Chapter 7: La Lucha: The Beginnings of the Struggle, 1920-1930s

4. When were the first Mexican American murals painted?

Logan Heights during the 1920s and 1930s was in transition becoming a community of Mexican immigrants and African Americans. One of the indications of that change was the beginning of mural art.

The first Mexican-inspired murals in San Diego were done in 1934 by Jose Moya del Pino, a Spanish artist who had been commissioned by Aztec Brewery in Logan Heights to illustrate the interior of the building with scenes from Mexico. Pino was a Spanish immigrant who lived in San Francisco and who had been commissioned to paint murals there. During the 30s he was an instructor at the California School of Fine Arts.

In San Diego the Aztec Brewery was owned by Edward Baker and Harbert Jaffee who had moved the brewery equipment from their original plant in Mexicali into the building that was formerly the Savage Tire Company. The images Pino painted inside the brewery in Logan Heights included:

• a large Aztec Calendar,
• scenes from the daily lives of the Mayans and Aztecs, and
• the flora and fauna of Mexico.

In addition to the murals the brewery had a good deal of woodwork with hand-painted pre-Columbian motifs and framed art pieces depicting aspects of Aztec culture.

This building with its art remained hidden in the barrio until 1989 when the city gave permission for it to be destroyed to make way for construction. Prior to its demolition some samples of the mural and artwork were stored in nearby Chuey's Restaurant where people could view them. Today no one knows where the murals are.

The Pino murals were the precursors of later murals that would adorn the concrete pillars of the Coronado bridge, the expressions of Chicano art that would be part of Chicano Park.