The following was written by Bryan Mendez as part of La Vida Diferente, a volume of Boyle Heights’ cultural treasures, collected and profiled by Roosevelt High’s Class of 2015, in collaboration with The California Endowment, the Alliance for California Traditional Arts, and 826LA.

Early Days
In the early days of Boyle Heights there were no murals that talked about our community, culture, and traditions. When Wayne Healy started doing his first mural in 1972, people were finding out that culture and tradition are important to them. Wayne started to do more murals and by August 29, 1970 to 1972 there were murals everywhere in Boyle Heights.

Missing Piece
In Boyle Heights there was a missing piece in 1970, where people did not know that tradition and culture were important to their family’s communities. When people walked on the streets of Boyle Heights there weren’t any murals, any loncheras, Mexican music like corridos, salsa, sonidero, and rancheras. In the few years after 1970 people could walk on the streets and on every corner they would see murals of different traditions and culture and gave the whole community the feeling that they are home.

East Los Streetscapers
The East Los Streetscapers is a public arts studio where, according to Healy’s Linkedin profile, he designs, fabricates, and installs artwork in a wide variety of mediums. Healy established Streetscapers in 1975 and has created 2D and 3D artwork that incorporates the community, they also make glazed ceramic tile, formed and welded steel, polished granite and raw boulders, bronze sculptures, and painted murals that they sell.

Who is Wayne Healy?
Wayne Healy was born in 1946 and he grew up in East Los Angeles. His parents came to East Los Angeles in 1930. Healy’s first painting was a dinosaur mural in the third grade with his future partner David Botello. Healy and Botello became the East Los Streetscapers. According to Healy’s biography, “In 1992 Healy and artist Roberto Delgado were awarded a grant by the joint Spanish/U.S. Committee for educational and cultural cooperation to paint murals in Barcelona, Spain.” Healy belongs to a group of people called Mechicano Art Center. This group wants everyone to know what the community was like before the art movement. They also want people to know about Chicano art and culture. On August 29, 1970, the first mural was unveiled, and by 1972 there were murals created everywhere in Boyle Heights. This is important because it changed the way the community looks today.