controversy arises over baldwin park monument [la reconquista]

SPARC ^ | May 12, 2005 | Judy Baca

[La Enchiladita]

ARTIST STATEMENT By Judith F. Baca May 12, 2005

An “anti-illegal immigrant” group, Save Our State, of Ventura County, emboldened by their recent victory at the removal of a billboard referring to “Los Angeles, Mexico” is now demanding the removal of the wording on a twelve-year old monument in Baldwin Park, California, entitled Danzas Indigenas. I was commissioned to produce this work in 1993 by MTA and the City of Baldwin Park in collaboration with the Kate Diamond Architectural Group.

The monument consists of a 20 ft arch, 100 ft plaza and 400 ft train platform. Produced with extensive public input, the monument includes five languages: English, Spanish, Gabrielino, Chumash, Luiseño and is a layering of indigenous, Spanish and mestizo history, which is associated with the site.

Included also are the contemporary voices and diversity that is indicative of contemporary Baldwin Park. Asked to produce a work that was “mission in theme” that reflected the majority population of Latinos in the City of Baldwin Park, and in keeping with my practice as an artist for inclusion of community members in my design process, I designed this work to include the “past” and “present” of the region and the voices of local residents. Of particular interest to me was the sites proximity to the mission of San Gabriel. The arch in the Plaza is conceived of as a fragment of a mission arch. Its intention was to become a site of public memory for the people of Baldwin Park; to make visible their invisible history.

[La Enchiladita]

This is the website of Social and Public Art Resource Center. Click on the photo of the monument. It will lead to "artistic director" Judy Baca's statement, as excerpted above. It will also lead to a forum where guests may post. Be my guest.

This woman Judy Baca has created her "art" for decades now with money from government and foundation grants. She claims her "artistic freedom" by way of the generosity of Americans. And yet when brave patriots yesterday protested the anti-white racist rhetoric of the monument, she called them, SOS, "anti-American.!!!!"

[La Enchiladita]

pingin y'all

SPARC phone number: (310)822-9560

SPARC Executive Director Debra Padilla's e-mail: debra@sparcmurals.org

SPARC Artistic Director's e-mail: judybaca@sparcmurals.org

[Txsleuth]

That sounds like the message that a lot of professors in the Southwest are giving their students---that this part of the US will again be part of Mexico---

Of course, looking around the Dls/Fort Worth area, it may not be long..........unfortunately!

[texastoo]

And our government dollars paid for this? It should be removed for just being UGLY.

[La Enchiladita]

feel free to ping your list for action...

[gubamyster]

ping

[William Terrell]

Thanks for the email links. I doubt they will read past the first sentence, but I sent it anyway.

---

Regarding the "monument" at Baldwin Park, California.

I would think it's because the evil white men never came to your impoverished, Third World hellholes, and did come to America, that America is the desired destination of all the enlightened peasants of said impoverished, Third World hellholes. Don't you agree?

(Oh gosh, am I being racist? Excuse me)

Those evil white men are the only reason there are parts of the globe in which exist freedom, prosperity, self-determination. Those evil white men are the only reason the life expectancy of human beings is 80 instead of 50, there is communication among all the individuals of the world, a person can get from one country to another in under a year, and chattel slavery is limited to African hellholes and Islam.

Deal with it.

If the "artistic" ability you celebrate is limited to stacking rocks and carving characters on them, perhaps the "artist" should find another line of work, or study under the real masters, i.e. European dead white men.

Why don't you dismantle your "artwork" and move it across the garbage strewn border into Mexico where it may have some relevance.

It has always been the hallmark of the criminal spirit to let others create a great work by their own effort, blood, sweat, time and money, then try to take it from them. If your needy latins desire the fruits of liberty and genius, let them grow some balls and contribute the blood and pain necessary to clean the juntas out of their own beds and develop some self discipline to rule themselves.

William Terrell

[Brad’s Gramma]

bttt

[blackie]

Protect our borders and coastlines from all foreign invaders!

Be Ever Vigilant!

Minutemen Patriots ~ Bump!

[Vigilanteman]

Our capacity as a democracy to disagree and to coexist is precisely the point of this work. No single statement can be seen without the whole, nor can it be removed without destroying the diversity of Baldwin Park’s voices. Silencing every voice with which we disagree, especially while taking quotes out of context, either through ignorance or malice, is profoundly un-American.

Hey, Judy, tell that to the ACLU in their quest to remove all vestiges of the 10 commandments from public places!

[janetgreen]

Yours was MUCH better than mine, but they will also receive the ones I sent.

[William Terrell]

Maybe you, I and others can crash their POP server.

[kstewskis]

I love it-BUMP

[JarheadFromFlorida]

You will NEVER hear about this in the liberal media.

[JarheadFromFlorida]

As I posted in another thread:

As much as I hate to see if, I beleive that it will eventually come to US citizens taking the law into thier own hands since US citizens are dying at the hands of illegal aliens all the time. Just look at the Denver cop that was recently killed by the illegal alien from Mexico. The belief is that hs is already back in Mexico. Americans will not stand idly by while it's citizens are murdered by illegal aliens while the US government turns a blind eye. I really do hope that the US government does something serious about illegal immigration (like enforce the laws) before it comes down to this.

[junta]

We need a picture of that monument.

[television is just wrong]

I want the money spent on this to be refunded to the budget. This woman is trying to incite a riot.