Mural celebrates Latinx community

Mural+celebrates+Latinx+community

The Latinx community held an event in the campus quad at 11 a.m., where artist Raul Mejia sketched out a mural that was painted by students on Oct. 5.

Students from the Student life and Leadership Center came up with the idea after taking part at cultural conferences in San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Jose. The one particular thing that stuck to them was the art on the walls, said SLLC student personnel assistant Yesenia Castellon.

“Before coming out here, I did not know exactly what the Latinx was and what it was celebrating and now this is a great opportunity to see exactly what and who is being celebrated,” said 20-year-old sociology major Ilyssa Sotelo.

The mini mural was set into four paintings and they were put under two pavilions in front of the library. One displayed painting was of Roberto Clemente, who was the first Latino to enter the baseball hall of fame, and Ellen Ochoa who was the first Latina astronaut.

“I feel like there is not enough imagery of the Latinx community anywhere, especially in the media,” said Mejia. “I feel like we are misrepresented in a lot of ways and I feel like it is our duty to fight those stereotypes in our own lives.”

The second pavilion had paintings of Joe Serna, who rose from his roots as a farm worker to become Sacramento’s first Latino mayor in modern history. The painting next to him was of Frida Kahlo, who was known not only from her paintings but being an activist for female rights as well.

“The thing I liked was the hands on paintings that really brought people together and it showed art in a very symbolic way for the community as a whole because we made this, not just Mejia,” said 21-year-old kinesiology major Daniel Dapitan.

Students from different communities, not just Latinx, came to the showing and took part in painting the murals. Spanish Professor Blanca Gill brought her Spanish 401 class to the quad to participate in the event and it allowed students from all communities to see what Latinx month was all about.

“Maybe they have had some type of similar struggle,” said Castellon. They are learning not just about the Latinx community but about themselves as well.”

The event not only had Mejia talk to the students in the beginning about what each mural was but it also played Latino music in the background to add to the celebration of the culture.

“I am interested in Latinx and what they are trying to do which is bringing all the cultures together and I feel like that defines America because we are a nation of immigrants,” said Dapitan.