BOYLE HEIGHTS : Graffiti Project Turns Into a Screen Test

Almost invisibly, a group of students rose as early as 5 a.m. this summer to paint out graffiti before the spray-paint, in many cases, was dry. But their work has not gone unnoticed by residents and has even received the attention of a British production company that will return in November to film them for a documentary.

Case Television contacted the Madres del Este de Los Angeles, Santa Isabel chapter, after reading about its 10-week program in a small article in a New York magazine.

“They were surprised because all they ever hear about East Los Angeles is gangs and police making the criminals get down on their knees,” said Elsa Lopez, a member of the organization. “I told them: ‘That’s how they make them pray.’ I was kidding, but they didn’t understand it was a joke.”

The film will be shown in London schools as part of a geography curriculum to show urban life in a positive light, she said.

The 15 high school and three college students also created six murals and cleaned up dozens of trees and freeway walls, even under the East 6th Street Bridge, where they found graffiti dating back to 1974.

“They thought, ‘Should we be painting over this? It might be historic,’ ” Lopez said. “I said, ‘Nah, just paint.’ ”

The 300 clean walls sport the round, blue logo of the Madres, a woman in a shawl with her arms wrapped around a baby. Although some walls have since been defaced, no tagger has spray-painted over the logos, Lopez said.

“Everywhere now, (taggers) know what our group does. They know our group hires students,” she said. “They know that what we’ve done has been positive for the community. I guess they feel that they take a little bit of pride and they respect that.”

Officer David Torres of the Hollenbeck Division agreed: “They have made a big difference and a lot of people now recognize their emblem.”

Money to fund the program was raised through a Department of Water and Power project that traded old toilets for new, water-saving ones. With that money, the Madres have given out scholarships--$17,000 this year to 30 graduating high school seniors, informed neighbors of free immunizations for their children, educated about lead poisoning and hired the part-time painters at $6 an hour.

With donations of paint--50 gallons from Ellis Paint Co. in Boyle Heights and 700 gallons more from the Police Department--and because the group found that few of their newly painted walls were being defaced, the project was expanded this year, its second.

Last year, workers painted the walls of businesses and homes on Boyle and Euclid avenues between 6th and 7th streets. This year, the territory was extended from Boyle Avenue to Lorena Street, and 4th to 8th streets. The students also swept sidewalks and cleaned out alleys and yards.

“I would like to give them credit because it’s certainly nothing that I was able to do,” said Lionel Hernandez, owner of Farmacia Profesional at Whittier Boulevard and Euclid Avenue. Hernandez, whose father started the business in 1939, had hired painters over the years to wipe out the graffiti, but the symbols, names and profanity soon returned, he said. Customers would complain not only about the spray-paint, Hernandez said, but also about taggers’ abusive behavior.

Twice, the students painted out the graffiti and put the Madres logo up before the taggers stopped altogether. It has been two months since Hernandez’s pharmacy has been hit. “That’s really amazing,” he said.

Other neighborhoods have asked the Madres to help them with their own paint-out projects, and students from Watts and South-Central have taken paint home over the weekends to start murals in their own neighborhoods, Lopez said. Other students have volunteered to be part of the group.

“The kids sometimes come on the weekends to see if they can help us,” she said. “To be here at 5 o’clock, not one kid was late and not one missed--ever. They were dedicated, and once they were out there, they had fun.”