In 1977 David Botello and Wayne Healy founded Los Dos Streetscapers. When other artists, such as George Yepes and Rudy Calderon, began working with them, they changed their name to East Los Streetscapers.
However, while other artists have come and gone, Botello and Healy remain the team’s core. In addition to their many Los Angeles murals, they have done projects in Houston, St. Louis, Bellingham, Washington, San Jose and Santa Maria, CA. Botello.
Famous Murals by the East Lost Streetscapers
The title of the piece links the 52 years separating the 1932 and the 1984 Olympic Games held in Los Angeles, with an Aztec tradition in which all lights were extinguished every 52 years, followed by igniting a new torch and restoring fire to the nation.
In response to Broadway`s predominantly Hispanic and Black population, Gold Medal winner boxer Paul Gonzales from East Los Angeles, track star Valerie Brisco-Hooks from Los Angeles, and Mexico’s championship walker Ernesto Canto are prominently displayed and placed close to the street.
El Nuevo Fuego
The names of children born to people involved in the mural are also recognized, including Roberto Grigas, son of Bob Grigas, an assistant on the mural, and Benjamin Botello, son of David Botello, one of the two artists making up East Los Streetscapers.
Paul Harter, the owner of Victor Clothing, insisted that the mural served as an advertisement for his store and wanted “Victor Clothing” prominently displayed at the top of the mural.
As part of the arts festival held in conjunction with the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, ten murals were commissioned for retaining walls along freeways leading to the Coliseum.
It took nine months to finalize the mural’s design.
El Nuevo Fuego Street View
Our Pico Neighborhood
Our Pico Neighborhood was commissioned by the City of Santa Monica, Percent for Art Program, a Project of the Santa Monica Arts Commission. The Mural was inspired by photo references supplied by the community, which was worked into the composition.
Our Pico Neighborhood Street View
Chicano Time Trip
The Chicano Time Trip Mural in Los Angeles was the Streetscapers’ first collaborative project.
The concept of depicting hundreds of years of Chicano history came in response to the 1976 U.S. Bicentennial, which didn’t address the Chicano heritage.
The panels read right to the left and cover pre-Columbian society, the Spanish conquest and colonialism, Mexican independence and the rise of a new ruling class, the Mexican Revolution, and the contemporary Chicano family.
Chicano Time Trip Street View
Moonscapes III
The Moonscapes mural on west Washington blvd. was intended to be a cruise through space and time by ancient Mayan astronomers and modern-day scientists such as Albert Einstein.
In 1986 the Streetscapers added a memorial to the Challenger astronauts, killed when the shuttle blew up just after lift-off.
Moonscapes III Street View
The Stairway to Global Health
The Stairway to Global Health Mural was created in 1991 by the following East Los Streetscapers (Wayne Healy, David Botello, Rich Raya), assisted by Lesley Grant, S. Transgrud, Daryl Wells, and Christine Wada.
In this mural, health is broadly defined, encompassing the planet’s health and individual health care.
On the tallest wall is an indigenous healer, representing ancient traditions.
The present is in the hands of four students actively protecting our planet from environmental harm. The arc of the earth is the biggest in the mural, but its segments only align when viewed from across the street.
Stairway to Global Health Street View
Corrido De Boyle Heights
A corrido is a traditional, ballad-style Mexican song. In this mural, local musician Margarito Gutierrez (descendent of mariachi Vargas de Teclitlan) plays his virtuoso fiddle while Il Piporro plays accordion.
Joe Alaniz (1933-1967) tears himself away from his shrimp and garlic to enjoy the music and a newlywed couple dances. This mural is at least the third to occupy this same wall. Around 1974 Frank Romero covered 200 sq. ft. with a whimsical spray can heart.
In the early 1980s, that mural was destroyed when new earthquake codes required Payless Shoes to add steel H-beams and make other improvements to its unreinforced masonry building.