EAST LOS ANGELES : Labor of Love Graces County-USC Site

Passers-by along Marengo Street near County-USC Medical Center see what appears to be a granite wall embossed with images of Mayan and Aztec Indians, farmers, doctors, families and priests.

But it is actually a mural. And were it not there, people would see trucks and dirt as workers build a new parking structure affiliated with a huge 10-year project to replace General Hospital and other buildings.

The 250-foot-long mural went up Wednesday morning courtesy of students from the East Los Angeles Occupational Center. It will be moved around to block views of several construction sites as work progresses.

The students wanted to depict cultural, family and medical images found in the Latino community--past, present and future.

Altogether, students logged 1,600 hours after school, on weekends and even during winter and spring breaks to finish the mural.

“Some (students) had not even picked up a brush,” said student Vincent Espinosa, 29, who became a leader on the mural project. “I made it into a thing of pride for the school because it was going to have ‘East L.A. Occupational Center’ on it. It was about taking pride and leaving a lasting impression.”

After deciding on the theme, students researched historical images and decided to make the first panel of each of the three sections look as if it was carved in stone. After they agreed on which images to depict--and after the whole concept was approved by hospital officials--the students projected them onto the 8-by-4-foot plywood panels.

The boards were primed by students in the auto department, and for those students who had not picked up a paintbrush before the art students made it easy. They came up with a paint-by-color scheme to let students without an art background fill in the spaces.

The art students became teachers to the other students, and in that process, they also became professionals, said design teacher Irene Saavedra.

“Designing it, you can see your flaws, but it looks good up there,” Espinosa said. “It’s all worth it, all that work, looking up at it now.”