I took this unique project opportunity to research a curiosity I have had having grown up in Los Angeles but never had the chance to fully explore. Los Angeles has a rich public mural art scene that encompasses various neighborhoods including Boyle Heights and Silver Lake. I took this opportunity to personally visit and analyze three public art murals, in the listed neighborhoods, that contained apparent elements of the gothic and of the Chicano movement. The overall purpose of my project is to connect Los Angeles and its public murals to the Chicano movement and the genre of the Gothic through the association of readings from the course and historical and cultural similarities.
The first public mural that I will discuss is the Resurrection of the Green Planet by Ernesto de la Loza, located at 2242 Cesar Chavez Avenue in Boyle Heights. This mural contains various themes that interconnect with one another to express feelings of darkness, light, hope, fear, and so many more emotions. Add up all the images, and one can grasp a sense of the overall message the artist wanted to convey, but individualize each section, and one can further understand the true nature and meaning behind particular images. For example, one specific section pertains extremely well to one of our readings from earlier in the course. The image of the older woman with her hands placed on the younger woman’s head is described to be “a grandmother/curandera passing her wisdom on to a younger generation.” (Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles) Without hesitation, a student of this course should conjure up similarities with Bless Me, Ultima and Ultima’s relationship with Antonio. Ultima undoubtedly passed down great and valuable wisdom to Antonio about spiritual and familial issues. It can be said that the image presented is expressing the same archetype of the older generation passing wisdom down to the younger generation so they could be best equipped to take on the world.
This image is my favorite part of the mural because it has multiple meanings and symbolisms. This said curandera also seemingly has La Virgen-like radiance above her with flowers lined beside her much like how La Virgen de Guadalupe is represented in nearly every image of her. I feel the artist chose this imagery, not only to symbolize the importance of Catholicism in Chicano tradition, but also to highlight the possibility that the forces that empower La Virgen and Catholicism, empowers curanderas as well and they are indeed one in the same. Often times, curanderas are depicted as witches in popular literature, which aids the correlation between the gothic genre and Chicano culture. This suggestion of religion and so-called witchery being intertwined is unique and thought-provoking to say the least.
Another interesting aspect of this mural is that directly to the left of the image discussed above, a seemingly dark section of the mural is presented. Outside the radiance and rays of La Virgen-like figure, two dark, hopeless figures silently scream for salvation. In my interpretation, these figures represent fallen angels reaching towards the heavens pleading for forgiveness as the imagination could only ponder the severity of their wrongdoings. These elements and imagery contain stark gothic elements that add to the overall connectedness of the gothic to the Chicano.
Resurrection of the Green Planet by Ernesto de la Loza is a public mural in East Los Angeles that needs to be preserved and restored. Unfortunately like so many public space, taggers view it as life canvasses. This art mural has not been unique in this regard. The city of Los Angeles needs to have greater emphasis on the preservation of its art murals because if one really stops to analyze these masterpieces, history, culture, and religion could all be explained in realms previously thought impossible.
Work Cited: “Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles.” Resurrection of the Green Planet. SPARC. http://www.muralconservancy.org/murals/resurrection-green-planet
I really like the way these murals tie in so well to Bless Me, Ultima. The wall mural titled the Resurrection of the Green Planet by Ernesto de la Loza, has fascinating imagery that does remind us very much of Ultima, la Curandera, in the novel. The painting has a dream-like daze to it, where the brushstrokes are long and the colors fade into one another very well. It has many symbols of life such as the flowers, the ocean, la curandera and human bodies reaching for something more than what is presented to them. They seem to want more than what this world is offering them, which is a constant element of the emotions we go through in our human condition.
This beauty and symbolism in a wall mural enhances the arts in Los Angeles and is certainly something that should be preserved by the city and not taken for granted.
I liked that the artist placed the mandorla around the woman. The mandorla in this mural reminds me of Yolanda Lopez’s work, Virgen de Guadalupe series. In these paintings, Lopez paints ordinary Mexicana/Chicanas and sanctifies them by giving them Guadalupe’s characteristics such as the mandorla, the mantle, crescent moon, and the angel.