Interrupted but unbowed by COVID-19, a Durham mural depicts a wider, brighter world
The thing about murals is they have a way of moving, guiding eyes from one image to the next, from tight corners to wide views, from beginning to end and back again.
Like the rest of the world, the new mural on the side of El Futuro, a mental health organization in Durham, has been on a journey over the past year.
Last fall, a couple dozen community artists stood shoulder to shoulder, making the first brushstrokes on a new mural in the city’s Lakewood neighborhood. They filled in lines with blues and yellows and celebrated with red and green tamales.
El Futuro, located in the Lakewood shopping center, serves mainly Latino clients in the Triangle. The organization partnered with Durham’s Scrap Exchange and the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation to update an existing and fading mural on the side of its wall. That mural, painted in 1998, depicted Durham’s Busy Street, a playground for kids built as a miniature town.
The new mural, entitled “Libertad,” depicts a Mayan sun on one end and the Statue of Liberty on the other, stretching more than 100 feet to make it the largest mural in Durham.
“There’s a lot of movement in the mural; it stays with you and you get caught up in the movement,” said Luke Smith, the executive director of El Futuro. “A mural stands the test of time differently. It’s bigger than the one piece.”
The mural was unveiled after months of living with COVID-related restrictions, with communities across the country limiting interactions in the hope of saving lives. The dedication Sunday afternoon also fell one day after Democratic candidate Joe Biden was named president-elect, having defeated President Donald Trump.
The mural’s design and completion was led by local artists Cornelio Campos and Estephani Sanchez. Campos has been living and painting in Durham since the 1990s and remembers taking his son to the Lakewood shopping center and seeing the original mural.
“COVID has added more importance to this mural,” Campos said. “It’s been quite an experience for the whole community.”
The mural was scheduled to be unveiled in late March, but was called off as the coronavirus pandemic set in and brought normal life to a halt.
“We planned a big fiesta, but had to put everything on ice,” Smith said.
Instead it was unveiled Sunday afternoon in Durham, in a virtual ceremony that included Mexican Consulate General Claudia Velasco-Osorio, Durham Mayor Steve Schewel, Durham County Board of Commissioners chair Wendy Jacobs and Durham Council member Javiera Caballero.
The coronavirus has affected Latinos in Durham County at a disproportionate rate, according to county health data. The county said in October that Latino residents made up 14% of Durham, but accounted for 29% of the county’s COVID-19 cases throughout the pandemic. The increase is due to a higher likelihood of multi-generational homes, service industry jobs and a reliance on public transportation among Latinos, the county said.
Smith said the coronavirus pandemic has devastated the Latino community that comes to El Futuro. The area around the clinic has lost neighbors to the virus, he said, as well as jobs and security.
“There was two months where I didn’t see people,” Smith said. “Everyone was scared to death to go outside ... It hit our community, the Hispanic community, really hard.”
Smith said El Futuro has seen its services triple since July.
“The emotional impact this has had on people has been enormous,” Smith said.
Over the summer, a creek of continuously trickling water was added in the park space beside the mural. As students resumed classes in the fall, mostly by virtual learning, Smith said the small park became a place for recess for some families. Smith said to never doubt the power of recess.
“That mural draws people to stop and stay for a while,” Smith said. “It’s a place for parents to go out and be together with their kids. That’s recess.”
Smith said the way the mural unfolded, the way flattened shapes took on textures and shading, vibrancy and depth, represented to him the mental health work of El Futuro.
“People come to us and may seem one way but over time they become layered and textured,” Smith said. “If you look at one place on the mural and study it, you’ll see more and more in it. That’s what this community mural is about: Stop and appreciate every single person.”
The images of the Statue of Liberty, the Mayan sun, an earth lifted up by larger hands and a colorful world in-between are connected to that context, Campos said.
“These are historical days,” Campos said. “It’s made (the mural’s unveiling) more interesting. When we started to talk about the mural, the images haven’t changed, but it’s changed the meaning. You see it in a different way.”
This story was originally published November 9, 2020 at 12:40 PM.
