“We Are Still Here”

Forward by Juan Carlos Araujo, Co-Director of PWSJ:

POW! WOW! San Jose is proud to present our third Artist in Residence, Alfonso Salazar and “WE ARE MUWEKMA OHLONE,” his latest mural. In our fourth year of programming, we partnered up with the Guadalupe River Park Conservancy. Over the next two years, we’ll produce a series of Artists-In-Residencies to add public art along the Guadalupe River Trail, creating the Bay Area’s longest public art corridor. 

Outreach from the community inspired the concept of bringing cultural murals to the river trail and through several engagement forums we continued asking the same question, “What type of art would you like to see?” The results were educational and to highlight the rich diversity our landscape represents.  

Developing this project was particularly special because we had the honor to work with the Muwekma Ohlone Council. Thanks to Vernon “Medicine Cloud,” Relations Manager at the Indian Health Center, who helped make this possible. We met with several elders and young leaders who are representatives of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe. “We Are Still Here” was a direct quote given to us as inspiration to recognize on the wall.

It was really important that a new contemporary depiction was portrayed and that the stories should not be isolated to the past. All art ideas were welcomed, abstract, sculptural, portraiture, and to be concurrent with the present. This was truly a pillar of information that we will continue sharing in our future programs. Alfonso’s design compliments all the insight we received. The center portrait is Chairwoman Charlene Nijmeh, dressed in a warrior eagle head piece with a basket weave pattern and wearing a hummingbird warrior face mask. The youth are learning about their roots, and guided by the ancestors that continue looking over us. In the clouds are  those who left behind a legacy, and continue to educate; family members of generations of leadership and the lifeline of a people that suffered genocide, and erasure. It’s a beautiful fresco that takes us back to Alfonso's original mural that he painted in 1986. With several years of producing public art, we understand the need for all mediums, genres, and styles of art. Not one is superior to the other if the intent is to create positivity, dialogue, and change. 

After several years of raising awareness for spray can art, we now have an opportunity to do the same for traditional multicultural representative murals. Meeting with the Muwekma Ohlone Council, and having the opportunity to learn about what we can do as arts producers continues to shape what we want to advocate. Art and Activism are not strangers to each other and for the sake of protecting our livelihoods we paint joyful and colorful walls paying homage to peace, love, and freedom. Murals are tools of awareness to think outside the box. We’ve all been put in a box to believe America was not stolen from the Native American tribes and once we can admit someone else’s wrongs, I believe we can move forward to building a better honest future.  

“WE ARE MUWEKMA OHLONE,” can be found on the underpass of the Guadalupe River Park at W. San Fernando Street. In his own words, Alfonso explains his experience as a postal worker and muralist, the research process for his latest mural, and the connections he’s made along the way. 

-Juan Carlos Araujo

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As told by Alfonso Salazar

While my body is 59 years old, right now I look around and see what I see with four year old eyes. This is what happened to me when I now look all around without alcohol blurring away my vision. I painted my first mural a long time ago, on the side of the former El Tarasco restaurant. After I completed the mural back in 1986, I got hired at the post office and became a family man. During those last 35 years I would, from time to time, produce a drawing or a painting that would remind me of my talent as an artist and where art could take me. But the artwork I produced was too few and far between. I knew why that was. And I knew what I needed to do to get back to who I am. With the support of my family and friends, I have been able to maintain my sobriety and I am able see the possibilities that are still there for me as a person and as an artist. 

I have been wanting to paint another mural. Thanks to POW! WOW! San Jose I just completed my second one. For someone who got a bit rusty over time, this was the best way for me to get back to it. PWSJ did whatever it took to get the wall and the paint and the oil can to remove my rust. They set me up to have me just focus on one thing: to paint on a wall. The location of the mural was along the Guadalupe River so I had plenty of ideas to come up with a design. 

The mural I put together recognizes the Muwekma Ohlone tribe, the indigenous people who once lived along the Guadalupe River that flows through Downtown San Jose. My initial draft was inspired by one of their creation stories that the tribe would share over many lifetimes featuring the coyote, the eagle, and the hummingbird. After completing my design, I wanted to get input from the Ohlone community first hand because I was basically relying on what I was reading about them online. Juan Carlos Araujo of POW! WOW! San Jose introduced me to members of the Muwekma tribe to provide input to complete my concept. Based on their suggestions, I have included Ohlone Elders in the clouds and people who have passed down their language and traditions to keep their culture alive. One of the members suggested to include the line WE ARE STILL HERE. I met up with Charlene Nijmeh, the tribe’s current chairperson who agreed to be the face of the art’s centerpiece. She represents the present day Ohlone people.  

While doing my research on the tribe I discovered that my childhood friend’s family had ties to the Ohlone people and supported them over the years. Because this family took me in as one of  their own, creating this art became an important family matter to me as well. There is so much more to learn about the Muwekma Ohlone, their history, and their current struggles. I hope that the mural will have people wanting to learn more about their history and how our history has been affected by theirs. 

My first mural was painted when I was 24. It was part of San Jose’s cityscape for nearly 25 years. When I learned that it was going to be whitewashed away, back in 2010, I was not sure what to do about it. Daniel Bravo of El Tarasco Mexican Food was calling it quits and told me that the lease required that he had to leave the building the same way it was before he signed on to start his business. I decided to contact Joe Rodriguez of the Mercury News to put the word out so that the community could take one last look at the public art I painted. After the news article was published, I found out firsthand how much the community enjoyed seeing that work of art because the Post Office where I worked in Downtown San Jose was only a couple of miles from where the mural was near the corner of North 4th and East Taylor Street. I recall the customers telling me to paint another one. That was back in 2011—10 years ago.

Not long after my mural was covered up, I would see murals popping up in my neighborhood as I would ride my bike to work. This was when I would run into Juan Carlos here and there with artists doing their thing, putting art on the walls. I would eventually notice the art gallery he started that was on my path on North 7th St. near Empire. When I saw him with a couple of artists painting on an electrical utility box I introduced myself. He remembered my mural telling me he lived close by when I was painting it and that it had a positive influence on him. From then on, I followed him on social media and visited his gallery. I somehow had a feeling he would be the one to get me going again. That was back in 2017. That was the year I got that drunk monkey off my back.  

It was during a San Jose Bike Party ride to see the 2019 POW! WOW! San Jose murals when I expressed my interest to Juan Carlos about wanting to paint a mural again after all these years. When he contacted me last November asking if I was interested in being part of 2021 PWSJ, I said “Yeah man! Damn! I am ready!” I decided right there and then that it was time to go all in as a full time artist. So at the end of January, I retired from the Postal Service. 

Ready or not, I was finally out there painting the mural for PWSJ. The mural took a month to complete. I was out there painting near where the construction workers were building, where the homeless were sheltering, where the wildflowers were growing, where the birds and other wildlife were roaming along the path of the Guadalupe River. 

I am thankful to Juan Carlos and his crew to help me make this possible. Also a big thank you to Will Moran, Kyleigh Locke, and Alexia Huizar who helped me out with their painting skills. And to my friends and my family who supported me during the process, especially my wife Marcia and two daughters, Marisa and Celina: I am eternally grateful. 

The mural is called “WE ARE MUWEKMA OHLONE.” It is located along the Guadalupe River Walk here in Downtown San Jose. Take a walk, ride your bike, or go for a run along this trail. When you get to the underpass of W. San Fernando Street, look along the wall. There you will see a mural about the people whose ancestors were once living here along the  river. Learn about their story. Learn about what happened to them. Learn about our history here before the place was called San Jose, California.  

I enjoyed the process, but the mural project did tire me out. My 59 year old body is feeling it. I just know I will need to get myself ready again. I can’t let 35 years go by before doing the next mural.

-Alfonso Salazar

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For full photos of Alfonso’s completed mural - link HERE

Photos by Lan Ngyuen and Ian Lundie