1 00:00:00,720 --> 00:00:05,800 Speaker 1: Ola Latino USA. Listener combs US. We are celebrating thirty 2 00:00:05,960 --> 00:00:08,960 Speaker 1: years on the era. I mean it's huge, three that annos, 3 00:00:09,440 --> 00:00:13,640 Speaker 1: and so we're celebrating with you because honestly, you, dear listener, 4 00:00:13,720 --> 00:00:16,440 Speaker 1: you made it happen. So we want to hear from you. 5 00:00:17,000 --> 00:00:20,560 Speaker 1: What is an episode that you shared with someone else 6 00:00:20,600 --> 00:00:22,200 Speaker 1: You were like, oh my god, I just have to 7 00:00:22,680 --> 00:00:24,959 Speaker 1: and you sent it to your mom or your THEO 8 00:00:25,120 --> 00:00:27,960 Speaker 1: or your dea, your son, your daughter. Let us know. 9 00:00:28,200 --> 00:00:30,720 Speaker 1: Leave us a voicemail at six four six five seven 10 00:00:30,840 --> 00:00:33,520 Speaker 1: one one two two four. Again, that's six four six 11 00:00:33,760 --> 00:00:36,760 Speaker 1: five seven one one two two four, and we might 12 00:00:36,920 --> 00:00:39,760 Speaker 1: just feature your call on an upcoming episode. 13 00:00:41,680 --> 00:00:47,000 Speaker 2: Yes, hi there. My name is Panar and I'm a 14 00:00:47,080 --> 00:00:51,080 Speaker 2: history teacher. Latino Usdays been such an inspiration to me 15 00:00:51,120 --> 00:00:54,880 Speaker 2: because I tend to use the information that I gathered 16 00:00:54,960 --> 00:00:59,120 Speaker 2: from this podcast to share with my students. It's just 17 00:00:59,160 --> 00:01:01,880 Speaker 2: been a pleasure thing and I can't wait to hear 18 00:01:02,040 --> 00:01:04,280 Speaker 2: the next episode. 19 00:01:08,080 --> 00:01:11,240 Speaker 1: This is Latino USA, the Radio Journal of News and 20 00:01:11,319 --> 00:01:14,679 Speaker 1: Curtur Latino Usa, Latino USA. 21 00:01:14,920 --> 00:01:16,039 Speaker 3: I'm Mariajosa. 22 00:01:17,520 --> 00:01:21,319 Speaker 4: I particularly like working with teenagers because they were unruly, 23 00:01:21,680 --> 00:01:26,400 Speaker 4: they were really creative funny, very funny. I really enjoyed 24 00:01:26,520 --> 00:01:29,640 Speaker 4: watching them do something that they were really proud of 25 00:01:29,880 --> 00:01:32,399 Speaker 4: that was bigger than any one of them could accomplish alone. 26 00:01:36,880 --> 00:01:40,600 Speaker 1: From Fudro Media and PRX, It's Latino Usa, I'm Maria 27 00:01:40,720 --> 00:01:45,240 Speaker 1: no Josa Today. Muralist Judith Baka on the power of 28 00:01:45,319 --> 00:01:53,800 Speaker 1: working with youth to transform public spaces and communities. When 29 00:01:53,840 --> 00:01:59,160 Speaker 1: she was studying fine arts, Judith Francisca Baca knew that 30 00:01:59,240 --> 00:02:02,480 Speaker 1: she didn't want her paintings to hang on gallery walls 31 00:02:02,680 --> 00:02:06,559 Speaker 1: or museums because her community in Los Angeles never went 32 00:02:06,600 --> 00:02:11,080 Speaker 1: to those places. Instead, she wanted her art to be 33 00:02:11,200 --> 00:02:12,160 Speaker 1: on the streets. 34 00:02:13,200 --> 00:02:16,720 Speaker 4: Los Angeles gave us an opportunity that was incredible because 35 00:02:16,720 --> 00:02:19,800 Speaker 4: of a year round painting of endless concrete. Our freeway 36 00:02:19,880 --> 00:02:21,560 Speaker 4: systems are street systems. 37 00:02:22,440 --> 00:02:26,520 Speaker 1: As she became one of the most renowned muralists in California, 38 00:02:26,639 --> 00:02:31,320 Speaker 1: she also became more commonly known as Judy. She's been 39 00:02:31,400 --> 00:02:36,320 Speaker 1: documenting the stories of Latino, Black and Native communities, creating 40 00:02:36,400 --> 00:02:41,000 Speaker 1: sites of public memory, and her work has been recently 41 00:02:41,040 --> 00:02:44,240 Speaker 1: showcased at the Museum of Latin American Art in Long 42 00:02:44,280 --> 00:02:49,280 Speaker 1: Beach and Moga. The Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art. 43 00:02:50,960 --> 00:02:55,880 Speaker 1: In the nineteen seventies, Judy began her most ambitious public artwork. 44 00:02:56,240 --> 00:03:00,200 Speaker 1: She named it the Great Wall of Los Angeles, the 45 00:03:00,280 --> 00:03:04,280 Speaker 1: largest communal murals in the world. The Great Wall extends 46 00:03:04,440 --> 00:03:07,639 Speaker 1: for half a mile along the Tahanga Wash River channel 47 00:03:07,840 --> 00:03:10,840 Speaker 1: in the San Fernando Valley, and it tells the story 48 00:03:10,880 --> 00:03:14,200 Speaker 1: of California since its pre Columbian origins up to the 49 00:03:14,320 --> 00:03:19,320 Speaker 1: nineteen fifties. Judy didn't do this herculean work alone. The 50 00:03:19,360 --> 00:03:23,679 Speaker 1: project involved artists and designers, but especially young people, more 51 00:03:23,720 --> 00:03:27,399 Speaker 1: than four hundred of them, mostly Latino and Black youth 52 00:03:27,440 --> 00:03:32,240 Speaker 1: from underserved neighborhoods like Watts and Pacoima, where Judy grew up. 53 00:03:32,639 --> 00:03:35,800 Speaker 4: I spent all my childhood in black and Latino communities. 54 00:03:36,160 --> 00:03:38,560 Speaker 4: Just a few blocks from the place that I was 55 00:03:38,600 --> 00:03:41,880 Speaker 4: born is an elementary school that's called the Judi Bacca 56 00:03:41,960 --> 00:03:45,080 Speaker 4: Arts Academy, named by the community for me, knowing that 57 00:03:45,120 --> 00:03:47,360 Speaker 4: I'm from there, and also because they knew if they 58 00:03:47,400 --> 00:03:49,240 Speaker 4: put the arts academy on it, that I would help 59 00:03:49,600 --> 00:03:50,640 Speaker 4: make sure there was art. 60 00:03:51,120 --> 00:03:54,760 Speaker 1: Working with young people has been an essential part of 61 00:03:54,920 --> 00:04:00,000 Speaker 1: Judy's artistic process. She's also a professor Emeritus of Chicano 62 00:04:00,120 --> 00:04:04,120 Speaker 1: Studies at UCLA. She sees murals not only as art, 63 00:04:04,400 --> 00:04:08,640 Speaker 1: but as a tool to bring communities together and to organize. 64 00:04:09,920 --> 00:04:12,640 Speaker 1: She says that getting funding for the Great Wall became 65 00:04:13,040 --> 00:04:17,320 Speaker 1: such a challenge that the organization she founded Spark, the 66 00:04:17,480 --> 00:04:22,359 Speaker 1: Social and Public Art Resource Center, eventually ran out of 67 00:04:22,440 --> 00:04:25,960 Speaker 1: money to continue the work, so they had to stop 68 00:04:26,040 --> 00:04:31,080 Speaker 1: painting in the nineteen eighties. But that recently changed. 69 00:04:31,440 --> 00:04:34,839 Speaker 4: It's very exciting because we haven't actually added to the 70 00:04:34,880 --> 00:04:37,799 Speaker 4: production for many years. 71 00:04:37,839 --> 00:04:41,640 Speaker 1: More than thirty years later, Judy and her team are 72 00:04:41,680 --> 00:04:45,760 Speaker 1: resuming their work on the Great Wall. Latino USA visited 73 00:04:45,839 --> 00:04:49,159 Speaker 1: Judy in her studio in Venice, housed in an old 74 00:04:49,240 --> 00:04:54,640 Speaker 1: police jail, surrounded by dozens of colorful paint cans and brushes. 75 00:04:55,080 --> 00:04:57,839 Speaker 1: Judy's working on the new designs that will continue to 76 00:04:57,880 --> 00:05:02,960 Speaker 1: tell the story of California. Here's Judy Bacca in her 77 00:05:02,960 --> 00:05:03,599 Speaker 1: own words. 78 00:05:06,040 --> 00:05:09,400 Speaker 4: My name is Judith Francisca Baca, and I'm amural painter, 79 00:05:09,560 --> 00:05:13,000 Speaker 4: a visual artist. I founded the Social and Public Art 80 00:05:13,040 --> 00:05:17,040 Speaker 4: Resource Center in nineteen seventy six. We're all sitting in 81 00:05:17,080 --> 00:05:20,120 Speaker 4: the infamous Red Room, named for the color of its floor. 82 00:05:20,200 --> 00:05:23,760 Speaker 4: My favorite color for floors, and it's a space that 83 00:05:23,880 --> 00:05:26,440 Speaker 4: used to be the old role call room for the 84 00:05:26,560 --> 00:05:29,159 Speaker 4: Los Angeles Police Department, and so this is where they 85 00:05:29,160 --> 00:05:31,080 Speaker 4: would come in the morning get their assignments to go 86 00:05:31,160 --> 00:05:35,400 Speaker 4: out into the world and arrest people and enforce the law. 87 00:05:35,920 --> 00:05:38,359 Speaker 4: Today it's actually a space for the creation of the 88 00:05:38,360 --> 00:05:41,240 Speaker 4: Great Wall of Los Angeles, and the room is filled 89 00:05:41,240 --> 00:05:44,599 Speaker 4: with the drawings for the nineteen sixties and seventies. What 90 00:05:44,680 --> 00:05:46,800 Speaker 4: you're looking at is a section that we call the 91 00:05:46,920 --> 00:05:51,960 Speaker 4: Murder of Crows. It's the very beginning of the nineteen sixties. 92 00:05:52,720 --> 00:05:54,840 Speaker 4: So we're looking at a murder of crows that are 93 00:05:54,839 --> 00:05:58,120 Speaker 4: flying over the San Fernando Valley and they're dropping the 94 00:05:58,200 --> 00:06:02,200 Speaker 4: signs that say things like dogs and Mexicans not allowed 95 00:06:02,360 --> 00:06:06,560 Speaker 4: white only, and they're flying in the sort of circle, 96 00:06:06,600 --> 00:06:08,640 Speaker 4: and they're very scary looking creatures. 97 00:06:08,680 --> 00:06:11,080 Speaker 3: They're not nice little birds. They could attack you. 98 00:06:14,400 --> 00:06:16,960 Speaker 4: Why they're dropping the signs is they're being chased by 99 00:06:16,960 --> 00:06:19,479 Speaker 4: an African American man that holds a sign that says 100 00:06:19,600 --> 00:06:24,000 Speaker 4: I am a man. So once it leaves here completed, 101 00:06:24,120 --> 00:06:29,960 Speaker 4: it will actually become part of the Great Wall. I 102 00:06:30,040 --> 00:06:33,480 Speaker 4: was born in Watts around eighty fifth and Central. It 103 00:06:33,560 --> 00:06:36,600 Speaker 4: was a neighborhood at the time that was mostly African American. 104 00:06:37,160 --> 00:06:41,560 Speaker 4: It was filled with Baptist churches, muffler shops, a kind 105 00:06:41,560 --> 00:06:45,400 Speaker 4: of little bit of an industrial area, and today this 106 00:06:45,520 --> 00:06:50,360 Speaker 4: same neighborhood is mostly Latino. We lived in a duplex, 107 00:06:50,440 --> 00:06:53,400 Speaker 4: two houses on the same lot, in a one bedroom house. 108 00:06:54,360 --> 00:06:57,240 Speaker 4: My mother worked in the factory at Goodyear Tire Plant, 109 00:06:58,040 --> 00:07:02,120 Speaker 4: and she was a twenty three three year old supporting 110 00:07:02,120 --> 00:07:06,080 Speaker 4: her mother and her two sisters and me, and was 111 00:07:06,160 --> 00:07:16,080 Speaker 4: quite a force. My grandmother, Francisco raised me. Basically, she 112 00:07:16,120 --> 00:07:20,320 Speaker 4: took care of me. She was really the keeper of culture. 113 00:07:20,720 --> 00:07:20,920 Speaker 5: You know. 114 00:07:20,960 --> 00:07:23,440 Speaker 4: I thought that she had some kind of special relationship 115 00:07:23,480 --> 00:07:27,920 Speaker 4: to God. The spirit world could be moved by Francisca. 116 00:07:29,120 --> 00:07:31,480 Speaker 4: She was the kind of person that would say in 117 00:07:31,520 --> 00:07:34,960 Speaker 4: the mornings, so miha, what did your dream? She was 118 00:07:35,000 --> 00:07:38,640 Speaker 4: really interested in not simply the material world, but the 119 00:07:38,720 --> 00:07:42,440 Speaker 4: other world. And as a result of that, I had 120 00:07:42,440 --> 00:07:46,960 Speaker 4: a great understanding about the representation of the spiritual. And 121 00:07:47,000 --> 00:07:50,640 Speaker 4: it wasn't just religiosity because she was indigenous, so I 122 00:07:50,720 --> 00:07:55,240 Speaker 4: didn't know what was Catholic and what was Native. She 123 00:07:55,320 --> 00:07:58,520 Speaker 4: asked permissions of plants to replant them. 124 00:07:59,200 --> 00:07:59,960 Speaker 3: She carried on. 125 00:08:00,600 --> 00:08:05,720 Speaker 4: Offrendes and altars, and she was a healer akurandera, both 126 00:08:05,720 --> 00:08:11,120 Speaker 4: in nier ras, tease and prayer. From my grandmother, I 127 00:08:11,200 --> 00:08:14,920 Speaker 4: learned to see and hear people and understand how she 128 00:08:15,040 --> 00:08:20,960 Speaker 4: worked in a way to help people transform trauma, transform 129 00:08:21,280 --> 00:08:33,040 Speaker 4: the lives that were leading there were difficult lives. The 130 00:08:33,120 --> 00:08:36,920 Speaker 4: focal point of much of my work is an imagery 131 00:08:37,040 --> 00:08:41,760 Speaker 4: that features and amplifies the female role, because for me, 132 00:08:42,679 --> 00:08:48,719 Speaker 4: power resided in those women. It wasn't the kind of striding, braggerly, 133 00:08:49,800 --> 00:08:53,760 Speaker 4: sometimes drunken characters that were many the Latino men that 134 00:08:53,800 --> 00:08:57,439 Speaker 4: I saw, but instead it was a different kind of leadership, 135 00:08:57,760 --> 00:09:00,920 Speaker 4: a different kind of knowledge. And I think actually in 136 00:09:00,960 --> 00:09:04,120 Speaker 4: the founding of SPARK, the Social and Public Art Resource Center, 137 00:09:04,520 --> 00:09:07,640 Speaker 4: I was very interested in what did female leadership look like, 138 00:09:08,200 --> 00:09:10,800 Speaker 4: and that's why I chose to begin this organization with 139 00:09:10,800 --> 00:09:13,680 Speaker 4: two other women. So there were three of us really 140 00:09:13,720 --> 00:09:18,120 Speaker 4: from very different backgrounds and different art forms, one a filmmaker, 141 00:09:18,160 --> 00:09:21,560 Speaker 4: another a painter, and me of course a painter and 142 00:09:21,600 --> 00:09:25,600 Speaker 4: in public art. I got my degree in art and 143 00:09:25,640 --> 00:09:28,360 Speaker 4: my mother said I could do the arts if I 144 00:09:28,400 --> 00:09:30,640 Speaker 4: had a way of earning a living, and so she 145 00:09:30,679 --> 00:09:33,520 Speaker 4: thought I should also teach, which was actually pretty good 146 00:09:33,520 --> 00:09:37,280 Speaker 4: direction because that put me in community, and that put 147 00:09:37,320 --> 00:09:40,040 Speaker 4: me in a relationship to seeing the art as a 148 00:09:40,120 --> 00:09:44,480 Speaker 4: useful practice to enhance the lives of young people and 149 00:09:44,559 --> 00:09:46,520 Speaker 4: to give them a sense of pride in who they were. 150 00:09:50,760 --> 00:09:54,200 Speaker 4: I often speak about my work as the creation of 151 00:09:54,240 --> 00:09:57,959 Speaker 4: sites of public memory, which is really about the fact 152 00:09:58,000 --> 00:10:00,720 Speaker 4: that the memory is of our own life. Really, this 153 00:10:00,800 --> 00:10:04,920 Speaker 4: is really very recent history. Up until eighteen forty eight 154 00:10:05,120 --> 00:10:09,120 Speaker 4: was the territory of Mexico. People don't really recognize that. 155 00:10:10,559 --> 00:10:13,600 Speaker 4: In each place that I have worked, I have listened 156 00:10:13,720 --> 00:10:16,720 Speaker 4: to the land, put an ear to the ground in 157 00:10:16,720 --> 00:10:20,480 Speaker 4: the sense to understand who lived there, what memories they 158 00:10:20,520 --> 00:10:23,480 Speaker 4: had of the place, what is the story of the place. 159 00:10:24,040 --> 00:10:27,920 Speaker 4: And it's from that knowledge that I begin to do a. 160 00:10:27,880 --> 00:10:28,800 Speaker 3: Public art work. 161 00:10:32,400 --> 00:10:36,080 Speaker 4: At the end of my university training and beginning my teaching, 162 00:10:36,360 --> 00:10:39,960 Speaker 4: in about nineteen seventy the Department of recon Parks actually 163 00:10:40,000 --> 00:10:43,559 Speaker 4: began hiring artists to work in different parks, and because 164 00:10:43,559 --> 00:10:45,760 Speaker 4: of my Spanish surname, I was sent to boil Heids. 165 00:10:46,360 --> 00:10:49,280 Speaker 4: I'm not from Boyle Heights, but not dissimilar from Pacuema. 166 00:10:49,320 --> 00:10:52,720 Speaker 4: Boile Heids having a really long history of divisions within 167 00:10:52,800 --> 00:10:56,240 Speaker 4: that community of different neighborhoods. So I was being sent 168 00:10:56,280 --> 00:10:59,720 Speaker 4: from park to park to teach. I passed through a 169 00:10:59,720 --> 00:11:03,720 Speaker 4: god lent of young people, typically young men who occupied 170 00:11:03,720 --> 00:11:09,440 Speaker 4: the parks who were not in school and playing dominoes, 171 00:11:09,480 --> 00:11:12,600 Speaker 4: And as I would come through the parks, they would say, hey, art, lady, 172 00:11:13,000 --> 00:11:15,679 Speaker 4: show us your art. And so I started bantering with 173 00:11:15,760 --> 00:11:19,360 Speaker 4: him and saying, okay, show me your art. And so 174 00:11:19,440 --> 00:11:23,280 Speaker 4: we began these dialogues in various parks, and I realized 175 00:11:23,320 --> 00:11:26,080 Speaker 4: that they couldn't go the six blocks to the other 176 00:11:26,160 --> 00:11:31,160 Speaker 4: park with me, and I actually got this idea that 177 00:11:31,200 --> 00:11:34,360 Speaker 4: we could paint one of these parks the outdoors of 178 00:11:34,400 --> 00:11:38,480 Speaker 4: the building. So we negotiated a rocky treaty between different 179 00:11:38,520 --> 00:11:42,440 Speaker 4: groups different neighborhoods. The young men began to think, this 180 00:11:42,600 --> 00:11:44,720 Speaker 4: is probably a pretty good idea for us to do this, 181 00:11:45,120 --> 00:11:48,720 Speaker 4: and that treaty formulated the group called Les vistes noms, 182 00:11:49,120 --> 00:11:51,920 Speaker 4: which was about the notion of a new view of 183 00:11:51,960 --> 00:11:55,679 Speaker 4: how we had to join together as a ladasa, as 184 00:11:55,679 --> 00:11:58,920 Speaker 4: people who had more in common than they had differences. 185 00:12:01,440 --> 00:12:04,000 Speaker 4: I could get no women. There was no women until 186 00:12:04,040 --> 00:12:08,079 Speaker 4: I started recruiting my cousins. I had plenty of cousins, 187 00:12:08,080 --> 00:12:09,680 Speaker 4: so I could say, would you come and paint with me? 188 00:12:11,720 --> 00:12:15,640 Speaker 4: And they were typically sixteen to twenty one. And then 189 00:12:15,679 --> 00:12:18,560 Speaker 4: I talked to a place called the Casa Maraia and 190 00:12:18,720 --> 00:12:21,640 Speaker 4: asked them that they would help me pay these kids. 191 00:12:21,679 --> 00:12:25,120 Speaker 4: They needed jobs to be able to work, and it 192 00:12:25,160 --> 00:12:29,640 Speaker 4: was very hard work, right climbing scaffolding, working in the heat, 193 00:12:30,160 --> 00:12:32,359 Speaker 4: running watch so that we didn't get shot. 194 00:12:32,800 --> 00:12:34,760 Speaker 3: And I was able to. 195 00:12:34,200 --> 00:12:38,160 Speaker 4: Direct the first monies into an art program from a 196 00:12:38,200 --> 00:12:42,000 Speaker 4: program called in the Summer Programs for Disadvantage Youth. They 197 00:12:42,080 --> 00:12:46,400 Speaker 4: used to say culturally disadvantage you, and later they decided 198 00:12:46,400 --> 00:12:49,040 Speaker 4: that maybe they should be saying economically disadvantaged you. It 199 00:12:49,080 --> 00:12:51,880 Speaker 4: was pretty offensive, but that's how I began the group. 200 00:12:51,920 --> 00:12:54,760 Speaker 4: It became a group of young people that started to 201 00:12:54,760 --> 00:13:00,560 Speaker 4: paint with me in the parks. I was able to 202 00:13:00,559 --> 00:13:03,800 Speaker 4: turn that program into a citywide program called the city 203 00:13:03,800 --> 00:13:07,079 Speaker 4: Wide Mural Project. I went before the city council and 204 00:13:07,240 --> 00:13:09,679 Speaker 4: as a young woman pleading my case, I just wanted 205 00:13:09,679 --> 00:13:12,720 Speaker 4: them to give me money to buy scaffolding and to 206 00:13:12,760 --> 00:13:15,480 Speaker 4: give the kids jobs. And at that time, it seemed 207 00:13:15,520 --> 00:13:17,480 Speaker 4: like an enormous amount of money. It was like one 208 00:13:17,520 --> 00:13:20,360 Speaker 4: hundred and seventy five thousand dollars or something like that. 209 00:13:20,360 --> 00:13:24,000 Speaker 4: That began the first City of Los Angeles mural program. 210 00:13:24,600 --> 00:13:28,080 Speaker 4: Los Angeles Times wrote this article saying, gang members put 211 00:13:28,120 --> 00:13:32,920 Speaker 4: down knives for Bruscias the Smithmonion was writing tough, right, young, 212 00:13:33,040 --> 00:13:36,360 Speaker 4: she kind of sits behind paint splattered desk. I think 213 00:13:36,400 --> 00:13:38,839 Speaker 4: they couldn't really distinguish whether I was a gang member 214 00:13:38,880 --> 00:13:41,800 Speaker 4: myself or when I would say I have a master's 215 00:13:41,800 --> 00:13:44,080 Speaker 4: degree in art, and they didn't quite believe me. They 216 00:13:44,080 --> 00:13:46,560 Speaker 4: thought I was like a neighborhood kid because I just 217 00:13:46,640 --> 00:13:47,360 Speaker 4: looked like them. 218 00:13:47,679 --> 00:13:51,400 Speaker 5: Education was Judy's number one thing. As long as I 219 00:13:51,400 --> 00:13:53,520 Speaker 5: stood in school, you can come back and paint the mural. 220 00:13:54,720 --> 00:13:56,760 Speaker 5: Even though I got in trouble in school and fought 221 00:13:56,760 --> 00:14:00,400 Speaker 5: and everything, that was my number one goal wanted to 222 00:14:00,400 --> 00:14:00,840 Speaker 5: come back. 223 00:14:01,559 --> 00:14:05,400 Speaker 4: I particularly like working with teenagers because they were unruly. 224 00:14:05,800 --> 00:14:10,200 Speaker 4: They were really creative, funny, very funny, and you had 225 00:14:10,240 --> 00:14:12,800 Speaker 4: to earn respect. Little babies just adore you, but they 226 00:14:12,800 --> 00:14:15,960 Speaker 4: could eat your art materials or they'll cry as their 227 00:14:16,000 --> 00:14:17,679 Speaker 4: mother left. I mean, it was like I didn't quite 228 00:14:17,760 --> 00:14:22,880 Speaker 4: understand babies. I did understand the kind of struggle of adolescence. 229 00:14:23,240 --> 00:14:26,600 Speaker 4: I witnessed it in my family, witness it in my neighborhood. 230 00:14:27,360 --> 00:14:30,200 Speaker 5: The way I grew up is you fight through life. 231 00:14:31,720 --> 00:14:35,000 Speaker 5: I've got ten brothers and six sisters, and I'm the baby, 232 00:14:35,320 --> 00:14:39,680 Speaker 5: and I was a fight in my house all the time. 233 00:14:40,440 --> 00:14:43,480 Speaker 4: I knew the struggle to keep from being arrested just 234 00:14:43,520 --> 00:14:46,720 Speaker 4: for walking down the street. I knew that their identification 235 00:14:46,800 --> 00:14:49,640 Speaker 4: with a neighborhood put them in the category of gangs, 236 00:14:49,680 --> 00:14:53,080 Speaker 4: even though they weren't involved with criminal behavior. In many 237 00:14:53,120 --> 00:14:55,160 Speaker 4: of the cases, the young people I worked with, and 238 00:14:55,200 --> 00:14:57,920 Speaker 4: then what happened to them when they were incarcerated and 239 00:14:58,000 --> 00:15:00,760 Speaker 4: came through that system, and how that transformed them. 240 00:15:01,040 --> 00:15:03,880 Speaker 5: I think everybody wanted to fight everybody just the way 241 00:15:03,920 --> 00:15:06,360 Speaker 5: they looked or the way they looked at them, or 242 00:15:06,400 --> 00:15:10,680 Speaker 5: the way they dressed. And after time, you just started 243 00:15:10,720 --> 00:15:13,120 Speaker 5: getting to know that person as an individual instead of 244 00:15:13,160 --> 00:15:15,200 Speaker 5: knowing them as you were taught to. 245 00:15:16,520 --> 00:15:19,240 Speaker 3: You know, and. 246 00:15:20,560 --> 00:15:22,160 Speaker 5: Everybody became very good friends. 247 00:15:24,120 --> 00:15:28,040 Speaker 4: I witnessed all parts of this, and I really enjoyed 248 00:15:28,120 --> 00:15:31,760 Speaker 4: watching them transform in the process of learning to respect 249 00:15:31,760 --> 00:15:34,920 Speaker 4: each other, across race and in some cases across class 250 00:15:34,960 --> 00:15:37,440 Speaker 4: and for them to do something that they were really 251 00:15:37,480 --> 00:15:40,480 Speaker 4: proud of that was bigger than any one of them 252 00:15:40,560 --> 00:15:47,720 Speaker 4: could accomplish alone. We put four hundred euros up within 253 00:15:47,760 --> 00:15:50,360 Speaker 4: the year and a half two years, and everything from 254 00:15:50,400 --> 00:15:54,080 Speaker 4: the Chinese community, to the Thai communities, to the South 255 00:15:54,120 --> 00:15:58,720 Speaker 4: Central Black community. And so I became an organizer. I 256 00:15:58,800 --> 00:16:01,200 Speaker 4: wasn't painting anymore. I was like putting other people at 257 00:16:01,240 --> 00:16:04,440 Speaker 4: the paint and at the walls. I got the city 258 00:16:04,480 --> 00:16:06,720 Speaker 4: to pay for our young people to be hired, and 259 00:16:06,720 --> 00:16:08,360 Speaker 4: there were hundreds of kids that were hired. 260 00:16:10,240 --> 00:16:11,200 Speaker 3: Well that was going on. 261 00:16:11,680 --> 00:16:15,560 Speaker 4: The Army Corps engineers looked at the completion of the 262 00:16:15,680 --> 00:16:19,160 Speaker 4: concreting of the Alle River, and in a section in 263 00:16:19,200 --> 00:16:21,080 Speaker 4: the valley not too far from where I grew up, 264 00:16:21,200 --> 00:16:24,320 Speaker 4: they had completed the concreting and they had created dirt 265 00:16:24,360 --> 00:16:26,760 Speaker 4: belts on either side of those channels, which were a 266 00:16:26,760 --> 00:16:30,960 Speaker 4: tremendous eye sores, and there were two kernels, one African 267 00:16:31,000 --> 00:16:34,760 Speaker 4: American and the other Japanese. And these two colonels called 268 00:16:34,760 --> 00:16:38,280 Speaker 4: me and said, would you come and consider painting in 269 00:16:38,280 --> 00:16:41,160 Speaker 4: this river. So that was when they approached me in 270 00:16:41,160 --> 00:16:44,280 Speaker 4: seventy four. It took us about two years to get 271 00:16:44,280 --> 00:16:47,040 Speaker 4: the plans ready for the park for me to propose 272 00:16:47,120 --> 00:16:49,240 Speaker 4: that we do this narrative of the Great Wall. And 273 00:16:49,240 --> 00:16:51,720 Speaker 4: then I began to think, all these kids that I 274 00:16:51,800 --> 00:16:54,480 Speaker 4: hired in all these different parts of the city, what 275 00:16:54,560 --> 00:16:58,080 Speaker 4: if they came to one place and they actually worked together, 276 00:17:00,160 --> 00:17:06,480 Speaker 4: kids from South Central, the Latinos, from San Frenando, or 277 00:17:06,520 --> 00:17:09,120 Speaker 4: from Pacoima. What if we were able to put them 278 00:17:09,119 --> 00:17:11,560 Speaker 4: in one place and we were able to work with 279 00:17:11,640 --> 00:17:16,160 Speaker 4: them in a concerted way to see the commonality between them, 280 00:17:16,359 --> 00:17:19,919 Speaker 4: and to give him an entire program, both educationally, the 281 00:17:20,000 --> 00:17:23,000 Speaker 4: training and the use of equipment and driving trucks and 282 00:17:23,040 --> 00:17:24,880 Speaker 4: working with lifts and doing this. 283 00:17:24,920 --> 00:17:26,000 Speaker 3: Really really hard work. 284 00:17:28,080 --> 00:17:29,800 Speaker 4: So I had no idea if I could pull it off, 285 00:17:30,560 --> 00:17:33,800 Speaker 4: and I proposed beyond what I believed I could do 286 00:17:33,880 --> 00:17:41,040 Speaker 4: even and they began to help me. And then I 287 00:17:41,119 --> 00:17:43,920 Speaker 4: hired my first eighty kids, all of whom had to 288 00:17:43,960 --> 00:17:46,920 Speaker 4: have been rested once because they were on a recidivism 289 00:17:46,960 --> 00:17:51,439 Speaker 4: program whose crimes were truancy to attempted murder. And that 290 00:17:51,520 --> 00:17:53,440 Speaker 4: was where I could get the money for the program 291 00:17:53,960 --> 00:17:59,520 Speaker 4: I to stop them from recurring in the juvenile justice system. 292 00:17:59,840 --> 00:18:02,840 Speaker 4: The only requirements essentially were that they were the right 293 00:18:02,920 --> 00:18:06,760 Speaker 4: age level, the genders and the neighborhoods, and also that 294 00:18:06,760 --> 00:18:09,240 Speaker 4: they had a willingness to work with each other. 295 00:18:15,000 --> 00:18:17,280 Speaker 3: We began painting the first thousand feet. 296 00:18:17,680 --> 00:18:23,720 Speaker 5: We made an impression on ourselves towards the community, and 297 00:18:23,240 --> 00:18:25,040 Speaker 5: you get your name up there. 298 00:18:26,920 --> 00:18:29,960 Speaker 4: The narrative of the Great Wall begins with pre Hispanic 299 00:18:30,000 --> 00:18:33,879 Speaker 4: times and it moves through various parts of our history, 300 00:18:34,320 --> 00:18:37,160 Speaker 4: and it ends with the nineteen fifties. Currently, after World 301 00:18:37,240 --> 00:18:40,040 Speaker 4: War Two, I hired an artist for each hundred feet 302 00:18:40,280 --> 00:18:42,920 Speaker 4: to work with ten kids. That was really a mistake 303 00:18:43,240 --> 00:18:45,959 Speaker 4: because that was really too many kids for one person. 304 00:18:46,320 --> 00:18:49,400 Speaker 4: Later went down to five. After the first thousand feet, 305 00:18:49,440 --> 00:18:52,120 Speaker 4: I went to Mexico in seventy seven and I went 306 00:18:52,160 --> 00:18:56,600 Speaker 4: to study at David Vlado Cicatos's workshop Inquernavaca, and I 307 00:18:56,680 --> 00:18:58,960 Speaker 4: was there with twenty six men, and so I came 308 00:18:59,000 --> 00:19:01,600 Speaker 4: back charged a little bit stronger in terms of my 309 00:19:01,680 --> 00:19:05,879 Speaker 4: designing techniques, a capacity to think of myself as the leader. 310 00:19:06,480 --> 00:19:13,479 Speaker 4: And from that point forward, the mural transforms. You can 311 00:19:13,520 --> 00:19:16,919 Speaker 4: see it in the imagery. It becomes one mural. It 312 00:19:16,960 --> 00:19:19,199 Speaker 4: doesn't have the divisions of each artist trying to do 313 00:19:19,320 --> 00:19:27,760 Speaker 4: their own thing. We'll be moving through each decade. Each 314 00:19:27,800 --> 00:19:30,639 Speaker 4: decade is about between three hundred and fifty feet and 315 00:19:31,000 --> 00:19:34,760 Speaker 4: five hundred feet. That means we'll be painting two seven 316 00:19:34,800 --> 00:19:38,359 Speaker 4: hundred and forty feet of new work. We'll be going 317 00:19:38,400 --> 00:19:41,000 Speaker 4: to as close as we can get to contemporary times, 318 00:19:42,720 --> 00:19:45,080 Speaker 4: and the continuance of what is in this room at 319 00:19:45,119 --> 00:19:47,560 Speaker 4: the moment is the Murder of Crows in the beginning 320 00:19:47,560 --> 00:19:52,000 Speaker 4: of the nineteen sixties, and we had meetings with the artists. 321 00:19:52,040 --> 00:19:54,960 Speaker 4: For the seventies and the nineteen eighties, we're going to 322 00:19:54,960 --> 00:20:01,560 Speaker 4: be dealing with massive immigrations from Central America. So all 323 00:20:01,600 --> 00:20:04,720 Speaker 4: of us are working and submitting drawings, and then for 324 00:20:04,800 --> 00:20:07,680 Speaker 4: the youth. The youth are not going to be engaged 325 00:20:07,680 --> 00:20:10,280 Speaker 4: in the painting of this until we have a space 326 00:20:10,640 --> 00:20:13,760 Speaker 4: to work with these maquettes, and we're trying to discover 327 00:20:13,840 --> 00:20:16,800 Speaker 4: that space. And they will propose things for the mural. 328 00:20:17,160 --> 00:20:19,320 Speaker 4: They'll go down the wall and they'll say, I think 329 00:20:19,320 --> 00:20:21,560 Speaker 4: we should put this kind of thing next, And so 330 00:20:21,640 --> 00:20:24,800 Speaker 4: we'll get drawings from them and we'll select young people 331 00:20:25,200 --> 00:20:27,000 Speaker 4: that will be hired at some point. 332 00:20:27,440 --> 00:20:30,000 Speaker 3: Right now, we don't have money to paint this piece. 333 00:20:30,560 --> 00:20:32,280 Speaker 3: We have only money to design. 334 00:20:32,000 --> 00:20:43,320 Speaker 4: It we can give young people the passion for social justice, 335 00:20:44,160 --> 00:20:47,000 Speaker 4: that they can see it by learning history and understanding 336 00:20:47,040 --> 00:20:49,480 Speaker 4: what we did wrong and what we need to change 337 00:20:49,480 --> 00:20:53,520 Speaker 4: and what we also did right, and that the mural 338 00:20:54,160 --> 00:20:58,600 Speaker 4: becomes not only a cautionary tale but also becomes a 339 00:20:58,720 --> 00:21:02,640 Speaker 4: view of the future of what we can do if 340 00:21:02,640 --> 00:21:06,240 Speaker 4: we are engaged as human beings on a place that 341 00:21:06,359 --> 00:21:07,640 Speaker 4: is recovering a river. 342 00:21:07,440 --> 00:21:08,120 Speaker 3: That has been lost. 343 00:21:10,960 --> 00:21:14,720 Speaker 4: Public art belongs to the public, and the public needs 344 00:21:14,760 --> 00:21:19,720 Speaker 4: to be cooperative in keeping it public of basically saying 345 00:21:20,320 --> 00:21:21,359 Speaker 4: we own this. 346 00:21:21,359 --> 00:21:22,200 Speaker 3: This is ours. 347 00:21:38,880 --> 00:21:42,280 Speaker 1: This episode was produced by Marta Martinez and edited by 348 00:21:42,320 --> 00:21:46,960 Speaker 1: Patricia Subaran. It was mixed by Via shot Damaran. Special 349 00:21:47,080 --> 00:21:50,639 Speaker 1: thanks to SPARK, the Social and Public Art Resource Center 350 00:21:50,960 --> 00:21:53,880 Speaker 1: for letting us use some of their archival audio from 351 00:21:53,920 --> 00:21:57,439 Speaker 1: youth who helped paint the Great Wall. The Latino USA 352 00:21:57,520 --> 00:22:02,440 Speaker 1: team also includes Andrea Lopez grus Like Sargent, Daisy Contreras, 353 00:22:02,880 --> 00:22:07,959 Speaker 1: Victoria Strada, Renaldo Leanos Junior, and Elizabeth Lenthal Torres. Our 354 00:22:08,080 --> 00:22:11,560 Speaker 1: editorial director is Fernandes Santos. Our director of engineering is 355 00:22:11,720 --> 00:22:15,560 Speaker 1: Stephanie Lebau. Our senior engineer is Julia Caruso. Our associate 356 00:22:15,600 --> 00:22:20,000 Speaker 1: engineers are gabriel Lebias and JJ Carubin. Our marketing manager 357 00:22:20,119 --> 00:22:23,120 Speaker 1: is Luis Luna. Our theme music was composed by saying 358 00:22:23,119 --> 00:22:26,320 Speaker 1: it Rubinos, I'm your host and executive producer marriguh Noojosa. 359 00:22:26,440 --> 00:22:29,280 Speaker 1: Join us again on our next episode, and in the meantime, 360 00:22:29,520 --> 00:22:30,240 Speaker 1: look for us. 361 00:22:30,119 --> 00:22:32,120 Speaker 3: On social media. We'll see you there. 362 00:22:32,480 --> 00:22:35,880 Speaker 1: Ey ecquerdade notte ayes estella proxima. 363 00:22:35,680 --> 00:22:48,440 Speaker 6: Ciao Latino USA is made possible in part by California Endowment, 364 00:22:48,800 --> 00:22:52,080 Speaker 6: building a strong state by improving the health of all Californians. 365 00:22:52,760 --> 00:22:56,200 Speaker 6: The Anni E. Casey Foundation creates a brighter future for 366 00:22:56,280 --> 00:23:01,120 Speaker 6: the nation's children by strengthening families, building greater economic opportunity, 367 00:23:01,280 --> 00:23:07,080 Speaker 6: and transforming communities. And the Ford Foundation, working with visionaries 368 00:23:07,320 --> 00:23:09,800 Speaker 6: on the front lines of social change worldwide.