A 300-foot mural completed in Anaheim on Wednesday is now greeting the community with artistic depictions of Chicano culture as part of the city’s effort to pay homage to the culture.
Little People’s Park, located on Elm Street, is now adorned with a new mural thanks to a team effort by a team of local artists and the city. Damin Lujan, a Santa Ana-based artist, worked with the city of Anaheim to conceptualize the design that now brings color to the park. According to the artist, they went through about five different designs before agreeing on the one that made its public debut.
“(We were) trying to make sure it represented the neighborhood correctly,” he said.
Get top local stories in Southern California delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC LA's News Headlines newsletter.
Full of an array of colors, the mural is meant to blend depictions of Chicano culture and highlight its customs.
“It was influenced by a lot of old dress patterns with different birds and different flowers on them, all the colors and Mexico, and it came from all over the place and ended up all in one right here,” Lujan said.
Lujan executed the painting with the help of fellow artists, Richard Romeros and Oliver Cortez Velasquez.
Local
Get Los Angeles's latest local news on crime, entertainment, weather, schools, COVID, cost of living and more. Here's your go-to source for today's LA news.
“It’s a big part of my life to have abuelos and abuelitas come through and walk around, enjoy the mural, the new art and having little kids inspired by it,” Cortez Velasquez said. “The overall feeling of love and the feeling I get back from the community, nothing could replace it ever in my life.”
“We’re just happy that we were able to put something out in the city for our community,” Romeros said.
Anaheim Mayor Pro Tem Natalie Rubalcava, who represents District 3 in central Anaheim, said it was a priority for her to ensure the city represented and honors Chicano heritage.
“This mural is part of that initiative to make sure we’re beautifying our communities and bringing our culture in to Anaheim so our young people and everyone around us remembers the impact the Mexican community had in Anaheim,” Rubalcava said.
The artwork by Lujan rests across the street from a mural that was painted in 1978 following the Chicano movement. Natalie Aguirre, a spokesperson for the city of Anaheim, said the new mural pays homage to the older artwork.
“It does commemorate our past, but now we have something for our future, as well,” Aguirre said. “And they live alongside each other, so we’re really excited to have them both.”
"This is like the hope, the dreams and the life and the unity – that’s what I want this to represent for the future of the neighborhood," Lujan said. "Colorful and life."
