April 4, 2003

Vandals struck twice in Chicano Park in recent days, scrawling hateful messages toward Latinos.

They scrawled a Spanish-language obscenity about César Chávez on a freeway wall near the park, defaced a new statue of Chávez and damaged a mural honoring immigrants who have died while trying to cross the border illegally.

San Diego police began an investigation yesterday at the request of artist Mario Torero.

Torero said he noticed the obscenity Saturday morning before the annual Chávez parade rolled through Barrio Logan.

"We were going to leave it on at first to show the community that our struggle is still not over, but then the artists decided that it was too negative, and we covered it up," Torero said.

The group painted a Mexican flag over the obscenity and installed a life-size metal statue of Chávez near Chávez Parkway and Kearney Avenue.

Torero said he discovered yesterday that the flag and statue had been defaced. Residents told him they had noticed the damage as early as Sunday.

A year ago, vandals defaced several murals at the historic park under the San Diego-Coronado Bridge and at the Centro Cultural de la Raza in Balboa Park.

City and community leaders offered a reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction, but no one has been arrested.

The latest vandalism apparently was meant to spoil the annual Chávez celebration.

The Chávez statue features the late farm labor leader and humanitarian holding the hands of two children. Vandals crossed out their faces with gray paint. They also painted over the eagle on the Mexican flag with brown paint.

They damaged a mural based on a photo of a march honoring would-be illegal immigrants who have died while trying to cross the border. The mural's original caption said: "Dedicated to the people that died during Operation Gatekeeper." Vandals crossed out the word "people" and scrawled what resembles the words "Border Patrol" in black paint.

Police yesterday photographed the damage but said that without witnesses or other solid leads, the case would be difficult to solve.

Torero said Chicano Park's supporters will not be intimidated by vandals.

He and other volunteers plan to repair the art today, he said.