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Eventos Latinos: Chicano Park Day
Certain events and people are never to be forgotten.
Eventos Latinos
Best bet: Celebrating a park for the people
By Eduardo Cuan
FOR THE UNION-TRIBUNE
April 7, 2005
Certain events and people are never to be forgotten.
That's the idea behind the new exhibit "Chicano Park – 35 Years of Victory, 1970-2005," which opens Saturday at Expressions of Mexico Gallery in Barrio Logan. The exhibit will feature all 35 Chicano Park Day posters from years past.
The exhibit comes more than two weeks before this year's Chicano Park Day festivities, which take place in Barrio Logan, April 23. The family celebration features folkloric ballet presentations, mariachi bands, a low-rider car show, poetry readings and more. It is free and open to the public.
Many of the posters on display at the gallery were inspired by such iconic figures as Ernesto "Che" Guevara, who was honored during the 1977 Chicano Park Day celebrations on the 10th anniversary of his murder.
Other posters include tributes to such figures as César E. Chavez, "The Prophet" Bob Marley, actress Rita Hayworth and Laura Rodriguez, "The Grandmother of Chicano Park."
These posters and others can also be viewed and purchased on www.FuerzaMundo.org, a Web site operated by Mario Torero, an artist and Chicano activist who was raised in the border region of San Diego.
Torero, the Chicano Park Steering Committee, and Expressions of Mexico Gallery organized the exhibit, which will feature three of Torero's posters from the early 1990s.
"One of my favorite posters is the one from 1993," said Torero from his studio in San Diego. "That's the year César Chavez died. It really affected me and made me think about our mortality."
In fact, the poster, which includes such phrases as "peace in our world," "struggle for justice" and "we are not a minority," inspired Torero to start the César E. Chavez Project, which among other things, offers art clases to the community.
Chicano Park muralist Sal Barajas created the 2005 Chicano Park Day poster, "La Guerra Esta Aqui / The War Is Here." The image depicts Barrio Logan activists under the bridge, and the mural of the Virgen Guadalupe, at Chicano Park.
Other artists who contributed posters to the exhibit include Victor Ochoa, Salvador Torres, Christopher Oleata, Carmen Kalo and Pablo Aztlan. There will be a free reception, Saturday from 4 to 8 p.m.
Chicano Park, established April 22, 1970, is known for its murals painted underneath the San Diego-Coronado Bridge, which depict different aspects of Mexican and Chicano history. The land on which the park stands was supposed to be a parking lot for police cars. Construction came to an abrupt end in 1970, when hundreds of protesters demanded the land be returned to the community and used to build a park.