Several murals with positive, life-affirming messages greet members of the community who recreate at Washington Park in Escondido. I noticed the murals during my recent walk in the area. I also found signs indicating that the two you see in the above photograph were created by local students.
Read the captions.
I’ve been told more murals are coming to Washington Park in the future.
During the same walk I photographed a new mural by renowned artist Mario Torero that was dedicated about a week ago on the other side of Escondido Creek. You can view those photos and read about it here.
Battle Scars, by Katie Daniels, Escondido Union High School Student College and Career Readiness Program. Painted by: Ashley, Ava, Daniel, Daisy, Jeidy, Joey, Johanna, Katie, Sofia, Vada and Zahhak.Wings of Life, by C. Garcia and Maria Medero, Escondido Union High School Students.A third beautiful mural. A painted hand reaches for splashes of color.
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Several days ago a fantastic new mural debuted in Escondido. Tortilla Tesoro is colorful 32′ x 8′ panel that greets customers on the east side Tortilleria Santacruz, to the left of the store’s front entrance. The mural, which celebrates the cultural heritage and diversity of Escondido’s population, was created by Mario Torero, one of the renowned co-founders of Chicano Park in San Diego.
Additional “Chicano Colorful walls” artwork has been finished on the building’s east and south side, featuring Michoacan inspired imagery. According to the project website: Participation in the creation of the murals included students of the Conway Academy of Expeditionary Learning Elementary School and “A Step Beyond”, an Escondido creative youth development organisation serving youth and their families living at or below the poverty line with free after-school dance classes, academic support, and social services.
Another very colorful mural on the building’s north side was completed earlier this year. It was painted by Charlie Mejia. I posted photos of it in late March here.
First, here’s the new artwork on the tortilleria’s south side…
The following sign provides an explanation of the Tortilla Tesoro (Tortilla Treasure) mural in front of the building.
It was designed by Mario Torero using acrylic on poly-aluminum material. The mural highlights the natural beauty of the Escondido Valley landscape, and includes notable landmarks like the San Diego Zoo Safari Park and Queen Califia’s Magical Circle. Figures in the mural portray students, athletes, musicians, laborers and dancers.
Tortilleria Santacruz was started around 1996 at a nearby location by Juan and Gaudencia Santacruz. It is a family run business. There was a shared dream that one day murals would be painted here.
Here’s Mario Torero’s beautiful Tortilla Tesoro mural…
And more new artwork, by the building’s front entrance…
Learn more about the inspirational project at this website!
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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
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This year’s Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Celebration is bringing dance, music, art and lots of cultural fun to the International Cottages! Until about 4 pm, that is. If you read this in time, you might go check it out!
Today’s event includes participants from the Houses of USA, Chamorros, China, India, Korea and Philippines.
Special festivals and lawn programs are held nearly every weekend at Balboa Park’s International Cottages. You’ve never been? You’re missing out! Here’s the webpage that lists all the upcoming events!
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
San Diego boasts an amazing quantity and variety of street art. Artists have added color to almost every community. Head down any street and there’s a chance you’ll discover a new mural or unexpected bit of art!
I’ve been posting photographs to Cool San Diego Sights for almost ten years now. During my walks around San Diego, my camera has scored numerous such discoveries. So many, in fact, that I created a Pinterest page that now contains almost 1000 street art images!
Links on my Pinterest page allow you to navigate to the associated blog posts on Cool San Diego Sights, where I usually provide a description of the artwork.
This week the big Our Walls Speak event is being held in and around Barrio Logan. Given the renewed interest in our city’s outdoor murals, I figured now would be a good time to share that Pinterest page.
Check out nearly 1000 photographs of San Diego street art by clicking here!
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
An exciting event is coming to San Diego next week!
From Wednesday, May 17 to Sunday, May 21, the many colorful murals that reflect Chicano history and culture in several of our city’s communities will be celebrated with a special tour, workshops, lectures, dance, poetry and more!
Our Walls Speak is the name of this free event. Those who participate will have the opportunity to experience not only Chicano Park’s famous murals, but other murals in nearby communities. Participants will come away inspired, understanding the importance and meaning of these empowering works of art, and the need to preserve them.
According to the event website: This year’s 2023 “Our Walls Speak!: Nuestros Muros Hablan!”, event features four days of live and virtual panel/community discussions, artist and elder interviews and storytelling, and mural art exhibitions. Download and attend a neighborhood mural walk/drive/tour through the San Diego neighborhoods of Logan Heights, Sherman Heights and Golden Hills communities. Join us on Sunday May 21st for youth and family mural art workshops, spoken word, music and dance movement performances and local street food vendors serving healthy and delicious recipes.
To see the many free activities that can be enjoyed over the course of five days, and to register for Our Walls Speak, click here!
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
The 40th Annual Ethnic Food Fair is taking place today in San Diego’s Balboa Park!
If you read this in time, the big culinary festival continues at the International Cottages through 7 pm.
I must confess I walked through the event quickly and didn’t partake of any food, but I did pause for a few minutes to take in the atmosphere, and to watch dancers in folk costume from the House of Turkey performing on stage. Look at the huge crowd!
I did smell many different wonderful aromas!
Here’s a photographic taste of what visitors to the Ethnic Food Fair enjoyed today!
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
The history of human activity beside the life-giving San Diego River can be viewed from the outdoor terrace of the Junípero Serra Museum.
The museum’s scenic San Diego Riverview exhibit helps visitors visualize the where and when of various important developments in the area. Historical images from the San Diego History Center Photo Collection can be compared to present-day sights in nearby Mission Valley and beyond.
I walked up Presidio Hill today to check out this relatively new exhibit.
As I write this, I can still remember my first visit to the Junípero Serra Museum. The landmark building stands high atop Presidio Hill overlooking Old Town and the west end of Mission Valley. Revisit those old photographs here.
Years ago I also posted a blog about climbing Presidio Hill, where Europeans first settled in California. See that here. Since then I’ve walked around Presidio Park many times and have shared all sorts of photographs. You can find many of them by using this website’s search box.
A plaque by the outdoor terrace acknowledges those who helped with the Serra Museum’s recent restorations.Look for several of these signs outside the Junípero Serra Museum.Interstate 8 runs through Mission Valley just below Presidio Hill.Historical photos and information await visitors at the northeast corner of the Serra Museum’s outdoor terrace.If you peer to the west beyond some trees, you can see San Diego Bay, which explorer Cabrillo discovered for Spain in 1542.Survey of the San Diego River and San Diego Bay, 1853.The Native American Kumeyaay lived in a village called Cosoy at the base of Presidio Hill near the San Diego River.Derby Dike was built in 1853 by Lt. George Derby of the Army Corps of Engineers. The dike altered the course of the San Diego River, which periodically flooded Old Town, into False Bay–now called Mission Bay.
To see a historical plaque which marks the approximate location of old Derby Dike, click here.
Believe it or not, dike engineer Lieutenant George Horatio Derby was also a humorist who inspired Mark Twain! His pen name was Squibob. You can still see where he lodged while working in San Diego. Read about that here!
Photo of rebuilt Derby Dike in 1931.Mission Bay can be spied to the northwest. The natural marsh and tidelands were enlarged by dredging from 1949 through the 1960s.By looking from the Serra Museum’s terrace beyond nearby trees, you can glimpse La Jolla’s Mount Soledad to the northwest.Photo of Old Town bridge washed out in 1916 flood. Rainmaker Charles Hatfield was both credited and blamed for the 20 day downpour!The San Diego River in Mission Valley has been a source of food and water for the Kumeyaay, Spanish, Mexicans and Americans over the years. Before its urban development, many dairy farms could be found in Mission Valley.Photo of Mission Valley from 1915.Display concerns efforts for environmental preservation, and the history Mission San Diego de Alcalá. In 1774 the Spanish mission moved 6 miles inland from its original 1769 location on Presidio Hill.On a very clear day you can barely see the Cuyamaca Mountains to the east. That’s where the San Diego River begins.Mission Valley’s development began in earnest in the 1950s, with the construction of Atlas Hotels and May Company Shopping Center. San Diego Stadium arrived in the 1960s.Over the centuries, many people from diverse cultures have contributed to the history of this dynamic place. At the center of it all runs the San Diego River.
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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
Last year locally and internationally renowned artist Mario Torero painted four murals for the San Ysidro Health building in National City, at the intersection of 8th Street and D Avenue.
The colorful faces depicted in these outdoor murals belong to labor and civil rights leaders: Cesar Chavez, Larry Itliong, Dolores Huerta, and Martin Luther King Jr. The faces of these cultural icons are rendered in Torero’s distinctive style.
Torero, co-founder of Chicano Park, is famous for his socially conscious artwork. You’ve likely seen his work elsewhere around San Diego.
I photographed the four postage stamp-like murals during a walk through National City.
Cesar Chavez mural by Mario Torero.Larry Itliong mural by Mario Torero.Dolores Huerta mural by Mario Torero.Martin Luther King Jr. mural by Mario Torero.
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
Something extraordinary happened today. Members of the City Heights community came together to celebrate the completion of monumental public art. A ceremonial ribbon cutting was performed for one of San Diego’s most amazing murals!
Unity in the Community is a 270 foot long mural painted along a wall at the south end of Teralta Neighborhood Park. The mural has been six years in the making. I’ve posted several past blogs as I’ve observed the artwork’s creation.
Have you driven on I-15 where it passes underground in east San Diego? If so, you’ve driven under Teralta Park and this fantastic mural.
Today’s celebration not only brought together members of the City Heights community, but many organizations and city leaders who’ve played an important role in the planning, approval, funding and making of this mural. I couldn’t possibly name everybody, and I haven’t closely followed the complicated process, but you can learn all about the mural’s history at this dedicated website.
Three local artists have played big roles in creating Unity in the Community. I once blogged about Sake, who produced the initial rendering and the first stage of the painted art. (I met him here.)
More recently, the mural was completed by artist Karl Gindelberger aka GMONIK, and Melody De Los Cobos, artistic director of Love City Heights. Both were present for today’s ceremony and ribbon cutting.
Several speeches told of how, with the work of many, a once neglected and crime-ridden park has been reclaimed and revitalized. We all celebrated how this mural, with its many positive images, will build pride and a sense of ownership in the community. How this mural conveys diversity, harmony and acceptance. How this mural will become a backdrop for future community events, such as a proposed Taste of City Heights!
Everyone in attendance today could plainly see how, in the coming years, this wonderful mural will positively impact many lives.
If you want to see the entire Unity in the Community mural, I took lots of photographs last month and posted them here.
Walking along one section of the long, amazing community mural.GMONIK, one of the mural artists, posed for a photo!People talked and enjoyed the moment before the ceremony would begin.A fun photo with a skateboarding dog!Thanks is given to the many community leaders and parties responsible for the completion of the inspiring mural.Gratitude to those who boldly forge ahead and make our world better.Cutting the ribbon. Finally passing the finish line!A bright vision realized.
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
A large colorful mural greets people walking into Civic Center Plaza from A Street in downtown San Diego. The mural is titled What Do You Want to Remember About Our City?
This public art, commissioned in 2020 by the City of San Diego, was created by local artist MR (Melinda) Barnadas with input from members of the community. Near the center of the mural is a list of unique San Diego Memories contributed by many.
I saw the mural for the first time today. I hadn’t walked this way in a while…
What do you want to remember about San Diego…Someone walks down the outdoor passageway that leads south from A Street into Civic Center Plaza. They pass by a large list of San Diego memories.People dancing here in the Civic Center… a city bus… the sea… seeing a play as a little girl… fishing off the docks… surfing… Horton Plaza……submarines… Hillcrest… the trolley… Chicano Park… becoming a citizen… getting ice cream with a friend… lowriders in National City……Barrio Logan… Balboa Park… an outpouring of solidarity… Charles Lewis III Memorial Park… seeing John Lewis at Oak Park Library… the San Diego Zoo… OB Pier……watching planes in Point Loma… dancing in North Park… Old Town… trips to Tijuana… the world’s best tacos… seeing whales and dolphins… palm trees… the lighthouse at Cabrillo…What Do You Want to Remember About Our City? By artist MR (Melinda) Barnadas.
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
Cool San Diego Sights! 