Olga - Inter. RL #2 3/14

Transcript (Download)

I think I'm about to sneeze.

Scene six, take one.

Go ahead and sneeze.

We'll get an iCamera.

So you liked the murals that depict a protest in the water.

My favorite murals were the ones that depicted some kind of protest or expressed outrage.

They expressed my feelings at the time about what was going on in the community.

It made public the fact that there were a lot of things that were socially outrageous.

That's what they were.

For example, it still is one of my favorite ones.

I was the one that displaced the banner of the Cesar Chavez Union workers.

I was very much aware of the conditions under which migrant agricultural workers lived.

One of my father's brothers was a migrant worker.

They had never been able to get anywhere.

I know that my family and families that lived around us supported the lettuce strikes and boycotts.

Again, we had attempted to express to the city what was going on.

The other thing that happened was we weren't getting public city services, like having our streets cleaned or our garbage picked up on a regular basis.

The sidewalks were full of potholes and it was dangerous for kids to be on the sidewalks.

Those things, again, there was a sense of outrage.

The usual channels for communicating this were there, so murals provided a channel.

If this was happening, someone was going to see it.

Again, the size of the murals was very important.

It had to be something big or someone big expressing this, which the artists were very good at capturing.

If you could talk about the size, start with that, the size and why we had needed to be big.

To a lot of us, the problems were gigantic in proportion.

The size of the figures had to be gigantic in proportion to fight the problems in the community.

Also, the size was important.

Again, large figures could not be ignored in that sense, too.

The coloring of the human figures also, which denoted a sense of determination with the dark browns and oranges and reds, and a sense of strength.

That sense of we are determined to do something.

Again, I'm visualizing at this point the figure in the mural called Si Se Puede, a very strong hand holding the banner.

Again, the title of it, that yes, it can be done.

It was an inspiring thing at the time.

It was revolutionary, too, because everybody felt that no, you couldn't do anything.

Things were going to stay the same.

Again, the artists captured very well what was needed.

If you could talk about how the murals helped to bring families together.

The murals played an important role in opening up communication, not only in the community between families, but within families as well.

For example, I know that in my own family and also those of friends, as we were getting over the shack of moving to such a different place, there was a lot of silence.

I think the silence had to do with not finding words to express how the changes had affected us.

As we started seeing these murals being painted and depicting figures that we were familiar with, we started talking about the past.

We started talking about home, the old home.

It was a neutral thing that we all could have our input, be it as basic as we like the colors of this or we don't like the colors, or as complicated about what does it all mean.

I can see fragments of old symbols and new ones.

It slowly, almost in a way that it could not be perceived, allowed us an avenue for communicating events, experiences, but also emotion, emotion about the past as well as the transition into the present.

Scene 8, take 1.

Get ready to...

How the murals spark a process in you.

From my own perspective, the variety of issues dealt with in the murals, not only in the Pilsen community but also in other parts of town, it also opened more of a social consciousness.

I think that since I come from an extended family where you are socializing to being aware of other people's needs and the connectedness between people, the murals were sort of windows into other communities aside from the Pilsen community, aside from my own family.

So there was the curiosity.

It was sparked again.

I read extensively in the newspapers and magazines about what was going on elsewhere.

What was going on in California with the movement there, what was going on in other places in the United States, Mexico, Central America.

Things like that.

That combined with my going to a public university where people from all kinds of cultural backgrounds and nations came to learn, that sort of fostered and nurtured that sense of awareness about other people, other cultures, differences, but now no longer in a negative sense, rather as a very positive thing.

Scene nine, take one.

Some of the murals were on a certain level, the unconscious or even the dreams of the community.

Dreams are very essential in the process of becoming the person one dreams of becoming.

Well, we'll practice on this one.

Identifier

F.2021-10-0043

Date Of Production

March 14 1989

Abstract

Sync sound footage of psychiatrist Olga Nuño discussing how murals can inspire communities.

This footage was shot for an unfinished documentary about the visual language of murals in Chicago's Hispanic communities.

Format

16mm

Color

Color

Sound

Silent

Reel/Tape Number

1/1

Has Been Digitized?

Yes

Notes

The digital representation attached to this record consists of a 16mm negative picture element (F.2021-10-0043) synced with portions of a separate ¼" magnetic audio reel (Dobinsky 091).

Language Of Materials

English

Element

Negatives

Genre

Documentary

Form

Unedited
Interviews

Subject

Art
Street art
Hispanic Americans

Related Collections

Susan Dobinsky Collection

Main Credits

Dobinsky, Susan (is co-producer)

Dobinsky, Susan (is filmmaker)

Bayly, Ronn (is co-producer)

Regele, Susan (is co-producer)

Kurtz, Julia (is co-producer)

Participants And Performers

Nuño, Olga (is interviewee)

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