Graffiti News

Who is on the wall in Alum Rock

A mural honouring three figures with deep ties to East San Jose was unveiled on Thursday in the Alum Rock neighbourhood of San Jose, California, the nonprofit newsroom San Jose Spotlight reported.

The three are Jim Plunkett, the Heisman Trophy winner and two-time Super Bowl champion quarterback; Roberto Cruz, a longtime educator who helped establish the National Hispanic University in East San Jose; and Luis Valdez, a playwright and filmmaker.

The wall carries more than portraits. According to Councilmember Peter Ortiz, the artwork incorporates references to Alum Rock Park, including imagery connected to the area's former Hollywood Alum Rock sign and its equestrian culture.

Why a city councilmember paid for a mural

The project is part of a broader effort by District 5 Councilmember Peter Ortiz to invest in public art and economic revitalization in East San Jose. Ortiz said the mural is funded in part by money he secured through the city budget for murals throughout East San Jose.

That funding is tied to the East San Jose Economic Revitalization Framework, which aims to strengthen commercial corridors and attract investment to an area residents and business owners have said is overlooked. In the same programme, a $100,000 grant secured for the Alum Rock Santa Clara Street Business Association has supported beautification, trash removal and public art.

Ortiz said residents have told him they want more control over how their neighbourhood is represented, particularly as the city works to strengthen its commercial corridors. "We're sick of other people trying to shape who East San Jose is. (This is) one thing that (the community) wanted to do, given this is Alum Rock Village ... the gateway to Alum Rock Park," Ortiz told San Jose Spotlight.

The painter grew up in the neighbourhood he painted

Muralist Francisco Ramirez also has deep roots in East San Jose. Born in Mexico and raised in San Jose, Ramirez attended schools in the Alum Rock area, including James Lick High School.

"(The mural) shows that here in this community, the East Side, we can have our heroes," Ramirez told San Jose Spotlight.

Ramirez said community engagement happened at the wall itself. People who saw him working would stop and share their own connections to the figures he was painting. "There was two or three people that would come up and it was like, 'Oh my God, I grew up with him,'" he said.

What it is like for a family to see their own on a wall

For Guadalupe Cruz, the mural is impossible to miss. She passes it nearly every day on her way through the neighbourhood, minutes from the home where she has lived for decades.

Cruz said seeing her husband, who died in 2002, depicted on the wall was emotional. She was an educator in the Alum Rock area for 30 years, and the family lives close to the mural. "They captured my husband well," she told San Jose Spotlight, noting that it shows him with the black hair and beard he had when he was younger. That choice, she said, will help both older residents and younger people recognise him.

Their son, Roberto Cruz II, said Ortiz reached out to him and his mother about including his father. The family was involved throughout the process, and the location mattered because of their longstanding ties to Alum Rock. "My dad ... lived, worked, played and prayed in this community," he told San Jose Spotlight.

Plunkett, 78, said the mural connects him to the city where his story started. "San Jose, yeah, they're proud of me. I'm proud of the city," the former Oakland Raiders quarterback told San Jose Spotlight.

When public art becomes economic policy

The detail worth noting in East San Jose is that the mural sits inside a policy document, not just a beautification budget. When mural money is written into a plan for strengthening commercial corridors, the painting is simultaneously an artwork and a performance measure for a city department.

That arrangement raises the same question everywhere it appears: who decides who goes on the wall? Here, a councilmember contacted the family first, the painter came from the neighbourhood, and residents talked to him while he worked. Those procedural facts shape the result as much as the composition does.

What to look at where you are

If a portrait mural exists near you, the useful question is not only who is depicted but who had a say in the choice. Local-figure murals are worth documenting because they record what a neighbourhood decided about itself at a particular moment.

Photograph one and pin it on the map. Comparing who different cities put on their walls is easier in the feed.

Original reporting: San Jose Spotlight