Pueblo Alto Mural

By Edgar 8ahau Fernandez

Located in Chandler at Espo’s Mexican Restaurant, this mural project brought together diverse participants to create a public work that would celebrate the rich culture and history of the Pueblo Alto/Hightown neighborhood. This mural is a collaboration between artist Edgar 8ahau Fernandez, the Pueblo Alto/Hightown community, Espo’s Mexican Restaurant, and the City of Chandler Arts Commission, Human Relations Commission, and Neighborhood Advisory Committee. Through many rounds of participatory community design, Fernandez created this mural with colorful, symbolic imagery representing the story of this vibrant community.

Pueblo Alto/Hightown is one of Chandler’s oldest neighborhoods; in fact, people have been living in the area since the 1920s or before, when Chandler’s boundaries did not yet surround the neighborhood. As Chandler was developed as farmland in the 1920s, Pueblo Alto’s slightly higher elevation made it less suitable for farming irrigation and instead it became a place for Yaqui peoples and migrants fleeing Mexico’s revolution to settle. Early on the area was called El Chamizo after the desert bushes that grew in the area, and then Pueblo Alto or “Hightown” as a reference to the neighborhood’s elevation. Today, the neighborhood is home to a vibrant community with generations of history

This mural is rich in symbolism. The two farmworkers pay homage to the families that settled in Pueblo Alto and cultivated the land to provide good lives for their families and the generations to come. The white cotton flowers represent one of the main crops the Pueblo Alto community harvested. Agave, nopales, and yellow creosote flowers represent the power and beauty of the land Pueblo Alto resides in, and the resilience of us all as desert residents. The Yaqui Deer Dancer represents the Yaqui culture of the neighborhood. The corn/maiz represent another important crop for the community and an ancestral tie to life and culture, and are one of Fernandez’s signature motifs. The vibrant monochromatic blue background represents water and life flowing throughout this community. And lastly, the outstretched hands at the center offer food to represent the neighborhood’s vibrant, close-knit community that builds ties by sharing culture.

Espo’s Mexican Restaurant was chosen as the site for this mural as a recognition for all that the Espinoza family has done for the Pueblo Alto community.

Source: City of Chandler