Bus Posters Critical of the City’s Tourist Industry Draw Mixed Reviews

Posters critical of the city’s tourist industry drew some mixed reviews Thursday. The posters, a public arts project financed in part by taxes on the tourist industry, are displayed on the back of 100 San Diego Transit buses.

Reaction to the posters ranged from furious phoned complaints to the mayor’s office, to high praise from Chicano leader Herman Baca. One transit official called the artwork “dumb.”

The three artists who created the piece, David Avalos, Louis Hock and Elizabeth Sisco, awoke to accolades.

“My phone began ringing at 7 o’clock this morning with people saying this is great--San Diego needs something like this on a monthly basis,” Sisco said.

Hock echoed her feelings. “We’ve had a positive response from people calling,” said Hock, a motion picture and video artist. “We’ve had compliments from Tijuana, people in the Chicano community and students, staff and faculty at the university (UC San Diego).”

“There’s an emotional reaction of jubilance,” said Avalos, a sculptor. “Hey, there’s a lot of people out there getting a kick out of this piece . . . out of the idea that it’s possible in San Diego to talk about what makes this city tick.”

Funded in part by a National Endowment for the Arts grant and, ironically, from San Diego hotel and motel tax monies, Avalos, Hock and Sisco created a triptych designed to portray what they say is the untold role of undocumented immigrants in the tourist industry.

The three photographs show arrested illegal aliens in handcuffs and at work in a restaurant and a hotel. The artwork bears the legend: “Welcome to America’s Finest Tourist Plantation.” The artwork went up on buses this week and will remain up throughout the month.

Tourist officials, confronted with the ubiquitous posters, which will be on display when tens of thousands of visitors come to town for Super Bowl XXII Jan. 31, lamented the timing and taste of the artwork, but shrugged it off saying most who saw the piece had trouble understanding it.

Louis Metzger, chairman of the board of the San Diego Convention and Visitors Bureau, said he could not give the poster “a great deal of artistic merit.

“I puzzled at it and looked at it, and it had to be interpreted to me. I don’t think irreparable harm has been done.” Asked what he thought about the use of bed tax monies to support the artwork, Metzger said, “As a former president of the (San Diego) Museum of Art I think art should be supported. We certainly have free expression.”

Jim Durbin, chairman of the board of the San Diego County Hotel and Motel Assn., said a number of industry people had expressed concern over the art, but Durbin did not think it meant the end of the world for the local tourist industry.

“My general feeling is it’s out; it’s there. I think it’s in poor taste and equally poor timing.

“I think it’s a ludicrous point they’re trying to make. It’s not valid,” Durbin said of the allegation that the industry uses illegal alien workers. “We’ve always had a requirement for hiring documented people. Since the new INS regulations, Christ, you have to have five generations of grandmothers come in and swear the person’s been in the United States prior to a certain date.”

Reaction at City Hall was reserved.

“I have trouble using taxpayers’ dollars to put down this beautiful City of San Diego,” Councilwoman Gloria McColl said. “I’m not talking about the expression (of the artwork) and the right to protest, but the use of city funds.”

Mayor Maureen O’Connor thought the artwork “reflected poorly on the city,” Paul Downey, her spokesman said.

Downey said 30 to 35 residents called O’Connor’s office Thursday to complain about the public artwork.

“Some were completely outraged and others registered mild disapproval,” he said. “A few minorities, Hispanics and blacks were offended by it, especially by the handcuffs.”

Herman Baca, chairman of the Committee on Chicano Rights, lauded the artwork, saying, “I think it is very accurate as art and a political statement. To my mind it is a breath of fresh air. It destroys that myth touted by the chamber of commerce that the problems of the undocumented worker no longer exist.”

Avalos was most pleased to get a public reaction.

“I’m glad that people have participated and responded and that thoughts have been provoked,” Avalos said. “If San Diego can demonstrate it’s capable of tolerance and freedom of expression, that’s a sign of class, of world class.”

But because of the response to the artwork, the bus company may no longer display art, MTDB Chairman James Mills implied.