Three large canvases depicting Chicano themes and culture now grace the walls of Envision High School on Tucson’s north side.
The colorful and portable mural is the product of a collaboration between Chicanos Por La Causa’s Nahui Ollin Wellness Program and Envision High students. The triptych includes depictions of a rainbow over a desert scene, a modern day “cruiser” walking along a red carpet and an otherworldly coyote howling below an alien spacecraft.
That alien was proudly conceived and drawn by Angela Funderburgh, a 15-year-old sophomore. She said the mural reminds her of Tucson.
“It represents the journey everyone is walking on,” Angela said. She particularly loves the rainbow themes, which offer a “positive view and some hope, especially when things can be kinda hard.”
That is the spirit that the collaboration tried to foster.
Stacy Zinman, the principal of Envision High School — a charter school with about 80 students in four grades at 351 W. Prince Road — said her school “focuses on students as a whole.” The curriculum addresses not only academics, but also the social and emotional health of the student body, Zinman said.
The mural reflects that holistic approach, Zinman said, modeling teamwork and expressing the typically underrepresented culture and lived experience of the students.
Mel Dominguez, artist and co-founder of Tucson’s Galería Mitotera, helped the students put the brushes to the canvas. Dominguez said the mural is really about “playing with perspective.”
“It’s about how you tell the story of a community,” Dominguez said.
“I want people to be able to walk into this artwork. I want a student to look at it and say, ‘There I am’ or ‘I can do that.’”
Mapping resources
The mural project began with a map, or rather a lack of a map.
Lizbeth Oquita, a youth prevention and wellness facilitator for Chicanos Por La Causa, said there has long been a lack of understanding of where young people, especially LGBTQ youth, could access basic community services and resources. And so they began the Cozamayotl Project, which centers around the health and safety of greater Tucson’s youth, especially LGBTQ students. Cozamayotl means rainbow in the Nahuatl language.
Lizbeth and her team from Chicanos Por La Causa led workshops to help students find and document available services in their communities.
The results were not surprising. In Tucson’s low-income barrios, “There were less farmer’s markets and more liquor stores,” Oquita said. She added that the “lack of youth-oriented resources” was particularly striking.
Students put what they discovered on a map in order to help them find out where they come from, where they are, and where they want to go, Oquita said.
Resources include emergency housing services, food and employment, as well as substance use, community spaces and overall wellness.
Culture heals
The LGBTQ-focused resource and art project was inspired by Chicanos Por La Causa’s Nahui Ollin Wellness Program, which is based on the premise that “la cultura cura,” or culture heals.
Bernice Contreras, another youth prevention and wellness facilitator, said they led conversations about identity and ran a zine workshop and then a poem workshop with the students. “The power is in our community,” Contreras said.
“Ultimately, the community knows best,” Oquita added.
“I think of the youth, truly listening to the youth, giving them space and validation, telling them that their experience matters,” Oquita said.
“We need to listen to our elders and our youth, they are the most important voices,” Contreras added.
Roberto Del Real, Chicanos Por La Causa’s director of community services, said the work of the Nahui Ollin program is about celebrating “the beauty of our culture” and helps students identify with themselves and their community.
“Art is so important in our Latino culture,” Del Real said. “Art is giving these kids a voice.”
Kyra Laplante, a 17-year-old junior, is one of those voices. They helped paint the planet being howled at by the coyote.
“For me the mural shows there are no bounds to our creativity, to where we can go.” Kyra said. “Right now I’m looking to become a firefighter, and an artist on the side.”
They said the experience was “pretty fun and a great outlet.”
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