CHICANO CULTURAL RESILIENCE AND PRESERVATION IN EAST LOS ANGELES: MURALS IN THE BARRIO OF BOYLE HEIGHTS

The multicultural neighborhood of Boyle Heights is filled with different types of arts and culture. One of the ways the Chicano community within the neighborhood has chosen to express their presence and identity is through the murals that decorate the city. Estrada Courts, a public housing project in Boyle Heights, is filled with Chicano murals that have existed since the Chicano Movement in the 1970s. This thesis examines the way the Estrada Courts murals help express the Chicano community’s identity in Boyle Heights. By examining four murals within the complex, We Are Not a Minority by Mario Torero, Los Cuatros Grandes by Ernesto de la Loza, Fish of the Future by Norma Montoya, and La Fiesta by Roberto Chaves, I help establish how the murals in the complex contribute to Boyle Height’s Chicano identity and have bolstered community involvement within the neighborhood.