Who are the Mission District Murals for? Latina/o Aesthetics in a Gentrifying Neighborhood of San Francisco

Shifting onto the urban landscape of San Francisco, Mauricio Ernesto Ramirez’s presentation combines urban studies with Latina/o art history to examine the sociopolitical impact of the 1984 PLACA murals on the Chicano and... [ view full abstract ]

Shifting onto the urban landscape of San Francisco, Mauricio Ernesto Ramirez’s presentation combines urban studies with Latina/o art history to examine the sociopolitical impact of the 1984 PLACA murals on the Chicano and Central American communities of the Mission District. While community murals of the Mission District symbolize the creation of a Latina/o aesthetic and identity practice, the neighborhood’s rapid gentrification and influx of white urban tech workers threaten the murals’ underlying community-based politics. As such, Mission District murals are transformed into commodities for white tourists urbanites to revel in the pleasure of aesthetic consumption. In spite of the radical transformation of the Mission neighborhood already set in motion, Ramirez argues that the murals are visual markers of resistance that claim public space for Latina/o identities.

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