A Brief History of Chicano Murals from the SPARC Website: SPARC, A 25 year-old non-profit arts organization based in Venice, California, with art projects City-Wide

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On Wednesday, May 16, 2000, Lisette Garcia wrote:

Jeanne, these Chicano Murals that you just put on the website are great! I loved the mural called Resurrection of the Green Planet. At first I thought the lady in the picture was to symbolize the Virgin Mary, but then I read it was a curandera, both having a similar gift protecting and caring.If I had passed by this mural I wouldn't have sat there and thought "what is its message?". Many times we pass down the freeways, and we see murals on the walls, and we don't ever think of the message they are trying to convey, but here you have brought the murals to our attention and even given us the message they send out. Thanks!
Lisette Garcia

On Wednesday, May 17, jeanne responded:

Well put, Lisette. I'm glad you enjoyed the murals. You have just rephrased the arguments of the SPARC site: that art is for everyone, and that the arts bring an essential element to public discourse.

You are right that we have learned to let the social context roll over us without seeking the meaning of its visual messages. Certainly, as you saw here, these visual phenomena are messages. We are beginning to hear them as validity claims to which we must listen in good faith. Remember the part we added to Habermas' good faith - that those who have the prior expertise must help others to put forth their validity claim in a way that all can understand? Well, here is an example in which SPARC is trying to do that.