[News] Mission Street mural endures -- and evolves

[News at freedomarchives.org]

Hi all. The Freedom archives is partnering on this with Susan to produce an 
audio Cd that includes some of the voices of the people in the mural (see 
below). Isaac, one of our great interns is leading this work!
claude



<http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/07/09//cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/07/09/WBG047GQ0O1.DTL>Mission 
Street mural endures -- and evolves
- <mailto:ksullivan at sfchronicle.com>Kathleen Sullivan, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, July 9, 2004

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When Susan Greene first painted Nelson Mandela's portrait on an outdoor 
mural in San Francisco in 1985, the anti-apartheid leader was languishing 
in a South African prison.

She painted the charismatic leader's close-cropped hair black.

By the time Greene began restoring the mural last year, Mandela was in his 
mid-80s. He had been released from prison, and had received the Nobel Peace 
Prize, published his autobiography, and served as the president of a 
democratic South Africa.

And his hair had turned gray.

So Greene, 46, decided to "age'' the charismatic leader's face.

"It seemed more appropriate to portray him as an elder,'' said Greene, who 
framed Mandela's smiling face with silvery hair.

"It's also important to have a representation of people in different phases 
of life -- not only the youngsters who are fighting for social justice, but 
also the people who have dedicated long, long years to it."

The mural, titled "La Lucha Continua/The Struggle Continues,'' depicts 
activists who have fought for social justice all over the world, as well as 
intellectuals whose ideas have contributed to movements for social change.

Mandela's portrait is one of nearly three dozen images in the mural, 
located in the heart of the Mission District on 23rd Street, between 
Mission and Capp streets.

His is also one of several faces that was defaced twice in February by 
unknown vandals who painted a Hitler-like mustache on Mandela's face and 
wrote racist epithets on his image.

Vandals also destroyed the portraits of Rachel Corrie, an American crushed 
by an Israeli army bulldozer in 2003 while standing as a "human shield'' in 
front of a Palestinian home; Mumia Abu-Jamal, who has been imprisoned -- 
some say wrongly -- since 1981 for murdering a police officer and has 
become known for his writings; and Bernadette Devlin McAliskey, a civil 
rights activist in Northern Ireland.

It appeared that the vandal -- or vandals -- had used a hammer to gouge out 
their faces.

Two of the images -- Corrie's and Abu-Jamal's -- had also been gouged in 
the summer of 2003.

Inspector Sally DeHaven, who works in the special investigations division 
of the San Francisco Police Department, said the incidents are still under 
investigation.

Although the incidents have been categorized as hate crimes, DeHaven said 
she didn't know what bias might be the primary motivation of the suspect.

"The common thread is not clear,'' she said. "But we're doing a lot of 
digging.''

Over the last year, in addition to restoring the mural, Greene added 22 
more portraits to the painting, which originally had 11 faces.

She said fellow artists John Fadeff, Meera Desai, Jeremy Olson and Sarah 
Scott painted six of the portraits.

In recent weeks, Greene, who also works as a psychologist in San Francisco, 
installed a mirror.

"The mirror indicates that we all need to be our own leaders in our lives 
and take responsibility for our world,'' said Greene, who received about 
$4, 500 from the city's Neighborhood Beautification Fund for the restoration.

The original mural didn't include the names of the people portrayed on the 
wall.

The restored version identifies each one by name -- the handiwork of 
Maurice O'Carrol, an Irish sign painter who volunteered to add names to the 
portraits after walking by the mural one day.

Greene recently received a grant from the Zellerbach Family Fund to produce 
a booklet about the people in the mural and a CD with recordings of their 
voices or people reading from their works.

Her partner in the project is Freedom Archives, a San Francisco nonprofit 
organization that has collected more than 5,000 hours of audiotapes dating 
from the late '60s to the mid-'90s that chronicle the progressive history 
of the Bay Area, the United States and international solidarity movements.

Among the other 33 faces on the mural are:

-- Frida Kahlo, a Mexican artist who was known for her surrealistic, 
autobiographical paintings.

-- Archbishop Oscar Romero, an advocate for the poor and for civil rights 
in El Salvador who was assassinated in 1980 while celebrating Mass.

-- Madame Nguyen Thi Binh, former vice president of Vietnam, who is revered 
for the roles she played fighting French occupation, the U.S. military and 
the country's reconstruction.

-- Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez, co-founders of the United Farm Workers.

The 35-foot-wide mural fills the walls around a pair of plate-glass windows 
and doors at El Latino, a Spanish-language weekly.

It's easy for publisher Carmen Ruiz to see people stopping on the sidewalk 
to contemplate the mural.

During the school year, children visit the mural on field trips. University 
students have also made the trek. Tourists stop by.

Last week, a television crew from Germany shot footage of the mural.

Ruiz attributed its emotional appeal to the array of peoples, countries and 
causes represented.

"You feel someone is there for you,'' she said.

It is also popular because it taps into the universal -- and unending - - 
hunger for human rights.

"It's not static,'' Ruiz said. "If you are living in the world, you want to 
make a better world.''

E-mail Kathleen Sullivan at 
<mailto:ksullivan at sfchronicle.com>ksullivan at sfchronicle.com

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