News - La Cartita

La Alianza Chicana, Santa Ana College Students, Rally To Restore Mural (3/26/2018)


Logan Mural Restoration effort led by Chicano students at Santa Ana College.

La Cartita --- Chicano students in Santa Ana College have rallied to restore a mural defaced by a Loper street gangmember. On March 14, the iconic Logan Street mural depicting Mexican communities and Mexican-American servicemen was tagged up by the renegade cholo. The action was widely decried, but the incident drove more than 50 Chicano students into action.

Cindy Macias: "50 students rallied for cause."

Cindy Macias, a Santa Ana College student and member of La Alianza Chicana, posted a viral tweet calling for members of the Souther California community to pitch in for the mural's restoration.

A tireless advocate of Chicano issues, Macias, along with her fellow Chicano classmates, were able to promote and coordinate a go fund me page to gather funds for the iconic 'Heroes Among Us'. In an interview with LC, Macias also condemned the continuing gentrification in Santa Ana; the murals defacement she thinks may help the city use it as rationale to further push out the Logan community. They also received support from SAC Chicano Studies Professor, Rodrigo Valles, who first opened the page.

Historically, Santa Ana's city government has openly advocated and subsidized the ingress of non-Mexican 'out of towners'. Many local residents allege individuals, like Mayor Miguel Pulido, often do nothing, or, worse, to promote the culture that originally made the city so rich in economic and social terms.

Students Immersed In Chicano Studies Use Lessons Gained As Alternative To Policing & Gentrification

Unfortunately, Santa Ana College is known for penny pinching administrators that devalue humanities studies over superficially relevant fields. Ideologically driven disciplines, like Criminal Justice, receive ample support from different sources of public funding, while basic history on colonization, as presented by Chicano studies, is consistently on the defensive for funding from the same sources. Nevertheless, the campus' sole Chicano studies professor, Rodrigo Valles, has steered the students towards constructive solutions that limit criminalization, while empowering the Santa Ana community.

In other words, the small bit of Chicano studies' present at the college has led directly to students feel more motivated to benefit their own community, in many cases, at great expense to themselves. Its quite a different approach from simply painting over the mural and slapping cuffs on an already battle hardened and troubled individual responsible for defacing the mural.

During a telephone interview, Valles was quick to dismiss his own influence, but did acknowlegde being the sole member of an increasingly questioned 'Chicano studies' department. While the discipline is not at all foreign to a population that is primarily Mexican, the department has not expanded its services. This is so despite the fact that more than 50 students mobilized to preserve a well known Chicano mural.

Students sell personal belongings


Logan Mural Restoration Efforts Led By Chicanos.

At the OCC swapmeet, the students sold personal belongings to fundraise the money necessary to cover the costs of the mural restoration.

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