Street Art Activism: A Conversation With Mario Torero

Eye On Art  |  06/15/2013

I didn't realize that I've met Mario Torero before, until we got off the phone and I saw a picture of him. Last summer, when myself and a friend were checking out the new murals on Broadway Street past San Marcos as you head south away from central city, we spotted a man painting a wall near the Sofia Quintero Art & Cultural Center. We struck a conversation with him ? a charismatic, soft-spoken guy with flowing hair and a warm smile. Little did we know, we had just met a San Diego artist and activist that played a pivotal role in Southern California's street art scene ? and someone who is currently a perennial player in the push to expand murals in Toledo. Toledo.com caught up Torero to discuss being a founding member of San Diego's Chicano Park, creating murals in Toledo every summer and how art empowers community. 

On how he got involved with painting murals in Toledo.

I am one of the founders of Chicano Park (in San Diego), which we established in 1970. I'm still active in mural making in Chicano Park, although I go all over the place to do murals. One day, Gordon (Rickets of BGSU) contacted me and he said, 'I'm from Bowling Green, originally from San Diego can we meet.' So I said sure and I met him at Chicano Park. I gave him a tour and then he kept coming every year. He was also hands-on, doing painting at Chicano Park. That went on for years and then we talked about the possibility of doing an exchange ? him coming here, me going there. We tried that for a couple of years ? planning that ? and it finally happened.

On the backstory of San Diego's Chicano Park.

Barrio Logan is right south of downtown San Diego. And that is one of the oldest Mexican-American Communities in the Southwest. In 1965, they built a freeway that just devastated our downtown Barrio Logan. And people were really hurt by that. Then, on top of that, they made a sign of the cross by putting the bridge there, creating a cross element right over the freeway in 1969. In 1970, we heard they were going to put a police station under the bridge and that was just too much. The people were already hurt. The artists and the community took the park ? that area ? over. We just occupied it. The city probably planned to evacuate us, to remove us,but they didn't; we stayed there and we are still there.

On turning Chicano Park into one of the West Coast's great street art gems.

We were originally graffiti artists. The system would call us gangs, they would call us vandals. We were artists trying to create an identity. There was a war going on at that time between the police and us, the artists in the Barrio. That was in the late 60s. In the 1970, when we started Chicano Park, we took over the place;  it was very important. We tried to negotiate with the state, with the city, to try to work a deal where we could keep painting, keep creating art in Chicano Park. We got the run around, they never would commit to any kind of an agreement. On March 27, 1973, it was the very first time we organized ourselves there and started creating murals. From that point on, it's been constant progress. We have 105 [pieces of street art in Chicano Park], including sculptures. 

On painting his trademark, Eyes of Picasso, in Peru, Barcelona (pictured below right), San Diego and now Toledo. 

What happened when we made the news in San Diego; we were splashing color like there had never been before. San Diego has always been a really conservative and military town. To have color on the walls, much less from Mexicans, was outrageous. The media was trying to avoid paying attention to us, but we got world recognition. A French writer came to write about us and she brought with her a gift of a replica of a large photo of the Eyes of Picasso. It was given to me to do something with it ? and that was in 1973, after we had started painting. But, by 1977, there was an art center downtown, and it was the first time San Diego ever had a multi-cultural center downtown. Artists of all colors came there. It was a four-story building. On the fourth floor there was a large space [on the outside of the building], so I painted a 16-by-46 foot mural of the Eyes of Picasso, overseeing the city. Picasso was a revolutionary and he was very recognizable all over the world. That became our icon.

When I was working in Toledo with Sofia Quintero, we were doing murals and one day it was raining last year. So we painted indoors on boards and we decided to do the Eyes of Picasso. It signifies the plight of the artist to create an arts district, to create a place we can call our own. Picasso's Eyes is our icon, our shield for artists and community. 

On contemporary street art.

It's a phenomenon. The arts in the museum has evolved through many episodes, especially during the last century, the 20th century ? from cubism to surrealism to modern art. When it comes to the contemporary time, what period are we living in today? Today the biggest shows that are happening all over the world are street art. Street art is the main thing and cities are aware of that ? including Toledo. 

On how public art creates community. 

A graffiti artist just hits a wall and does there thing on it. It's not about that. It's about empowering the community: talking to them ? the students, the elderly, the different cultures ? and utilizing art as a healing element to raise the pride in community. 

For more information about Mario Torero, visit his website at http://www.fuerzamundo.org.

Keep your eyes peeled for more murals around town…

These three projects are either under way or will be soon

1) Where: Collingwood Arts Center - Main Entry Hall

     Who: ACT Partnership with Children's Theater Workshop and artist Michelle Duni 

 
2) Where: Superior Printing - 327 12th St. 

    Who: ACT Partnership with artist Richard Reed and Planned Pethood 

 
3)  Where: Black Kite Coffee & Pies - 2499 Collingwood St.

     Who: ACT Partnership with artist Jim Williams and OWE Association