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<\/b>Editor\u2019s Note: The following story was produced as part of Acci\u00f3n Latina\u2019s media internship program Chicas y Mujeres Poderosas, which launched in January 2018. The internship gave young women, ages 13-17, training in journalism, an industry that remains largely male dominated. El Tecolote will be publishing their final projects periodically. The following story is by intern Ella Ramrayka Rogers, 14, student at Children\u2019s Day School.<\/i><\/p>\n
As a child, Susan Cervantes would play with her sisters and hide behind tall plants and saplings in her grandmother\u2019s greenhouse in Dallas. Back then, she didn\u2019t know she wanted to be an artist, let alone a muralist, but she says now that her family was always creating art, even if they didn\u2019t know it.<\/p>\n
Her grandfather and father were self-taught musicians, and her sisters were bonafide quilt-makers. \u201cI mean, they all knew how to sew, make their own clothes. It was just kinda what you did, a long time ago,\u201d she said, half smiling. \u201cBut I don\u2019t think any of them thought of themselves as an artist.\u201d<\/p>\n
I sit across from the Mission muralist just as the sun sets on a windy San Francisco day, but we\u2019re inside a warm, colorful shop with \u201cPrecita Eyes\u201d emblazoned on a huge, marigold-yellow wall-mounted sign out front. Cervantes, who is now 73, is well-known in the Mission community for her beautiful murals, and as one of the founders and the director of Precita Eyes Muralists in the Mission District. Established in 1977, Precita Eyes is one of only a few community mural arts centers in the United States.<\/p>\n
Cervantes has been painting her murals since 1975, she says, though she\u2019s less than eager to tell me about her first. \u201cI don\u2019t know if I wanna say what my first mural was,\u201d she chuckles, before sighing. \u201cWell, I was invited to do a mural next door from where I lived, on Valencia Street, Valencia and 22nd, and it was called Coffee Don\u2019s, and he wanted a mural on his wall and his business.\u201d And Cervantes did so, in exchange for food.<\/p>\n
She wasn\u2019t always a muralist, though. Her art career started back in her hometown of Dallas, when she was still a kid. \u201cI loved painting,\u201d she said. \u201cThat was just my passion from the very beginning.\u201d And she was encouraged, too, by family, teachers, who all aided her in her journey to become the artist she is today.<\/p>\n
Though she was a good art student, she \u201cdidn\u2019t like going to high school so much,\u201d so she took matters into her own hands and enrolled in summer school. This way, when she went to her regular high school, she\u2019d get to do art all day.<\/p>\n
Cervantes graduated early, and that was when she decided to go to art school in San Francisco.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no good art schools in Texas,\u201d she says. \u201cSo I went to the Museum library, and found out there was an art school here, and one in Philadelphia\u2014they were the only art schools in the country that gave degrees, at that time. And my parents wanted me to get a degree. So instead of going to the East Coast I went to the West Coast, so I came out here.\u201d And she has been here ever since. She says it simply, like it was an easy decision for a 17 year old to make.<\/p>\n
Although it wasn\u2019t all easy for Cervantes. She says that one problem in the artistic community is people taking muraling and muralists seriously. \u201cI think, just having respect [is a problem],\u201d she said. \u201cHaving respect for the art that\u2019s community designed and painted, and also that what we\u2019re doing with the community is just as important as any other art form.\u201d<\/p>\n
She says that another issue is getting funding for community murals. \u201cGetting funding for what you do is always a challenge. I\u2019ve always been a champion for artists\u2019 rights, as well. That\u2019s always something we\u2019ve had to protect and we\u2019ll continue to protect.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cervantes then mentions the highlights of being a modern muralist. \u201cI\u2019ve been doing it now for 50 years, as well as a lot of other artists, and I think it\u2019s finally getting some respect. And also, see how it\u2019s grown. I mean, when we started in the 70\u2019s, there were only, maybe, five murals, and now there\u2019s 650 murals. And it\u2019s not just community murals but individual murals, street art, graffiti, stencils, whatever,\u201d she laughs. \u201cIt\u2019s all grown out of this kind of movement of a people\u2019s art. And I like it when it\u2019s for the people\u2026 by the people, the most.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the future, Cervantes will be installing a new mural on the front of Precita\u2014a large mosaic inspired by Indigenous art is soon to decorate the shop. Her work on the Women\u2019s Building in the Mission is also being commemorated in a book, about which El Tecolote has previously reported.<\/p>\n
And as for any aspiring young artists, Cervantes urges them to stay alert and stick with those who stick with them. \u201cI would just say, that they should look around themselves and see where they can contribute their skills and their art\u2026 It might be the store on the corner, or the church\u2014it might be something that is part of your environment, part of your neighborhood. So, share your art with those people, \u2019cause when they see you all the time, they\u2019re the ones who\u2019re gonna support you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[su_slider source=”media: 37394,37395,37396,37397,37398,37399,37400,37401,37403,37404,37407″ limit=”80″ link=”custom” target=”blank” width=”800″ height=”540″ responsive=”no” pages=”no” mousewheel=”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] Editor\u2019s Note: The following story was produced as part of Acci\u00f3n Latina\u2019s media internship program Chicas y Mujeres Poderosas, which launched in January 2018. The internship gave young women, ages 13-17, training in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":37394,"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":[7],"tags":[5589,16410,16428,5261,11589],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-37392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-calle-24-en","tag-chicas-y-mujeres-poderosas","tag-ella-ramrayka-rogers","tag-precita-eyes-en","tag-susan-cervantes-en","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n