SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO : Soccer Mural to Be Unveiled on Sunday

A huge mural to commemorate the World Cup soccer tournament will be unveiled Sunday in a San Juan Capistrano studio.

For two months, a local artist best known for his Chicano art has worked seven days a week, along with an Italian protege, to complete the 50-foot-high mural-banner.

The 30-color painting is scheduled to be hung at the Los Angeles International Airport early next week. Four other murals will be hung along various freeways before a series of World Cup games is played this summer at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.

Titled “Solo Unido Un Mundo Vancera (Only United Will One World Be Victorious),” the mural will hang at the airport for about 4 1/2 years, according to its creator, Laguna Hills resident Willie Herron. The mural expresses Herron’s greatest hope, “that one day we can be a victorious world if all the races unite.”

The mural is an image of athletes helping one another to reach for a globe and a World Cup trophy.

The public reception will be held from 2 to 6 p.m. Sunday at the studio, 31050 Camino Capistrano. Also, anyone can drop by Friday or Saturday for a glance of the mural, Herron said.