Nuestras Historias (Issue 1, Vol 1)

Our Presence Will Not
be Neglected:
Significance of the
Mural Reinstallation
By Jessica Cruz-Taylor & Fatima Valerio
It’s something Latinx students on campus
have been waiting for since they left campus
almost seven years ago, and it
finally happened. The murals have
returned home!
The morning of February
21st, 2020 was the official
dedication of the two murals at the
Illini Union. Students, faculty, and
alumni were invited to the second
floor of the Union where they
could snack on desserts, carefully
observe the newly installed
murals, and speak to Oscar Martinez, who
painted these murals, and the alumni for which
these murals mean so much. The celebration
continued that evening at the official event
publicizing the murals displayed at the Spurlock
Museum. Chancellor Jones along with Alicia
Rodriguez, an advisor in the LLS department,
other notable speakers, and Oscar Martinez
himself, all gave speeches thanking the
University and more importantly, thanking the
students and all those involved in this historical
event.
In 1974, the murals were painted by
Oscar Martinez, a UIUC student at the time
already taking 26 credit hours. For many years,
there had been protests from Latinx, Black, and
other marginalized students that resulted in the
establishment of the first La Casa on Chalmers
street, and later the establishment of the Latino/a
Studies program. This was all they had, along
with a very limited amount of funding.
However, the University gave these students a
building scheduled to be demolished, so what
were they to do in order to keep this building?
Oscar painted these murals as a result as well as
to claim their rights as marginalized students on
campus.
“I didn’t believe I was doing
something wrong, but something
meaningful.”​ ~Oscar Martinez
However, this was no easy job for
Martinez. On February 21, 2020,
we had the chance to talk to Oscar
himself and he explained the
obstacles he had to overcome as a
first-generation, low-income, and
Latino student. First, all financial
resources came out of his own pocket; he had to
use his own materials, so he had to use watered
down paint in order to make it last longer.
Additionally, while painting the murals, he was
technically defacing school property. Jokingly,
he told us that he frequently had to be looking
out at the window and kept the side door open in
case he had to run out if the police were to
arrive. At the time, and for many years after, he
even believed that the school did not know who
it was that painted the murals, only to find out
years later that the President of the University
had directly asked the director of La Casa to
stop him. He was never stopped by the
University or any other authorities. He fought
and continues to push through barriers that
confront the Latinx community on and
off-campus.
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