Local Muralists’ Project with “Mayans M.C.”

Source: FX

Murals are created for a variety of reasons, a major one being to show a community’s story. 

Three Local artists from the National Hispanic Foundation for the arts worked together with FX to create three murals in LA to commemorate communities, culture, and the premier of  FX show, “Mayans M.C.” season 3. 

The premier of “Mayans M.C.” made FX and the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts collaborated to celebrate the premier. 

The show “Mayans M.C.” shows cultural information about hispanics which majorly inspired the Arts foundation to create murals based on the show. 

The muralists were in favor of expanding the chicano culture and decided to express this by creating a mural based on the “Mayans M.C.” These murals have had great effect by bringing in many people and expressing to them the chicano culture. The 3 murals are each located in the LA area. One is in Silver lake 3501 Sunset Blvd(Levi Ponce), another in Echo Park 2100 Sunset Blvd(Sonia Romero), and the last one in Boyle Heights 1868 1st street(Lalo Alvarez).

Mural by Lalo Alcaraz

With protests building up based on cultural and racial problems, this idea of expressing the chicano culture can majorly help any ideas dealing with the situation of racial differences.

“I wanted the Mexican and Chicano culture that the show is inspired by or that it features, I wanted it to be featured in the mural,” stated Lalo Alcaraz. Alcaraz is representing the great connection between the Mexican and Chicano culture which inspired the creation of his mural.

Mural by Levi Ponce

 Muralist Levi Ponce commented “Latinos are underrepresented across entertainment and I’m proud to support a series that gives us a full slice of the pie.”

 Ponce can be seen to greatly appreciate the series as it represents the Latino community. Ponce also comments,“They’re doing work to make sure that we’re represented on the screen; and the fact that they worked, you know, to create space to provide canvases for murals, I think is huge – especially in Latino neighborhoods.” 

Ponce notices the work put in by the National Hispanic Foundation for the arts and acknowledges them even more for making space in Latino neighborhoods which can hint that Ponce also agrees that the Chicano and Mexican community are greatly left out of the picture. 

Mural by Sonia Romero

Muralist Sonia Romero was inspired by character Adelita in her mural. 

Romero explained,”I wanted to put in the bougainvillea motif in the background to symbolize, you know, this neighborhood. It’s springtime right now, everything’s blooming. But also our relationship with Mexico on the other side of the border, and I think it’s a strong symbol of Latinx culture.”

Romero’s mural can be seen to include both the hispanic culture and the character and the scene from the show. Romero can also notice how strongly this project benefits the Mexican and Chicano community and even makes a connection between the Chicano community and the community in Mexico which not many people consider. 

The show focuses on the struggles of Ezekial Reyes (EZ) who is a prospect in the charter of the “Mayans M.C.” EZ had his dream snuffled out by cartel violence. EZ and his brother Angel are relatively close to uncovering the truth behind her mothers death while their father, Felipe, struggles to restore his relationship with his sons regarding their decisions. 

This collaborative project can then be seen to majorly help introduce the Chicano and Mexican culture to pretty much everyone but specifically to people living in the LA area. This also works to promote the show “Mayans M.C.” The muralists also agree with the idea of creating projects to introduce and show different cultures to the world. Hopefully people find out about these projects and attend to some to really experience the many different cultures.