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School boundary discussion will begin Wednesday
Butler building
makes way for progress
Camping out to
snatch up a new home
| Mixing
culture and art |
Youth outreach program uses mural to bring local
kids face-to-face with their history |
By Schellene Clendenin, Newberg
Graphic Reporter
E-mail Schellene at sclendenin@eaglenewspapers.com
|
A mural set against the wall of the Newberg-Dundee Youth Outreach
center represents a mix of the cultural history of the artists who created it.
A pair of hands, one darker than the other and representing the Latino
culture, are cupped together at the bottom of the painting. To the left, the Aztec Pyramid
of the Sun, sits beneath the shadow of Mount Hood, which idealizes the Pacific Northwest
where many of the artists now live.
The stony likeness of Pakal, a Mayan king, looks over the brilliant yellows
and oranges of the Fifth Sun, another name for the Mayan calendar. In one corner sits a
Latino girl by her computer, symbolizing contemporary culture and education while on the
other corner Cezar Chavez looks down over all. Chavez, the California farm laborer turned
activist, protested the use of cancer-causing pesticides and later died from cancer
himself.
Oliver Vera, a prevention specialist at the center, said the mural included
elements of both Latino and Hispanic history.
“It showed (the artists) how to express ideas and sociology in a safe
way,” he said. “It was a fabulous experience, (the kids) organized themselves;
their behavior was excellent.”
Vera said that more than 20 kids were involved in the various aspects of the
project that took four months to create.
Karla Hernandez, a junior at Newberg High School and a visitor at the
outreach center for the last two years, said the mural was important to her for several
reasons.
“I think it’s a good way to show the other side of Latino
culture,” she said, adding that working on the mural gave her a better understanding
of the history of Latino and Hispanic Americans.
Through the research for the creation of the mural, Hernandez and her peers
watched a slide show that discussed many aspects of Latino-Hispanic history and learned
the meaning of the Aztec calendar.
The project, Hernandez said, “couldn’t have been (completed) if all of us
hadn’t worked together and been committed to finish it.”
Organization included getting donations of wood for the frame, as well as
primer and paints.
The purpose of the project, Vera said, was to give youths at the outreach
center something they could identify with, something they could call their own, so they
could say, “That’s our mural,” he said. “They accomplished something
as a group.” |
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From Oct. 4,
2003, Newberg Graphic
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