Revitalizing Pacoima’s Streets

Photos by Habeba Mostafa

The Muralists Who Took Part

*Juan Pablo Reyes waving a brush in front of his work-in-progress mural at Hillery T. Broadous Elementary. (Habeba Mostafa | Scene Magazine)*

Pacoima’s streets have become the center of attention within the San Fernando Valley for their beautiful murals symbolizing the neighborhood’s culture and diversity.

With the help of muralists: Juan Pablo Reyes, Kristy Sandoval and Levi Ponce, the neighborhood has been able to illustrate their love for culture and diversity, all while revitalizing Pacoima’s history and the streets themselves.

Juan Pablo Reyes, 27, is one of Pacoima’s youngest and newest muralists to paint Pacoima’s walls. With over eight years of experience, Reyes has created an outstanding reputation for himself with celebrity and pop culture commissions such as Chris Brown, Machete and Dwight Howard.

Reyes’s love for art first began through his mother. He shared a beautiful story of how his mother felt as though she had passed down her passion of being an artist to him.

“She passed that down to me and she's living through me through my art and, you know, she's living her dreams of an artist through me. So, I take that very special and I try to go ahead and do good with my art,” Reyes said.

With help from Pacoima’s most iconic and beloved artists such as Manny Velazquez, Hector Ponce and Levi Ponce, Reyes illustrated how they helped him get to where he is today as a muralist. Reyes spent his early career observing them and learning their techniques. He now feels that he can stand alone and be the artist they would be proud of him for being.

“It goes beyond work. It's a friendship that you build [and] you want to also prove to them that you can go in and stand on your own two feet and they can count on you as much as you could count on them,” Reyes said.

Reyes’s newest mural was unveiled a month ago at Hillery T. Broadous Elementary. It commemorated Hillery T. Broadous, an activist and Pastor important in Pacoima’s history.

“A brown person is painting a Black person because I want unity, you know, I want solidarity between us and I want people to know that we can work together. Despite what the media says, and despite what we see on TV, we can work together and we can change the way people think about us,” Reyes said.

Reyes explained that the process of this mural was a year long, and through several digital drafts and meetings with the Los Angeles Unified School District, it was approved. He was excited that he had a chance to give back to the community he grew up in.

He revealed that LAUSD provided ten percent of the budget that would be needed for the mural’s supplies and the rest was covered by the community through a fundraiser. Pacoima’s determination to get this mural up is what really represented their unity.

The mural would feature a Latina girl reading a book and an African-American boy. Reyes shared that the roses he painted alongside Broadous represented his grandchildren and that the heart on his chest would illustrate his wife. The most touching detail would be the unformed rose representing a grandchild that passed away.

Juan Pablo Reyes is the hope and inspiration embodied by Pacoima and its art. While Reyes sets down his path, he hopes to inspire other young aspiring artists along the way to follow their own dreams.

“He who does more than he is paid for, will one day be paid for more than he does,” he stated proudly.

While Juan Pablo Reyes speaks for the younger generation of aspiring artists, Kristy Sandoval has paved the way for women of color to get the spotlight they deserve.

Kristy Sandoval, 39, a fellow Pacoima native, has painted murals for over 15 years. She attended the Academy of Art University in San Francisco to pursue her love for architecture, which then changed to illustration, then photography, and lastly interactive media. She is best known for her drive for education and art.

Sandoval taught several art classes to young kids in her area to empower the next generation of young girls. What really struck a chord within her was her student’s responses when asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” The young girls answered, “I want to be a cashier,” or “I want to be the manager of the store.”

She was determined to make a change and inspire the younger generation of women.

“It just really kind of struck a chord, you know. I was like, wow, like these, these girls are really limiting themselves. They don't believe that they can go above and beyond. And so that really kick started my work,” Sandoval said.

Sandoval’s first big project was commissioned by the mayor’s office. She painted a mural on a three-story building in Sepulveda Park. While she was skilled and had several years of experience, she described how intimidating this project was. As a result, she sought help from a nearby muralist, Raul Gonzalez.

“Luckily, there was another muralist who was also commissioned to paint in Boyle Heights. So, I learned a lot from him. His name is Raul Gonzalez … he taught me what a scaffold is, what type of paint to use, and he really broke it down for me,” Sandoval said.

Further into her career, she said the Mural Mile project in Pacoima helped cement her reputation and career as a muralist. With the coverage of the Mural Mile, she was the top result on Google for “women muralists in Los Angeles”.

The Mural Mile is an art movement that began in the San Fernando Valley by implementing murals along a three mile radius.

This opportunity landed her a commission from the wireless company, Cricket Wireless, where she illustrated the beauty of Latin culture through a couple wearing traditional Latin American clothing.

*(Illustration) Juan Pablo Reyes poses in front of his latest piece at Hillery T. Broadous Elementary School. (Habeba Mostafa | Scene Magazine)*

Sandoval’s mural outside Myke's Cafe in Pacoima would be another project she worked on with her students and a project that would give her the opportunity to paint her Assata Shakur mural, one of her most popular murals within Pacoima.

While heading to Myke’s Cafe she would see an empty wall belonging to the business Stylesville, an African American owned barbershop since 1958. During this time, Sandoval had just finished reading Assata Shakur’s autobiography and it inspired her to paint a portrait of Shakur on Stylesville’s blank canvas. She pitched her idea to the barbershop and they loved it.

When she commenced this project, Sandoval aimed to paint an important woman in Black history with a team of women artists to demonstrate the importance of women empowerment. This project would inspire her to start a women-led group of artists called the “Hood Sisters”, that she explained to be “an acronym for honoring ourselves, origins and dreams”.

There was only one instance where the Assata Shakur mural was tagged with graffiti, but she quickly came to the rescue and restored the mural. This would lead to an observation within the murals of Pacoima- they were almost never tagged with graffiti. There was a sense of respect towards this art.

Sandoval recalled seeing tourism surrounding the murals in Pacoima. Not only was there respect for these murals, but there was pride and curiosity by the public.

“When we started painting the murals [for the Mural Mile], I mentioned there was a lot of media coverage. There was a shift in how people saw Pacoima, you know. There were tours being held and people coming from all over like to come see the murals, it was unheard of,” Sandoval said.

More recently, Sandoval described that she would be leaving for Switzerland in April. There, she will attend a conference regarding a mural she will paint with students and a friend that is committed to activism and artivism.

Though Sandoval does not have the exact details yet on the size of the canvas she’ll be working on, she shared that she had started writing down potential ideas to pitch to everyone at the conference.

Kristy Sandoval’s hunger for woman empowerment and community-driven projects would distinguish her as the muralist for the women.

“You're gonna have good years and you're gonna have bad years. It doesn't matter how quickly you're moving, even if you're moving at a turtle pace. As long as you're moving towards your goals and you continue to put your energy towards your goals, it will come back to you and just don't give up and keep doing what you want to do,” Sandoval said.

*(Illustration) Kristy Sandoval poses in front of her retouched mural which was originally painted 10 years ago. (Habeba Mostafa | Scene Magazine)*

Furthermore, the artist that would impact the population of aspiring artists that hoped to establish a professional career out of their skill set is Levi Ponce.

Ponce, 34, is a Pacoima native that grew up with the influence of the arts early on. His father, Hector Ponce, is the San Fernando Valley’s artist behind murals such as Abraham Quintanilla, Juan Gabriel and Michael Jackson. His murals are what helped illustrate the culture and diversity of Pacoima.

Some of Ponce’s fondest memories went as far as when he was a child using his father’s paintbrushes as tools. Since then, he has pursued a career as an artist.

“My dad painted every day, and whenever I wasn't in school, I was typically painting with him. My toys were his tools, and I learned to see art as a game,” Ponce said.

In 2009, Ponce graduated from California State University, Northridge with a degree in animation and would later go on to work with Disney as a color designer for over four years. He worked on the ride “Toy Story Midway Mania” and various other projects at Disneyland in Anaheim and Florida.

Ponce is best known for his murals in Pacoima, but he emphasized that he built his career as a commercial artist. The majority of his murals were done as part of his ten percent commitment to giving back to the community.

(Illustration) Levi Ponce, a Pacoima legend, posing in front of one of his many murals on Van Nuys Blvd.

“I am mostly known for the work that I do for free here on Van Nuys Boulevard and around the world, but that's what people really know me for, which can be confusing. Most people think I just go around painting murals for free and that's what I do in life, and that would be lovely, that will be beautiful, but at the end of the day, bills gotta get paid,” Ponce said.

While Ponce explains that he was the instrument towards illustrating the culture and diversity of Pacoima, the true message of his work does not revolve around him. He painted the murals for the community, not himself.

Some of his work includes the remake of Mona Lisa (Ramona Lisa), Girl With a Pearl Earring (Girl With Hoop Earring), and portraits of Selena Quintanilla and Danny Trejo.

As a commercial artist, many of his projects are for-hire deals that included sign paintings, commercial graphics and murals. In other words, he mainly works on paid commissions to make a living. The work he creates under these jobs do not belong to him, they are made for someone else and the rights of said work belong to them.

“We make a living out of this and once we pay our bills, once you know, we're done with all that, then we sometimes take our free time and paint art for ourselves,” Ponce said.

When Ponce works on murals and other art projects for the community, he highlighted that though he may have painted it, the mural belongs to the community and what they stand for.

With over 12 murals along Van Nuys Boulevard, all which have been made possible through Ponce’s own funds and time, Ponce has created a reputation for himself as one of the main muralists of Pacoima. The unfortunate aspect of this is that he cannot donate more than 10% of time and money, which means some people get left out.

“I get emails from elementary schools every week and it breaks my heart that I can't go out and paint every single one of them with a bunch of kids and bring my own kids and have a blast. We can't do that. It's unrealistic,” Ponce said.

Ponce shared that he will be working on a mural of the artist Richie Valens in June, which will be finished by the end of the month. Valens was a Mexican-American artist and Pacoima native who tragically passed away in 1959. His music was a stepping stone for the Chicano rock movement and the Chicano/a community as well.

The touching aspect of Ponce’s career is his goal to help strengthen the community’s revitalization through his own time and money, something that many would not do. The murals are an extension of Pacoima’s own history and progression into the future. Levi Ponce was just the one who helped ignite the fire.

“It's not my mural. It was never my mural. It was Pacoima’s mural and it was Pacoima’s Mural Mile. I was just kind of here to fan the flames, so that's what I promoted and I promoted, you know, Pacoima as a place for the arts. That was that, you know, that's always been my thing,” Ponce said.