After 16 hours of often contentious mediation, the committee tasked with deciding the fate of the Bernal Heights Library Mural has come to a consensus.
The mural, painted by muralists Arch Williams and Carlos Alcala with the help of 25 Bernal youth in 1982, will be removed. A new mural, still rooted in neighborhood themes of social diversity and unified struggle, will be created with low or no-maintenance material such as painted tile or ceramics.
Mauricio Vela, a committee member from the Save The Bernal Heights Library Mural campaign who signed the final consensus, said he is cautiously optimistic about the plan to renovate and redesign the mural.
“When we started this campaign, it was to restore and update. We’re not stupid, knucklehead blockheads who think that life stopped at 1982,” he said. “We’ve always said, ‘let’s restore it and let’s update it with new images of Bernal gay, lesbian, transgender, mixed-race families, with whatever. That’s part of the community design process.”
The committee was formed when the Library Commission and the city Arts Commission both declined to make a decision on what they saw as a potentially divisive and emotionally volatile community issue.
“When people found out that it was such an emotional issue within a tight community, neither the Art Commission or the Library Commission wanted to divide us more. So they both said, ‘if you guys go to mediation with a real facilitator, let us know your outcome and we will plan it by your recommendation’,” said Darcy Lee, the owner of Heartfelt, a gift shop on Cortland Ave., and president of the Bernal Business Alliance. Lee has been involved in the mediation process from its start.
Lee and other Bernal residents originally set out to see the mural removed completely in order to return the library to its original 1930’s appearance.
“The mural hadn’t been maintained in the 30 years since it was put up. It was faded and in real disrepair and the money allotted by the library wasn’t enough to bring it back to its glory,” Lee said. “Because the interior of the library was so painstakingly restored with every detail, I thought that the mural didn’t add to its beauty.”
However, through her interaction with Vela and other advocates of restoring the mural, she has come to see its larger significance to many in the neighborhood.
“I’ve really changed my mind. The people who wanted to save the mural really showed me how much importance it had,” she said. “What we decided was maybe we could preserve the most beautiful elements and put them back on the library in a more sustainable medium like painted tile, which I guess is weather-resistant.”
Although the committee’s decision is not legally binding, its recommendation will be given precedence by the art commission in planning renovation of the mural. Many details, including the artists who will paint it, the specific medium and what imagery will appear in it will be decided in a public forum.
Vela said he would like to see the something more binding that ensured the preservation of important themes and images, suggesting the possibility of a cover letter for the recommendation endorsed by Supervisor David Campos and Mayor Gavin Newsom.
“We’re not opposed to it coming down, we just want to make sure our images are there Vela said. “We would respect the architectural lines, but still have our imagery on the building. We’ve grown too.”
Many long-time Bernal residents are determined to see their cultural history preserved in the new mural, but also want it to reflect the economic hardship that has afflicted its residents and driven some away.
“It should be a reflection of our sufferings, what we’ve been through in our community, struggling. Many of us have been struggling just to live and remain in the community,” said Fernando Salazar, a local school teacher and life-long Bernal Heights resident.
One particular element of the old mural that has been passionately defended by mural advocates is the memorial for Arturo Duran, a 16-year-old Bernal heights youth who was gunned down January 16, 1980. The shooting enflamed tensions in the neighborhood because Duran’s assailant was Filipino.
“That took a really big toll, not just on the Bernal Heights community, but on the Mission community, because he had a lot of friends there,” said Teresa Chavez, life-long Bernal Heights residents and a member of the campaign to save the mural. “It did cause a lot of strain and it was hard because there were a lot of Filipinos, Blacks and Latinos growing up here and it put a lot of strain on our friendships. But that was part of what the memorial to him was about…it represents unity and struggle.”
Lee couldn’t’ say for sure what would and would not be in the new mural, since that will be decided by the Arts Commission pending a public forum, but she agreed that Duran’s memorial is a key image and was “really excited” about the consensus and the design process.
“There were no winners, building a consensus became more important than winning or losing,” Lee said. “The present mural will be removed as a requirement, but the new artist has to incorporate key elements from the original mural in the new artwork. So undoubtedly, images from the old mural will be used.”
Vela was more reserved in his enthusiasm and stressed that he sees the community’s work as far from over.
“There’s still a lot of work to ensure the vital images on the current mural return. Artist selection and community design process will start in April, and folks need to be vigilant and participate,” he said. “This is a symptom of the gentrification of our neighborhood, and it’s about a race and class struggle going on in the neighborhood, and right now this is the dispute that’s reflecting that struggle.”