1996

Themes: self-determination; gentrification; Save Our Murals

Salvador Barajas created the poster for the 26th Chicano Park Day celebration. The 1990s ushered in a movement to save the murals at Chicano Park. During this time CalTrans, the agency responsible for the San Diego Coronado Bay Bridge, proposed an earthquake safety bridge retrofit plan that would've destroyed the Chicano Park murals. In response, certain community "representatives'' formed the "Right Directions Committee" to squeeze CalTrans for "mitigation money." The Right Directions Committee assumed that the retrofit was a foregone conclusion and the murals would be inevitably destroyed. They wanted to press CalTrans for their pet projects in exchange. This "committee" began holding forums at the Barrio Station. When the Chicano Park Steering Committee found out about this "movida," mural supporters rallied to the forums and challenged CalTrans and their proposals. The Right Directions committee dissolved itself in the face of community opposition to the retrofit. After many militant marches, press conferences and negotiating sessions with CalTrans, they relented and under the advice of professional engineers found a method of retrofitting the pillars that spared the murals. This retrofit work continues to this day, while the Chicano Park Steering Committee is the watchdog of the construction.

This Union Tribune article expresses the concerns of both CalTrans and the Logan community about retro fitting the pillars of the Coronado Bridge.