The mission of the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture is to advance arts, culture, and creativity throughout LA County. We fulfill our mission by providing services and support in areas including grants and technical assistance for nonprofit organizations; professional development opportunities; commissioning civic artworks and managing the County’s civic art collection; implementing countywide arts education initiatives; research and evaluation; career pathways in the creative economy; free community programs; and cross sector creative strategies that address civic issues. This work is framed by the County’s Cultural Equity and Inclusion Initiative and a longstanding commitment to fostering access to the arts.
In 1996 Martin Flores and the Rogelio Flores Foundation partnered with Self Help Graphics and First District Supervisor Gloria Molina to sponsor a mural to honor the life of Martin’s brother, Rogelio Flores, a young man who was the victim of a drive-by shooting. The artists José Antonio Aguirre, Eva Cristina Pérez, and Alfredo Calderon led a group of eight high school students: Eddie A. Portillo, Jerry Ortega, Andre R. Reyes, Adriana Verduzco, Frank England, Crystal Hernandez, Reggie Hoyos, and Jaime Ochoa to design and execute this mural. For six months the students learned technical skills and were taught about mural history and Mexican and Native American imagery. The finished work depicts past events as well as future hopes. Two teenagers in the lower left dream about their contemporary high school lives as well as their aspirations for the future which intermingle with historical scenes. The central images are bordered by traditional Meso-American symbols such as the quetzal bird sitting on an ear of corn. The mural is made of hand-painted ceramic tiles. The building originally housed the East Los Angeles Public Library but was renovated and reopened in 2007 as a new East Los Angeles Civic Center “City Hall” offering a number of County services under one roof. The mural project was funded through Community Development Commission Block Grants and the County of Los Angeles.
About the Artist:
Bi-national artist José Antonio Aguirre earned a MFA from the California Institute of the Arts and a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. As a studio artist, he has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions. As a public artist, he has executed nearly 30 works in California, Illinois, Texas and Mexico City. Throughout his art career, he has been active as an installation artist, visual arts educator and cultural journalist for Spanish publications in Chicago, Los Angeles, Texas and Mexico. In March 2010 José was awarded the prestigious J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Award to Mexico. Fulbright is the most widely recognized and prestigious international exchange program in the world, supported for more than half a century by the American people through an annual appropriation from the U.S. Congress and by the people of partner nations. José Antonio Aguirre resides in Pasadena, California.
Eva Cristina Pérez was born in Mexico City and came to Los Angeles in 1994. She has exhibited and collaborated with Self Help Graphics, Galería Otra Vez, and the National Latina Alliance. Her work is held in the collections of Self-Help Graphics and Arizona State University.
Alfredo Calderon now lives in Dallas and is an artist, teacher, and folklorist. His work has been exhibited at the Bath House and the Ice House Cultural Center in Dallas.
