ART IS UP, DOWN, ALL AROUND IN ‘GALLERY’

What: When officials expanded Interstate 5 through San Diego and built the Coronado Bridge in the 1960s, they split the blue-collar neighborhood of Barrio Logan. In 1970, when the California Highway Patrol started building an office where a park was expected, the largely Mexican American neighborhood rose up, occupied the site and protested — and a park eventually was built. Soon after came murals, converting the park’s bridge pillars into a gallery. Some celebrate Mexican icons such as Pancho Villa and Frida Kahlo, others the park’s history. On a Saturday morning, the park is busy with kids on bikes, skateboarders, ballroom dancers, tai chi practitioners and the hum of bridge traffic. In 2017, the park was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Robert Gauthier Los Angeles Times MURALS depicting Mexican icons and local history decorate pillars and other parts of the Coronado Bridge at San Diego’s Chicano Park.