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If you\u2019ve walked by the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts (MCCLA) over the last few months, you may have noticed the scaffolds and the artists working to restore the \u201cSpirit of the Arts\u201d mural, which has adorned the face of the building since 1982.<\/p>\n
The artists vary in age, but one of them, Carlos Loarca, is 80 years old. He is one of the original artists to work on the mural, along with Betsie Miller-Kusz and Manuel Villamor. The three decided the mural was due for a much needed restoration as a way to commemorate the MLCCA\u2019s 40th anniversary, and they brought in a younger generation of artists to help.<\/p>\n
The mural depicts a single ancestral indian figure meant to represent the ancient civilizations of the Aztecs, Mayans, and Inca. \u201cThese were powerful people,\u201d Loarca said. \u201cThey learned everything on their own, they built things. There were no books to tell them how to do something.\u201d<\/p>\n
I asked why there was only a single figure and he told me that \u201cone person can represent many populations. One person can hold great influence.\u201d The positioning of the figure is important as well. Its head is facing forward with arms back. It is not a protective position; it is bold yet vulnerable\u2014 \u201can offering of one\u2019s self to the universe,\u201d Loarca explained.<\/p>\n
Loarca himself is no stranger to being bold and vulnerable. He grew up in Quetzaltenango, a city in the Western Highlands of Guatemala. \u201cI love my country but I knew I wanted to see more of the world. I remember being a little boy looking over the highlands and knowing Mexico was over there, and beyond that the United States.\u201d He didn\u2019t draw or paint as a child, he had dreams of seeing and doing more but didn\u2019t know exactly what that would look like. \u201cIt didn\u2019t matter to me though. I knew my spirit would lead me to where I needed to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 1956, he was sponsored to come to the United States. First to San Francisco, then a yearlong scholarship at a university in Utah that offered English classes for foreign students. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to refuge myself into a community I was used to. I wanted to be in a place that held different principles, different ideas so I could expand my views.\u201d He learned English and took jobs washing dishes and cleaning to get by. \u201cI\u2019ve always known how to work hard, so having jobs was never an issue.\u201d<\/p>\n
When I asked Loarca how he began drawing, he described a moment while in Utah where he was feeling particularly alone and homesick. \u201cI was sitting at my kitchen table and just started drawing memories of my country on a piece of paper. Then I began painting and adding the colors of Guatemala. Because in Guatemala, there are colors everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
I think about the last time I was in Antigua, Guatemala and the colors I saw. From jewelry to clothing to the buildings, there were oranges, pinks, turquoises everywhere. And the faded yellow church, Iglesia De La Merced, that towers over the town. \u201cWe aren\u2019t scared of colors in Guatemala,\u201d Loarca said. \u201cWe are always around nature so we see color everywhere in the flowers, in the trees, in our clothing. We express ourselves through color.<\/p>\n
And the Mission District is where Loarca wants to keep color, art and community alive. \u201cPainting is the opportunity I have given myself to create images through the efforts of my memories and imaginary subjects and share that with the community.\u201d The mural restoration project is a way to for him to do this with his fellow artists. In a continually changing and developing Mission District, the mural represents cultural endurance, and serves as inspiration for us to continue to offer ourselves to the universe headfirst and unafraid. \u201cWe as people do have a lot of power. We can cut into space and cut into time. There is a magic to it and magic is a part of the world. And a part of our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[su_slider source=”media: 33911,33910,33909,33908,33907,33906,33905,33904,33903,33902″ limit=”80″ link=”image” target=”blank” width=”800″ height=”540″ responsive=”no” pages=”no” autoplay=”0″ speed=”500″][su_slider source=”media: 29856,29857″ limit=”30″ link=”image” target=”blank” width=”700″ height=”460″ autoplay=”0″ speed=”500″][su_menu][\/su_slider] If you\u2019ve walked by the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts (MCCLA) over the last few months, you may have noticed the scaffolds and the artists working to restore the \u201cSpirit of the Arts\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":33903,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,3562,4],"tags":[10949,13365,13608,13606,11821,13490,13612,11167,13409,12377,3889,3925,3613,13361,13610,11779],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-33901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-multimedia-en","category-photo","category-voices","tag-art-en","tag-art-and-culture","tag-artist","tag-carlos-loarca","tag-elizabeth-veras-holland","tag-mccla-en","tag-mission-art","tag-mission-artist","tag-mission-characters","tag-mission-cultural-center-en","tag-mission-cultural-center-for-latino-arts-en","tag-mission-district-en","tag-mural-en","tag-muralist","tag-profiles","tag-the-mission","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n