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David Lopez

Professor Batty

English 101

24 May 2014

Mexican Mother of God

Murals play a huge part in the urban Los Angeles Mexican-American culture. They can

be about education, art, music, war, death, love, and even politics. Murals are able to tell stories

of our past, and an artist will leave these stories on the side of any wall. The mural Im writing

about is one that is on the outside wall of a Mexican fast-food restaurant called Rigos Tacos. The

mural is on the drive-thru window side, and the painting is of La Virgen de Guadalupe, which

translates into the Mother of God. La Virgen is mother of all Mexicans and is an icon that

gives hope to all people south of our borders. Murals like this one are painted in rough

neighborhoods to remind the community that there is a way out of poverty. One simply must

always keep faith in the Virgin Mary.

Sitting on the parking stump admiring the mural, I was able to smell the meat that was

being cooked inside the restaurant. The restaurant is located in North Hollywood alongside

Vanowen, passing Tujunga Ave. This mural is in the city, but it makes me feel like Im in a little

piece of paradise in the green hills of Mexico. The mural is about fifteen feet tall and thirty feet

long, and the middle left is where La Virgen is located. The far left has two cactus plants, a

Barbary fig to the right with boulders and flowers at the bottom, and to the left, an Ariocarpus

plant that has flowers growing at the bottom as well. Behind the two cactus plants one can see

nothing but green hills with blue skies and white clouds. To the middle left is a beautiful Virgin
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Mary holding out a flower in her right hand and her left hand is up to her chest. There is a child

underneath the Virgin Mary with arms spread out and wings coming from his arms in the

Mexican flag colors of green, red, and white. The entire right side of the mural looks like a hotel

resort advertisement, and there is a stream that is created by the waterfall in the mural. The

waterfall falls between two big flat round rocks where it looks like children can jump off the

rocks and into the water. The waterfall is not a giant one, no more than about fifteen feet. Behind

the waterfall and the big flat rocks is a colorful jungle. To the right of the waterfall, there is

purple and green tree tops that are vibrant. Pink and red trees can be seen directly behind the

waterfall. The right corner has a plant that looks like the back of a Bulbasaur Pokemon. It has a

red stem or trunk, purple on top of the red, and long leafy greens sticking out of the whole plant.

The flat rocks on the side of the waterfalls looks also like a place of worship. It looks like a

peaceful place for someone to go and pray. The sound of the stream can be relaxing. The sound

of the leaves moving from the wind is nature making noise, and there are many plants and

colorful flowers that you can stop and smell. Its murals with pictures like this one that can help a

person hope to one day be at a place like mural.

La Virgen mother to all Mexicans, first appeared in Mexico during Spanish occupation

in the early 1500s. Since then she has been a symbol of patriotism and nationalism giving

Mexicans strength and pride, and is considered to be the first Mestizo, woman of mixed race,

that came from the Spanish conquest in Mexico. Spanish America is home to forty percent of the

worlds Roman Catholic population making La Virgen huge across Spanish America. You can

see her in paintings at local markets, an obituary on someones dashboard, and some people will

even get a tattoo portrait of her.

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In my mural La Virgen is already included. But without the Virgin Mary, without the

waterfall on the other side, it would be only flat rocks and boulders. These rocks and boulders

look like the same rocks that was a tomb for Jesus Christ where he rose again on the third day.

The rocks would make sense since this mural already has to do with religion. Both the Virgin

Mary, the mother of God, and Jesus Christ are alive in the hearts of the people through hope.

Hope is an action predicted on uncertainty. Since they have discovered hope way back in the

1500s and until today, through the Virgin Mary, people have a demeanor in life, something to

look forward too, no one really knows whats going to happen tomorrow, so today, they put their

hope in the Virgin Mary.

My mural is located in North Hollywood. Its on the corner of the street but if you travel

one block into the neighborhood you will see cramp streets and small apartments that look like

they are building up on top of each other. Housing Projects. Section Eight apartments that used to

be the red zone for up to four different gangs back in the late nineties and early two thousands.

The area may have been cleaned up in the last decade, but the projects remain birthing children

that grow up seeing these cramp homes when only two blocks away in three different directions

there are homes with a white fence and tire swing in the front yard. The placement of the mural

was intended for the restaurant's decoration, but I feel like it was put there to give the residents of

these projects hope.

Murals like the one Im expressing about belong in these neighborhoods to give people

faith and hope that maybe one day they can leave. Just how immigrants to this day put their faith

in La Virgen to travel safely into our country and the same way gang members pray to her

when they are incarcerated, putting faith and hope in La Virgen will help you stay alive.
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Works Cited

The Amazing Truth of Our Lady of Guadalupe by Dan Lynch, December 2002

<http://www.catholiceducation.org/en/culture/catholic-contributions/the-amazing-truth-

of-our-lady-of-guadalupe.html>

La Virgen de Guadalupe [HISTORY] by Mario Cruz

<http://www.latinlife.com/article/61/la-virgen-de-guadalupe-history> The worlds

The Importance of La Virgen de Guadalupe in Latino Culture by Megan Taros, Dec. 14th 2010

<https://latinapoderosa.wordpress.com/2010/12/14/the-importance-of-la-virgen-de-

guadalupe-in-latino-culture/>

Catholic Population by Ross Toro, Feb. 19th, 2013 <http://www.livescience.com/27244-the-

world-s-catholic-population-infographic.html>

La Virgen de Guadalupe-Mother of all Mexico by Judy King, Jan 1st. 2006

<http://www.mexconnect.com/articles/1404-la-virgen-de-guadalupe-mother-of-all-mexico>
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