Just in time for the beginning of the next school year, the mural at Gridley-Montañez Dual Language Academy in the City of San Fernando that pays homage to the late councilmember has been completed.
The large mural is located on the wall on 8th Street that encompasses the school’s name. Among the imagery of wildlife and nature, which includes orange groves and olive trees, is the portrait of Cindy Montañez, the former mayor of the City of San Fernando, an assemblymember and the CEO of the nonprofit TreePeople, who passed away in October 2023 while battling an aggressive cancer.
Montañez was beloved in the local community, well known for her environmental advocacy. She became the youngest person elected to the San Fernando City Council at 25 years old, and later the youngest Latina elected to the California State Legislature at 28. She continued her record-breaking achievements by becoming the youngest female Democrat and the first Latina to chair the Assembly Rules Committee at the age of 30.
During her tenure as an assemblymember, 10 of her bills were signed into law. One of the most important pieces of legislation that Montañez authored was the Car Buyer’s Bill of Rights – which requires all licensed auto dealers in California to provide an itemized list of add-on products and services, such as insurance and warranties, and provide buyers with their credit score with an explanation of how it was used in the financing process.
Around a month before she passed, it was decided that Gridley Street Elementary School would be renamed in her honor – officially becoming Gridley-Montañez Dual Language Academy at the start of the 2024-25 school year.
The artist behind the project is Juan Pablo “JP” Reyes, a well-known muralist in the San Fernando Valley who has worked on murals at approximately 20 schools. He said the project first began more than a year ago, when he was contacted by the office of Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Board Member Kelly Gonez.
The project, he said, was to commemorate Montañez and her activism for environmental issues.
“We’re starting a new year,” Reyes said. New kids coming in and older kids graduating, so we wanted to go ahead and lift the spirits and bring a mural that represents the creative side of learning, along with the STEM [science, technology, engineering and math] side and trying to be inclusive of everybody.”
Before he started on the project, he developed a questionnaire for the students at the academy, asking them what they would like to see in the community, what is important to them and how they want to be represented. After studying the responses, Reyes went to work on developing the imagery of the mural.
This included the field of olive trees from which Sylmar gets its name – which comes from the Latin words silva (forest) and mare (sea), meant to reflect the large number of olive trees that once covered the area.
Community Assistance
Reyes worked on the mural for more than three weeks. While he did receive some help from other artists, most of it was done by himself. However, on the morning of Aug. 3, Reyes invited the local community to be part of the project and assist in painting the mural.
He initially thought only around 20 people would turn up, but was more than pleasantly surprised to see upwards of 70 community members joining in. This included not just current students, but people who graduated from the school decades prior.
“There’s a lot of history here, so it made me really happy and really proud to be able to include multi-generational families in the area,” Reyes said, humorously noting that some of the moms were more into it than the kids were.
“They were really happy [to be part of it], and I think that’s what it’s all about: creating community through art and uplifting our kids and their spirits through art. … I want to be able to help my community and show the people that this is a path that you can take and make a living off of it.”
An official unveiling of the mural will take place on Friday, Aug. 14.