Watsonville Mural Archive

For this 62 foot-long and 22 foot-tall mural, Sabor, artist Augie WK took inspiration from the design of Mexican serapes. With a grant from the Arts Council of Santa Cruz, he and assistant artist, Jessica Carmen, got to work but were soon met with pushback from the city of Watsonville. According to GoodTimes they were fined $1,000 for a public hearing. The city argued that even though the wall is on private property and had the permission from the store owners, the wall faced a public throughway, thus requiring city and public approval. 

With an outpour of community support, the artists quickly raised enough funds through GoFundMe so they could foot the bill. Shortly after, the mural got the mayor's support and the city dropped the hearing and settled on a signage fee of $187, reported GoodTimes. The reaming funds collected went toward waterproofing it, so that it can e graffiti resistant.

At the unveiling of the mural in January of 2019, close to a hundred people joined in celebration. Salinas raised artist, Augie WK told GoodTimes, "The community has responded overall really well to it... One lady told me she bought the house before the wall was built and used to have a great view of the skyline, then when the building went up she was really sad. But now she’s really excited to see the mural... Kids run by and say ‘mom you didn’t tell me we could paint on the walls outside!'"