"Early California" is a mural that can be found inside my hometown post office. The mural cover the four walls inside the lobby you can clearly see that the sealing is about 10 feet tall. Now some may ask, "why did you choose this mural in particular?" Well in the beginning I wanted to go to the museum of tolerance and cover a art piece of the holocaust. Yet, something made me think other wise, as a child I would walk into the post office and look at the mural while my mother would stand in line and mail some letters for Christmas time. I always wanted to know who had been the person who painted this amazing mural. After I completed all my research I was not disappointed not only did I learn about who drew the mural ,but it would also correlate with one of my favorite times in history, World War 2.
Standing in the lobby I feel excited because I would finally know who was the person behind the mural. I tried to find information yet hit a dead end in a matter of seconds by only finding the name of the piece, a artist name "James Redmond", and a year 1936. I stood there in awe like a little kid looking through the window of a candy store. I then walked out the old post office walked down the street to the city hall, then walked into the clerks office were I was told I could get information of historical site in the city. To my surprise there was no information. They then directed to the local public library, there I obtained more elaborate information behind James Redmond. The only things that are known is the he lived in California, help paint only two murals and would die in action during World War 2 in the famous Battle of the Bulge. I also found out of his student assistant named Stanton MacDonald Wright, I able to find that he was a well know artist who lived in Santa Monica and pursued a career in painting even moving to Paris at one point in his life. The mural was part of a wider project that went on in the 1930's by the state of California. The state funded painters to make these painting to help spread awareness of the cities founders and history. The whole mural is like a time line of the development of California. From one of a indigenous population to a one of European conquest.
It really did surprise me how in my city there was so little interest in our cities history. It is so sad to find out that not even city hall new about the painting next door. This is what really fueled me to go after this challenge. Standing there first hand you really do see that Benjamin really had a point; of having a whole different experience looking at the mural in a picture than being there flesh and bone. I twirled around looking at the mural explaining how the indigenous people lived before and after the introduction of european. Although what Benjamin was incorrect was the fact that since this mural was never really duplicated in a photo its history and true meaning has been lost. The preservation of its meaning has been lost in time and it also has its artist, I am so glad to have chosen this piece, I will never look at the mural again in the same way.
Martin Vargas Vazquez is currently a freshman at California State University Northridge. He is majoring in History, and is planning to become a Military Historian in the future.