Murals Give Voice to History, Counter Bigotry With Hope

In addition to theater, another powerful tool is the art of murals, which has inspired two organizations that received Cultural Grants last year to explore the historic role of murals in social and cultural movements, from ancient civilizations throughout the world to modern social justice struggles in Mexico and Latin America. They include Unete, a farmworker organization in Medford, OR; and the Community Alliance of Lane County, a human rights organization based in Eugene, Oregon.

In May 1st, more than 500 people took to the small-town streets of Medford, OR (population: 66,638) to demand justice for immigrants. Leading the way were organizers from Unete, a local grassroots, volunteer-led, farmworker rights organization. Unete educates and advocates for worker rights, humane immigration policy, and full participation in the decision-making processes affecting the community.

In addition to organizing the immigrant rights march in May, Unete partnered this summer with muralist Lorenzo Guel, musical group CEIBA (named after the sacred tree of the Mayan people), and members of La Mujer Obrera, an organization led by Mexican immigrant women in El Paso that develops cooperative businesses as alternatives to low-wage work along the US-Mexico border. Their joint work was to build intergenerational dialogue, to strengthen youth leadership, and to promote creative economic development models in the Medford-area immigrant community through a project called Comunidad y Cultura, that builds on Unete’s longstanding commitment to ensure equity in education.

“We’ve seen so many youth who don’t see a future for themselves,” says Kathy Morales, Unete’s co-director. “We are trying to give them ways to express themselves through journal writing, creating rap songs, making self-portraits through collage and poetry.”

The musicians and artists from El Paso visited for two weeks to work with the youth and with parents, most of whom live in farmworker housing and work on peach and pear farms. Around 20 youth, ranging from 11 to 14 years old, broke into groups — one working on a mural, one on self-expression through poetry, and one on self-portrait collages.

“The youth learned about the history of muraling from pre-Colombian times to now,” Morales explained. “The musicians played a concert where they asked the kids to close their eyes and listen to the music, which was played using Mayan instruments, and asked them to think about what memories the music brought back for them from their time in Mexico, or about what stories their parents told them. That’s how they generated ideas for the mural. Each kid identified one piece that they wanted represented in the mural relating to their identities. So the mural includes images of dancing, the Mexican flag, people playing soccer, a farmworker, part of the wall along the US-Mexico border, beyond which you can see the pyramids.”

The mural was unveiled to the community and received an enormously positive response. A local gallery will feature the mural later this year, opening a new window of opportunity to build public support for farmworker rights through art. Unete plans to continue with the project, and is still working to develop a micro-enterprise project where farmworker women will create traditional handcrafts for sale. Their ultimate goal is to start a growers market in a local parking lot in Medford.

Further north in Oregon, the Community Alliance of Lane County continues its longstanding tradition of using art and culture to promote human rights in the communities of Eugene and Springfield. A 39-year-old human rights organization, CALC works to counter bigotry, and to promote public policies based on social and economic justice. It has used its Cultural Grant to support several projects: a traveling theater piece promoting diversity and inclusion, two traveling photo exhibits (one on immigration and one on LGBT issues), an annual Dr. Martin Luther King Day celebration and students art/essay/poetry contest, a Cesar Chavez Day celebration, and a mural project.

While this is the fourth youth mural that CALC has done, this one, titled “Shoulders to Stand On”, was unveiled just days after an email expressing strong anti-immigrant hostility from Springfield City Councilmember Dave Ralston was leaked to the public. The mural’s message of hope and equality, and its visionary appeal for human rights could not have come at a better time. Ralston’s email voiced support for an anti-immigrant measure circulating in California, and absurdly warned of an immigrant takeover of the United States:

I have volumes of documentation on La Raza, MeChA and The Nation of Atzlan. These people want to take over the Southwest of America. They want to invade and not assimilate… Mark my words, this is a serious problem that we will have to deal with sooner or later and I am tired of being politically correct in order to not offend anyone. This is MY country and I have a right to stand up for it. Illegal immigrants are breaking OUR laws and getting away wit it…This ‘America’ and we speak English, love it or leave it.

CALC quickly mobilized to hold a community meeting to denounce Ralston’s remarks. The mural coordinator, an artist living in Springfield, is now becoming active in the Springfield Alliance for Equality and Respect (SAfER), a CALC project to promote human rights in Springfield.

The Social Justice Fund is proud to support the visionary, creative, and courageous work of these organizations. We all know how easy it is to despair during a time of such deep conflict and injustice, as we watch the unraveling of hard-won gains by people of color, immigrants and refugees, women, the poor and working class, queer communities, and others who have fought — and who continue to fight — for civil and human rights. But grassroots organizers remind us that this is no time for despair. This is the time to plumb the depths of our collective wisdom and experience. This is the time for all of us to be poets, artists, and prophets. This is a time for imagination.