Thread: Racist, anti-American Artwork (and YOU paid for it)

Posting the billboard placing LA in Mexico was the act of a commercial enterprise, the publicity hounds at KRCA-TV.

The following statements are carved in stone, for generations to come, and have been greeting travelers at the Baldwin Park metro rail station for over a dozen years now.

The big difference: this artwork was ordered by the Baldwin Park city council, with the cooperation of the mayor, and more than likely financed by taxpayer funds. Isn't that ironic?

How about that?

Image #1:



Image #2:



Image #3:

Perhaps this is what the poster is referring to. There are two images at this link and here's the history on the station.

http://www.mta.net/about_us/metroart/ma_mlnkbjb.htm

Metrolink Baldwin Park Station
Danza Indigenas, 1993
Judith F. Baca, artist
Siegel Diamond Architecture

Image 1 | Image 2 (see link above for clickable links for images)

Entitled Danza Indegenas (Indigenous Dance) this artist/architect team design traces the historical importance of the California Mission period to contemporary Baldwin Park. Reflected in the platform paving are the floor plans of the four missions that are closest to the station site; superimposed on the floor plans are the steps of indigenous dances.

Voices from the past and present appear in five languages: Spanish, English, Gabrielino, Chumash and Luiseno. Included are the words "memory and willpower� which served indigenous peoples through the difficult times of disease and forced labor. "When the Indians died, the villages ended" is a quote from one of the last fluent native speaking Gabrielinos and it appears near the final dance step.

Also inlaid into the platform are the numbers of cattle and grape vines raised at the missions juxtaposed with the numbers of baptisms and deaths of indigenous people at the missions. At one end of the platform located on the San Gabriel Mission floorplan near what would have been the church altar is a low rock prayer mound. This mound stands in tribute of Toypurina who, at age 23, lead a revolt against the San Gabriel Mission on October 25, 1785.

There are two large pots on the platformâ€â€

Thanks for posting the photos. I really feel that Americans need to wake up regarding the attitude of some of the immigrants and their native-born family members today towards the U.S., which is that they consider the entire southwest to be a part of Mexico and have no respect for the sovereignty of the United States.

As more and more Mexican-born people come to live in the United States, become citizens and get into high political offices, there really won't be anything to stop them FROM making the southwest U.S. part of Mexico.

I have researched this "artwork" and this is what I found regarding the artist.

World of Art: Works In Progress "Judy Baca" (R)
In this program we watch as muralist Judy Baca creates "La Memoria de Nuestra Tierra" (1996) -- a mural for the Topping Student Center on the campus of the University of Southern California. Baca discusses how she uses her public art to confront the social and political problems facing Chicano culture in California. She also talks about the influence of her grandmother on her as an artist, working with gang members and creating her best know work - "The Great Wall of the City of Los Angeles" (1976-1983). The political point-of-view represented in much of her art has made Baca one of the most controversial artists in the Hispanic culture -we see how she deals with a potentially sensitive situation within the campus mural. We also see how Baca is working with students from USC to create a series of public art works on the Fort Ord military base which is currently being converted to a new campus of the California State University. Among the works featured in the program are: "Pancho - Trinity" (1993); "La Offrenda to the Domestic Worker" (1993); "Danzas Indigenas (Baldwin Park Metrolink Station)" (1993); "Hitting the Wall" (1984); "Mi Abuelita" (1970); "Farmworkers of Guadalupe" (1990); "Founders of Guadalupe" (1990); "Uprising of the Mujeres" (1979). y R on 4/14 7:30am; 4/17 7:30am
http://www.lakelandptv.org/Pages/Dig...D4_14Apr05.htm

=====================================
Judy Baca
Artist
Born: 1946
Birthplace: Los Angeles, California
Artist Judy Baca is known for her brilliantly colored urban murals, especially Great Wall of Los Angeles, a dynamic depiction of California ethnic history that stretches half a mile long. For this work and others she enlisted the help of many scholars, kids, artists, and other helpers, combining art and community organizing. Baca has directed several Los Angeles-based murals programs, which have produced hundreds of murals in that city.

http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0882797.html
======================

A World of Art
Biographical Sketch: Judy Baca
As a visual artist, Judy Baca is best known for her large-scale murals, which involve extensive community organization and participation and address multicultural audiences. In the internationally known Great Wall of Los Angeles in the Tujunga Wash Flood Control Channel, Baca designed a work which incorporated 40 ethnic scholars, over 400 multicultural neighborhood youth, 40 assisting artists, and over 100 support staff to paint a half-mile long pictorial representation of the ethnic history of California. Along with many other mural projects, Baca has employed her community organizing techniques to make the World Wall: A Vision of the Future without Fear, seven dual-sided 10 x 30 foot portable mural panels on canvas. The 210-foot mural in seven parts addresses contemporary issues of global importance: war, peace, cooperation, interdependence, and spiritual growth. As the World Wall tours the world, additional panels by artist from seven countries will be added to complete this visual tribute to the "Global Village."
As an arts activist, Baca founded the first City of Los Angeles mural program in 1974, which produced over 250 murals and hired over 2,000 participants in its ten years of operation. In 1976, she founded the Social and Public Arts Resource Center (SPARC) in Venice, California, where she still serves as Artistic Director. In 1988, at the request of then Mayor Tom Bradley, she developed another Los Angeles Mural program based on the model of the Great Wall. Entitled Great Walls Unlimited: Neighborhood Pride, it operated under contract with the City's Cultural Affairs Department and has produced 73 murals in almost every ethnic community in Los Angeles.
She is a founding faculty member of the new California state University, Monterey Bay, and serves as a senior faculty member at UCLA's Cesar Chavez Institute. She lives and works in Venice, California.
http://www.learner.org/catalog/extras/wabios/baca.html
Annenburg CPB (public broadcasting)
===========================

Judith F. Baca
Artist, educator, activist
Born: Los Angeles, California
One of America’s leading muralists, Judith Baca believes that art is a tool for social change and self-transformation, capable of fostering civic dialogue in the most uncivil places.
“Break the mold! Have the biggest vision you can! If you can’t dream it, it cannot occur.�
Raised in a strong, all-female household, Baca was especially influenced by the values of her grandmother, a Mexican herbal healer. In 1974, Baca founded the City of Los Angeles’ first mural program, and in 1976 she co-founded the Social and Public Art Resource Center, which promotes community-based, participatory public arts projects. Since 1980 she has been a professor at the University of California, first at Irvine and since 1996 at UCLA.
“I want to use public space to create a public voice for, and a public consciousness about people who are, in fact, the majority of the population but who are not represented in any visual way."
Baca’s The Great Wall of Los Angeles engaged hundreds of culturally and economically diverse 14-21 year olds, including gang members, as well as scholars, oral historians, artists, and community members. Baca calls the depiction of America and California’s ethnic history “the largest monument to interracial harmony in America.�
“We Latinos must see ourselves as connected to the generations that preceded us and fought for us, and to those who are behind us, struggling in poverty, fear, and lack of opportunity. We must see ourselves as part of the whole.�


http://latino.si.edu/virtualgallery/.../bios_Baca.htm

A member of SaveOurState.org has confirmed these inscriptions first hand. They are running with the photos on their site. Here is the report.

"William,

Per your reqest from SOS's website regarding the authenticity of the monument
in Baldwin Park. I performed the recon yesterday and yes, the quotes, the
monument, and the whole 9 yards does exist. The quotes are etched into the
monument. This is not a "rotten egg" and the photos are real. The Mayor of
Baldwin Park, Mr. Vargas, endorsed this momument by providing the plague which is
hanging on the monument. The momument is very ghastily to look at, especially
if you are a full-blooded American. Hope this alleviates your concerns about
the photo "enchancements". Please inform your group about this monument.
They deserve to hear about this.

Black Cats

How DARE you refer to me as a "rotten egg"?!?

Just kidding, I know and understand you have to verify, and check, and double check.

I found it hard to believe myself ...
Politicians, city fathers, elected officials wouldn't do something like this to us ... would they ?

Sorry Lobo, I meant the pictures might be a rotten egg. When you enlarge the area around the text it appears strange.

We were even cautious about the billboard photos at first until we had confirmation. There's a lot of artwork on the web and we have to make sure.

Thank you for sending these photos to us and setting the process in motion. Many others will see them soon.

William

No problem, and no need to feel sorry about verifying.
This is a sensitive issue, and I would like to THANK YOU, and everyone else at the forum for looking into it.

THANKS FOR THE DUE DILIGENCE!

Now, let me explain the looks of the image.
The original image was taken with a high end Canon digital camera.
The size of the virgin original is 3072 x 2048 pixels, taking up 2,354,864 bytes of storage.

So that I wouldn't abuse your site, and your readers' patience, I have resized the image to 576 x 384 pixels, and, to make the text easier to read, I have increased the contrast by 8% and sharpness by 3%.

When that was done, I have saved it with a web-optimized JPG compressor, which gave me a total size of 17,997 bytes. That is a LOT easier to store, and serve up to readers, but, I guess, made the looks of the image suspicious.

Thanks again, to those running this site, and those taking the time to read these posts.

Originally Posted by lobo

No problem, and no need to feel sorry about verifying.
This is a sensitive issue, and I would like to THANK YOU, and everyone else at the forum for looking into it.

THANKS FOR THE DUE DILIGENCE!

Now, let me explain the looks of the image.
The original image was taken with a high end Canon digital camera.
The size of the virgin original is 3072 x 2048 pixels, taking up 2,354,864 bytes of storage.

So that I wouldn't abuse your site, and your readers' patience, I have resized the image to 576 x 384 pixels, and, to make the text easier to read, I have increased the contrast by 8% and sharpness by 3%.

When that was done, I have saved it with a web-optimized JPG compressor, which gave me a total size of 17,997 bytes. That is a LOT easier to store, and serve up to readers, but, I guess, made the looks of the image suspicious.

Thanks again, to those running this site, and those taking the time to read these posts.

Lobo, tou might edit your original post, and provide links to the "real" images (simply host them on some free image site). Since you reduced, and "enhanced" the pics, it would be nice to have the originals for reference. If you link, simply put the URL there. Don't direct link the image to the post, because people with modems would scream at you after they had to wait 10 minutes to see the page.

Again, THANKS for providing this awful information. Now, we need to spread this to the winds of the net, and make darn sure the people wake and and SEE what the aztlan foolz really want.

H.

Issue hit the radio waves on 5/6/2005.

Here is the soundclip from the John Ziegler show, KFI AM-640 talk radio:

http://www.geocities.com/acuna_r/aud...05-06-2005.wma