The work of artist Bárbara Carrasco was censored 40 years ago, but now it can be seen in a LA museum.
The Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History (NHMLAC) has purchased "Los Angeles History: A Mexican Perspective," an iconic work by Chicano artist Barbara Carrasco that was censored for its critical view of the California city.
"Barbara is a strong woman, activist and artist who recognizes the importance of representing an unsweetened vision of Los Angeles history," said Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis.
"Through this mural, Barbara has helped raise our social awareness to more carefully appreciate and understand the problems of Mexicans and Mexican-Americans living in Los Angeles," he added.
For her part, Bárbara Carrasco assured that NHMLAC is "a wonderful place" for her mural to be seen permanently as "a visual testament to the problems and successes that diverse communities in Los Angeles have experienced."
“I have searched for many years for a home for this mural. NHMLAC, which I came to when I was a little girl and also during my research for this mural, is the perfect place, ”she added.
The mural, about 24 meters long and 6 meters wide, will be installed on a new porch located in the southwest part of NHMLAC, the place where the tortuous journey that this work has taken over the decades will culminate.
The odyssey of Carrasco's work began in the 1980s, when he was commissioned by the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) to make a mural that would record the city's history to be displayed at the Los Angeles bicentennial ( 1781-1981).
The artist painted a mural in which a woman with a dark complexion and black hair stands out, showing 51 scenes that chronologically describe part of the city's history, with special emphasis on minority groups and the discrimination they suffered.
CRA stopped the project when Carrasco refused to have 14 images censored, including one showing the laundering of the famous “América Tropical” (1932) mural by David A. Siqueiros, another on the “Zoot Suit” riots that affected young people Chicanos in 1943, and one more on the death of journalist Rubén Salazar during a march in 1970.
"They are precise facts, I did not invent anything: it is ridiculous that the story is considered controversial," argued Carrasco in an interview with EFE in 2017.
Carrasco also included other dark episodes in the mural, such as the concentration camps of Japanese Americans during World War II or the 1871 massacre of Chinese immigrants in Los Angeles.
“In the mural they are all represented, women, men, whites, Mexicans, Chinese, Japanese, African Americans; all of us, "he said.
Many years later, the mural was recovered in its original form and claimed for its artistic and political importance in various temporary exhibitions.
