After months of planning and hard work, the restoration of a City College mural has restored the artwork to its former glory.
The mural, affectionately titled Nuestra Vida Chicana, or “Our Chicano Life,” rests on the south side of the A building on campus, just above the student health center, and was originally created by Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán students back in 1975.
Originally designed by former City College student Roberto Sanchez, as reported by a City Times article published at the time, the mural is draped in imagery pertaining to Chicano culture.
M.E.Ch.A. Chair Rosa Padilla describes the art and imagery of the mural as expressing “indigenismo,” which she described as the connection to indigenous roots of Chicano culture “as a means of self-preservation.”
Espana Garcia, the local artist City College contracted for the assignment, says the most challenging part was figuring out the faded colors without any reference photo of the original design.
“There is a picture of a preliminary painting that was made as study for the mural,” Garcia said. “But there is no original picture, so I was digging into the layers of paint to see what the original colors were on some of the areas, not the whole mural.”
Despite the restoration process only taking Garcia a little over three months to complete, the difficulties in actually beginning the restoration echoed the same drawn-out process the M.E.Ch.A. students of 1975 faced.
Garcia recounts how she had previously been approached to do the project three years ago, but had to put it out of mind due to other commitments.
After she reached out to complete the paperwork for the project in June of 2024, it wouldn’t be until the end of October that she began her work.
“I required a down payment and by the time I got the paperwork done, everything got approved, I didn’t get a down payment until September,” Garcia said. “But even after that, I didn’t actually get to (work). They couldn’t get the equipment for (it). It’s nobody’s fault. It’s just the way it is.”
Similarly, it took M.E.Ch.A. two years to get approval for the original mural in 1975, which the club paid for out of its own funding.
Today, despite having vocalized ideas for more artwork around City College, M.E.Ch.A. has been unable to make them materialize.
Rosa Padilla says that they have campaigned for over 10 years to have a permanent mural done in remembrance of Diana Gonzalez, a City College student who was killed on campus.
“Even aside from that specific idea that we continue to fight for,” Padilla said. “We believe it is just so important … for all of us to see ourselves reflected when we’re walking around campus. I think that brick walls, plain brick walls, are kind of a waste when we could have our histories, our cultures, and all of that be reflected in them.”
Despite the setbacks, Espana Garcia expressed how grateful she was for the opportunity in restoring a piece of City College’s history.
“I hope that I did it justice to the best of my ability,” Garcia said. “ I hope that it lives for another 50 years, and that the next person that restores it can see my brush strokes and see what I did.”
Edited by David J. Bohnet, Tresean Osgood.
