Community unites to erase hate messages from mural
Police investigating recent graffiti incident as a hate crime
Graffiti depicting hate symbols and racial slurs sprayed painted on a new mural at the Del Sol Market, 280 S. 4th Ave., has ended up bringing people of all races and walks of life together.
In what police are calling a hate crime, sometime between 10 p.m. Friday and 7 a.m. Saturday, an unknown person or persons painted the derogatory remarks on a recently completed mural by Mexican artist Adry del Rocio. The colorful mural of a mermaid holding a jaguar cub, called “Flor del Desierto/Desert Flower,” is part of NexGen Arts Committee’s Mural-a-Month program.
The graffiti depicted symbols representative of white supremacy groups, including the Nazi swastika. The estimated cost of the damage is $1,500.
The Yuma Police Department encourages anyone with any information about this case to please call the Special Operations Group at (928) 373-4675 or 78-CRIME at (928) 782-7463 to remain anonymous. If the information leads to an arrest, the caller may receive up to a $1,000 cash reward
“It’s very unfortunate that happened, especially with something so beautiful, something that is supposed to bring beauty to the community,” said Joe Magaña, store manager.
He said he’d sent a message to the artist and that initially she had been very sad but her “spirits were up” once she learned of the community’s reaction.
“We’ve had really good response from the community,” Magaña said.
The store reported the graffiti to police and word got out to Lindsay Benacka, arts and culture program manager at the Yuma Art Center. Benacka and others showed up to remove the graffiti.
“Before we knew it we had people, even a police officer and people from parks and rec, even a homeless person scraping off the paint,” Magaña said.
“I love that the community cleaned it up the best we could. It looks a lot better.”
He pointed out the irony of a hate message bringing people together. “There was an Hispanic person, a black person, a white person, all three working together,” Magaña said.
On Saturday artist del Rocio posted photos of the graffiti on Facebook and a message in Spanish, which in part said, “If I paint, it’s to unite, create bonds. I will not deny that a small act of aggression towards me reaches my heart, but for one or some, I will not stop. I have been shown more affection and received more blessings with this mural than ever before. I know there are many more of us who want to live in a better world, and I have always believed small changes in our daily lives can make a big difference, no matter our country, community, family.”
“When I received the news this morning that our newest and grandest mural had been defaced with hate crime imagery and wording, my heart sank. I was in shock,” said Matt Molenar, NexGen president. “But the next thing I was told was that the community was already on scene scrubbing the paint and removing the messages. As the word spread, an outpouring of offers to help restore the mural arrived from friends, strangers and professional artists. Public art is meant to inspire and uplift our community and, in a strange way, this awful event has accomplished that even more.”
City Administrator Greg Wilkinson expressed appreciation to Benacka “for going out on the weekend on her own time and restoring the mural along with our anti-graffiti crew. It shows the love our employees have for our city and the efforts they will go to.”
He noted that this is an example of how the “smart city” cameras could help deter these kinds of crimes. The city has entered into an agreement with anyCOMM Holdings for installation of Wi-Fi nodes with video recording and other “smart city” capabilities on all streetlights throughout Yuma, at no cost to the city. Officials have repeatedly pointed out that the nodes will help police investigate crimes and public safety incidents.
However, the devices, which are pre-assembled in China, are currently being held up due to tariff issues. “We are hoping we can get the tariff issues worked out on the anyCOMM cameras to be able to get them up to help deter this kind of defacing of people’s property,” Wilkinson said.
In the meantime, he added, “YPD is investigating. Please call them if you have any information.”