Santa Ana’s Artesia Pilar neighborhood is unveiling a new pocket park along with murals depicting the history that defines the neighborhood, all while city officials declare July as Parks and Recreation Month.
Over 13,000 residents reside in the area, with dozens attending the unveiling in the working-class neighborhood last week.
“This is for our community, our children, and future generations,” said Mayor Valerie Amezcua, who also pointed out to her aunt, who was in the audience, “She has lived here for 47 years.”
The neighborhood, located on the northwest side of Santa Ana, is known for its deep roots in Chicano culture.
Latinos were some of the first to move into the neighborhood, with Black families later moving in around the 1950s.
At one point in 1972, activists gathered to organize alongside Cesar Chavez at El Salvador Park, located on the same street.
Also, in 1972, Latino student walkouts took place and gathered at El Salvador Park, where students demanded a more equitable and diverse group of teachers and education, according to local historians.
In 1991, muralists created one of Santa Ana’s most iconic murals representing Latinos.
In 2021, Santa Ana was the first major city to declare August as Chicano Heritage Month.
The city’s first Chicano Heritage Festival occurred in 2022 in the Artesia Pilar neighborhood.
“When we look across as to what is created here, we have to talk about Santa Ana’s rich cultural history,” said Johnathan Hernandez, the councilman representing Artesia Pilar.
“Without talking about this history, this park will simply look like green space, but you are in one of the original Chicano Barrios.”
“I am so happy to see this come together,” said Ruby Woo, the Neighborhood Association President, who is also working alongside other board members and the city to preserve a Chicano mural down the street.
Woo, and other board members put input into the pocket park’s creation.
They chose the artist to decorate and tell the stories of the neighborhood.
They chose a Chicana who was born and raised in the neighborhood.
“We had different applicants, and we went with artist Marina Aguilera to create the murals in this park,” said Luz Andaluz.
Aguilera painted four walls and made a mosaic and the entrance of the pocket park.
“If they can have areas like this in Laguna Beach, why can’t we?” said Marina Aguilera, also known as La Artista Marina Aguilera, as she painted the mural last week.
Aguilera’s work was one of the showstopping moments of the green space unveiling.
“If you look at the artwork that’s here by Marina Aguilera, who was born and raised in this neighborhood, it says a lot about the work that the city of Santa Ana is doing with the community; we want to engage more with the community, we want to be about the community,” said Amezcua.
“Marina is arguably one of the few Chicana muralists left in OC from the 70s,” said Alicia Rojas, a muralist and art conservationist in Santa Ana.
“She literally paved the road and painted the walls for Brown women muralists thriving in our region today,” said Sarah Rafael García, a Crear Studio Gallery Director.
Aguilera painted murals in the 70’s that depicted Chicano culture, but was whitewashed and sandblasted throughout the years.
“It’s a shame that 30-40 murals we made were destroyed, said Aguilera, “We had art here in Santa just like LA, but we had our own stories.”
“It was my honor and privilege to share my art and create something beautiful for this community that I myself grew up in,” said Aguilera during her speech at the unveiling.
“I want to say it is my hope that everyone takes pride in this beautiful space that was created for you. Please enjoy it as long as possible. This mural and park are for all of you and all of us.”
Aguilera wants to make it clear that she wants the mural to include everyone who made up the neighborhood.
And many did.
Many locals could be seen reminiscing in whispers as they looked at each mural depicting landmarks in the neighborhood.
Places like the Corner Market, where the late Armando “Mando” Aguinaga, the shop owner, helped shape neighborhood kids and took rain checks when Artesia Pilar families could not afford groceries.
Or the Catholic church, Our Lady of the Pillar, where many families gathered every Sunday for mass or catechism classes, and a portrait of Cesar Chavez to highlight his 1972 visit to El Salvador Park to organize.
And that’s not all.
There’s Tiny Tim Plaza, a strip mall that once housed a mid-century modern car garage, and multiple Latino mom-and-pop shops that still exist today among new affordable housing.
Aguilera also included one of the county’s oldest restaurants, Sariana’s, on the wall.
Some residents got to see their family painted on the wall.
“These are my nieces and nephews,” said Letty Plascencia.
As much as residents had input into the project, there were also some critiques on opening day.
“I was told that there wouldn’t be a loss of parking spaces,” said Armando Esparza, 49, a homeowner next to the park.
“They took two parking spots that now have a red line,” added Esparza.
For Eparza, that is a problem since his family home is multigenerational and parking is crowded on the street as it is.
Others wished there was more landscaping.
“Floral Park neighborhood has flowers; I thought we would have more flowers,” said Librada Leopo.
One ice cream vendor rolled through the park and said he expected more.
“Why isn’t there a playground or a tree?” Bartolo Pacheco asked as he handed out ice cream to his customers.
Santa Ana officials fielded questions from Voice of OC about those community observations.
“This is a passive park, we can’t put a playground next to a very busy street,” said Hawk Scott, Director of Parks and Rec.
According to Scott, trees would be unlikely since their roots could damage the infrastructure of the stormwater basins.
“It [Santa Ana] is a park-poor city, but again, whenever we see an opportunity, we try to make parks out of it,” says Scott.
According to a citywide Park Master Plan, Santa Ana will receive a series of new parks throughout the next couple of years.
Santa Ana Park’s index score increased in 2023; however, it is still far below the national average.
The median for cities’ use of park land in cities across America is still 15 percent, while Santa Ana’s is 4 percent, says a 2023 Trust for Public Land report.
The city of Santa Ana manages over 50 parks and has over eight joint-use school sites.
To help name this pocket park, you can vote here.
Catching Stormwater in Artesia Pilar
The concrete sliver on King Street and Fairview Street was once a space that served no purpose and was also a flooding area, says Amezcua.
And now the park has been designed to double as a greenspace for residents and address the flooding and what experts say is stormwater pollution.
When it rains, stormwater will flow into the park and be captured by two bioretention basins and an underground stormwater infiltration system.
“We quickly identified this location as a great place to implement a special project,” said Santa Ana Stormwater Program Manager Craig Foster during his remarks at the unveiling.
Before the pocket park, the area was subject to illegal dumping and graffiti, added Foster.
“Stormwater is not treated, and it can carry pollutants such as trash, oil, bacteria and sediment through our creeks and rivers and out to the ocean. So one effective strategy in reducing stormwater pollution is to actually capture it and allow it to soak back into the ground, which is exactly what we’ve done here today.”
The project, which took 6 months and cost over 2 million, was funded with a Grant from the Caltrans Clean California Local Grant Program and funds from the Federal Clean Water Protection Enterprise and District 3 Acquisition and Development Funding, city officials said.
Santa Ana’s Artesia Pilar was chosen from a group of applicants to receive funding.
“Out of 42 cities, we ranked number one in the grant,” said Amezcua.
“This project stands out because of the sense of pride and sense of history from the people who grew up in this very rooted community,” said Lan Zhou, District Director for CalTrans, in an interview with Voice of OC.
“This is not just a civil engineering project; this project really touches the hearts of the residents.”
Julie Leopo is the Director of Photography at Voice of OC. You can reach her at Jleopo@voiceofoc.org
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