History of Chicano Park
Chicano Park is "the reclaiming of the land." In 1971 the first Mural was drawn. In many of those murals, there are heroes picked from the revolution. This park used to be a community that's over 100 years old. In the past, Mexicans weren't allowed to live anywhere else which resulted in 3-5,000 families and businesses. One of the heroes was known as Emiliano Zapata. He was a "Mexican Robin-Hood" that was against the rich and helped the poor. In the 70s, Americans wanted to put a highway patrol station on the community and kick all of the people that were living there out but the people were protecting the park by standing in front of the tractors and keeping the workers away. Adelitas were like woman soldiers that protected their homes as well as the men. Eventually, the freeway divided the community and there was a lot of social injustice. There's a saying written on one of the pillars that says, "Varrios si, Yonkes no" which translates to Communities yes, Junkyards no. These people drew these murals for us so we learn from it and don't go through it.
A Few Facts
Chicano Park is symbolic and known throughout the world and a lot of people come from all over just to see the murals. It's the biggest outdoor gallery with no other park like it. It's also the most important community in San Diego. Murals have been around for a while, they're nothing new. These murals illustrate adjustments we have to make and are there to make a point and a statement. It's a contribution to the community and nobody gets paid for drawing them. Visual-art is a way of expression with the graphics being a little hard. Most of the murals were done with no funds, just the work of collaborated artists and no plans at all. Many people tried to ruin these murals by throwing paint-filled balloons at some of them. They were easily fixed though by painting over them and turning them into part of the mural.