People have powerful feelings about the traffic in Los Angeles. It says something that local officials warned motorists about a temporary roadwork closure on the 405 last year by calling it Carmageddon. Angelenos took the hint, and this weekend they're expected to steer clear of the latest 405 closure, named, of course, Carmageddon 2. That's how it is in L.A., a snarl of overstuffed freeways and commuters who keep their cool, except when they don't. KPCC's Steven Cuevas has this profile of a punk rocker whose music expresses the insanity of L.A. traffic while extolling the virtues of public transit. Couple of things you need to know about Eddie Solis. He lives in L.A., loves the band Kiss, and does not own a car. Being someone who's from L.A., born and raised, and, you know, having a few cars in my past, I saw the city much differently through a different perspective through the eyes of a bus rider. Come on, just all the way to the back. Line 18, Wilshire, Western Station. Just steps from the front door of his home, across the street from a tortilla factory in L.A.'s Boyle Heights neighborhood, Solis catches a bus that connects him with the city's subway, and the commuter train he catches to his day job at an indie record label in Hollywood. It just opened me up to, like, little neighborhoods, galleries, clubs, bars, just everything, just seeing what's out there, little pockets of the city. Solis' journeys aboard L.A. buses and subway cars informs a lot of the material on The New Los Angeles Part One, Through the Eyes of a Bus Rider, the latest release by the singer-guitarist band It's Casual. The New Los Angeles No one has learned what In Solis' vision of a new Los Angeles, people abandon their cars, climb aboard public transit, and, you know, have to go back to the city. It's Casual. It's Casual. It's Casual. It's Casual. It's Casual. It's Casual. It's Casual. It's Casual. It's Casual. It's Casual. It's Casual. It's Casual. It's Casual. It's Casual. It's Casual. It's Casual. It's Casual. It's Casual. is all it takes for me to witness racial tension, for me to witness illegal aliens. It's not to paint a negative picture. It's just my perspective of what is seen. I got a fun bass there. Off the bus and back on the street, we make our way past a jazz saxophonist playing for pocket change and down a long escalator to catch a train. So where are we now? We're at the Red Line station, the Pershing Square station in downtown L.A. And what's our destination? We're going to go downstairs another tier, and in about five minutes we're going to get on the Red Line going northbound. Okay, let's go. The Metro Red Line snakes from North Hollywood to downtown Los Angeles. It's the train that inspired its casuals' signature tune and spawned a viral Internet video. It was partly filmed late at night, on a moving train as it hurtles from station to station. Solis thrashes away on his guitar and barks the lyrics, which celebrate the Red Line and call out the congested freeways that coil around Los Angeles. This is a metro red line train to North Hollywood. The 210, 605, the freeways are not so nice. The I-5, the 210, the freeways are not so nice. The red that comes out of the redline, the red that comes out of the red line, the red that comes out of the red line, the red that comes out of the red line, that ties everyone together. It's just like, be alive. Don't be a victim of having a car. The 210, 605, the freeways are not so nice. The I-5, the I-10, the freeways are not so nice. The red line, the red line. An MTA spokesman said he couldn't comment on Eddie Solis' furious pro-metro message, but the red line video was a hit at the offices of Move LA. Eddie's done a good job. Thank you, Eddie. It's the public transportation advocacy group headed by former Santa Monica mayor Denny Zane. He liked the juxtaposition of Solis blissfully riding LA public transit in one scene, with scenes of the band raging against those notorious freeway jams. Eddie is all frantic when he talks about highways and so mellow when he's like grooving on a skateboard and on the bus. And on the red line, there's a metaphor for the transformation, you know, from the, oh my God, I just got to get out of the traffic to, hey, this is cool. I can mellow out. Or you can blast the tune like too many people as you claw your way across Los Angeles by car, bus or skateboard. Los Angeles There's too many people I want them to go away Riven out and pink days are flying Too many people could also be a motto for its casual. Over the years, the band whittled itself down to a power duo of Solis and a rotating cast of drummers. So you may think the burly, bearded punk rocker just can't get along with freeways, with people, or his native LA. Not true. I love it. I love everything about it. I've traveled throughout the U.S. many times and I could never look forward enough to coming back. The weather. The different cultures. The landscape. I was just like, you know what? Now I know why everyone moves to L.A. Solis will bring the love and the volume during a Redline mini tour next month. Its casual will play a different venue within walking distance of several Redline metro stops from Union Station to West Hollywood. For the California Report, I'm Stephen Cuevas. I want my driver's license back to the California Report, a production of KQED Public Radio in San Francisco. Our director this week is Nina Thorson. Sil Muller is our technical producer. We had additional engineering from Danny Bringer and Howard Gelman. Thanks to Hank Hadley at KCBX. Our online team includes Lisa Pickoff-White, David Marks, and Don Clyde. Our interns are Katherine Borgeson and Rachel Johnson. Taiki Hendricks is our elections editor with production help from Tina Lauerberg. We had editing support from Paul Rogers. Victoria Malione is our associate senior producer. Ingrid Becker is our senior producer. The news director is Bruce Kuhn. I'm Rachel Miro. Thanks for listening and have a great weekend. This is the California Report. Funds for the California Report are provided by the James Irvine Foundation, expanding opportunity for the people of California and supporting the California Report since its premiere in 1995. And the California Endowment. Health happens in schools at calendow.org. And Chevron, investing in renewables, strengthening communities, and creating jobs. More information at chevron.com. The I-5, the I-10, the freeways are not so nice. The 101, the 405, the freeways are not so nice. The 605, the 101, the 101, the 101, the I-10, the 210, the 605, the 101, the 405, the I-10, the freeways are not so nice. The red light, the red light, the red light, the red light, the red light, the red light, the red light, the red light. Good afternoon. Welcome to Los Angeles Nista. I'm your host, Edward Solis, and my in-studio guest today, the good, fine people. Of the Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles, California, Isabel Rojas-Williams and Willie Heron. How you guys doing? Doing good. Thanks for having us. Thanks for inviting us. Absolutely. A good way to spend a nice Friday afternoon in downtown and spreading a great message that you guys are involved in. So I wanted to start with Isabel and then go on to Willie. Tell me about your involvement in the Mural Conservancy. How did that start? Well, I should start telling you that, you know. Muralism has a long history in Los Angeles, which was, it began with Cicados painting Tropica America at El Pueblo in 1932. And then, you know, we moved forward in the WPA that was established by President Roosevelt. And you move to the 70s where the Chicano Mural movement that, you know, with issues of empowerment, education, civil rights. But at the same time, we were having murals all over LA in the West Side, in downtown LA and in South Central. Sure. And then, you know, we moved to Los Angeles in San Fernando Valley. It's a huge part of LA culture. Right. Huge part. So as a Chilean born, I, you know, I'm here for political reasons. I came here in 1973. And many of my friends that were muralists that founded the Brigada Ramona Parra are either dead or disappear or in exile. And as part of that political movement, I was politically forced out of Chile and I got right here in 73. So I had always been a political person. I had always been involved with the street art, political movement and murals. And so for the last 30 years, I've been doing volunteer work in many different organizations about this. And then studying muralism and teaching art history at Cal State LA. So that's how the mural conservancy of Los Angeles. Because my background hired me. And then hired me to be the executive director. And as, but of course I know everybody. I know Willie Heron. Right. Because I'm an art historian. I had seen his artwork. I had heard his music. I saw him when he was part of ASCO in the 70s walking in East Los Angeles. So my knowledge of each person at the directors, it's vast. Sure. And so that's how I got involved with that. Very nice. And how did you come together with Isabel? Actually, I was asked to be on the board a few months before Isabel came on board. And actually had met her previously through a project she worked on at MOLA. She did a little documentary that was included in the Siqueiros exhibit. And very impressively, she connected Siqueiros' work with East Los Angeles. And Los Angeles abroad actually. Because it was actually, she used multi-ethnic muralist and street artist. Not just Chicanos. But it was very vast and it included everybody. Very nice. So it was awesome. So there is a thread that she put that tied everyone together. And that's what did it for you. Right. Yeah. And since I'm, I consider myself very open to my Spanish background. Because I'm part Spanish. Sure. I'm also part Cherokee, American Indian. And Irish, of Irish descent as well. As well as Mexican. So I've always been one as a kid to just embrace all my nationalities. So it's never just been one. Just because I grew up eating beans and tortillas doesn't just make me a Mexican. Right. It's not one sided. You really dig deep in where your roots come from. Exactly. And kind of get inspired from that. Right. So that's to me what really inspired me to become part of the MCLA team was that we looked at all artwork equally. Very nice. And tell me Isabel, what would you say the mission statement is for MCLA? The mural conservancy of Los Angeles mission is to restore, preserve, maintain and document the murals of Los Angeles. And as Willie very well said, we embrace everybody. You know, traditional muralism to graffiti art. And also we are concerned with protecting the rights of the artist. Sure. By doing all these preserving the history of Los Angeles. And that gets very, there's a lot of legalities involved, right Willie? As far as preserving what's on the wall and protecting it. I mean, it is intellectual property and that's why you guys are doing what you can to get everything preserved and protected. Yeah. And I think a lot of it is that, you know, we, we grow up as, you know, middle schoolers. And into our teenhood, pre-adult and we start like myself, you know, I was very inspired by all the graffiti walls as growing up as a kid, but never really inspired by any large paintings or monolithic murals. So I thought, what a great idea to incorporate with the graffiti images and, and, and scenes that relate to the community and let the graffiti and the, and the art. And the, and the figurative approach to, to public art become one like gelled together. And so that's why I thought of the idea of the plume serpent and the cracked wall when I first got out of high school was to incorporate the existing graffiti. And many people have always thought that my murals were ruined because they got tagged. No, I painted around the graffiti. Wow. That's, that's definitely, that's like becoming a chameleon. Like, you know, it's just a matter of time to grow. You know, you don't have to put the graffitis on there, but you just paint around it. Right. You know, you adjust to the climate. Yeah. So I just thought that it needed to be, uh, brought to another level, uh, to just, to be put in a place that now it it's should be looked at as fine art. Absolutely. And I think that, uh, that message and that, uh, mission that you just said, fine art, I mean, street art is fine art. Murals are, it is fine art. Absolutely. It's our fine art. Yeah. It's a very fine art. So it might look different and appear totally different by, by, by another standard, but it, it, it is ours and it reflects us and it belongs to us. And that's why it's important for us to take on the responsibility to take care of it. Like we would our teeth. Right. That's a great analogy actually. And you know, uh, I'm going to dig deep into Willie's, uh, uh, history, uh, really quick. I want to paint a clear picture for people, uh, because I think when, um, people, you know, are. I'm an advocate for something that's very attached to Los Angeles. Uh, people question it and want to know things, but some people, you know, a lot of people know who you are, but some of my listeners may not. Uh, we have a lot of people from around the world listening and a lot of people, what I've noticed, uh, really embraced SoCal and LA culture, you know, the graffiti, the skateboarding, you know, the, uh, like Latino way of dressing. Like it was like a lot of the, uh, Cholo style is big in Japan right now. Uh, there's a lot of little hints of LA being peppered everywhere, you know? Uh, surfing. Skateboarding. Skateboarding. Music style. Uh, art. You actually play music. Yes. Uh, and a group, uh, Los Illegals. Right. That's been my primary group, uh, for the last 40 years. And back in the day you had a band, this band, you guys had to deal with A&M. Yes. And that's when the music industry was in a whole different climate. Yeah, there was a, I mean, they were just barely discovering the Latin market. And so there was really no, no place to put groups like, like Los Illegals. Right. And so they were, there, there had to have come, which did the indie labels, all the little independents that took that chance that were subsidized by the major labels during that time. Right. And they basically, uh, threw the calling card out there for then the major labels to know, well, this is a market, this is not, this is a good style. This doesn't, this didn't sell. So it was a whole marketing thing that, uh, they had no idea of how to tap the Latin market. Right. Uh, let's talk about that really quick. When you guys actually were approached, uh, by the time you were approached to actually having a record out on A&M, uh, how long was that taking? Actually, uh, they came about, uh, we, we thought we'd put together, uh, an alternative, uh, to the alternative. We called it and it was a small space at, uh, Self Help Graphics on, uh, at that time was Brooklyn Avenue, which is now Cesar Chavez, which they changed the name in the, in the middle nineties. Uh. middle 90s uh and so we thought that what we would do is we would bring groups from hollywood to play with the local bands instead of us being turned down and having to go down to hollywood to play we thought we would create our own venue outside of playing backyards and car clubs we said well we don't have a venue here in east la we need one so we thought we would start a venue every other thursday it was bi-weekly so we would do uh concerts every other thursday and uh and we had major groups uh at that that became major groups but they were just starting off from from most of the beach culture and the west side come to east la and play with east la bands we made sure that every night that we had a concert that we would throw in one or two chicano local bands to play and we would do concerts every other thursday it was bi-weekly so we would do concerts every other thursday it was bi-weekly so we would do concerts every other thursday and we would play with these other cats and start getting everybody all the the crowds just mixed so we could all like sponge off each other and so that's how actually we got our write-up uh in the la times on the on the front page of the calendar wow the vex got a write-up and that happened to be one of the nights that we were playing so uh that really propelled us into the industry to become noticed so then scouts were coming down on thursday nights and really being exposed to groups like the brat and being exposed to uh even many other groups from the west side and from from the beach when you say the beach you mean the south bay i mean all up along from uh from i want to say uh costa mesa all the way to venice wow yeah now a lot of long beach bands there was tons of long beach bands really so it's always been a thriving scene right it's always been a thriving scene and it's always been a thriving scene and it's always been a thriving scene and it was interesting because we noticed a huge change or at least i have because i you know i've been in the industry for 40 years i noticed a big change between the bands in the in the late 70s that were sort of sort of a a mestizo punk where they were mixed punk it wasn't like a punk it was a hybrid of punk already they weren't like pure like you know english you know 77 punk yeah yeah it was it was evolving into like who for instance well a lot of the groups seem to still have a little bit of the glam influence in their look you know me being a visual artist i mean how the band looked was just as important as how they played what they played and how they sounded right so so i noticed a lot of them still from the beach they you know they still look white sure by comparison they just look like white guys or white girls with a beach lifestyle and that's still i yeah i mean so what i noticed was little by little it was evolving and they were starting to come and and go a little more rockabilly rockabilly they started mixing in a little more of the chicano look the cholo look sure and little by little the audience started to become they would influence each other in their dress which that's a big part of music too is it's you using yourself as a as a way that you communicate what you're into i mean everybody had a certain look oh that guy's punk or that guy's rockabilly he's a rasta he's a he's you know it's always been that way yeah but now they're it seemed like there's more more of a mixture of of all those styles and they everybody borrowed from each other to create their own look and now it's created individuality because you could mix a little of that a little of this and then that's what made it cool wow that's very interesting now now isabel i have a question i just wanted to add what he said that the background always had artwork you know i just saw these black and white photos yesterday from jacinto and your artwork was behind oh yeah that was 1980 so you had this combination of visual music clothing everything together it was very cool yeah that is great um and you know at some point i'd love to do a lot more research and look at the photos and see if there's anything that's different about the photos after having this conversation with you you know i'm very immersed in that time period right now i'm thinking like wow i want to go back and just see some visuals of what he's talking about so i'm gonna make sure i do that this weekend yeah well just uh invite me back and we'll do we'll just do another hour session and let's just talk music absolutely absolutely awesome now isabel my question for you is um with the mural conservancy uh in place did you like now that i don't want to say policing but now that you've actually done the work to see the mural conservancy in place did you like now that i don't want to say policing but now that you've actually done the work to see the mural conservancy in place did you like now that i don't want to say policing how uh some murals are getting painted over and so forth has that been happening a lot yes it has happened a lot and and you know our mission obviously is not to police we right protect actually yeah to protect and and many murals were whitewashed since 2002 because there is a mural moratorium so in private private property and we have been helping write the law that is going to leave the mural moratorium so the the older generations and the new generation have the opportunity to paint legally again so it much of our history has been erased for example the murals on the 101 freeway which we are restoring right now they were painting in 1984 because the olympics okay and the uh the olympic art festival uh chose the 10 tap muralists of the city including willie heron sitting next to me and uh so they painted issues of the mural and they were painting the mural of the city and the mural of the city and the mural of the city and the mural of the city and the mural of the city and uh as we move forward uh because the climate conditions and because in the late 80s beginning of the 90s there was a heavy attack of tagging on murals and uh caltrans decided to whitewash those murals and so whenever somebody had the means the financial means which we don't have we gather dollar to dollar to do this uh we began restoring those murals and we do that not only uh with monumental pieces such as those but like for example saturday we're unveiling three restorations of community murals in your neighborhood in ball heights uh two by sender and one by raul gonzalez so we were we working great early we restore murals everywhere we have restored murals in estrada courts also in ball heights so what we do is that we are a non-profit and many people i was interviewed yesterday by hoy from the la times people are under the impression that we are city supported we're not we are a non-profit so what we do is that we have you know we give mural tours and we give lectures so to gather money you know to do what we do and uh so it really is a labor of lab for our city yeah absolutely we all are everybody involved with mcla uh is passionate about what we do is the artists are historians and we all have participated in the the culture of the city in one way or another, which brings together what your program is all about, about our culture, which I almost want to say it with a K because it's this new involvement of everything where we involve the restaurants. When we give our mural tours, we invite people to walk, to take the metro, to ride their bikes. Yeah, car-free. Exactly. And that also translates into a green message and it just benefits people walking and driving around in a car. Absolutely. And then, for example, for our unveiling on Saturday, we buy the coffee from Primera Taza, from the lady from the USA Donuts. And so we participate with the community walking, riding the bike or taking the metro. That's fantastic. And then we do give lectures in front of the mural to educate the people about our history. Sure. Which we shouldn't forget. Now, tomorrow you're going to unveil three. Three. Okay, now where are those located? The Dubai Center. The Dubai Center. One is at Cesar Chavez and Evergreen. The second one is at the Pico Gardens on 4th Street. And the third one is on Penrith and Whittier Boulevard. Fantastic. And what time is that going to be? We begin at 10.30, 11.30 and 12.30. Starting with the one on Evergreen and Cesar Chavez, second 4th Street Pico Garden and third Penrith and Whittier Boulevard at 12.30. So you're going to unveil these murals, the murals. Yes. Now, are these new murals? Unveiling the restoration. The restoration of the existing. Yes. So these murals, like what Willie is doing right now for us is that he is restoring the murals on the 101. But in reality, he's our commission restorer. He goes any and everywhere in Greater LA as representing us as our restorer. But we also work with community muralists such as... In this case, Sender and Raul Gonzalez, where we get a little money from a grant and it's completely dedicated to the artists. We don't... MCLA doesn't keep a penny of the money. It goes all to the artists and we have given them the opportunity to restore their murals that were heavily tagged. And by doing that, preserving the history and beautifying both heights in this case. Very well done. Now, tomorrow, people want to join in on the festivities. Yes. Do they need RSVP or is there a fee involved? No, it's free. It's free. It's free. It's free. They can go to our Facebook, Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles. They can see the flyer with the exact address. And they also can go to our website and for the murals that we're restoring on the 101 right now, the Olympic Freeware murals. At any given time, they can see Willie there on the scaffold. And this guy is like a Cirque du Soleil performer. Painting upside down. Yes, he does. Like Batman. He does. He does. Yeah, I tell everybody, I do have clowns. Clown insurance. Don't worry. Clown insurance. And what we do with Willie, we work very close together, you know, going like we're doing right now, talking to the communities and informing people, giving, you know, interviews to the papers. That's important because there's so much out there now with people on their phones, you know, the way things are accessible. I think it's important that you really spoon feed people the information. Right. Because I mean, for me, I'm learning so much just by this conversation. And, you know, I mean, there's just so much of a backstory for everything you're involved in. Each mural has its own story. Right. And every step that you take to protect all this beautiful artwork, everything has its own story. So it's definitely through a passion. Yeah. And definitely for Willie, and I need to add this about Willie because, you know, at the beginning, we did invite restorers from the tough restorers from our city to find out how to do these restorations. And we invited them to evaluate the murals on the 101st. And we realized that it would be impossible. But, you know, we knew also that Willie had been doing, restoring his own murals for 40 years. And we talked to him and he is doing this as a labor of love. You know, we can afford to pay him. And he is wonderful about understanding that we are non-profit. But he's a perfectionist and he brings together the past and the present in such a marvelous way because he's connected with the young, the young generation. Sure. But also he has this fabulous background that has all the expressions of art. So we're very lucky to have him helping us. Well said. Willie, I have a question for you. This is a little off the subject of the MCLA, but it has to do with confusion, I think, in the general public. And I want you to clarify. You know, in the 90s, I saw a lot of people that saw graffiti really spiking in popularity try to attach themselves to tagging. And that snowballed into other things, both positive and negative. And do you think that that phenomenon of just the tagging culture was basically causing issues for artists like you where you guys would get lumped into that? Well, no. I think that you had the handful of seasoned artists, and I say seasoned, the ones that started in the 70s, and kind of came out of, let's just say, you know, obviously, because we're from an older generation, we came out of a cause and a purpose that inspired the messages that we were trying to communicate in our murals. Your reaction was your art. Right. To the actions happening. Yeah, definitely. We put down on those walls what we were experiencing, and we try to do it in a way that was literally understandable. by a non-artisan that would just drive by or walk down the street that maybe normally doesn't go to a museum and doesn't understand art. So we had a vision of bringing this communication to the street level where it seems to me that actually in the late 80s, there was this consciousness that came about with young talent, haggers, that were actually, prior to that, maybe vandalizing, where it was more of a vandalistic approach. It was preconceived. They would specifically go to a mural and they would specifically write on that mural to deface it. Now, I think that there's a lot of reasons for that motivation and for that seed. The main one being where I saw graffiti from a city, single line lettering, slogans, and so on from the 60s evolve into the 70s. And after that, they became New York balloon letters and huge, gigantic letters that were starting to become more elaborate with drop shadows and more nouveau-ish with just a lot more artistic and creative, almost in a way, that it was so abstract that you couldn't even read what they were saying, what they were communicating. It became very decorative. So when that started to happen with it, I think that really, they began to shoot themselves in the foot because what all the artists that were seasoned, that came out of the late 60s and into the early 70s, from the Vietnam, protesting the Vietnam War to the walkouts in East LA from, the moratorium where Ruben Salazar was shot. A lot of these seasoned artists drew from that negative energy and created these great murals during that period, which then once the graffiti scene came in, all of that was squished because the graffiti just became decorative, almost non-communicative, and it became small in the way that it just related to graffiti artists and taggers. And it didn't really, Yeah. really do anything for East LA to continue to bring that consciousness of, well, what does that mural mean? And what is it bringing to enlighten the people to better our lives? It became purely decorative. And I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it, but that's the difference, which I saw happen, like you're saying in the late 80s into the early 90s. It made that transition. Right. And I think the whole, people that didn't pay attention, lumped it all in together. Right. You know what I'm talking about. Right, right. And coming from the area and subcultures through skateboarding and having friends participating in that, I would just say that in my opinion, the whole tagging graffiti thing was more about quantity, not quality. They just try to get the name up. Right. And it wasn't about one masterpiece. Right, right. And I think those hit and run tactics are cool, but the thing is is that I think the hit and run tactics, they're far more effective if you have a cause that you're promoting and it enlightens the community. I agree. You use the walls for that purpose. That's what those type of public art pieces should do. They should motivate and educate the public. Very well put. Isabel. I just wanted to add to that. Okay. That also is important that we see that the newer generations are bringing new techniques and new skills and new look. Which is, you know, like I think is, I totally understand what you're saying. And they are in a sense, perhaps more conceptual. Perhaps they're not necessarily saying power to the people, but they are in their own way, rebelling or expressing in their own, this new look of geometric forms. I just saw a mural yesterday in the LAR district where, you know, like the combination of the, what we used to see and what we see now is completely embracing each other's style. So, you know, when I see a lot of the graffiti art as an art historian, I had to remember the Tuvism and the, you know, the actually Cubism and all those, you know, very similar styles. So, you know, these are new, like we're entering and Los Angeles being such a, you know, we actually set trends here. So it's, many of the artists come from all over the world to see what we're doing. And we were at one point the mural capital of the world. And unfortunately, because it's just that we just discussed the whitewashing, the new laws, we had lost that title. And we are working very actively with all the mural community to regain that title. And so I think it's important that we embrace, you know, each other and we understand each other. And even though I'm 63 years old, I really love and I had to differentiate graffiti art from tagging. And so that's a very important distinction that we need to make sure that we all know. So, you know, and many of the younger generation that do use the new styles, they also work with traditional artists. So you see the combination. Willie himself works with the many of the 20, 30 something kids, you know, combining the styles. So that's who we are, you know, Los Angeles. Now, can you tell me as about currently in Los Angeles, is, are murals legal? Legals on private property are illegal since 2002. You can paint murals in public property, such as LAUSD, Caltrans, and, but those are difficult commissions to get, but it's illegal to paint murals on private property. Unless you get consent, obviously, from an owner. You can't even- You can't. And this is what we've been working very actively with the mural community for the last three years. And we're hoping the mural ordinance that we had helped write is gonna pass before the mayor leaves this July. We've been meeting and talking in front of the council for the last three, almost three years about lifting the mural moratorium. So it'd be legal again to paint in private property, but until then it's illegal. That doesn't mean that it's not happening. Gotcha. Gotcha. Well, we're gonna take a break. Okay. We'll be back in a few and we'll talk more. Great. I'm Alex Salcedo from La Mascota Bakery in Boyle Heights. You're listening to LA Nista at skidroadstudios.com. This episode of Los Angeles Nista is brought to you by La Mascota Bakery, a family owned business serving the community since 1952. Tamales and sweet bread, made the old fashioned way daily. A Left for a tone or make amends No surrender, we'll never be friends Be no peace, there'll be no love Life's too short to not hold a grudge You fucked me over, you hung me out to dry You swept me under, you said goodbye Be for a tone or make amends No surrender, we'll never be friends Be no peace, there'll be no love Life's too short to not hold a grudge You fucked me over, you hung me out to dry You swept me under, you said goodbye I feel no guilt, I feel no shame If I killed you now, it would be the same You've lifted my heart on, feel like I'm dying I hold my grudge until it's End of time For a tone or make amends No surrender, we'll never be friends Be no peace, there'll be no love Life's too short to not hold a grudge You fucked me over, you hung me out to dry You swept me under, you said goodbye For a tone or make amends No surrender, we'll never be friends No surrender, we'll never be friends Be no peace, there'll be no love Life's too short to not hold a grudge You fucked me over, you hung me out to dry You swept me under, you said goodbye Life's too short to not hold a grudge No concessions, I will not budge I won't forgive, there'll be no compromise Meet you halfway, I'd rather die Meet you halfway, I'd rather die Meet you halfway, I'd rather die Meet you halfway, I'd rather die Meet you halfway I'd rather die Subtitles by the Amara.org community Subtitles by the Amara.org community Subtitles by the Amara.org community w w I jumped off a true ship My life per server was a straight jacket I never had a plan B Hey man, what do you want from me? Time collapses like a hit and run Bullets fired from your tongue When wild war sustains The spirit is dead Death is their domain Get that in your head When wild war sustains The spirit is dead Death is their domain Get that in your head So, uh, what do you have to say for yourself? Death is their domain Last violence For my head Last violence For my head Last violence For my head Last violence Here I am I laugh at you All of your hatred What does it do? I'm a threat How ridiculous Try to bankrupt me You're a fool I'm a threat I don't need your blessing for anything Secure and to compromise is everything Here I am As free as the winds I'll never bow down You will never win Here I am As free as the winds Here I am Take your best shot Round after round And I'm not gonna stop I'm a threat You're a fool Try to discredit me And discredit you Your enemy You'll never know It's not me It's your own shadow Here I am As free as the winds I'll never bow down You will never I laugh at you All of your hatred What does it do? I'm a threat How ridiculous Try to bankrupt me You're a fool I don't need your blessing for anything Security compromises everything Here I am I'm as free as the wind I'm never bound down You will never win You will never win You will never win You will never win You will never win Here I am Here I am I'm free I'm free I'm free I'm free to work. I mean, you got to like really think ahead. Yeah. Well, there's a, there's protocol, a safety protocol that, uh, basically I have to position my vehicle. So it, it becomes a barrier between where I'm primarily going to be working. And in the event of car heading, cause I'm on the north side, northbound side of the freeway on the one-on-one between Alameda and spring street. So I strategically figure, well, I'm going to be working primarily in this area. So I use my, my vehicle as a barrier and I definitely have to cone off, uh, the entire length of the mural, uh, and, uh, a few feet before the mural. And every day I have to put up the shoulder work signs. Wow. Now, now you get, you get acknowledged for, for your work while you're out there. I mean, you get a lot of, uh, people saying different things. Oh yeah. For the most part, like 99% of the people, uh, you know, they're doing double and triple honking and, uh, a lot of people scream, uh, different stuff out the window. I mean, I had one, one woman say one time, is that where our tax dollars are going? You know, and I turned around and screamed back, you wish. That's a good one. And then I had a guy just the other day was, uh, not, not a lot of negative stuff, but lightly, lightly. Uh, uh, offensive things, but that's pretty normal in Los Angeles when you're out on the street. Anyway, you could just be sightseeing and you're going to run into somebody that's rowdy. But, uh, yeah, one guy was just like, yeah, F that F and brush. S H I T. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I wanted to get into a strata courts and the murals existing there. There were, uh, in during our break, Isabel was telling me that there's, there was 80. They were originally. Yes. And now 60. They're about 60. Yes. Yes. And, uh, now will there be any new ones going up? Well, you know, we work with the community there because, uh, the younger artists, the younger people that live there, obviously they, there are some walls that they would like to paint no, no murals. But at this point, because this is a, uh, part of hack lab, they house a house and authority. They, they really are concerned with the maintenance of those murals. Sure. So they're trying to keep what's there. And that's a fantastic. Cultural, uh, open air museum that we all are responsible for, for taking care of. But because it's part of hack lab, you know, they, we work with them and that we did go on our own and ask their permission and the residents and we restored two important murals from 1973 and then 75. Right. And, uh, so, uh, that is so important because it's that strata courts mural art part. And, uh, the, as I told you earlier, they are the birth of the Chicano mural art movement and the issues involved, the issues that were created there, they had to do with empowerment, education, going back to the roots. It'll have a message. Absolutely. And they're extremely, and they are in all sorts of books and art history books. And that's how we all who study muralism learn about the murals in LA. Sure. Now, Willie, um, let's talk about the murals you have at Estrada Courts. Um, we have how many? Uh, basically I just, uh, executed one in 1973. Uh, Charlie Felix, uh, approached me and, uh, I had just finished the, um, the wall that cracked open and, uh, he saw it in the paper and stuff. So he came around the neighborhood and approached me and asked me, well, at the time he was with Goez Gallery on First Street, uh, which housed, uh, the Gonzalez brothers, uh, David Boteo, Robert Arenivar, and, uh, Charlie Felix. At that time he was doing all these really cool, uh, nail pieces on wood and he would, he would use automotive finishes and, and tons of resin. And these things were super heavy that they weighed a ton, but he was into, uh, fabricating. He was a great craftsman and, and, uh, and he used some, uh, some innovative stuff at the time using automotive finishes for, for his, for his artwork. Wow. So he approached me and I said, hey, while there's no money, we could just give you paint. So, uh, uh, I went ahead and, uh, I approached Gronk at the time, uh, him and I, we were doing a lot of, uh, uh, street performance art, uh, with Osco. And he goes, sure. He goes, I'll help you do it. So we came up with this idea to, to do, uh, a mural, uh, only in black and white. So the 20 gallons of paint that we receive of colors we could use for our paintings. Ah. So it was because of economics, not because we wanted to paint a black and white mural, which had not been painted during that time. Especially photo realism was a style that we use, which is really popular among many young, uh, uh, graph artists and, and, and, and public artists today. Uh, yeah. And so, uh, that was the one we decided to take like a school photograph when they used to do that. When they used to take our photographs in elementary school, it would have like the 35 kids and the teacher. Sure. And the name of the school and the principal in the bottom. Right. Well, we says, well, let's do that. And then just do a different image and we'll divide the wall up into 36 squares. So that's what we decided to do. So, uh, I started off with a monkey. Then he painted a man. And so it, what was cool is as we went along, he didn't know what I was going to paint next. I didn't know what he, what Gronk was going to paint. Next. So we had such a great experience exchanging this, these ideas, but they were spontaneous exchanges. Wow. Without pre-planning any of it. So the mural, uh, across a seven year period developed into this newsreel, uh, uh, uh, replica of the moratorium. The main strip took up 12 squares. And so we started painting the squares across the middle because after that we were getting greedy. He started painting two squares next to each other and just like, Hey, wait a minute. I thought we were doing one each. And then I did three next. So I just said, okay, dude, I'm the middle parts mine. So I did this whole scene of the police scene that had been published in La Causa magazine of the shooting, the event that took the life of Ruben Salazar. Right. So that became. Like the focus. And the focal point of that mural. And everything else then just echoed that direction. Once we had done man, we had done monkey. We had done man and next to him, a military individual. Then we had a frame with like, uh, like the women waiting for food stamps with the kids all around them, a child holding a sign, a stop police brutality. We started to really combine all these social, uh, issues that dealt with our community. And it just evolved into this. It just evolved into what it became. And then we titled it the moratorium, the black and white mural. Wow. Now has that actually been restored? No, that has not been restored. It's in major, major, like it's, it's, it's verging on disrepair. It's, it would, it's really gonna take a little bit of money to restore that one because it's a, it's a photo realistic style. Wow. So if you imagine, you know, Kent Twitchell style with, uh, you know, with the off the, the one 10 freeway. Yeah. Yeah. The music center, uh, uh, group of musicians and the conductor, if you imagine that style, but only in black and white, that's basically what it would take. And, you know, and Kent Twitchell and myself were known for those kinds of murals to take years. Wow. So it took, it took seven years for Gronk and I to paint that mural. So it's, it took us seven years in the making. So it evolved. All the images evolved as we developed and we became. As people. More social and, and, and aware of our community as people. And that's, that's the, that was the beauty of it. Wow. That's very admirable. You were reflecting the, the events that were happening in almost. Right. Right then and there. And things were making more sense to us as the years went on. So it connected the dots. After the moratorium, the, it, we started to crystallize, you know, our reason for being artists. Right. That's very, uh, very prolific actually. Cool. And Isabel, um, we're gonna wrap it up, but tell us about the event tomorrow. Again. Uh, it begins at 10 30 at Cesar Chavez and Evergreen. And it's, uh, the first unveiling is by Zender. And then we moved from there 11 30 at the, uh, uh, Pico gardens, uh, on fourth street. And, uh, another mural by, uh, Zender called La Flor de Canela. And then we moved from there at 12 30 at Pernrith and Whittier Boulevard, a mural by Raul Gonzalez. Uh, called painting, painting the importance of life. So everybody's invited. It's a free event to celebrate our muralist, our community to celebrate, uh, you know, being together and moving forward with, uh, uh, you know, having this mural ordinance passing. So the muralist can paint legally again. Fantastic. And give the website also. It's muralconservancy.org or, uh, people can go to our Facebook page, which is extremelyactive.org. Uh, or you can go to our Facebook page, which is extremelyactive.org. And that's where you see everything we do. We are every day working on that. We have events every week or, uh, happy hours, mural tours, lectures. Awesome. And in those happy hours, uh, people get the opportunity to meet people like Willy Heron, Ken Twitchell, or, or graffiti artists, everybody, you know, get together to have a drink. Most of the time it's on us. And, uh, so, uh, and the Facebook page page is mural conservancy of Los Angeles. Very well done. We advise you get there early to have coffee and donuts because as, uh, the day progresses onto 1230, it's probably then going to turn into beer. So come down and kick it with us. Jeremy's there. All right. Well, thank you so much for having us. All right. We'll talk to you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Come to the turkey side Go for gold I'm on the call line Go for gold Turkey side So here we go Next stop, Trader Town Going through the lichen eye On the way to Island Park I'm on the call line So here we go Turkey side Go for gold I'm on the call line