Vergara, Camilo J. Immigrant, mural by Hector Ponce, Pico Blvd. at Hoover St., Los Angeles, 1996. 1996. Photograph. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. https://www.loc.gov/item/2020705683/.
Students will do a close reading of this 1996 mural painted on a building along Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles that depicts the California immigrant experience. They will analyze the various aspects of the experience that the artist included in his painting and, in doing so, acquire a better understanding of the many contributions immigrants have made and are making to society in California and across the nation. They will also learn about the hardships many immigrants face when they come to this country.
California is home to 10.6 million immigrants. In 2023, 27 percent of California’s population was foreign born and almost half (45 percent) of California children have at least one immigrant parent. Immigrants in California come from dozens of countries; the leading country of origin is Mexico (3.8 million).
Source: Public Policy Institute of California https://www.ppic.org/publication/immigrants-in-california/
- What does this mural suggest about the life of immigrants in California and across the country?
- What kinds of jobs are the adults in this mural doing?
- Why do you think the artist included a field of crops in the top right-hand corner?
- How do you interpret the image of the Statue of Liberty on the left side of the image? What does that iconic monument suggest about immigrants and immigration to the United States?
ELA Standard
Reading standards 6–12, 2. Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
Social Studies Standard
HSS Standard 11.11. Students analyze the major social problems and domestic policy issues in contemporary American society.
Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features.
- Invite students to look closely at Hector Ponce’s mural: What do they see? What does it suggest? What else do they notice?
- Put students in small groups, assigning individuals within the group to look at individual people in the painting (the mother, the person at a sewing machine, the lady cooking, etc.) and invite students to draw inferences as to why the painter included them in the mural.
- Have students look once more at the mural for details and then write an internal monologue as their character, describing how he or she feels about immigrating to America.
- Students can then share within their groups what they have written, garnering suggestions for revision from their peers in terms of additional specific detail to add to their internal monologues.
- Revised immigrant monologues can be posted around the classroom or published on a class website.
Vergara, Camilo J. HFP Chelo, alley, north of E. Adams Blvd., east of Stanford Ave., Los Angeles, 2011. 2011. Photograph. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. https://www.loc.gov/item/2020694576/.