great wall walking tour book - School of Architecture and Allied Arts ...

TABLE OF CONTENTS
THE RIVER...1
THE TATOO ON THE SCAR WHERE THE RIVER
ONCE RAN...3
GREAT WALL HISTORY...5
ABOUT SPARC...7
GREAT WALL INTRODUCTION...8
ABOUT THE ARTIST - JUDITH F. BACA...9
HOW IT HAPPENED...11
HOW ITS DONE..12
THE 1976 PROJECT: THE FIRST ONE 1000 FT...15
PRE HISTORIC CALIFORNIA...18
SPANISH ARRIVAL...20
1848 BANDAIDE...22
SOJOURNERS...24
1890 L.A. MOUNTAINS TO THE SHORE...26
THE 1978 PROJECT: THE 1920s...27
WORLD WAR I...30
A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON EDISON...32
1980 PROJECT: THE 1930s...33
ILLUSION of PROSPERITY...36
CRASH AND DEPRESSION...38
DUSTBOWL REFUGEES...40
1981PROJECT: THE 1940s...41
WORLD WAR II...44
DR. CHARLES DREW...46
ZOOT SUIT RIOTS...48
JEWISH REFUGEES...50
1983 PPROJECT: THE 1950s...51
FAREWELLTO ROSIE THE RIVETER...54
DEVELOPMENT OF SUBURBIA...56
THE RED SCARE...58
CHAVEZ RAVINE AND THE DIVISION OF...60
THE BIRTH OF ROCK AND ROLL...62
ORIGINS OF THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT...64
THE BEATS...66
JEWISH ACHIEVEMENTS IN ARTS AND
SCIENCE...68
INDIAN ASSIMILATION...70
ASIANS GAIN CITIZENSHIP AND PROPERTY...72
OLYMPIC CHAMPIONS 1948-1964...74
GREAT WALL TESTIMONIALS...75
MURAL MAKER TESTIMONIALS...76
THE ERNESTINE JIMENEZ STORY...80
GREAT WALL FUTURE...82
INTERPRETIVE STATIONS...84
NEW DESIGNS FOR THE1960s - THE 1990s...86
MAP...87
FURTHER INFORMATION ON THE GREAT
WALL...88
DIRECTIONS...89
CONTACT SPARC...90
CREDITS...90
GREAT WALL PANORAMIC... 91

THE RIVER
The history of Los Angeles begins with a river. It is on the bank of this river that the first settlement, which consisted
of 22 people of black and meztiso was formulated. They were outcast from their homelands in Mexico
and came north in mule-trains to arrive at the banks of the river. Upon arrival, these people found that there was
adequate water, vegetation and wildlife to support human and they formulated the first settlement.
It wa at the base of this river, the city of Los Angeles was founded. Settlers found that the river was troublesome.
It began to overflow its banks, and as they created these settlements they found that the river did not behave
properly -- it had a tendency to swell in the winter months, contract in the summer months. As it swelled it took
over parts of the settlement.
It was very early in the 1920s that the army core visionaries began to systematically concrete the river. Believing
it had to be tamed, they hardened the arteries of the land. By the 1970’s they completed the concreting of this
river. In the photos to the right you’ll se what this river looked like: It became regularized. In a sense the water
no longer flowed into the aqueduct because the bottom of these channels were concreted. So water actually
flowed much more swiftly to the ocean. It had many affects. One of the major affects was the loss of the water
from the aqua fur. The other was that it caused tremendous pollution in the bay.
A relationship exists between the disappearance of the river and the people: If you can disappear a river how
much easier is it to disappear the history of the people?
1

2
bridge construction picture

THE TATOO ON THE SCAR WHERE THE RIVER ONCE RAN
“What I saw [looking at the river one day] was this metaphor: the hundreds of miles of concrete conduits
were scars in the land. They recalled the scars I had seen on a young man’s body in a Los Angeles Barrio.
Fernando, my friend and mentee, had suffered multiple stab wounds in East Los Angeles’ gang warfare. I
asked him how he was feeling after the attack. “My wounds are healing,” he said. “But every time I lift my
shirt, I see my body as a map of violence. So together we began to design transformative tattoos in an effort
to make the ugly marks into something powerful and beautiful.
That day, overlooking the channel, I saw a relationship between the scars on his body and the scars in this
land. I dreamed of a tattoo on the scar where the river once ran as a metaphor for healing our city’s divisions
of race and class and proposed the Great Wall of Los Angeles. I dared not speak aloud the words that
I am saying today, that the concreting of the river was an act of violence against the earth and healing was
needed for both the river and the people.
In a sense the great wall is the tattoo on the scar where the river once ran. It is a similar story in the sense that
as the arteries were hardened and the river disappeared, so were the people disappeared, so were stories of
the people that were the originating peoples of Los Angeles. The disappearance of the river and the disappearance
of the people seemed to have a common ground. We set about producing this long half a mile of
mural to tell the story of the people that had been disappeared from history books.
For 12 years, 400 young people worked on the recovery of their histories, practicing a connection to each other
across racial, class and gender differences. We worked to tattoo the scar where the river once ran there, in
the San Fernando Valley, with images that would remember our dismembered history. Life long connections
were made there between us all.”
- Judith F. Baca
3

Fernando picture
4

GREAT WALL HISTORY
The Great Wall of Los Angeles, a landmark pictorial representation of the history of ethnic peoples of California
from prehistoric times to the 1950’s, is one of the country’s most respected and largest monuments to inter-racial
harmony. Conceived by SPARC’S artistic director and founder Judith F. Baca, it is SPARC’s first public art project
and its signature piece. The Great Wall was begun in 1974 and completed over five summers, employing over
400 youth and their families from diverse social and economic backgrounds working with artists, oral historians,
ethnologists, scholars, and hundreds of community members.
Its half-mile length (2,754 ft) in the Tujunga Flood Control Channel of the San Fernando Valley with accompanying
park and bike trail hosts thousands of visitors every year, providing a vibrant and lasting tribute to the working
people of California who have truly shaped its history. In 2000 and 2001 SPARC received acknowledgement and
support from the Ford Foundation’s Animating Democracy: The Role of Civic Dialogue in the Arts initiative and
from the Rockefeller Foundation Partnership’s Affirming Community Transformation initiative to continue work on
the Great Wall, to hold civic dialogue sessions, and to ultimately design the four decades of the 20th century that
remain absent from the mural (the 1960, 1970, 1980 and 1990s). In 2006, SPARC was awarded with a California
Cultural and Historical Endowment grant as well as a grant from the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy to
acquire and develop a new solar-lit bridge with interpretive stations, to construct five additional interpretive
stations along the wall, to design the next four decades (60’s, 70’s, 80’s, & 90’s), and to develop conservation
education programs. The mural’s restoration (a critical need) and continuation, with future panels produced by
the next generation of children of the Great Wall, remains a vital, ongoing program of SPARC. Our latest goal is
the creation of a full use park and green bridge at the Great Wall thereby establishing the site as an international
educational and cultural destination point.
5

ABOUT SPARC
SPARC, the Social and Pulibc Art Resource Center, is a cultural center that believes public art to be a vehicle
for fostering civic dialogue, promoting cross-cultural understanding, and addressing critical social issues. We
accomplish our mission by producing, preserving and teaching community-based, public art.
SPARC’s intent is to examine what the public chooses to memorialize through public art, and to devise
and produce artworks through innovative participatory processes that include creative visualization and
collaboration with local residents. We have been working with Los Angeles’ poor and immigrant communities,
youth, children, and families for over thirty years. These community members are participants in the production
of public monuments. Through our processes, their stories are made accessible to local, national and
international audiences.
7

GREAT WALL INTRODUCTION
The Great Wall of Los Angeles, with its adjoining viewing trails and park, are a public monument to the stories
of California’s ethnic groups underrepresented in history texts and public consciousness. It is the only visual
narration of its kind in a public space. A half-mile long work of art created during the Civil Rights activism of the
70’-80’s, this mural’s inception marks a significant event in 20th century Californian History.
“The Great Wall” is also a seminal work of public art created during California’s Chicano Mural Art Renaissance,
whose practitioners went well beyond highlighting a singular ethnic identity to expound a view of the rich
ethnic diversity of our state. Decade by decade, the wall marked culturally significant changes in California’s
demographics in both the stories represented in the mural and by the participants who created it.
8
Image by TOC
Ariel Photo of the Los Angeles River Basin

ABOUT THE ARTIST - JUDITH F. BACA
“In 1975, when the Great Wall was still a dream, I never imagined it would lead over 400 young “Mural Makers”
and 36 artists (including myself) through such a moving set of experiences. Nor could I have imagined that over
30 years from the date the first paint was applied to the wall that it would still be a work in progress.
‘When I first saw the wall, I envisioned a long narrative of another history of California; one which included
the ethnic peoples, women, and minorities who were all so invisible in conventional textbook accounts. The
discovery of the history of California’s multi-cultured population was a revelation to me as well as to the
members of my teams. We learned each new decade of history in summer installments; the 20’s in 1978, the
30’s in 1980, the 40’s in 1981, and the 50’s in 1983. Each year our visions expanded as the images traveled
down the wall. While our sense of our individual families’ places in history took form, we became family to one
another. Working toward the achievement of a difficult common goal shifted our understandings of each other
and most importantly of ourselves.
‘I designed this project as an artist concerned, not only with the physical aesthetic considerations of a space,
but also the social, environmental and cultural issues affecting the site as well. I am not a social worker, though
people mistakenly call me one and I am not a teacher although I have teaching skills. I draw on skills not
normally used by artists. I’ve learned as much as I’ve taught from the youth I’ve had the good fortune to know
by working alongside of them. They’ve taught me, among other things, how to laugh at myself, how to put play
into hard work, and how not to be afraid to believe in something. I am extremely grateful.
‘Perhaps most overwhelming to me about the Great Wall experience has been learning of the courage of
individuals in history who endured, spoke out, and overcame seemingly insurmountable obstacles. It was true
both of the people we painted about and of ourselves, the Mural Makers.”
- Judith F. Baca
9

10
(caption needed)

HOW IT HAPPENED
In 1974, the Army Corps of Engineers contacted Judith F. Baca about the possibility of creating a mural in the
flood control channel as part of a beautification project that included a mini park and a bicycle path. Two years
later the conversion of concrete eyesore into community treasure began.
Production of the Great Wall has involved the support of many government agencies, community organizations,
businesses, corporations, foundations, and individuals. In the first several years, SPARC received a great deal
of support for the project from governmental juvenile justice funding sources, such as the Summer Youth
Employment Program, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the Flood Control District. In recent years, more private
sector funding has made the Great Wall possible.
By 1976, the Great Wall was already the longest mural in the world: one thousand feet of California history from
the days of the dinosaurs to 1910 had already been painted in the Tujunga Wash drainage canal of the San
Fernando Valley. But Baca – artistic director of the Social and Public Art Resource Center in Venice, California
– was not ready to stop at 1910. Mural Makers continued to work in the wash throughout the summers of 1978,
1980, 1981 and 1983. Each year they added 350 feet and a decade of history seen from the viewpoint of
California ethnic groups, about heir contributions and their struggles to overcome obstacles.
By 1980 the mural, dubbed “The Great Wall” rather than its official name “The History of California,” stretched
more than a third of a mile and had consumed approximately 600 gallons of paint and 65,000 hours. With the
completion of the decade of the Forties in September of 1981, the total length reached 2,085 feet while the
number of young people who had worked on the mural rose to 185. In the summer of 1983, a new segment was
painted, depicting the decade of the 1950’s. To date, the length of the Great Wall totals 2,754 feet, and the
number of participating youths totals over 400.
However impressive the currently completed segments may be, they are only part of a work in progress. The
completed mural, which will run for nearly a mile, will take history to the present in future panels which will
be formulated by a planning commission composed of new and veteran youth Mural Makers, artists, and
representatives for the Great Wall’s diverse sponsors.
11

The mural was flooded five times between 1976 and 1983, with water rising as high as Edison’s nose.
However, more dangerous than water damage is the effect of air pollution, years of exposure to direct
sunlight, and fertilizer damage from the adjoining park lawns.
Painted during the first summer of work in 1976, the first one thousand feet are divided into sections of 100
feet each. Although the content is highly integrated, each section was designed by a different artist under
the general supervision of Judith Baca. Many problems were encountered in the beginning. Until the Mural
Makers built a staircase down to the wash, people had to be trucked two and a half miles to the work site,
bringing everything necessary with them, including water, food and restroom facilities. The entire mural area
had to be sandbagged so that the residual water would not make the work area slippery. Several tons of
sand were trucked in, shoveled, bagged and then dragged into place.
12

13
Time Line and Sketches for Mural Planning

HOW IT IS DONE
Each section takes a full year to research, organize, and execute. Youth of varied ethnic backgrounds
between the ages of 14 and 21 must be recruited and interviewed. Those selected are employed as assistants
and participate in both the planning and execution of the mural. These Mural Makers, mostly from low-income
families, are paid through the Summer Youth Employment Program. In 1981 and 1983 additional youth were
hired through a grant from the Jewish Community Foundation. Funds must be raised, research begun, and
artist supervisors hired. Professional artists work with youth four to eight hours a day. They also receive art
instruction, attend lectures from historians specializing in ethnic history, do improvisational theater and teambuilding
exercises and acquire the important skill of learning to work together in a context where the diversity
of their cultures is the focus.
After the subjects to be included are selected and sketched, Baca makes finished designs along with a
team of artists and youth selected to work under her direction on the “design team”. The finished drawings
are blueprinted or turned into large drawings for pounce transfers. On site work begins with heavy labor:
Sandblasting, waterblasting and sealing the surface. Grid lines are marked on the wall to match those on
the blueprints, and the images are transferred; a process that provides on-the-job math (as well as drawing)
training for the kids. After the lines are drawn and painted a dark blue, a transparent magenta undercoat is
applied over the entire surface. This serves to harmonize the colors as well as to cut the glare of the sunlight
in the painter’s eyes. Snow blindness is a real hazard for the team on the massive wall. The colors are applied
first as flat areas and then highlighted and shaded with two tones of the same “color-tri-color blends,” as the
painters call it. Finally, a clear acrylic sealer is applied to protect the painting.
14

1976 PROJECT:
THE FIRST 1000 FT
15
Painted during the first summer of work in 1976,
the first one thousand feet are divided into
sections of 100 feet each. Although the content
is highly integrated, each section was designed
by a different artist under the general supervision
of Judith Baca. Many problems were
encountered in the beginning. Until the
Mural Makers built a staircase down to the wash,
people had to be trucked two and a half miles
to the work site, bringing everything necessary
with them, including water, food and toilets. The
entire mural area had to be sandbagged so
that the residual water would not make the work
area slippery. Several tons of sand were trucked
in, shoveled, bagged and then dragged
into place.

16
Great Wall Youth Crew, 1976

17
Pre-Historic Portion of Mural in Progress

PRE HISTORIC CALIFORNIA
The initial segment, designed by Kristi Lucas, begins in 20,000 BC, when the animals whose bones were
found in the La Brea Tar Pits still wandered among the plants and trees native to the area. In their
research, the Mural Makers discovered that many of the trees we think of as typically Californian, such
as the Eucalyptus and Pepper, were brought by settlers. By 10,000 BC, the Chumash Indian peoples had
settled in this region having migrated, most likely by way of a land bridge. They had a special relationship
to and respect for the animals, especially porpoises. These are shown both in their natural environment
and at the center of the prayer wheel, which forms the transition to the second segment. Designed by
Christina Schlesinger, this section provides an overview of Chumash practical and spiritual life as it might
have been in 1000 BC. A vision in which human and animal spirits mingle expresses Chumash religious
sentiments. Much of this section was painted by an American Indian boy who shares this worldview. The
peaceful early history of the region ends with a White hand rising from the sea, a symbol of the destruction
of Native American life by White settlers.
18

19
Judy Baca on Scafolding, 1976

SPANISH ARRIVAL
The arrival of the Spanish explorer Portillo, who brought the first expedition from Mexico to L.A. in 1769, begins
the third segment, designed by Judith Baca. The figures in the clouds of smoke that rise from the Indian
campfires represent Califia, the legendary Black Amazon Queen who Portillo expected to find and for whom
California is named. Further on, riding a mule, Father Junipero Serra arrives. Founder of missions throughout
California, he is depicted with the San Fernando mission behind him. Within a year after the arrival of the
Spaniard, a large percentage of the 150,000 Native American inhabitants had died of diseases brought over
by the Europeans. For this reason, the San Fernando Mission became known to the Indians as the “House of
Death.”
It is commonly believed that the founders of Los Angeles were Spanish. However, on September 4, 1781,
El Pueblo de la Reina de Los Angeles was founded by 46 pobladores from Mexico, only two of whom were
Spanish. The majority were Indian, Meztiso, Mulatto and Black.
Mexico governed California until 1848. In February of that year, Mexico signed the Treaty of Guadalupe
Hidalgo, selling the Mexican Cession, including all of California, to the United States for $15 million. The fourth
segment, designed by Judith Hernandez, is dominated by the figure of a Spanish land baron, illustrating the
“hacendados” who dominated early California. His serape is formed by the land and labor of the Indians,
which he has taken and used to build the hacienda. He looks toward this hacienda where an elegant
wedding is taking place. The panel begins with soldiers who raise the Spanish flag and ends with the battle
between the Mexican army and the U.S. cavalry for the control of California.
20

1848 BANDAID
The Gold Rush era, as designed by Ulysses Jenkins, provides a Black-American perspective on this period. It
begins with the discovery of gold at Sutters’ Mill and the subsequent migration of Blacks, Mexicans, Indians,
and Whites by ship to California. Above the bay are portraits of Mifflin W. Gibbs, publisher of the first Black
newspaper and Mary Ellen Pleasant, a civil rights activist who helped defend Blacks arraigned under the
fugitive slave laws. The globe represents the world’s desire for the riches of the 49ers. Beside it stands William
A. Leidesdorf, pilot of the first steamboat to arrive in San Francisco Bay, who later became a vice consul to
Mexico.
Meanwhile, though California entered the Union as a free state, the framers of the state constitution wrote
into law the systematic denial of suffrage and other civil rights to non-white citizens. From this time until 1863,
Indians and other non-whites could not testify against whites in California courts. During this time, Biddy
Mason, an ex-slave from Georgia who fought extradition under the fugitive slave laws, became very wealthy
and known for her charity. She was also a founder of the African Methodist Church in Los Angeles and is
depicted in the mural. Joaquin Murrieta, a legendary Mexican Robin Hood is also depicted, fighting for the
oppressed: The landless who “squat” on the state; the “hanging tree” victims of prejudice; and the Indians
who are slaughtered with the coming of the “Iron Horse.”
22

SOJOURNERS
The “Iron Horse” also brought a wave of Chinese immigration. Designed by Gary Takamoto, the Chinese
segment shows the workers on the transcontinental railroad, which was built largely by Chinese labor. The
faces, which appear in the smoke of the locomotive, honor those who died in the course of this mammoth
undertaking. A surge of racism that accompanied Chinese immigration led to the death of 19 Chinese men
and boys during the “Chinese Massacre” of 1871 when 500 non-Asian Angelinos stormed Chinatown to loot
homes and businesses and to attack residents.
The Woman’s Suffrage Movement also began at this time. This segment was designed by Olga Muniz.
24

1890 L.A. MOUNTAINS TO THE SHORE
Designed by American Indian artist Charlie Brown, “From the Mountains to the Shore” begins with San Pedro
Harbor where, until recently, there was a great abundance of flying fish. In Los Angeles, the “Red Car”
provided an early energy efficient form of transportation. A vast network of electric railway lines operated by
the Pacific Electric (PE) blanketed the Los Angeles area with more than 1000 miles of rail lines. The typical shops
and buildings of turn-of-the-century L.A. are depicted in this lyrical segment.
The first summer’s work concluded with an homage to the new wave of immigrants and their labor, which was
so important to the development of this region. Designed by Isabel Castro, the section begins with an image
showing these new arrivals in a wave of flags that indicate their varied origins. The segment continues with the
invention of the car and airplane, two vehicles that shaped the development of 20th century California.
The first 1,000 feet were completed in nine weeks of painting. The names of all those who participated were
stenciled onto the wall.
26

1978 PROJECT
27
Many lessons were learned through the experience of
the first summer’s work. In looking back, Baca realized
that, “In those first 1,000 feet, the mural [was] a loosely
connected series of easel paintings.” Beginning in
1978, she exerted more control over the design,
which resulted in more stylistic unity and an evolving
complexity both in the transitions between the sections
and the linkages between historical incidents.

28
Great Wall Youth Crew, 1978

WORLD WAR I
Emphasis in this section is placed on women’s role in the war experience. Depicted are the “doughboys”
as they leave for war, kissing their wives and girlfriends goodbye. In the recruiting poster, woman appears
in her mythic form as the symbol of Liberty. In reality, she took on “men’s jobs” in manufacturing plants or
contributed to the war effort through “women’s jobs” like nursing.
As the war reached into every aspect of American life, Charlie Chaplin, the famous silent movie comedian
and a symbol of the common man, threw his support behind World War I. He is represented in the mural as
a typical “doughboy,” fighting in the trenches for the ideals in which he believes and for which the war was
being fought. His presence also links the war section with the development of Hollywood and the movie
industry.
30

A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON EDISON
In researching Thomas Alva Edison, inventor of the light bulb, the Mural Makers found much evidence to
support the theory that Edison was born in Zacatecas, Mexico, and adopted by U.S. parents. According
to Edison’s daughter, Madeline Edison Sloane, there is no birth record for her father in the United States. In
addition, almost all American biographers and historians agree that Edison could speak, read and write
Spanish as fluently as a native speaker even though he had only three months of formal education.
Edison’s Mexican-American heritage is symbolized by the Chichimeca corn goddess who whispers the
secrets of the ancient builders and inventors in his ear. In one hand he holds a light bulb that lights the world.
In the other hand we see a movie camera, symbolizing the modern communications industry. Hollywood is
celebrated in the final image of William S. Hart, star of the first cowboy movie ever made, “The Great Train
Robbery.” The scene shows the movie actors on the set and also in the camera viewer.
32

1980 PROJECT
33
In 1980 the crew consisted of some 40 youth, a group
of historians who helped workshops and programs for
the participants, and a team of five artists working
under the supervision of Judith Baca. The last 1,050
feet of the wall, painted in the summers of 1980,
1981, and 1983, are more complex in design with
more sophisticated linkages between sections. The
increased aesthetic quality of the wall began to bring
both national and international attention. Feature
articles on the Great Wall appeared in Life Magazine,
Art in America, Ms, and German news magazine, Der
Spiegel. In October of 1981, the Wadsworth Atheneum
in Hartford, Connecticut, provided the Great Wall with
its “first museum show.” The mural was also the focus of
a segment of Bill Moyers “Creativity in America” public
television series.

34
Great Wall Youth Crew, 1980

ILLUSION OF PROSPERITY
The temperance movement’s axe looses a river of whiskey from the barrels of booze that the gangsters,
symbolized by an Al Capone figure, used to become rich and powerful, while flappers dance in an “illusion
of prosperity.” During this heyday of jazz, racial discrimination against Blacks continued. Black musicians and
their audiences were not allowed in White hotels. But the Dunbar Hotel enabled them to stay and perform in
Los Angeles. Above the musicians, between the hotel and a bank beginning to topple in the crash of 1929, a
Black worker drinks from a fountain marked, “Colored Only.”
36

CRASH AND DEPRESSION
The Great Depression began with the stock market crash on October 29, 1929. But in spite of Hollywood’s
depiction of prosperity and romance, this economic disaster was inevitable. It could not be hidden by the
illusions produced by the movie industry. In the mural, while the unemployed sell apples and warm their
hands on a trash can fire, the marching feet of the unemployed lead directly into strikes against low wages.
The strikers symbolize the beginnings of the militant union movement of the Thirties and show its brutal
repression. Still victimized in the 20th century by invalid treaties, Native Americans were forced to sell two
thirds of their land to developers at 45 cents per acre. Additionally, three hundred and fifty thousand
Mexican-Americans were rounded up and shipped across the border in mass deportations.
38

DUSTBOWL REFUGEES
As Mexicans were deported, “Okies,” refugees from the Oklahoma dustbowl whose fields were destroyed
by drought, began to provide a new source of cheap farm labor. These “Okies,” in spite of their misery,
migrated by their own will. The following migration, that of the Japanese, was the result of a force; In the
wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, approximately 110,000 Japanese nationals and
Japanese Americans were relocated to internment camps. The problem of how to connect these two
migrations puzzled the Mural Makers. Baca remembers asking her assistants, “What did the Okies and the
Nisei have in common?” The answer: Laundry. Lines of hanging wash form a visual connection between
these two sections.
40

1981 PROJECT
41
The 1940’s section – painted in the summer of 1981 with a
crew of 34 youth, six artist-supervisors and two designers
(Judith Baca and Jan Cook) – began where the Thirties
section ended: With the role of the Japanese-Americans
during this period.

42
Great Wall Youth Crew, 1981

WORLD WAR II
The 442nd Japanese-American infantry division comes out of the stripes of the American flag, yet in the
shadow of these stripes, Japanese-Americans move backward toward the internment camps depicted in
the previous section, forced to discard their possessions as they go. The mural continues to explore, in turn,
the contradictory situation of each of the other ethnic minorities in California. A Jewish-American family,
in the shadow of Hitler’s hand, listens to the news from Europe. Hitler’s other hand makes a fist. From it,
goosesteppers lead toward an anti-Fascist rally in Los Angeles and toward World War II. Below, on the home
front, the California Aqueduct is built to transport water from north to south to aid developers, but creates a
desert in the Owens Valley region. The World War II segment shows Jeanette Rankin in Congress below and
Pearl Harbor above. A group of generals and businessmen plan the war effort. From that cooperative effort
streams the lines of soldiers, arms and women war workers.
44

CHARLES DREW
The war industry also provided jobs for black women workers. In the mural they are shown opening the doors
to the war industry with Dr. Charles Drew, the inventor of large-scale blood banks. Dr. Drew is shown cradling
himself in his own arms as he dies unnecessarily because of a southern hospital’s refusal to treat him for
blood loss. The iron hand, symbolizing the dehumanization that racial discrimination brings, is shown cutting
off the flow of blood, ending life. Beyond these accomplishments of African Americans in the war industry,
the mural depicts the discrimination that continued in housing. “We Fight Fascism At Home and Abroad,”
commemorates the struggle by Mrs. Laws against the covenant laws that denied Blacks access to equal
housing in South Central L.A.
46

ZUIT SUIT RIOTS
The contradictions in the Chicano experience are expressed by contrasting the experience of Chicano
servicemen with the experience of those at home. David Gonzalez, a local Chicano Congressional Medal
of Honor winner, is shown standing with his mother in a collage of photos from a family album. In the next
panel, we see the “Zoot Suit Riots,” a series of riots that erupted in Los Angeles during World War II, between
white Marines stationed throughout the city and Latino youths. Mexican-American boys wearing Zoot Suits
were stripped and beaten by marines with the consent of the police. Also depicted, trains carry “braceros,”
Mexican farm workers, contracted to work temporarily in the California farm fields. The struggle to organize
the farm workers and demands for more humane working conditions are represented by the portrait of labor
organizer Luiso Moreno, who is wrapped in the flag of the Congress of Hispanic Groups.
48

JEWISH REFUGEES
Parallel to the train bringing migrant workers, the St. Louis – a Jewish-European immigrant ship that was
refused entry to the U.S. because the Jewish immigration quota was already met – is painted. The spirit
of these starved and suffering Jewish victims of the Holocaust emerges from the ship and reaches for
American soil. Behind we see the death camps where the Germans murdered more than six million Jews.
Beyond the death camps is the mushroom cloud of the Atomic Bomb, another symbol of death, and
beyond that the founding of Israel and the greening of the desert. The end of the War brought about a
wave of prosperity, the development of tract homes, and the baby boom. In the kitchen of a typical tract
house in the San Fernando Valley (the rest of the development can be seen through the window) we see
a baby scream. On the television, Ronald Reagan stars in a 1940’s era war movie. Outside, peering at the
“American Dream” through the plate glass windows, soldiers of color discover that little has changed for
them on their return.
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1983 PROJECT
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The 1950’s section was painted in the summer of
1983 with a crew of 30 youth, seven artist supervisors,
and muralist/director Judith Baca. This 350-foot
segment attained sponsorship from such groups as
the National Endowment of the Arts, the California
Council for the Humanities, the Los Angeles Olympic
Organizing Committee and numerous other groups
and individuals. With the aid of over a dozen humanist
scholars and historians, workshops and programs
were held for the muralists in selecting, designing and
enlivening the images.

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Great Wall Youth Crew, 1983

FAREWELL TO ROSIE THE RIVETER
During World War II, millions of American women left their traditional roles as housewives and entered the
industrial market as manual laborers and managers. But in the post-war years, “Rosie the Riveter” returned
to the kitchen as the men returned home and reclaimed their power and position in labor. Women’s
access to work positions traditionally dominated by men was revoked. The television set depicted in this
segment propagates mass social images of the housewife and a workingwoman being sucked into the
T.V. image.
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DEVELOPMENT OF SUBURBIA
Behind the televised images of American womanhood, an all-American family of 2.5 kids (The .5 represented
by “Howdy Doody”) moves into a new suburb of endless box houses in endless rows. These boxes represent
“white flight,” a demographic trend in which white people move away from urban neighborhoods that are
becoming racially desegregated to white suburbs and exurbs. Meanwhile, minorities and poor immigrants
move from rural communities into the city. Rows of orange trees have been uprooted as suburbs sprawl
throughout the L.A. basin and valleys.
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THE RED SCARE AND MCCARTHYISM
Joseph McCarthy, the infamous prosecutor during the second “Red Scare,” holds up a blacklist, naming
film industry people who are accused of being Communist activists and sympathizers. The “Hollywood Ten,”
a group of Hollywood producers, directors, writers and actors, are subpoenaed and found in contempt
of Congress for refusing to answer McCarthy’s charges by naming names (it was not enough to admit to
being a communist at this time. One had to also incriminate one’s friends and colleagues by providing their
names.). These ten, as well as others, were blacklisted and shunned, their professional and personal lives
destroyed. A typewriter, tied and bound by the lists, represents the fear of being blacklisted and the denial of
5th Amendment rights. In the background, Sputnik hovers over the scene, reminding the viewer of the Soviet
Union’s techno-military progress which startles and frightens America.
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CHAVEZ RAVINE AND THE DIVISION OF THE CHICANO COMMUNITY
In the 1940s, Chavez Ravine was a poor, though cohesive, Mexican-American community. But in the early
50’s, the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles labeled the area as “blighted” and began relocating
residents so that the area could be redeveloped to include Dodger Stadium. In many parts of LA, new
freeways began to encircle and dislocate various areas, effectively dividing minority communities. In this
panel, serpentine thoroughfares separate a Chicano family as the pillared highway breaks through the roofs
of houses. Resembling a massive UFO, Dodger Stadium descends from the twilight sky into Chavez Ravine.
A bulldozer and policemen forcibly uproot the Chicano community so that Dodger Stadium can be built
on land designated at one time for public housing. Many individuals resisted this forced eviction from their
neighborhood, but to no avail.
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THE BIRTH OF ROCK AND ROLL
Pop 50’s culture is captured in this scene at a drive-in theater. A huge Elvis Presley wails his rock songs from
the silver screen, but behind him a smaller image of Chuck Berry acknowledges the original force of rock’s
creativity and inspiration in the Black community. Various hotrods and low-riders face the screen, as a starspeckled
sky forms the background. Behind Elvis and the movie screen, Black musicians again represent the
spirit and contribution of the Black community to popular culture. Jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker and Blues
vocalist Big Mama Thornton (who wrote “Ain’t Nothin’ But A Hound Dog” which Elvis popularized without
crediting her) perform. Behind these Black musicians, a Charles White portrait of a Black woman holding up
South L.A. portrays the sustaining community activism of Black women in volunteer and church organizations.
This scene emerges with another depiction of the interior of a local bus. Paul Robeson, Rosa Parks, Gwendolyn
Brooks, Ralph Bunche and Martin Luther King, Jr., rise from their bus seats and move forward for new
destinations: the Civil Rights movement.
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ORIGINS OF THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
The 1950’s witnessed the emergence of homosexual community organizing, represented in this panel by
the first gay/lesbian publications and social change organizations. As police enter the closet to repress
the homosexual community through violence and entrapment, women forming the first lesbian rights
organization, the “Daughters of Bilitis,” meet in a kitchen and mimeograph copies of their newsletter, “The
Ladder.” These newsletters float out of the closet above the heads of the police. In a gay bar, solitary men
sit in front of mirrors, cautiously glancing at one another, fearing entrapment by vice officers. Each wears a
mask at the back of his head symbolizing the false front to society that gays had to assume in order to avoid
persecution. In the mirror, the men see themselves as they wish they could be-warm, affectionate, caring.
The masks also represent the Mattachine Society, founded in 1950 by, amongst others, Harry Hay, depicted
here issuing his call to organize. Inspired by the masked Mattachine male dancers of medieval France, the
Mattachine Society was the first to advocate social equality for homosexuals.
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THE BEATS
In this panel, the Beat movement represents another controversial underground movement. The major
works of Beat writing are Allen Ginsberg’s Howl (1956), William S. Burroughs’s Naked Lunch (1959) and Jack
Kerouac’s On the Road (1957). Various Venice cafes sponsored Beat jazz sessions, abstract art exhibitions
and poetry readings. But disgruntled conservatives moved to halt these activities and close the cafes,
provoking Beats to protest.
66

JEWISH ACHIEVEMENTS IN ARTS AND SCIENCE
Just as Jewish writers like Allen Ginsberg took risks in developing a new creative movement, Jews in Los
Angeles started out in high-risk businesses, which, by the 1950’s, had become among the most important
in California. New York garment workers became recyclers of rags in Los Angeles and, eventually, the
backbone of the garment industry. Also high risk in the 20’s was the fledgling film industry built by Jewish
studio owners into highly successful enterprises. In the mural, a huge image of Albert Einstein holding a
diagram of an atom reveals his concern that atomic power be used for peaceful purposes and not war.
68

INDIAN ASSIMILATION
In this ninth scene, the forced assimilation of Indians is depicted by a government official stripping an Indian
boy of his traditional dress and cutting his hair. Indian youth were sent several states away from their homes to
boarding schools where they were taught to give up their traditional culture for Anglo ways. Concurrent with
this program was the urban relocation of many other Indian adults and children off of reservations.
70

ASIANS GAIN CITIZENSHIP AND PROPERTY
Despite harsh immigration quotas, Asian Americans made progress in the Fifties by attaining naturalization
and land ownership rights. In this panel a civilian is sworn in as the first Korean to be granted American
citizenship. Behind the scene, a Japanese farmer stands proud in his newly purchased field, depicting the
gains of Japanese Americans also to become citizens and to own land.
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OLYMPIC CHAMPIONS 1948-1964
In this final panel, a woman runner carries the Olympic torch, its flame and smoke swirling into scenes of athletes
who overcome tremendous obstacles to win Olympic events. Billy Mills, a Dakota 0glala marathon runner,
overcame his suppression in boarding schools to become an important symbol for Native American pride.
Black runner Wilma Rudolf, overcoming her childhood infirmities (being unable to walk until her eighth birthday)
throws away her leg braces and becomes the first American to win three gold medals. Sammy Lee, a Korean
American diver, and Vicky Manalo Droves, a Filipina diver, win gold medals as well. The symbolic final runner
carries the torch of the 1950’s into the civil rights movements of the 1960’s.
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Sketch of Olympic Winners for portion of the Great Wall

GREAT WALL
TESTIMONIALS
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On the last day of the 1983 summer project, each
of the Mural Makers sat down to write about their
experiences of working on the mural. The following are
excerpts from their thoughts.

MURAL MAKER TESTIMONIALS
This was definitely not a waste of my time. I feel I
have accomplished something very worthwhile. I
have educated myself with the work I have done I
will help to educate countless others. I have never
been involved with the creating of a landmark before,
but if I had a choice of any the mural is the one I
would choose. The fact that this mural is recognized
internationally is very exciting and has fulfilled my
dream of doing something with international impact.
I’m not just a Mural Maker, I’m a history maker and
proud of the history on the wall I got the chance to
show.
Kelly Watts, age 19
Third summer on the project
If I can come back next year I would come back right
away. I have a lot of feeling that I can’t explain on
paper. All I can say is I wish everybody the best of luck
in the future and I wish Judy all the success that she
needs to continue.
Robert Martinez, age 18
Third summer on the project
It’s been great working at the Great Wall and having
76
a large family of forty. I bet you can’t top that I’ve
learned to get along with people of all colors and the
responsibility of doing for myself. I would do it again.
But it was not all fun and play. It takes time to get
things all together. But still in all, the best part is getting
to the end and looking back
at what you helped do.
Rena Robinson, age 17
First summer on the project
To me the mural means a piece of art, it means
workmanship among others, it means a part of
ourselves, also making new friends, doing a good job
and having lots of fun.
Alex Alvarez, age 14
First summer on the project
There’s one way to describe our worksite of people
and that is we’re on Big Family and I hope when the
public comes to admire our mural they’ll share the
magic and emotion that our crew shared with one
another.
Nancy Jane Avila, age 17
First summer on the project

In today’s society where there’s not many
constructive and positive activities or happenings, this
mural is a very positive thing. Where else can kids from
all kinds of cultural backgrounds come together and
work towards a goal. I have found this
experience to be very rewarding and got a lot out
of it. The work was very hard at times but the finishing
product was well worth the effort, you know, the end
justifying the means. There were times when I had my
bad days but mostly they were great. I’m very proud
that I worked on the mural this year and if there’s any
way possible I would more than happily come back
next year. It got to the point where I didn’t’ care if I
was getting
paid or not, but the pay was nice to get for it. It’s
kind of neat knowing that you’re becoming a part of
history and that it’s a community project that people
will appreciate.
Michelle Russell, age 21
First summer on the project
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This was my second year on the mural, but it was a
completely new experience. The group feeling was
tremendous, stronger sooner than two years ago. This
year had obstacles that weren’t present previously,
and this unity kept us going because we were so
proud of our unity that the idea of giving up after the
flood and splitting the crew, was inconceivable. After
my first year on the mural, I left with a sense of who I
was and what I could do that was unlike anything I’d
ever felt before. The feeling came from encountering
people of different backgrounds and outlooks, and
confronting history from new perspectives, and seeing
what I was personally capable of at a time
in my life when my self0confidence had been
extremely low. This year was different largely because
I had been changed by my earlier experience on the
mural. The feelings of identity and pride came in new
ways. Because of the unity we share, I feel now that
everything on the mural is my history, in a deeper way
than I think I felt before.
Todd Ableser, age 18
Second summer on the project

Being a crew leader and all, it gave me responsibility
and an incentive to perform the
desired duties to its full extent. It was hard to ask a
friend to do a difficult job but in time everything fell
into place. I want this mural to continue forever. I
hope we paint in the summer of 1984 and every year
after. I was a born surfer and I gave up the beach for
the project and I will always be dedicated
Marc Meisels, age 18
This year has definitely been a year to remember, with
the accident of the weather and the media. But in the
end we pulled through. Everyone now seems to know
the spirit of unity; sharing, caring and working it out.
Esther Martinez, age 19
Third summer on the project
The mural project is composed of a group of young
people working toward one mutual goal: the
completion of a work of art from which will come
and in-depth look to the drama and importance of
many great persons who have worked toward the
banishment of racial injustice, discrimination and
human struggle. These are goals that we, as Mural
Makers, see daily working on the mural. There is a
feeling of camaraderie and friendship among the
persons. Out of this bond shall be initiated another
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strong addition to the Great Wall.
Glenn Cho, age 16
First summer on the project
When I started working here I did it for the money,
then began to take great pride in the mural and in
the Chicano section in particular. At first I didn’t think
an assortment of races could work together because
in my neighborhood there is primarily one race. This
project made me realize that the prejudices I had
inside me were not only false but also ignorant. I
only wish all mankind could have gone through this
experience with me. I regret that when I leave here
my new attitude will change back to before. I hope
that when people see this mural they forget all their
prejudices and try to live with all people, no matter
what race, in peace.
Sergio Moreno, age 16
First summer on the project

THE ERNESTINE JIMENEZ STORY
It was with this project that Ernestine became part of the SPARC alumni. Ernestine’s story is a testament to the
value of our work and epitomizes so many similar stories over the years of how our work in community and
bringing art to the lives of young people has truly made a difference:
As a young girl of 14 years, on PCP and pregnant, Ernestine desperately needed an outlet from her troubling
environment. She met our Founder/Artistic Director Judy Baca who immediately knew that Ernestine
could benefit from the experience of working with other young people and at the same time be part of a
monumental cultural landmark. Ernestine spent five significant years on the project and at the end became
a crew leader. She has shared the story many times of how Judy Baca and the Great Wall project helped
change her life those many years ago.
In June of 2001, a film crew was in Los Angeles to do a story on Judy Baca, who was being honored as
Educator of the Year from the Kennedy Center/Hispanic Heritage Awards in Washington D.C. This story would
be televised nationally and we brought together people whose lives were touched by Judy and SPARC’s
work. Ernestine was one of the people we chose to have interviewed. The interview took place at the Great
Wall and Ernestine brought her son Rudy with her (with whom she was pregnant when she began working on
the Great Wall). Ernestine gave a very moving interview, which aired in September 2001. Segments of the
interview follow below, in her own words:
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The way I grew up was, you know you fight through life, you know, I got ten brothers and six sisters, and I’m the
baby, and There was a fight in my house all time. And that’s the way I believed you were suppose to have
grown up, to fight through life. Don’t like nobody but your own race, and even sometimes don’t even like your
own race.
There was a lot of tension, um; I think everyone wanted to fight every body; just the way they looked, or looked
at them, or the way they dressed. After time you just started getting to know that person as an individual
instead of knowing them as you were taught to, you know. And, everybody became very good friends. It took
a lot a lot of growing up. I’m not saying that first year did it, cuz it didn’t. It took a lot of growing up. But I made
a lot of friends through the four years and every year I understood something else, every year.
I wouldn’t have went back to high school because I wouldn’t have had a role model to push me to go there.
Education was Judy’s number one thing. As long as I stood in school, “you can come back and paint the
mural”. Even though I got in trouble in school and fought and everything that was my number one goal. I
wanted to come back. I had to come back.
What really kind of freaked me out though, was when I met the people that when we painted the mural of the
holocaust, and I met the people that had the tattoos on them, that kind of blew my mind. That actually made
me cry because I knew there was another world that was harder than mine. And, I just really felt for it.
This mural opened my eyes so much. Even when I’m down and out, I still walk by here. And I thank god I did
accomplish something in life. It makes me feel good. I think if it wasn’t for this mural, for me to have my name
on it and to have accomplished something, I don’t know where I’d be.
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GREAT WALL FUTURE
82
In 2000 and 2001 SPARC received
acknowledgement and support from the Ford
Foundation’s Animating Democracy: The Role of
Civic Dialogue in the Arts initiative and from the
Rockefeller Foundation Partnership’s Affirming
Community Transformation initiative to continue
work on the Great Wall, to hold civic dialogue
sessions, and to ultimately design the four decades
of the 20th century that remain absent from the
mural (the 1960, 1970, 1980 and 1990s). In 2006,
SPARC was awarded with a California Cultural
and Historical Endowment grant as well as a grant
from the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy
to acquire and develop a new solar-lit bridge with
interpretive stations, to construct five additional
interpretive stations along the wall, to design the
next four decades (60’s, 70’s, 80’s, & 90’s), and to
develop conservation education programs.

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Digital Model for the new Green Bridge over the L.A, River

INTERPRETIVE STATIONS
SPARC has collaborated with Kulapat Yantrasast and Yo-ichiro Hakomori of wHY Architecture to complete
the designs for a “Green Bridge” which will be solar lit and composed in part from the debris of the Los
Angeles River with interpretive panels along the expanse of the Bridge from which the public can view the
River and the ½ mile of mural along its banks.
The new Great Wall of Los Angeles Interpretive Green Bridge will replaces a former bridge crossing the
Tujunga Wash Flood control Channel. The bridge is in the same location between Miranda Street and
Hatteras Street on the west side of the Coldwater Canyon Blvd. The new bridge functions, not only as a
point to cross the Tujunga wash but also as a viewing station and interpretive center to understand the
significance of the Great Wall of Los Angeles mural and the Los Angeles River.
The structure of the bridge will be built substantially from trash salvaged from the river itself; concrete walls
cast with bottle glass, cans, styrofoam, dirt and debris; floor and pavement made from recycled tires; bridge
guardrail made from recycled parts of shopping carts scattered in the riverbed as a symbol of regeneration
and sustainable design. Photovoltaic panels on the canopy will generate electricity for lighting at night.
The total impact of the bridge is that it serves as an instructional site about the river and the history of the
diverse people of Los Angeles while it reconnects the two sides of the channel.
84

85
Sketch for 1960s portion, created by UCLA class

NEW DESIGNS FOR THE 1960s - THE 1990s
Professor Judy Baca and her UCLA class are currently constructing designs for the next four decades of
the “Great Wall of Los Angeles” in the UCLA Cesar Chavez Digital Mural Lab. Classes focus research and
designes on seminal literature, art, film, key issues, historical events and popular culture characterized each
of the decades: 1960, 1970, 1980, and 1990. Students develop time lines, identify imagery, gather oral histories
and family photos from community members, and design and design the new portions collaboratively.
The students explore muralism as a method of representation, community education, development and
empowerment.
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Map.....
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FURTHER INFORMATION
ON THE GREAT WALL
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LOCATIONS
Directions to THE GREAT WALL
The Great Wall of Los Angeles is located in the San Fernando Valley on Coldwater Canyon, between
Burbank Boulevard and Oxnard Boulevard in Valley Glen, CA. Exit the 101 Freeway going North on
Coldwater Canyon.
Directions to SPARC
SPARC is located at the Historic Venice Jail, adjacent to the Historic City Hall and the Venice Fire Station,
between Lincoln and Abbott Kinney.
SPARC RESOURCES
Other tools to learn about the Great Wall of Los Angeles include the Great Wall of Los Angeles DVD and
Custom Tours. For more information please contact SPARC.
MAKE HISTORY
The history you have seen depicted in the mural is little known and not often portrayed in popular
images. You can help make this history live for thousands of people by joining the hundreds of Great Wall
supporters. Be a part of the longest mural in the world. To help preserve the Great Wall of Los Angeles
consider making a tax- deductible donation to SPARC.
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CONTACT SPARC
Social and Public Art Resource Center
685 Venice Boulevard
Venice, California 90291
310.822.9560
www.sparcmurals.org
WALKING TOUR GUIDE CREDITS
Copy:
Production Coordination:
Carlos Rogel
Assistance:
Sarah Brothers
Design:
Robin Gilliam
Printing:
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The Entire Great Wall of L.A. frm Pre-Hitory to the 1950s

© 2007, SPARC, All Rights Reserved