Presentation: Barbara Carrasco

After listening to all the great presentations, it was very had for me to choose what artist I liked the most. It was kind of hard to hear most of the interpretations or meaning behind these great paintings, so I decided to go with the painting that stood out the most to me and look more into what it was about. It was really hard for me to see all the detail in the image from the presentation, so I decided to look up Barbara Carrasco’s 43-panel mural called, L.A. History: A Mexican Perspective (1981), on my own to really see what is being depicted. As a whole, this entire mural is a lot to take in at one time and initially, I didn’t know where to start. Starting from the left-hand side going to the right, this mural depicts the chronological history of Los Angeles, from prehistoric times to the founding of the city in 1781 to the year she created the piece in 1981. I thought the idea to tie in a chronological history of Los Angeles by interwinding the images within the women’s hair was a great way to show that everything that has happened in LA is connected and is what makes her and her city. This painting was intended to be hung on the exterior of McDonald’s on Broadway in downtown L.A.. however, the city asked Carrasco to remove 14 images because the imagery was labeled as too unpleasant. These images consisted of the Japanese American interments during World War II, the 1943 Zoot Suits riots, in which Navy personnel attacked Mexican American youth, and other incidents experienced by communities of color. Carrasco refused to paint over her work, and the mural project was canceled. However, after 27 years of being stored in a warehouse, L.A. History: A Mexican Perspective (1981) is now able to be viewed by the public at the Union Station in downtown Los Angeles.