Here’s an article on how the last standing mural of the Placa mural series on Balmy Alley is being restored by two Bay Area artists.
Over time, most of the murals faded or suffered water damage, and have been painted over with new artworks depicting new themes: gentrification and displacement, and more modern takes on Latin American culture.
But the 200-square-foot piece by Miranda Bergman and O’Brien Thiele remains. It covers the rear of a two-car garage and shows a sweeping collage of symbols evoking Central America in the 1980s: overflowing baskets of papayas and bananas, vivid red bougainvillea, grim mothers of the “disappeared” carrying pictures of their loved ones, young soldiers with machine guns, a stern-faced Ronald Reagan, and a soaring dove of peace. READ ON.