The expression “the writing’s on the wall” takes on new meaning through public murals, whose visuals tell more stories than meet the eye and, for this week’s Face to Face guest Mauricio Ernesto Ramírez, helped shape his journey.
Listen to Chancellor Gary S. May in conversation with Ramírez, about the role of arts in society and the ways public art informs communities about key social and political issues.
Ramírez is currently an American Council of Learned Societies Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Chicana/o Studies, where he was also the UC President’s and Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow. He is the author of the forthcoming book Painting Solidarity: US Central American Murals of San Francisco, which will examine Mission District murals produced in the ’80s in response to and solidarity with conflicts in Central America through direct interviews of contributing artists and community members.
Raised by Salvadoran parents, Ramírez grew up near the Mission District, the city’s predominantly Latinx neighborhood that is synonymous with public, community-created murals, particularly along Balmy Alley, off 24th Street. Ramírez recalls visiting the murals as a kid and gravitating to one mural – On the Way to the Market / Camino al mercado (1984) by Ray Patlán and Francisco Camplís – that illustrated many hidden meanings Ramírez would learn in time.
“A lot of these artists are not of Central American descent,” Ramírez said. “I found that the aspect of solidarity was really important to think about.”
Hear how initial collaborations with artist Rafael Arana and later, upon arrival at Davis, with artist and professor Maceo Montoya, contributed to Ramírez forthcoming book.
Stay tuned for May’s “Hot Seat” round to hear about Ramírez’s visual and musical inspirations, and how one of Chancellor May’s favorite artists made cameos on a popular TV show.
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José Vadi is a writer for Dateline UC Davis, and can be reached by email.