A week after the departure of the basketball star, thousands of angels are still looking for a space to honor his death and celebrate his life.
The death of Kobe Bryant, former basketball player of "Los Angeles Lakers", revealed that in the segmented angel city there are unifying characters such as the remembered athlete.
The unification is evident in the shared sadness in all races for the death of Bryan, his daughter Gianna and seven companions when the helicopter crashed on the hills of Calabasas, California, on January 26, 2020.
Another example of the union around Bryant is highlighted by muralists who “with their own resources” and the support of small entrepreneurs decided to create “tributes” on the walls of the angeline metropolis.
"Kobe was an example of working hard to be great," said Levi Ponce, muralist.
"And that humility he had provokes respect and affection even in those bordering the murals (‘ taggers ’), because their murals don't touch them," he said.
The American painter of Salvadoran roots created in 2018 a first Bryant mural at the entrance of a store at 8906 Reseda Blvd., Northridge.
And last Saturday he finished the mural entitled “¡Kobe!” Next to the “Custom Auto Craft” workshop, in 100 La Brea Norte.
The “close-up” of Bryant smiling called it that way, to express the same shout that “sadly” exclaimed occasionally admirers of the player on the hill where the aircraft was destroyed, in Calabasas, to LA Live square, site of congregation "of mourners."
"His death, to us humble painters, touches us," said Ponce.
"Those who walk along also feel, so they respect," he said.
Graduated from “Cal-Arts”, the art school founded by Walt Disney, Ponce is recognized for embellishing the Pacoima neighborhood with murals.
José López, graffiti artist with Mexican roots, collaborated in painting the new Ponce mural; Matt Dean, Anglo-Saxon of artistic name "Kriptoe"; Erica Friend, of German and Mexican roots.
Mikey Rivera, son of the late singer Jenny Rivera and Christian Cárdenas, son of congressman Tony Cárdenas of the 29th district of California.
Lopez said that at age 17 he was one of those who scratched walls, so he was arrested by the police in 2008; but because he was a minor he was not imprisoned.
Today he is a professional painter, specialized in works with spray paint.
"Kobe was like any of us in the slums," Lopez said.
“For the respect that was earned in the streets when‘ the taggers ’see their murals, instead of scratching them they better take a selfie,” he revealed.
Eddie Melikyan, of Armenian roots, owner of "Custom Auto Craft," said he wanted "Kobe's death to be false news."
However, because his sister knew Bryant personally with tears, he suggested "do something in his memory", so he sought the painter.
"All I need is the wall, the painting and everything else I put it," recalled Ponce, who already had in mind to make "a new Kobe mural."
"The painters, the people who come to see the mural, we are all united as a family," Melikyan said.
Ponce said that they began painting on January 29 and with the visitors to his work he realized that fans of the deceased already organize “the tour of the murals of Kobe”.
In East Los Angeles, Héctor Arias who started “scratching walls” and today is a professional muralist on a wall where he had painted the character “Don Ramón” today paints a new mural titled “Kobe forever”.
"No one scratches the murals of the Virgin of Guadalupe or those of Kobe, because they loved him very much," said Arias.
Another mural is in the process of being created in a wall of the "Pickford market", in "Mid-city".
There, Mexican-American muralist Mario Ramírez and Britain's Jules Muck create the work: "Kobe and Gigi."
Ramírez, who said that in his childhood he was also surprised by the police "staining a mural", but was not arrested, said he is a witness "of the unity of the angels" around the image of Bryant.
"Some I see them with tears in their eyes while they take pictures of my mural and when they leave they get into cars of those only the rich buy," Ramírez said.
"But, rich and poor we feel sad, as one family, because Kobe left us," he said.
The painter stressed that in the murals of Bryant there is no vandalism "for the love that everyone had", he concluded.
