.
From the onset, murals speak of a truth experienced in the neighborhood, whether that was through the subject matter when the mural was made or after, says Rogel, who has a ABD in Chicana/o studies, and a background of restoring murals in Los Angeles.
The murals are also being treated with UV protectants that are removable, so reapplication of the “sunscreen” to the wall is doable, along with anti-graffiti coats.
Through this process, Rogel says they are educating city officials, developers and artists on how to restore murals and also give preventative care to new murals.
“Historically, these have been the techniques and methods that are very specialized, but artists are always very savvy, and they want to understand not only how to make their own artwork last, but also to be able to serve their own communities with their skill sets, so we’re able to do that with artists and give them that training” added Rogel.
It is through his continued work and activism, that Rogel says that the salvation and production of new murals are getting the literal treatment they deserve.
That also includes addressing city leaders and restructuring the way local governments see public art.
“I see it as elected officials and government representatives, planning departments, they just need the resources, and we inform them of what is possible with conservation now.”
Empowering the Community
In addition to conservation, restoring murals also spurs economic impacts and skills training.
“If you can bring it back a mural, you create employment opportunities for artists, you can create educational opportunities for the people who live in that community, and give best practices for reproductions, all the economic activity around conservation of a mural, all the historical retelling, that’s the formula for a very vibrant community,” says Rogel.
The mural restoration projects have allowed Santa Ana Artist(a) Coalition to bring in and partner with Rogel, mentor and pay young artists, and videographers and photographers to document the process, says Rojas.
Artists like Roger Reyes, who says he learns through every conversation with Rogel.
Every brushstroke is like having a conversation with the original artist, figuring out why muralists painted the way they did.
“When you’re talking about restoration, you don’t want to fill the entire color of the mural, if you don’t have to, you have to really want to retain a lot of the artistry,” says Reyes.
“Having Carlos here to ask questions has helped,” added Reyes.
“For our grassroots organization, it’s been an important economic development,” added Rojas.
For two murals, Santa Ana Unified School district was able to fund the restorations of two murals by Chicano muralist, Sergio O’ Cadiz, along with his family, artists of the community and mural colors.
“There are few organizations with the expertise to restore murals of this magnitude. MuralColors is one who has the skills and depth of artists. They have partnered with the Santa Ana Artist(a) Coalition who also has a depth of artists, including the grandson of Sergio O’Cadiz,” said Robyn MacNair, SAUSD Arts Administrator through an e-email to Voice of OC.
“We also employed the services of the daughter of the muralist, Pilar O’Cadiz as the ultimate guiding light to keep the integrity of her father’s original works.”
The La Raza mural along Civic Center is scheduled to be unveiled on Sept. 7, 2024.
The Sergio O’ Cadiz mural at Freemont Elementary was unveiled last year in August.
The Monroe Elementary mural is on its path to being fully restored with artists and Muralcolors working weekly.
“The restored murals serve as powerful educational tools, providing students with a tangible connection to their cultural history and the Chicano movement,” says Santa Ana Unified.
“They can learn about the social and political context of the era, fostering a deeper understanding of their heritage. Exposure to the works of renowned muralists like Sergio O’Cadiz can inspire young artists in the community, encouraging them to explore their own creativity.”
Reyes, 44, who as a young student was inspired by the mural as he walked into Monroe Elementary.
“This was my school,” says Reyes, as he dipped his brush into paint.
“I just didn’t know you could do this.”
Julie Leopo is the Director of Photography at Voice of OC. You can reach her on Instagram, Julieleopo, or by email at Jleopo@voiceofoc.org.