Credit: Nuestro Stories
The city of Los Angeles remains iconic and distinctly unique thanks to the multitude of colorful and meaningful murals scattered across this city's vast landscape. And, as Los Angelenos will attest, when it comes to the myriad murals, few have made a larger impact than muralist, professor, and community organizer Judy Baca.
Read more: Selena Quintanilla’s Portrait by Niege Borges Is a Unique Tribute to the Queen of Tejano
Judy Baca is a Latina legend walking among us
Throughout her over 50-year career, Baca infused the perspectives of the marginalized and overlooked communities of Los Angeles, who were responsible for making this city into what it was, and is.
Starting with her first mural in 1970, the artist and activist purposefully incorporated the voices that perhaps many attempted to ignore. Located in Boyle Heights, her mural Las Vistas Nuevas (New Views), brought together 20 community members from four separate gangs to provide input into the images.
Throughout the decades, Baca’s art/work continued to permeate the blank-canvas walls of Los Angeles, culminating in a project that is known worldwide and lovingly called The Great Wall of Los Angeles.
Working through the non-profit Baca founded, SPARC (Social and Public Art Resource Center), The Great Wall of Los Angeles pulled together artists, historians, and dozens of youth from the juvenile corrections system to paint the history of Los Angeles – from the Indigenous to the colonizers.
And Washington, D. C. noticed. Just this year, Baca's work earned her the National Medal of Arts, presented by President Joe Biden on March 21, 2023.
To the delight of many of her fans, Baca continues to bring awareness and beauty to the LA landscape, and the art world, with her fiery activism, her commitment to preserving the Chicano culture, and as a professor teaching her craft in the UC system.
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