SPOTLIGHT: Malú Ortega y Alberro, Casa Aztlán, & "A la Esperanza" Mural Design
I had this running workshop at Casa Aztlán, I was also… teaching photography at Benito Juarez High School…. So that brought me very close to the kids…. The experiences with the kids were very intense, very rich, it was a lot of fun. … So … when we had the invitation to make the mural, …. I knew what the kids needed. I knew what the kids wanted to see and to be represented. So when we were invited to the Festival de Mujeres and we had the sketches for the mural, we brought them there because that mural brought a lot of turmoil. … We wanted people to know why we were doing that. And it was the perfect occasion-- to bring it to the Festival de Mujeres. -Malú Ortega Guerrero, National Museum of Mexican Art, August 16, 2018
One of the reasons why their mural design was chosen was because it was very new and contemporary for the time. Very abstract and interpretative and also talking about the past, future and present of the student, focusing on the life of the student, and how this figure of Benito Juárez is a guide for the students to make decisions about their future. -Sarita Hernández, New City, 2019
Visual artist Malú Ortega y Alberro (now Ortega Guerrero) brought ceramics and painting to the Festival and led art demonstrations as founder of the ceramics studio at Casa Aztlán, an important Chicano center in Pilsen, where she taught from 1976 to 1979. From Mexico City, Ortega y Alberro moved to Chicago in 1973 to obtain her BFA and MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (Marroquín, National Museum of Mexican Art, August 16, 2018). In Chicago, Ortega y Alberro immersed herself in Latino arts in the city, also teaching art workshops at MLEA, the Puerto Rican Cultural Center, and Benito Juarez High School (Ibid).
As we see in the “Festival de Mujeres" video (04:34-05:55 min.), Ortega y Alberro also showed a sketch for the design and sought community feedback for her mural commission with Jimmy Longoria for a 2,000-foot wall of Pilsen’s long fought for and recently opened Benito Juarez High School. The mural, “A la esperanza,” was a project of Casa Aztlán funded in Spring 1979 by the Chicago Department of Human Services. The design team had been selected by a committee of parents from Pilsen Neighbors Community Council and teachers from the high school (40 años a la esperanza, National Museum of Mexican Art, Chicago, IL). At a time when men dominated the Chicano mural movement in Pilsen and other parts of the country, the majority women committee was forward-thinking in its selection of a mural team with a woman artist and their “contemporary approach” to mural design. The two artists collaborated on the mural, with Longoria producing the black outline and Ortega y Alberro focusing on its dazzling colors (Ibid).
Casa Aztlán artists Salvador Vega, Marcos Raya, and Oscar Moya also assisted with the mural, whose great expanse was painted with students and volunteers. The mural was dedicated on September 16, 1979, the two-year anniversary of the high school inauguration. Ortega y Alberro’s name (along with Vega, Raya, and Moya) was removed from the mural when Longoria restored it in 2015. With community pressure, their names were returned for the mural’s 40th anniversary.
Here's more on Casa Aztlán (1970-2013), a community, cultural, and activist center for Pilsen, Chicago, and the Midwest.
Watch a short Community TV Network video (1981) on the “A La Esperanza” Mural at Benito Juarez Community Academy and its controversy at the time.
Learn about the 2018 exhibit “40 años a la esperanza” at Pilsen’s National Museum of Mexican Art (curator, Sarita Hernández)
Here's more about the struggle for Benito Juarez High School in Pilsen, one that would be educationally and culturally empowering for youth and families of Mexican ancestry.
SOURCES
Cardoza, Kerry. “People Power: The National Museum of Mexican Art Tells the Story of ‘La Esperanza.’” New City Art, October 17, 2019. https://art.newcity.com/2019/10/17/people-power-the-national-museum-of-mexican-art-te lls-the-story-of-la-esperanza/
Hernández, Sarita. (2019-2020). 40 años a la esperanza [Exhibition]. National Museum of Mexican Art. Chicago, IL. https://nationalmuseumofmexicanart.org/events/40-anos-a-la-esperanza
Marroquín, Nicole. “Conversations en Community: Artistas Mexicanas & Mujeres in the Local Arts.” Panel, National Museum of Mexican Art, Chicago, Aug. 16, 2016
Peña, Mauricio. “After 40 Years, Pilsen’s Latina Mothers Look Back On The Long Fight To Build A High School.”Block Club Chicago, September 17. 2019. https://blockclubchicago.org/2019/09/17/after-40-years-pilsens-latina-mothers-look-back-on-the-years-long-fight-to-build-a-high-school/
Stechnij, Susan, La Esperanza. Chicago: Community TV Network, 1980. Video. https://www.ctvnetwork.org/la-esperanza/