With the Dodgers so close in the playoffs, Angelenos are anticipating for their beloved team to bring home another World Championship!
It was 1988 when the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the Oakland Athletics four games to one. It was by far an exciting time in Dodger history, but that was well over twenty years ago it’s time for for another well deserved victory!
I got to thinking what ever happened to the old Dodger Championship Mural that was located next door to The Original Texas BBQ KIng on N Cesar Chavez and Figueroa. I remember always looking and seeing the old faded mural when ever I passed by. Artist Peter Quezada painted the mural in 1988 shortly after the Dodger victory.
Quezada was a self taught artist who grew up in the area, his murals where seen all over Echo Park, Silver Lake, Highland Park, Lincoln Heights and surrounding areas. Quezada’s work was simple and usually had a messages for the youth preventing drugs or gangs. He also usually would paint his work on abandoned property or old retaining walls much like this one. more about Quezada
The original mural read:Los Angeles Dodgers World Champions on one side(above)
The other side read “Go Dodger Blue” but later the words where replaced with “Adios Fernando, Good Luck Homeboy” that was a shout out to Fernando Valenzuela former LA Dodger pitcher. Unfortunately I could not find hardly any pictures of the entire mural only part of the wall.
It was interesting while doing research to realize the old walls that Quezada painted on where the same walls blogger Daniel Hernandez pointed out. He posted two pictures of the same retaining walls in different decades displaying graffiti of that time. The pictures belonged to a flickr collection by Kid Duce labeled “The Golden Age of Graffiti”
The retaining walls have been abandoned and vandalized so long until 1988 when Quezada painted the mural.
Since then the mural slowly faded, it was again vandalized repeatedly until it was finally white washed and completely alone again.
Most of Quezada’s work has been either buffed away or tagged on, the mural was no exception, I am not sure how long it has been gone but the walls that it was painted on are completely gone as well.
The retaining walls where right across the street from the massive Luxury apartment complex called “Orsini apartments”, they started with phase I around 2003 on Figueroa, phase II was opened around summer 2007 directly across the street from BBQ King and the old walls. The developer recently purchased the land for phase III and will begin construction. BBQ King was bought out and razed earlier this year, they relocated to a new location on the corner of 53rd Vermont Ave.
Walls before BBQ was torn down Here
walls right before they got torn down
it was not until recently that the retaining walls where finally torn down, the hill was also bulldozed and leveled out ready for the “faceless Orsini Phase III luxury apartments”
A few weeks ago another artist by the name of LoveGalo painted a new Dodger mural on Sunset not to far from the original location. It was nice to see the love still there after so long.
more photos on LOVEGALO blog
Sources:
“Get High on Life” This mural is long gone and vandalized but I like what it says “Drinking and Drugs are not Magic Don’t Do Em”
Chicano Graffiti and Murals The Neighborhood Art of Peter Quezada By Sojin Kim Book Link Jorge Velazquez ( for all the questions I asked him) Galo 2008 Dodger Pictures Not to go all over the place with this post but I found this excerpt from Quezada’s book interesting since there has been debate about this recently. 1994
click to read
GOOD LUCK TODAY DODGERS!!
Lets Go Dodgers !!!! Lets Go!!!!
Great post Doña! There’s still a few Peter Q. murals around though they are mostly fading or damaged, I wonder why he stopped doing them?
And great find on that quote about the Eastside.
Very Nice. Too bad our Dodgers lost.
Kind of cool the artist did this mural 20 years to Peter Q’s mural?
We will see how long this lasts
So glad someone got a photo of the mural before it was gone! I just read about this mural in Elysian Park:
http://la.curbed.com/archives/2008/10/tagged_up_echo_park_mural_gets_whitewashed.php
It was quite faded but still very cool, a lingering reminder of the Chicano community that once inhabited Echo Park. Now it’s sadly been white washed.
About the Quezada quote, I didn’t really bring this up before because I figured folks wouldn’t believe me, but my mom who grew up in Echo Park said they used to call her part of town the “Westside” too.
Gonna check out that book from my local biblioteca.
The book is actually really interesting, look on
library website to see if it’s in your area. I found it at the Central Library
http://www.lapl.org/
It is sad that many of the Chicano murals of the past are being white washed or not restored and left vandalized.
Nice work Malandrina. Kick ass post. It sucks that the bbq king isn’t there anymore and the doyers lost.
Very very good research!! Ive been living in the area for 26yrs now and with those pics of that mural you brought back memories!! One of the reasons that empty “valdio” first became closed was because drug users, who were mainly “tecatos” or “piperos”, use to wonder up there to get high or overdose. It finally started being watched by police due to all the activity! As it was mentioned, it did get vandalized couple of times untill the city got tired of it and buffed the whole thing! Wack!! But on the other hand, we’ve made it far this time…GO DODGERS!!! On the “westsider” topic, it is true what Peter Q. once described what the “westside” really was. Our area here, which is echo park/ downtown L.A, was considered the “westside.” Now, once you pass Western going west they call it “WESTSIDE” or “WEST L.A”…WACK!!! Well muchacha, overall i gots to say, GREAT POST!!!
Does anyone know where this Eastside mural was originally located? (I’m sure it does not exist anymore, if it does I’ll be shocked). Thanks.
http://i287.photobucket.com/albums/ll128/psychoworks13/205.jpg
Well technically anything west of Main St is really the West Side or West LA. As there’s been ever increasing “Latino” or “Hispanic” community in the area and many of us moving more and more West of the “Eastisde”, many wish to move their “Westside” more and more west but only to, ironically, later wanta move back which of course has become the recent gentrification of the area.
Echo Park has always been middle and working-class, filled with Chinese, Mexicans, Jews, Armenians until the postwar flight to the suburbs which later resulted in EP and it’s adjacent neighborhoods becoming predominantly Latino; albeit an array of ethnic groups have always had a presence in the neighborhood.
Anyhow Рlong live Echo Parke and, just for clarity, am not referring to the native gang. And thank you Do̱a Junta for using my mural linked to a story of the originator of the Dodgers mural Peter Quezada. Do̱a Junta you rock!!
and thanks to all the kind comments on my work. let’s hope it lasts as my last mural lasted two years but got massively defaced.
Al, the mural you are talking about is still around and is located in the Ramona Gardens (Hazard Grande) Projects. Make a right (to go east) off of Soto (north of the 10 freeway) on Lancaster and the project murals begin once you pass the shitty liquor store on Murcheson. I believe this one is one of the first, but look good because there are a lot of murals on the side of project buildings. The city has tried hard to erase many of the murals, citing gang tags and gang-glorifyibng imnagery as their excuse to paint the walls beige and make a blank slate for BxH tags.
The is a great mural there by a project muralist who is now a famous artist, that is a portrait of a BH member worngfully shot by police, as well as the story’s details around his image written in cholo style handwriting, it is great and the Hollenbeck Division has wanted it painted over for quite some time, the mural rocks.
PS Al, if you do go down there to check it out be careful, the mural is near a hot trafficking spot and the neighborhood is VERY proactive about checking folks who are not locals. I got a hood pass there if you need it.