Las Adelitas: Upcoming Mural by Notable Artist Will Merge Story, Culture, and Community
Las Adelitas will soon be coming to life and will provide 142 safe, quality, affordable homes in the heart of Portland’s Cully neighborhood. We are excited to announce a collaboration with an incredible Latina artist, Michelle Angela Ortiz, who will be outfitting the building with a custom mural inspired directly from neighbors and community members in Cully. Read on to learn more about her work, inspiration, and the importance of this project.
Michelle Angela Ortiz is an artist who describes herself as using her “art as a vehicle to represent people and communities whose histories are often lost or co-opted.” We might also think of her as a historian in real time, capturing histories as they happen, creating a testament of community that represents them and their stories, allowing them to feel seen and understood.
Ortiz has created over 50 large-scale public works in the United States and abroad. She has been a cultural envoy in Fiji, Mexico, Argentina, Spain, Venezuela, Honduras, and Cuba. Her work happens in a range of expressions with the common thread of giving communities a voice.
We are honored to be working with Michelle Angela Ortiz to bring a mural to Las Adelitas which will extend along the main entrance of this community along Killingsworth St. Her work will be assisted by local Portland artist Oliver Casillas.
Her Background
Born and raised in Philadelphia, Ortiz proudly shares that she still lives in the same neighborhood she has lived in all her life. Her mother is from Colombia’s Caribbean coast and her father from Puerto Rico, both activists before there was a name for it.
“It was about being kind and standing up when things were not fair,” she explains. Her father was a bolero singer and a janitor, bringing home scrap paper from offices he cleaned for Michelle to turn into art. Everything she saw, she turned into art, from scenes in the open-air market to everyday acts of courage. She remembers these days fondly as the roots of her artistic career: “I saw art everywhere, it was my foundation.”
Michelle Angela Ortiz’s work dives into the importance of heart and home within the immigrant experience. “I come from a family that might not see its experience as having importance, but for me, it is placing value in that, acknowledging and honoring the story of my grandmother; to me it is as important as knowing about Thomas Jefferson, understanding our journey and where we come from.”
The artist translates the communities’ stories into art. Whether immigrant communities, formerly incarcerated groups, teens, graffiti artists, grandmothers, she values the importance of this responsibility. What results is a local response to the common theme of “how can we utilize moment /space to represent their stories and the changes they want to see?”
Conversations with the Community
After 23 years working as an artist in communities, her process always begins with a conversation. Jessica Lam, Resident Services Manager at Hacienda CDC worked with Living Cully to organize a series of meetings with the community.
In one of the conversations, the community was asked what images might represent family to them, home away from home, and even freedom. The group came up with a list of different images, which will then direct future images taken by photographer Mariana Fernandez, to inspire the design of the mural.
“How do you build community and belonging in a space that is working so hard to displace you, whether through systems or individual interactions?”
Olga from Guatemala suggested an image of girl playing freely, hands making tortillas, feeding her family, showing a connection to tradition. Carrie spoke of having a white mother and an African-American father and reflected on racial discrimination. Lizette even wrote a love letter to Cully. The images, says Ortiz, have meaning that “is both personal and universal.”
Michelle points out that she is aware of her role as “la visitante,” and is able to connect to individuals by hearing their stories fully and finding her own parallels with the community where she grew up. This allows her to make connection about what is being said, but also looking for what is missing. She begins deeper conversations with a poignant question: “What have you learned from your ancestors that you bring into the work that you do?”
Her work strives to understand belonging, a concern among many immigrants. She knows this feeling well, developing art that reflects a community while simultaneously acknowledging and fighting against the systems of oppression that works against that community and reflects, “how do you build community and belonging in a space that is working so hard to displace you, whether through systems or individual interactions?”
These conversations have helped craft a mural that will represent the strength of women and the bright future of the Las Adelitas community while balancing the struggles of the past and present. “Acknowledging the struggle, but not letting it be the focus… filling the mural with light and positivity and all good things Cully has to offer, without shying away from the current obstacles the community faces.”
Reflections
Learn more about Michelle Angela Ortiz and the impact of her work and visit her website www.michelleangela.com
After years of doing this valuable work, she shares that for her, “the common thread is the importance of speaking up and sharing our story and sharing our truth. And I have seen change happen in waves, from little ripples to huge waves of change and I feel that art plays a role in supporting local justice, local community involvement and engagement, and I think that for artists, we play a huge role in really getting to the heart or the core of the work.”
When asked what she hopes the observer takes away from this mural, she says, “I really would like them to see themselves represented. It is so important to have representation, to feel seen, to feel valued.” She hopes that the young children that see the mural and the transformation of the space will feel a sense of new possibilities and witness the impact of collective action on their community.