New Mural Dedication

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It pays to talk to your local environmental activist: the vato that recycles my bottles and cans, always the best source for news from around the neighborhood, alerted me to this dedication of a new mural happening today at 3pm, near Hillside Elementary.  “There’s gonna be Aztec dancers and pan dulce.”  I had nothing else to do, let’s go!

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At the 3pm starting time that I was expecting, nothing was happening and nobody was there. Let’s take a walk! Half an hour later, there were lots of people gathered.

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The young ones were given the task of drumming. They did a good job.

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It started off okay, but the guy doing the dedication kept going on and on about the problems with youth getting into gangs, drugs, and alchohol. There was also lots of “spiritual” talk about the “creator”, Mexica mythology, and more anti-drug ramblings. Dedications shouldn’t be so dour.

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Some kids were not paying attention. Good for them!

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They did the blessings towards the four cardinal points.

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This young lady had a serious face throughout the proceedings.

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At one point we were all asked to raise our hands towards the skies. Most participated, but the environmental activist in the background was busy recycling a can to save the earth.  I’m hoping to do a post on him sometime, he sure is a unique LH character.

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My environmentalist aquintance filled in as a necessary heckler, answering rhetorical questions with sarcastic comebacks, stating that there should be more dancing and less political talk, and adding that many native cultures have used drugs for enlightenment. One woman tried to shussh him, but he was having none of it. I was just laughing because just the night before I was having a discussion with a few friends about the need for a group of dedicated hecklers to bring some truth to art events and other occassions were they try to keep the audience captive -not captivated- by methods  of  social embarrassment and imposed politeness. This is a concept that deserves further contemplation and eventually some action!

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They reach to the heavens and then they touch the earth. Lots of these folks were just people from the neighborhood but it was cool to see how they all got into the theme of the event.

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Time for me to leave. The blessing/dedication was still going on. It’s a nice mural of a modern interpretation of Quetzalcoatl, hopefully the ceremony will somehow help it to keep the taggers away. But I doubt it.

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8 Responses to New Mural Dedication

  1. Julio says:

    It is a very beautiful mural. I do feel that at times hecklers are needed to make communication instead of monologue rampant at any sort of events. I want to know about the LH environmentalist. Is he the one making all the racket digging through the blue bins on Sunday nights?

  2. Kevin says:

    I saw some Aztec dancers walking down Griffin and had no idea what was going on. Thanks for the roundup.

  3. did you get any pan dulce?

  4. EL CHAVO! says:

    Julio,
    I actually save my bottles for him, he just calls out on Sunday mornings.

    PRM,
    Haha, no I didn’t. They had lots of food, sodas, water, etc. but they were saving it for after the event. I hate when event organizers do that, making you endure through some program for your peanuts at the end. I left early.

  5. SMOKEY says:

    That’s a much better version of Quetzalcoatl than we have here in San Jo, our looks like a big pile of shit, seriously. I hope the link works check it out.

    http://www.sanjose.com/underbelly/unbelly/Sanjose/Quetzy/quetzy.html

  6. DelMar says:

    dumbest remarks in this piece:

    1.It started off okay, but the guy doing the dedication kept going on and on about the problems with youth getting into gangs, drugs, and alchohol.
    SURE WHO WANTS TO HEAR ABOUT THESE DOUR THINGS, OH YEAH, THE WORKING CLASS RESIDENTS OF LH WHO HAVE TO DEAL WITH DRUGS, ALCOHOL, GANGS, TAGGING, AND OH YEAH MURDER–2 OF THEM IN JAN 2009 WITHIN A WEEK OF EACH OTHER.

    2.Some kids were not paying attention. Good for them! YEAH GOOD FOR THEM THAT WAY THEY CAN GO ON NOT LEARNING WHY GHETTOES EXIST NO MATTER HOW MANY RADICAL LINGUISTS AND HIP HOP ARTISTS SPOUT THEIR BADLY MISUNDERSTOOD DERRIDA AND FOUCAULT AND ANY OTHER BS POMO THEY LEARNED IN THEIR FIRST YEAR GRAD SCHOOL THEORY SESSION OR AT COFFEE HOUSE SPOKEN WORD JAMS. GOOD FOR YOU, SUBALTERN REBELS KEEPING BEING IGNORANT, KEEPING BEING DISTRACTED KIDS!

    3.At one point we were all asked to raise our hands towards the skies. SEE THE PIC ABOVE THIS STATEMENT? CHECK OUT THOSE POOR EXCUSES FOR “LATINOS” SMILING BY THEIR USED CAR…GUESS WHO THEY ARE? TAGGERS FROM SMITH STREET, 28TH, AND GRIFFIN. YOU WANT TO HAVE A CEREMONY BUT LAMENT THAT IT HAS REAL POLITICAL AND ECONOMICAL ISSUES BEHIND IT BUT YOU ONLY WANT IT TO BE ABOUT LA CULTURA–GROW UP YOU GOT TAGGERS IN YOUR PIC!

    4.stating that there should be more dancing and less political talk,
    ESCHEW SOCIO ECONOMIC AND THE PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY OF THE LATINO COMMUNITY AT YOUR OWN PERIL

    4.

  7. EL CHAVO! says:

    Wow, you’re really dropping some knowledge DelMar.

  8. SMOKEY says:

    DelMar seems a little uptight.

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