SAN DIEGO: Anti-Mexican Attack on Historic Chicano Park Murals

Vandalism occurs one week after attack by S.D. cops on a leading member of the Chicano Park Steering Committee

by
Ernesto Cienfuegos
La Voz de Aztlan

San Diego, Alta California - 4/30/2002 - (ACN) One week after a 54 year old Mexican-American mother and leading member of the Chicano Park Steering Committee was viciously assaulted by the San Diego Police Department, vandals entered Chicano Park during the night and defaced with racist graffiti five of its internationally recognized Mexican murals. The artwork is part of a world known collection of murals that decorate the concrete pillars of the San Diego-Coronado Bridge. The murals were painted after the founding of Chicano Park in 1970 and they celebrate Mexican and Mexican-American culture and history.

The racist vandals used black spray-paint to deface the artwork and to write slurs in English and in misspelled Spanish meant to be offensive to Mexicans and Chicanos. The hoodlums wrote "Viva La Migra", "Abajo Mexico" and "Fuck Aztlan" on some of the murals and on others they simply spray-painted streaks of black paint.

"This is obviously a hate crime not only against the Mexican community but also a crime against a very historical cultural center," said Christian Ramirez, spokesman for the American Friends Service Committee. "This is the heart and soul of the Mexican community in San Diego."

California Arts Council official Josie Talamantez said the Chicano Park murals are a significant part of San Diego history. "It has city and state historic recognition, and there is a movement to get it recognized as a national treasure," said Talamantez, a co-founder of Chicano Park.

In 1987, the San Diego Public Arts Advisory Board voted to recognize the murals as meritorious public arts works. In 1992, the San Diego Commission for the Arts and Culture described the murals as "the largest, most important collection of outdoor murals in the country."

The vandalism on the murals comes seven days after 54 year old Mexican-American mother Yolanda Fajardo Perez was viciously assault by the S.D. Police Department. Mrs. Fajardo Perez is a leading member of the Chicano Park Steering Committee that oversees maintenance of the murals. La Voz de Aztlan reported on the April 22, 2002 cowardly assault at http://www.aztlan.net/sdcopassault.htm The report includes a link to a video clip of the assault. Some members of the Logan Barrio community believe that the defacement of the historic murals is connected in some way to the assault on Mrs. Fajardo Perez.