Roskruge repainted

Roskruge Bilingual Magnet K-8 School is bordered by two streets: 6th Street and 2nd Avenue. A mural used to stretch along 2nd Avenue just north of 6th, but the 6th Avenue side had only plain brown mountains and a blue sky. In 2022, the 2nd Avenue side got an updated mural and the 6th Avenue side a new mural. In a minute, we'll take a detailed look along both streets. First, an overview…

Second Avenue overview

Here's the west side of 2nd Avenue just north of 6th Street, taken on November 27, 2022. It shows an updated mural painted recently by Alley Cat Murals:

Just a bit north of that corner on January 11, 2010, there was an earlier version of the same mural shown in our post Scholars on Second Avenue:

Back in 2010, we often didn't show complete murals on the blog — only parts of them. I found a photo of the entire mural, from the same corner, on Google Maps Street View in April 2015:



(A link to open that view in a new window is: https://goo.gl/maps/DZbEeCF4ed8qPASR8.)

We'll see close-up photos of both the new mural and the original one in a minute.

Sixth Street overview

As I mentioned, the 6th Street side used to have only simple sky and mountains — a continuation of the left side of the previous Street View photo. When I was there on November 27, 2022, the 6th Street side had been repainted:

Sixth Street close-ups

The mural starts at the west end, along 6th Street, and continues until the north end along 2nd Avenue. Let's see close-ups, starting at the west end, on November 27, 2022:

The first section

The second section

Detail of second section

The third section

Detail of the third section

Detail of the third section

The fourth section

Detail of the fourth section

The fifth section

Detail of the fifth section

…Continuing along Second Avenue…

Let's start at the corner of 6th Street (to the left) and 2nd Avenue (at the right):

From the fifth section into the sixth

The sixth section

Detail of the sixth section

Sixth-seventh sections, May 2013

The seventh section

Detail of the seventh section

The eighth section

Detail of the eighth section

Around the eighth section, May 2013

The ninth section
(as always, you can click for a larger view)

Around the ninth section, May 2013

Right (north) end of the ninth section, May 2013

The other side of the wall

We've been looking at the wall from the streets outside the campus. Inside the east wall around campus (on the west side of that wall), there's another mural. We showed it in our November 3, 2011 post What the scholars see.

Here are a complete photo from then and the middle of the mural from November 27, 2022. As far as I can tell, the mural hadn't been repainted (yet?):

Murals Through Our Parents' Eyes

Years ago, the University of Arizona put a series of pages online called Through Our Parents' Eyes: History & Culture of Southern Arizona. Part of the site are six pages on Chicano Murals in Tucson. From there are links to six early muralists — Antonio Pazos, David Tineo, Luis Gustavo Mena with Paul Lira, Martin Moreno, and Roberto Castillo. Each page has mural photos by James S. Griffith.

It's worth a look. (And, by the way, we're always looking for historic murals and stories. This blog started in 2006, and we've only found a few older photos since. Please contact me; thanks.)

Murals being made, part 5 (La Pilita talk tonight!)

The well-known mural at the La Pilita Museum, 420 S. Main, has been missing since its south wall was rebuilt. (You can see the original mural in our May 28, 2009 post.)

It's back!

Here are a couple of close-ups this morning, an hour ago: a detail from the design taped to the wall, and muralist Martin Moreno getting the mural ready for another day of work:

He'll give a talk about the mural this evening, Saturday, May 28, at Raices Taller 222 Art Gallery, from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. Martin told me this morning that you're welcome to email him at cuervostudio@hotmail.com.

You can read more in Artist Moreno resurrects students' La Pilita mural (Kellie Mejdrich, Arizona Daily Star, Saturday, May 28, 2011).

Scholars on Second Avenue

This mural runs along 2nd Avenue, at the corner of 6th Street. It's the edge of the campus of Roskruge Bilingual Middle Magnet & Elementary School. Martín Moreno worked with students to paint it.(The school history is interesting...)

The other side of the mural is on the November 3, 2011 post.

Update (February 17, 2022): Today, KGUN 9 TV broadcast the story Muralists seek to renovate Roskruge mural, create new art. A group of muralists including Allison Miller want to restore the mural and add a new one on the other side of the wall.

Update (June 13, 2023): The mural along 6th Street and 2nd Avenue has been repainted. See today's post Roskruge repainted. The mural on the other side of the wall along 2nd Avenue hasn't changed (yet).

La Pilita Museum

Next to the El Tiradito shrine is the La Pilita Museum at 420 South Main.

Update: the major mural is gone — temporarily, at least. It was taken down in summer 2010 during construction work on the building. But here's another mural, in the building's back yard, snapped by Melo King in October 2010:

Update (May 28, 2010): The re-painted mural is almost finished. The new design is somewhat different.

Update (August 17, 2012): Today’s post shows more murals.