Graduation Year
2026
Document Type
Open Access Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Art History
Reader 1
Rosalia Romero
Reader 2
Michelle Oing
Terms of Use & License Information
Rights Information
© 2026 Brenda Rodriguez
Abstract
Mural making as a collective art form is a tool for healing, resistance, and cultural pride in Black and Brown communities. With my focus being on Mexican American communities on the South Side of Chicago, specifically Pilsen. I make ties to indigenous motifs and the history of Mexican Muralism to show how it has evolved and how murals in the 1960s and 70s were used for healing from violence and the revolution. Murals that include images that reference the Mesoamerican past and preconquest life are a powerful way of reclaiming one’s identity and asserting one's indigeneity in the present and future. This is seen in a number of works, some of which I explore in my thesis, Metafisica: La Paz by Mario Castillo (1968), Árbol de Vida by Felipe Adame and Guillermo Aranda (1974), La Ultima Puerta (2014-2019) by Andy Riva, and reference other important murals. I highlight oral histories in hopes of getting the impact of public art across and how it is imbedded in the community.
Recommended Citation
Rodriguez, Brenda, "ART HEALS CHICAGO: Murals on the South Side of Xicágo" (2026). Pomona Senior Theses. 380.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/pomona_theses/380
Included in
Contemporary Art Commons, Interactive Arts Commons, Interdisciplinary Arts and Media Commons, Latin American History Commons, Oral History Commons
