THURSDAY, 24 SEPTEMBER 2020, 06:30 AM EDT
Protester community members failed to save the demolition of a 32-year-old mural which was painted by a famed Chicano artist at Memorial Prep Middle School in San Diego. The school building posture that mural was torn down Wednesday. Consequently, Encanto resident Monica Bernal assets a sit-in protest for almost an hour before she removed by police. Ultimately, after an hour of Wednesday, police talked to Bernal and tried to convince her to leave the area of the protest but she refused. Unfortunately, Police then manacled her and carried her off-site.
Officials statements
Consolidated officials of San Diego stated that the mural could not be conserved because it was painted on a classroom building that curbs asbestos. As per the statement of officials breaking into the wall to protect the mural would have released the hazardous material. District officials in their statements mentioned that the mural has been cataloged and will be re-created soon at the new school location.
San Diego Unified spokesman Samer Naji said that in accordance with the Historic American Buildings Survey, the photos will be accommodated at the San Diego Central Library. Alon with it the pictures will be housed at the San Diego History Center as well as UC Santa Barbara Library Special assemblage.
Destruction of Chicano culture
Still, District officials had mentioned that the mural will be recreated at a new site but the community members saw the destruction of that mural just like a great loss for Chicano culture and their community’s history. Bernal, who went to Memorial Prep, said that for her, it was just as another form of deletion of history and civilization in an area that is being modified. She said that its an erasure of what and who we all are. According to her, the mural was all about their history.
Begging of Mural
The mural was painted in 1988 by Torres. Torres was the co-founder of the Centro Cultural de la Raza and lead a murals project at Chicano Park beginning in 1973. According to the UC Santa Barbara Library, the park now clunch the largest collection of Chicano murals in the world. The mural highlighted a diverse group of Memorial students and graduates, veterans of World War I, and Sharon “Christa” McAuliffe who was the teacher and later became an astronaut and who died in the 1986 space shuttle Challenger explosion.