Art by Vidal Herrera

This illustration was conceived on August 29th, 2010 after I attended the fortieth anniversary of the East Los Angeles Chicano Moratoria at the East L.A. Civic Center-Belvedere Park Amphitheater. I wanted to honor the memory of Ruben F. Salazar, Sal B. Castro “El Maestro”, Cesar E. Chavez, and Celestino “Sal” Moncayo, Mi “carnal” and what they meant to all Chicano’s and our coming of age.

My intent was to highlight some of the icons we Chicano’s hold dear to our hearts. I wanted to exemplify our popular “cultura”, the flavor and colorfulness of our everyday lives, and what makes us distinctly Chicano’s. Set in backgrounds are vestiges of our daily lives, for example where we shopped, worked, ate, and where many of us were born. The radio stations we listened to, and the ever-present hovering “from above” our beloved Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. I wanted to include images of the high schools we went to and the colleges we aspired to attend, as well as, figures close to our hearts and at the center of our folklore, such as our Virgin de Guadalupe and her foil, the omnipresent weeping, “La Llorna”.

Finally, like the blood that runs through a Chicano’s vein, nothing is more important than our streets and byways. Like the Sixth Street Bridge that traverses the Los Angeles River that separated us, and continues to separate us to this day, from the Westside, and our very own style of cars, our lowriders, which we dreamed of one day owning. And an important part of our lives, this is where all Chicano’s came together for “Peace & Love on Whittier Boulevard.” “Esos eran nuestros tiempos”, those were our times.