TUJUNGA : Wall of Graffiti Now a Mural of Area’s History

It was not police or citizen watchdog groups that stopped the taggers who struck Wednesday night at Howard Finn Memorial Park in Tujunga.

It was respect.

The taggers halted their vandalism on a park wall only inches away from a new, 200-foot historical mural of the Sunland-Tujunga region that was painted by a crew of Southland teen-agers that included ex-taggers.

“Taggers, see, if they see a mural and they like it, they don’t write on it,” said a 16-year-old former tagger calling himself Gilbert, who helped paint the mural and asked that his real name not be used. “Taggers have a respect for the arts too.”

Dedicated Thursday by City Councilman Joel Wachs as the first mural in the Sunland-Tujunga area, the monthlong project was spearheaded by artist John (Zender) Estrada. The 27-year-old muralist is coordinator of Creative Solutions, a Los Angeles Conservation Corps project that teaches teen-agers to appreciate art as it pays them to paint murals.

The Tujunga mural adorns what had been a graffiti-ridden wall with colorful images of the Gabrielino Indians planting crops, Spanish dons on horseback, miners panning for gold, and even a couple embracing romantically in a red low-rider car overlooking the Valley.

The Gabrielino Indians once flourished in the Sunland area, living in huts constructed with poles and tule mats and harvesting acorns and other plants.

“This creates a sense of identity in the community,” said Wachs, whose field office is in the Sunland-Tujunga Municipal Building near the park. “And these are positive things that the young people are doing as opposed to the negative.”

“I think it is wonderful and the history is great,” said Georgetta Wilmet, a 30-year resident. “I’d like to have a mural on my wall.”

The teen-agers who worked on the mural may have felt the greatest impression.

“Mostly everybody just tags for the thrill of it,” Gilbert said. “But this is, you paint and send a message to the community and it’s nice.”