Judy Baca facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Judy Baca
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Baca in 1988
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| Born |
Judith Francisca Baca
September 20, 1946 |
| Nationality | Mexican-American |
| Education | Cal State Northridge |
| Known for |
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Notable work
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Great Wall of Los Angeles |
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Judith Francisca Baca (born September 20, 1946) is an American artist, activist, and professor. She teaches about Chicano studies, world arts, and cultures at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). She helped start and is the artistic director of the Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC) in Venice, California. Judy Baca is famous for leading the creation of the Great Wall of Los Angeles. This was one of the biggest community mural projects in the world.
Contents
About Judy Baca
Her Early Life
Judy Baca was born in Watts, Los Angeles on September 20, 1946. Her parents were Mexican American. She grew up in Watts, an area with many Black and Latino families. She lived in a home with her mother, her aunts, and her grandmother. Her grandmother was a traditional healer, which taught Judy a lot about her indigenous Chicano culture.
When Judy was six, her mother married, and they moved to Pacoima, Los Angeles. Pacoima was different from Watts, with fewer Mexican-American families.
Her Education and Art Journey
In elementary school, Judy was not allowed to speak Spanish, even though she didn't know much English. Her teacher often told her to go paint in a corner. Over time, she learned English and started doing better in her classes. With encouragement from her art teacher, she began drawing and painting. She graduated from Bishop Alemany High School in 1964.
She then went to California State University, Northridge (CSUN). She earned her bachelor's degree in 1969 and a master's degree in fine art in 1979. Judy was the first in her family to go to college. She wanted to create art that everyone could see and enjoy, not just art hidden in galleries or museums. She later studied mural painting in Mexico.
Amazing Art Projects
Las Vistas Nuevas
In 1970, Judy Baca decided to create a mural in Boyle Heights to bring the community together. She worked with twenty young people from different groups. They called themselves Las Vistas Nuevas, which means "New Views." Their mural showed scenes familiar to Mexican-Americans in the neighborhood. Judy wanted to use public spaces to share the stories of people who were often not seen or heard.
Raspados Mojados
In her art piece Raspados Mojados, Judy Baca used a street vendor cart. This art installation talked about immigration issues and how Mexicans in the United States were sometimes misunderstood. Street vendors in Los Angeles sell ice cream and Mexican snacks. The cart showed a painting of a Mexican man labeled "illegal alien, undocumented worker."
Another part of the cart showed a man being pulled across a fence, which stood for the Mexican-U.S. border. This part also mentioned the Bracero Program. This program started in 1942 during World War II. It allowed Mexican workers to come to the U.S. legally to help with farm work. They were supposed to get good housing and fair pay, but sometimes the rules were not followed.
The artwork also showed Mexicans working on farms and images of Los Angeles skyscrapers. It highlighted their heritage and the challenges they faced to support their families.
Mi Abuelita
Their first mural project was on three walls of an outdoor stage in Hollenbeck Park. It was called Mi Abuelita, meaning "My Grandmother." The mural showed a Mexican-American grandmother with her arms open for a hug. This artwork honored the important role of grandmothers in Mexican families. It also helped rival groups work together through art.
Local police were worried about different groups working together. Judy also started the mural without official permission. Despite these challenges, she kept working. She had lookouts to warn them if rival groups or police were coming. Eventually, a city official saw their progress and gave them permission to finish. The city was impressed by how Judy brought young people together.
After it was finished, the community loved Mi Abuelita. People even brought candles and flowers to the mural for years. Las Vistas Nuevas completed three murals that summer.
Because of her success, Judy was offered a job in 1970. She became the director of a new citywide mural program. She chose mural locations, designed the art, and supervised teams of teenagers who had been in trouble. Members of the original Las Vistas Nuevas group helped her. This program went on to paint over 500 murals.
In this new job, Judy faced problems with censorship. Communities wanted to show all parts of their lives, but the city didn't want controversial topics. When the city objected to a mural showing people struggling with police, they threatened to stop funding. Instead of giving in, Judy started the Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC) in 1976. This helped continue funding for public murals.
Judy Baca's way of including the community in her art was special. Bringing young people together to create art changed Los Angeles. It gave young people of color a sense of purpose and strengthened their communities.
The World Wall and Other Projects
In 1987, Judy began painting The World Wall: A Vision of the Future Without Fear. This painting showed a world without violence. She believed that imagining peace was the first step to achieving it. She wanted artists from all over the world to help. The painting was made in panels so it could travel. It was first shown in Finland in 1990. The idea was that each country where the panels traveled would add their own panel. Countries like Russia, Israel/Palestine, Mexico, and Canada contributed.
In 1988, the Mayor of Los Angeles, Tom Bradley, asked her to create the Neighborhood Pride Program. This citywide project painted murals and employed over 1,800 young people who were at risk. It led to over 105 murals across the city.
In 1996, she created La Memoria de Nuestra Tierra ("Our Land Has Memory") for the Denver International Airport. This mural was very personal for Judy. Her grandparents had moved from Mexico to Colorado during the Mexican Revolution. The mural told the forgotten stories of people who traveled freely across the land before borders existed. It also spoke about how we are all temporary residents of Earth. She researched by interviewing people and found old photos to inspire the mural. It was finished in 2000.
Judy Baca also created the Cesar Chavez Monument Arch of Dignity, Equality, and Justice in 2008. It is at San Jose State University and features mosaics of important leaders like Cesar Chavez, Mahatma Gandhi, Robert F. Kennedy, and Dolores Huerta.
Feminism and Art
As a Chicana woman, Judy Baca wanted to empower women of color and unite communities in Los Angeles. She did this by showing the beauty and strength of Chicana culture through public art. Her artistic process involved young people who often felt powerless. This helped them feel a sense of community and grow. After her divorce, she joined "Consciousness Raising" meetings. There, she met professional women like doctors and lawyers for the first time. This inspired her and introduced her to feminist art.
Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC)
Great Wall of Los Angeles
The Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC) was started in 1976 by Judy Baca, artist Christina Schlesinger, and filmmaker Donna Deitch. They believed art should focus on everyday people. SPARC's first big project was the Great Wall of Los Angeles. Judy first wanted a mural for East LA, but the city council said no. A friend told her to dream bigger. So, Judy planned a city-wide mural project. She wanted it to involve Black people in South Central Los Angeles, Chicanos in East Los, Filipinos in Echo Park, and Japanese people in Little Tokyo. And that's what happened.
The United States Army Corps of Engineers hired Judy Baca to improve an area around a flood control channel called the Tujunga Wash. It was a large concrete ditch. Her idea was to paint a history of Los Angeles, but not the usual one from history books. She wanted to show events that were often forgotten. She said it was a great place to bring young people from different backgrounds to work on a different view of U.S. history, one that included people of color. Judy also said the mural was like "a tattoo on the scar where the river once ran."
Judy was inspired by Los tres Grandes ("The Three Greats"), famous Mexican muralists like Diego Rivera. In 1977, she went to a workshop in Mexico to learn mural techniques.
When she started the Great Wall project in 1976, Judy decided to involve people from the community whose voices were often ignored. With funding, she worked with nine other artists, five historians, and 80 young people. Many of these young people had been referred by the criminal justice system. For Judy, the project was more than just painting. It was about investing in the community. Judy led the project by interviewing people about their lives, family histories, and stories. She also talked to history experts. From this, she designed the mural. Some events shown in the mural, like the Dust Bowl Journey, Japanese American internment during World War II, Zoot Suit Riots, and the Freedom Bus Rides, were shown publicly for the first time.
Judy wanted the mural to be painted by people as diverse as those in the paintings. She said she learned as much from the young people as she taught them. By focusing on the process and involving the community, Judy Baca was doing "artivism" – using art for social change. Working with young people was important because she saw that many involved in gangs used graffiti to express themselves. Judy felt that mural painting could redirect their energy and build community.
Judy also worked to include more young women in her mural projects. She noticed that most young people involved in murals were boys. She actively recruited young women to participate.
People of all ages and backgrounds helped. Some were scholars and artists, but most were community members. Judy said making a mural is like a big movie production, needing many people and supplies. 400 people helped paint the mural. It took seven summers to complete and was finished in 1984. By then, the mural was half a mile long (2,754 feet). It had given over 400 people jobs and leadership chances. The original plan was to show California history up to 1910. But Judy kept the project going, adding about 350 feet each year. The mural is still not complete. The plan is to make it about a mile long to show modern times and a vision of the future.
Teaching Career
Judy Baca started teaching at her old high school, Bishop Alemany High School. She taught a program called Allied Arts, which combined different art forms. She created her first mural project with those students. She was later fired for protesting the Vietnam War.
Judy taught at UC Irvine from 1981 to 1995. She also taught at California State University, Monterey Bay from 1994 to 1996. In 1995, she started the Muralist Training Workshop to teach others her techniques.
In 1996, Judy moved to University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). She helped start UCLA's Cesar Chavez Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in 1993. She also taught in the World Arts and Cultures department. In 2018, Judy Baca retired from teaching at UCLA.
Workshops
- Stockholm Conference: Community Mural Art and Social Change. This explored how mural art can help unheard voices.
- Toronto Mural Workshop, April 10, 2015
- Emancipation Workshop: April 10, 2015
Recent and Current Projects
In March 2010, Judy Baca worked on the Richmond Mural Project in East Bay, Northern California. This five-panel mural aimed to connect citizens and share their diverse backgrounds. She also helped save her mural, Danza Indigenas, in Baldwin Park, after it faced protests.
Baca has been a big part of the Mural Rescue Program. This program works to restore and preserve murals in public spaces. One of her recent projects is "New Codex-Oaxaca-Immigration and Cultural Memory." This project shares artwork and stories of people immigrating from Mexico (especially Oaxaca) to the U.S. It explores why they are leaving and what they are experiencing. Judy helps choose the art, works with the community, and starts conversations about these immigrants' artwork.
Her work was featured in the 2010 film !Women Art Revolution. In 2024, her art was part of Xican-a.o.x. Body. This exhibition showed the contributions of Chicano artists. It was displayed at the Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture in California and later at the Pérez Art Museum Miami in Florida.
Notable Works
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- Mi Abuelita, 1970, Hollenbeck Park, Los Angeles, California
- Great Wall of Los Angeles, 1976–present, Van Nuys, California
- History of Unitarianism, 1981, First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California
- Danza Indigenas, 1994, Metrolink, maintained by Amtrak, Baldwin Park, California
- La Memoria de Nuestra Tierra, 1996,University of Southern California.
- Memoria de Nuestra Tierra, 2001, Denver Colorado, Denver international airport
- Digital tile murals, 2000, City of Los Angeles, Venice Beach, California
- Migration of the Golden People, 2002, Central American Research and Education Center of Los Angeles
- Arch of Dignity, Equality, and Justice, 2008, San Jose State University, San Jose, California
- Danza de la Tierra, 2009, Dallas Latino Cultural Center, Dallas, Texas
- Ataco, El Salvador Murals, 2009 Invited by the US embassy, Ataco, El Salvador
- Tiny Ripples of Hope'' and ''Seeing Through Others Eyes, 2010, Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Ambassador Hotel, Los Angeles, California
- La Gente del Maiz, 2011, Miguel Contreras Learning Complex, Los Angeles, CA
- The Extroardinary Ordinary People, 2013, Richmond Civic Center, Richmond, CA
- Find Your True Voice, 2013 Sandra Cisneros Learning Academy, Los Angeles, CA
See also
In Spanish: Judy Baca para niños
- Baca Family of New Mexico
- Murals of Los Angeles
