While many Chicano murals in Denver were painted as gifts to the neighborhoods in which they were created, some were commissioned by public entities. In late 1970s, an initiative called the City Walls Project resulted in the creation of over thirty-five murals by artists Jerry Jaramillo (b.1952), Al Sanchez (b.1951), Carlos Sandoval (b.1954), and Stevon Lucero (1949-2022) as well as the help of numerous residents. These works were created on city walls in addition to public buildings.
La Familia Cósmica, translated as “The Cosmic Family,” was painted on the interior walls of the pool room at the La Familia Recreation Center in 1980. This mural was created as part of the City Walls Project, and was primarily designed by Jerry Jaramillo with Sanchez, Sandoval, and Lucero assisting in its execution. Painted during the off-hours of the recreation center, we might consider the slow transformation of the space and how the community responded to its design and narrative.
When the artist’s studio is the public recreation center, we can imagine the audience, the community, as the primary bearers of critique. A mother and her child arriving for an afternoon swim could stop, observe, comment, and critique what they saw. For the artists involved, having their neighbors take part in the mural’s creation by virtue of their participation as well as presenve, allowed for the making of something truly loved and appreciated by all it represented.
One of the best ways to understand the layers of meaning embedded in this commission is to slowly work through the many symbols packed into the composition. This video was created to emphasize the importance of Chicano motifs and their application to the walls of a public recreation center in this mural.
La Familia Cosmica represents one of approximately thirty-five manifestations of the City Walls Project. By allowing the general public to participate and observe the creation of works representative of their identity and the longer history of Colorado, recreation centers and the exteriors of various buildings became the site of the artist studio. Rather than reflecting the needs of an individual artist with a limited vision, this project came to represent the broader histories of the community.
“It hit me that mural painting was a way of saying ‘we are’” – Stevon Lucero, Rocky Mountain PBS Season Ticket, 1980
Sadly, La Familia Cosmica and some of the other murals that were part of the publicly funded City Walls Project initiative have since been white-washed and covered over. In recent years, the drive to protect these pieces of history has increased, leading to Chicano murals such as this to be entered onto the list of 11 Most Endangered Places. While older murals like La Familia Cosmica are becoming rarer by the day as local Chicano organizations peruse protections for them, the production of new murals has also become an integral part of resistance.
By exploring the concept of murals as artist studios, the significance of preservation is extended to the site of creation as a gathering place where important events took place. Murals such as the one at La Alma park (case study #2), for instance, were sites of gathering for the community and the backdrop for protest and advocacy.