Just in time for the Thanksgiving holiday – world-renowned artist Stan Natchez and his crew have completed “Guernica to San Fernando” – a 30-foot by 100-foot mural that wraps around a retail building across from the City of San Fernando post office and close to St. Ferdinand’s Catholic Church. Two local landmarks that Natchez acknowledges as subjects in the mural.
Natchez, who first began the work two years ago, describes it as reflecting his life experience growing up in the City of San Fernando and the issues impacting native people.
This mural is the first major mural of its size for the City and the first to deliver the local history of the Northeast Valley’s First People.
A member of the Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians, the 69-year-old artist has met with some pushback by the small independent City for what may be viewed as too radical. The first point of the city’s contention was a large spray can that Natchez labeled – “Warpaint.”
That piece of artwork raised some eyebrows and some would question why he would include an aerosol can at all because of its stigma.
Initially, the image appeared to be spraying paint from the aerosol can, unleashing meaningful images, but with a bit of artistic revision, Natchez has stood steadfast with the image that he said is a nod to his son, Viento – a graffiti artist who has been his constant on the crew who has painted alongside him.
Most recently, another issue has surfaced as Natchez painted the word “Hostage” instead of “Postage” to outline a painting of a 14-cent stamp.
A portrait of the late chief of the Tataviam tribe, Rudy Ortega Sr. appears on the stamp. It is a tribute to his uncle who brought the families together who could trace their lineage back to the local tribe to begin the process for federal recognition.
The word “hostage,” Natchez maintains, is an accurate word to use that reflects the difficult life his ancestors suffered as forced labor at the San Fernando Mission.
“My ancestors were hostages of the San Fernando Mission. The mural shows the pain and the poverty and despair that my ancestors had to endure from the Mission systems,” said Natchez.
“The Mission system was not kind to us and if somebody would want to leave and go back to his original village, they would go get them, [hunt them down] and bring them back,” he shared.
“They would have us making adobes and plastering the walls and painting the church – making stuff for the priest.
“That’s why I also have shown [a priest in] black robes coming to the people because we didn’t really understand their religion. We were spiritual beings. We didn’t have organized religion because organized religion has rules and [in] spirituality, we have no rules.
“From trickery to, you know, whipping to, you know, abuse, physical, sexual, intellectual, they suffered mental abuse as well.”
City Maintains They Didn’t Approve the Stamp Image
“Our ordinance for murals has a phrase that the mural would be content-neutral. And because it didn’t go through a public review process, I just wasn’t comfortable administratively approving [the words] U.S. Hostage,” explained San Fernando City Manager Nick Kimball.
“It didn’t go through the normal public review process. Rudy [Ortega Jr., the current tribal president] and Stan had agreed to change that [word hostage] to postage. I approved that revised concept,” said Kimball.
“What was submitted to the Parks and Wellness Commission, the original submission, and what was discussed and kind of publicly reviewed and approved was different than what he ended up painting,” said Kimball.
The tribe has been instructed to submit a revised supplemental application request by Dec. 1 focusing on the stamp piece on the mural.
“The city isn’t taking any action at this time. I think one of the lessons learned that we had actually going through this process with Stan and with other artists the first time is that it’s really important to have the artists go to the Parks and Wellness Commission and be able to at least explain their thought process. If Stan had attended the Parks and Wellness Commission and discussed it, you know, there probably would have been a lot of agreement and it wouldn’t have been an issue.”
Kimball said this requirement would provide some reasoning to know what the message is behind the mural. It’s unclear whether the application request will have to go back to the commission or can be decided at the administrative level.
“We will have to review that with community development staff and go over that internally … so that 10 years from now people can look back and understand how we got from A to Z,” he said.
Regardless of any action or decision by the city, Natchez is steadfast in keeping with his original intent and message.
“I’m sticking to my guns. No, I’m not changing it. That was on the original layout that they got. So they knew that that [the word Hostage] was going to go up there. They’re the ones who decided that I was going to change my mind. I never agreed that I was going to change my mind,” insisted Natchez.
It is the role of many public artists like Natchez, whose life’s work is to “say something,” and through this process perhaps move the needle for change.
“The mural is open for interpretation to the viewer. Someone may see something that I don’t even intend. You know, I think that the whole idea is not only to create conversation, but you know, maybe some consciousness that everybody should examine their own lives,” said Natchez.
He shares the history experienced by native people in the Northeast San Fernando Valley and provides a lens into the shared history of native people across the country.
There are many images within the mural that he hopes will be the subject of discussion. The mural includes the issue of environmental justice.
“I include technology and Exxon because Native people, we didn’t only lose our land, we lost all our mineral resource rights. Billions and billions and billions of dollars have come off our Earth, right here in our indigenous area, even here in San Fernando. But, we have survived the winter and sometimes the mightier the storm, the stronger the resistance.”
The Virgin of Guadalupe, the Patroness of Mexico, known as the indigenous Mary, is also prominent in the mural, but instead of the 12 golden rays that frame the face and head of the Virgin of Guadalupe, Natchez has replaced what is known as the “crown of stars” with eagle feathers, a powerful symbol used in native ceremony.
“The eagle feather is probably the most powerful symbol of strength and prosperity. That eagle came to the people when it was needed,” explained Natchez. “There’s one story told that the sun was so close to the earth that people were burning. So they got a crow and they threw the crow to the sky to take a message to the sun and the crow couldn’t make it, so they threw a hawk and the hawk went and went, but it couldn’t take the message, so had to come back down. So they threw the eagle up there to take the message to the sun, that we were burning down here.
And the eagle went all the way to the sun and gave his life for the people. So the eagle is highly, highly respected. If someone drops an eagle feather at a powwow – everything stops and a song is given for that eagle feather.”
Natchez said that some have questioned why he has included Catholic images in the mural given the church’s negative history with native people.
Natchez points out that he and his family are part of that history. St. Ferdinand’s Church, closely located near the mural, is part of his life experience growing up in San Fernando. “My grandmother went to St. Ferdinand’s, she spoke Spanish. I was baptized there,” he shared.
He is well aware of the dark history which he represents in the mural.
While Thanksgiving, historically, is the only holiday on the U.S. calendar that pauses to reflect on Native American Indians, it appears fitting to have the mural’s completion serve to correct a mistold history.
“Most people were lied to about Thanksgiving, like if we came and brought food and we all sat down and broke bread together. I mean, in reality – it was a brutal time. However, for us as Native people, it’s part of our traditional ways to give.”
This Thanksgiving, Natchez plans to gather with his family and enjoy the traditional food his mother made in San Fernando – tamales! But her recipe now includes the chili from the state of New Mexico, where he now lives and owns a gallery.
He said expressing gratitude should go far beyond the holiday.
“I’ve never stopped painting. I’m going back into my gallery and studio, right now. I just turned 69 and I’ve been 30-40 feet in the air on a cherry picker painting the mural. I know not everyone can do that. Natchez said he is humbled and grateful for the opportunity to create the mural.
“I’m thankful for my family, my wife, my granddaughter and all my close friends and all my relatives. We should all give thanks every day.
“Thanksgiving should be every day, not just one day a year. You should wake up and be thankful that you could even breathe or you could walk. I mean, you know, be thankful for the things that you do have.”
For Natchez, this mural is a slice of this moment in history.
“I’m documenting the time I live in. We can see that we still have war and here we are in the 21st century and man is still being primitive to kill other people. You know, have we not learned anything from the wars that we’ve had in history?” Natchez asks.
“Because in Guernica, that was the village that was bombed. I think that the whole thing for people to remember is that we should learn from our actions in history so they don’t repeat themselves.”
Alejandro JSM Chavez contributed to this article.
The artwork it’s self is beautiful however it seems more fitting to have portrayed the Rock Art of the first people rather than a Mexican Indian theme. . Our Ancestors told stories through their rock painting and the first people’s rock would have given the community an understanding few get to experience .
Hostage? I would not call myself a hostage no first person should.
Once we embrace truth without colonial influence through forced religion and the system itself we are free.
The artwork is beautiful and like Stan said the work is open to interpretation
I would stick to my guns on the “hostage” situation just on principle if I were Stan too.
As I wrote in an earlier comment that I did not consider myself a victim however after some thought I realized this art is fitting for the tribe represented as their are many who take comfort in this religion.