Watsonville Mural Archive

This mural was completed in 2009 with the collaboration of artists from the Community Rejuvenation Project and members of the Watsonville Brown Beret chapter. The Watsonville Brown Beret chapter formed in 1994 in response to the slaying of local youth, Jessica and Jorge. Such violence promoted community members to organize a space to come together and discuss these injustices while also forming a positive and safe space for youth. 

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Many symbols featured on this mural are Mesoamerican, in which the artists used mural making as a way to teach volunteer such as the Ollin symbol. In painting  such symbols, folks taught each other meanings behind these indigenous symbols. “It was like a Chicano studies class given by the people for the people,” expressed Yesenia Molina, a member of the Brown Berets. After it was painted, some residents didn’t agree with the images of “brown folks with fists in the air” and brought the issue to city council, thus compelling the Brown Beret members to modify the mural in order to keep it up. Now you will see brown folks holding bike tools instead of raising fists. This mural is dedicated to community elder, Henry Dominguez, a founding member of the Black Berets Por La Justicia.