Costa Mesa mural honoring “Poderosas” defaced by vandal with white extremist messages
Costa Mesa police are investigating an incident of vandalism as a hate crime, after a man reportedly painted over a mural celebrating important Latinas in Orange County’s history with white supremacist tags and symbols.
The incident took place Monday afternoon outside a home on the corner of Baker Street and Killybrooke Lane, according to Alicia Rojas, the artist who originally painted a 74-foot cinder block wall with artistic renderings of 11 poderosas — or strong women — in 2020.
Although the portraits of the poderosas were relocated to Santa Ana last year, a mural remained at the Costa Mesa site that bore scenes of nature interspersed with poems, in Spanish, about each of the women whose faces once graced the wall.
Homeowners reported seeing a man Monday with a can of white spray paint scrawling messages over the artwork.
Its subjects include freedom fighter Dolores Huerta and Frances Muñoz, who became California’s first Latina trial court judge in 1978 and recently passed on Oct. 17 at the age of 92.
The suspect, an unidentified white man, painted “White Power” several times along the length of the wall along with “PEN1” and “737” — two references to Public Enemy Number 1, a California-based white supremacist gang identified by the Anti-Defamation League.
“It’s pretty disgusting, and it was done in broad daylight,” said Rojas, who came to the mural Tuesday morning to start painting over the slurs. “Honestly, I couldn’t sleep [last night]. I can’t stand the words ‘white power’ on this — those words don’t belong here.”
Costa Mesa Police Department spokeswoman Roxi Fyad confirmed investigating officers are seeking to identify the individual, whose image was captured by neighbors on camera and video.
“This is an active hate crime investigation, and no arrests have been made yet,” Fyad said in a statement Tuesday. “We appreciate the witnesses that have already come forward to assist in the investigation.”
The mural was initially conceived by Camilo Romero, co-founder of ReGeneración Colombia, a peace-building initiative designed to heal intergenerational trauma through storytelling.
He developed the project to bring the neighborhood together to honor famous Latinas in history and in his own family, including his mother, who lives at the site.
Initially tipped off by a neighbor about police activity at his family’s house, Romero said he was disappointed to hear about the message behind the vandalism but heartened by people’s response.
“I feel hopeful because the community rallied around the mural, reached out and called me,” he said Tuesday. “The hard part is knowing there are still people who don’t feel that way, who still feel isolated or alienated from this type of art or love.”
Undaunted by Monday’s incident, Rojas is attempting to raise funds to paint new scenes over the vandalism, which she sees as a double transgression against immigrants and women.
“It’s an offense to all of us women and women who are Latina,” said the Colombian American artist. “This mural has a theme of Mother Nature, so I’m covering up the words with more nature.”
For Romero, who is already conceptualizing a second installment of portraits on the mural — this time of cancer survivors under a caregiving theme — the hope is what happened may be an inflection point for Costa Mesa and even for the vandal himself.
“The real message is we’re caring for each other, and with that same open heart we can also help this man,” he said. “The mural is meant to be about reconciliation and coming together in spite of our differences — that includes him.”
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