Artist:	Armando Campero
Title	El Mexicano-Americano Ayer, Hoy, Mañana
Date:	1968
District:	First Supervisorial District
Location:	Former East Los Angeles Library (de-installed)
Department:	Public Library
In 1968, County Supervisor Ernest E. Debbs commissioned Mexican artist Armando Campero to paint a large mural for the East Los Angeles Library. Knowing that the artwork would be seen by many Mexican-Americans, and in particular by young people, Campero wanted the mural to strengthen the viewer’s sense of recognition and pride in the Mexican-American community.

The work consists of two sections, a large square panel and a long rectangular one. In both sections Campero included symbolic figures representing contributions Mexicans and Mexican-Americans had made to U.S. society and culture. These figures include soldiers, farm laborers, industrial workers, doctors, and civil servants. In the larger panel, three central men arise out of a Maguey cactus symbolic of both Mexican-American identity and suffering. Although the lower two struggle, the top figure stands triumphantly free. This last man is “complete” – utilizing all parts of his unique history to change society for the better.

The mural’s title translates to The Mexican-American Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow. Writer Rosa Elvira Alvarez composed a short poem with the same name, inspired by the painting’s Maguey symbolism. Her work, like the mural, celebrates the diverse historical strands of Mexican-American identity. This poem was painted onto the lower half of the mural’s larger section.

The mural was removed in 2005 when the new East Los Angeles Library was built and the old Library was modified for seismic compliance.

About the Artist: Armando Campero was born in Mexico and attended the San Carlos Academy of Fine Art in Mexico City, where one of his instructors was the legendary Mexican muralist Diego Rivera. He later received a scholarship to attend the Fine Arts School in Chicago and he also studied in New York and Paris. Returning to Mexico City in the early 1950s, he worked for two years on Diego Rivera’s Lerma Tunnel project and taught at the Institute of Interior Decorators. He came to Los Angeles in the mid-1960s and since then has divided his time between Los Angeles and Mexico. He was one of the first artists to paint murals in East Los Angeles and was a political cartoonist for 15 years for the Spanish language newspaper, La Opinión. In addition to his Los Angeles works, he has completed murals in Chicago, St. Louis, Spain, France, Mexico, and Guatemala.