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Okay.

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Okay.

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December 11th, Olga describing Lawndale mural.

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Did you hear the snap on the mic?

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Not very good.

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Let's do it again.

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You better do it once again.

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Really good.

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December 11th, Olga describing Lawndale mural.

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Okay.

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Okay, just a minute.

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Let me get us totally ... Now you're going to talk to Susan to finish this.

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Okay, wait a minute now.

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Tell me about this mural.

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Thank you.

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What I want to tell you is just some of the associations, the thoughts that come to me

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when I look at it.

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The first thing that strikes me just looking at it, for example, is my vision gets drawn

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to the center figure, which is that of a man, but he looks more like an Indian.

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Just the features being angular and strong.

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That's the other thing that hits me is that it's a very strong ... You get a sense of

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strength in that face, a sense of dignity.

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I'm not sure if that's the right word, but just the strength and that it's not a ... It's

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an open face.

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There are profiles on the side which make me think that this is a person that was just,

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has been looking at different directions, but right now, in an open manner, is drawing

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the viewer to the center.

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In this particular mural, the things that come to mind are just the different symbols.

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In general, I would say the theme of what it's trying to say or communicate to those

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that see it is one, a sense of openness, two, a sense of unity, and third, a sense of purpose.

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The goal being that somehow, through education, which then again, as this mural opens up and

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the lines of the painting give it that sense of openness, it forces you to look at the

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someone who's graduating, the sign that says clearly says university, so it's suggesting

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again, through this process of education, you will then reach a center which is profile

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as a pyramid.

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At the top of the stairs, you reach success or somehow.

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That's, I think, what it's trying to convey.

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I find interesting that along with some old symbols of success, of glory, which is the

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pyramid for Mexicans like myself, you have some other structures that suggest the possibility

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of success in this period of time, in this place, in this new home, which would be Chicago.

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So you see the structures in the background of familiar buildings in Chicago, like the

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Marina City, I think that's the Hancock, and other buildings in downtown area.

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And of course, I find that amusing that they include the Longdale Bank, of course.

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But all structures that again, are symbol of home, but not only of a successful kind

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of place, of a good, strong kind of place as opposed to anything else.

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The other thing that's interesting is, and which suggests to me the sense of openness

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together as a community, we will succeed, is the figure of the Statue of Liberty, which

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to everybody, every immigrant knows that what it means is that you're welcome.

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This is the figure that welcomes you into this place, which you try to make your home.

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And another interesting feature, again, the superimposition of symbols forces you to think

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about a past, and also at the present time, or the present time simultaneously.

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What I found curious is how by painting it with the sort of yellow rays emanating from

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the figure of the Statue of Liberty, it connects it with the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe,

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which if you would look at one, again you will see that these rays of yellow coming out,

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which again give it a sense of that aura, the aura of goodness, of strength, of power,

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but also of, how could I put it, something that is good as opposed to something that may be threatening.

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And so that it makes the Statue of Liberty by sort of juxtaposing in your mind those images

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even more welcoming than you would otherwise see it.

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Do you see anything in here that reflects your own experience?

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I think what I see and I find moving is the progression.

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I almost feel that part of what's happening within this mural is something that has happened in my own life.

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I believe those themes. I grew up with the themes that if you work hard enough and you studied, you could succeed.

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And I think part of my own lifetime that by following that unspoken, unwritten sort of message

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and proceeding and making a choice through education indeed I have reached, quote,

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heights that I never thought would be possible, at least that my parents didn't think were possible in their lifetime.

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So it's, this is, I guess, the mural communicates that message to those who see it.

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Work hard enough, work together. Again, the theme of togetherness is there, which in other murals you won't find.

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And I think the earlier ones you would find a theme of we're not accepted, we're oppressed, maybe we could work together.

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This states clearly we can. You see other different people with different color skins and it's being together

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and looking towards the future, which by all indications is supposed to be successful.

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I just want to go around and get, if you could kind of point toward it the way you were again as if you were describing it to us.

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The, I guess the other thing I would like to say about it is that the way it also ties

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or brings about a sense of community and a sense of this being home is again through the juxtaposition of old and new images.

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With even the human figures, particularly the ones on the left, looking like modern Hispanics here in Chicago,

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but that central figure, more reminiscent of a peahus, again very reminiscent of an Indian figure.

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The pose, the pyramid in the middle, again it speaks to a glorious past and probably a glorious future.

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This is really a very optimistic mural I would say. It has less of that sense of conflict that some of the other ones have.

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This one for sure says we are working together and we will be successful together through education and openness.

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And those are kind of the themes that I believed and I followed and indeed have resulted in success in my own life.

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And those are the themes that I hope the younger generation believes and uses in setting their own goals.