MAPLE NEIGHBORHOOD MURALS

Mural on Lemon Street between Valencia Drive and Orangethorpe

Rod Veal, OC Register staff protographer

Wednesday, April 16, 2008
UPDATE: Mural at center of controversy
Fullerton residents and officials debate whether 1970s paintings on an overpass glorify crime or display pride.
By BARBARA GIASONE
The Orange County Register

FULLERTON — Neighbors who lived in the Maple Neighborhood 30 years ago, pleaded with the City Council Tuesday to retain the murals on the Lemon Street pedestrian overpass.
The artworks, which depict life in the Mexican-American community between 1940 and 1970, were sanctioned by the city in the late 1970s as a way to combat graffiti on the cement structure that had become a blank canvas for vandalism.
At the April 8 council meeting, Councilman Shawn Nelson called for the immediate removal of the artworks between Orangethorpe Avenue and Valencia Drive. He indicated some depictions, such as the low-rider cars and the inscription, "The Town I Live In," were linked to gangs and suggested the city validates "that kind of activity".
But Maple representatives told the council Tuesday the low-rider cars depicted a cultural hobby, and the inscription referred to a song recorded by the East Los Angeles group, Thee Midniters, in the 1960s.
"These (murals) are part of our memories, our tradition," Kitty Jaramillo said Tuesday. "We still have parents living there. Don't do anything post-haste."
Jaramillo said a city committee was working on the $1 million restoration of Lemon Park, and the refurbishment of the murals had been discussed. She asked that the Maple group be included in the talks.
Later in the meeting, Mayor Sharon Quirk asked that representatives of the new SoCo Walk Association and the mural class at Fullerton College also be invited to participate.
Nelson's comments have stirred a growing controversy.
"This was drawn to depict cultural, iconic pride," says Emigdio Vasquez Jr., who airbrushed the inscription when his father, renowned muralist Emigdio Vasquez Sr., restored the murals 10 years ago.
Denise Gonzalez, 18, and an employee of the Maple Community Center in Lemon Park, said she grew up with the murals and appreciates their cultural significance.
"Taking them down would be like taking down Plummer Auditorium," she said. "We should be asking the neighborhood what they would like to see."
Forty-three-year resident Anita Vejar said: "It's time to move on. I think we should have 'Faces of Heroes,' representative of the men in our neighborhood who served in the wars, with maybe some patriotic symbols."
The depiction of the Blessed Virgin Mary continues to draw neighbors bearing flowers and candles.
Bobby Melendez recalled helping select eight boys to work with city-designated artist David Whalen to paint the eight walls in 1979.
"If we want to stop gang activity, we should change the way we work with youths," Melendez said. "The issue is not murals; it's intervention at an early age."
Contact the writer: 714-704-3762bgiasone@ocregister.com