10 murals in Santa Ana that celebrate Chicano culture

Vibrant murals decorating Santa Ana illustrate the Southern California region’s history and culture with such depth and variety that just walking the city streets can be an education. Orange County’s third-most-populous city has 64 neighborhoods and more than 300,000 residents—about 80% of whom are Latino. But without some background, visitors might miss the cultural landmarks that speak to the city’s diversity and adversity.

Many of Santa Ana’s murals were organized and created by local artists as a response to the times and as an expression of pride for the city. These artists aspired to capture the city’s culture using Mexican imagery while preserving local Mexican American history, such as the Chicano movement and grassroots community organizing.

Learn more about Santa Ana’s history with this self-guided walking-and-driving tour of 10 public artworks, several of which are downtown. (View a digital map that includes these murals and other landmarks.)

Location: Logan Barrio, 906 E. Washington Avenue

Directions: Take exit 105A from I-5 N or I-5 S and park near La Chiquita Restaurant (or drive by on your way downtown).

Heroes Among Us pays homage to the nearly 200 Mexican Americans from the Logan Barrio in Santa Ana who served during World War II, the Korean War, or the Vietnam War. The mural is next to the city’s second-oldest Mexican eatery, La Chiquita Restaurant. Using photographs provided by the subjects’ relatives, Aguilar created realistic portraits and depictions of war.

Location: Downtown Santa Ana Historic District, 400 N. Spurgeon Street

Directions: Park at the public garage at 300 E. Fifth Street, adjacent to Taqueria Guadalajara (first 2 hours are free).

Marina Aguilera, also known as La Artista, grew up in Santa Ana in the 1960s, and her art has been featured on community walls since the mid-1970s. She and her family lived across the street from an independent pet store—when the shop caught fire one day, Aguilera saw several green parrots narrowly escape.

More than 50 years later, the parrots are flourishing in the area; they can be heard flying over palm trees at sunrise and settling in the magnolia trees near the old courthouse at sunset. This ceramic tile installation honors the parrots. Find it on Spurgeon Street, as the aroma of tacos al pastor wafts over from Taqueria Guadalajara.

Location: Downtown Santa Ana Historic District, Bush Street between Third and Fourth streets

Directions: Walk 1 block north of Taqueria Guadalajara; the mural is in the alley behind El Vaquero and Mi Moda Italian Suits on the right-hand side passing Bush Street.

Originally acrylic paint on canvas, this framed vinyl wrap evoking Latina empowerment was unveiled in March 2020. It became a celebratory background for many graduating Latinas during the COVID-19 pandemic. The sign next to it reads “I am here…here to stay. Strong, independent, thoughtful, internally beautiful, tender, my own woman. I am…Latina.”

Location: Downtown Santa Ana Historic District, in an alley behind Fourth Street between Main and Bush streets

Directions: From North Main Street, walk east up the alley to the beginning of the mural to observe it in sequence from left to right.

The Santa Ana Community Artist(a) Coalition, founded in 2013, has painted 8 public murals in the area. These 2 murals stretch across 4 walls and include portraits of Chinese immigrants and residents of the historic Lacy neighborhood, an homage to local paleteros (frozen treat vendors), a former carousel where immigrant families gathered for 20 years, and 2 jarocho dancers dressed in traditional white attire.

Location: Downtown Santa Ana Historic District, Fifth Street and Sycamore

Directions: Walk west toward Main Street and turn right on Main, then left on Fifth Street. Walk a block and a half, passing Sycamore Street and the Founder’s Tree (planted in 1976 to replace the sycamore tree that William H. Spurgeon, who founded the city in 1869, climbed to get a glimpse of the land he later purchased). To return to the parking garage, walk 3 blocks toward Main Street.

This mural depicts St. Anne blowing a kiss to the community of Santa Ana, including the gardens, nature, and flowers in the area. It’s the first mural by the Santa Ana Community Artist(a) Coalition. More than 30 local artists painted it as a call to action to prioritize the environment.

Location: El Tapatío Dos Mexicanos Grill, 1214 E. Pomona Street

Directions: About a 9-minute drive from the parking garage; go west on Grand Avenue and turn right on Edinger Avenue, then left on Minnie Street. This turns into Pomona Street. The mural is inside El Tapatío Dos Mexicanos Grill.

Often called the “Godfather of Chicano artists,” the late Emigdio Vasquez is beloved by local historians and artists. Recuerdos de Mi Pueblo is the 24th of 32 murals he completed in Orange County between 1975 and 2005.

Covering the length of the west wall inside El Tapatío Dos Mexicanos Grill, the mural shows scenes from a Mexican village, such as children with a piñata and a woman making tortillas. You can’t help but feel like part of the mural when you sit down for a bowl of menudo.

Location: Memorial Park pool, 2102 S. Flower Street

Directions: About a 6-minute drive from El Tapatío; drive west on Standard and then turn right on St. Gertrude Place. Park at the perimeter of Memorial Park.

Vasquez used a social-realist style to depict Chicano life in 20th- and 21st-century America. Playing on Grant Wood’s iconic 1930 painting American Gothic, Vasquez’s Chicano Gothic is a 6-foot-tall-by-20-foot-wide acrylic-on-cement mural located in the enclosed (and once segregated) outdoor swimming pool area in Santa Ana’s Memorial Park. The somber faces pay tribute to the labor of working-class residents like fruit pickers, factory workers, and craftspeople, honoring proud, hardworking families across the city and region.

Location: Bristol Swap Mall, 1204 S. Bristol Street

Directions: About a 4-minute drive from Memorial Park; drive north on St. Gertrude Place and turn right on Bristol Street.

Local artists Jose Lozano and Roger Eyes R. created these murals in collaboration with LibroMobile Arts Cooperative. You’ll find them between Tortillería Flor De Mexicali and the bookstore LibroMobile.

Designed in the style of Mexican lotería cards, the large-scale murals profile gente (people) and goods at the Bristol Swap Mall and food court—one of the last indoor swap meets in Santa Ana—which also features family-owned Thai, Mexican, Chinese, and Korean eateries.

Location: Santa Ana College, 1530 W. 17th Street

Directions: About a 10-minute drive from Bristol Swap Mall Plaza; head north on Bristol Street and turn left on 17th Street; park in the designated visitor spots in Lot 3. The mural is inside the Cesar Chavez Building near 17th and Bristol. Campus is closed on weekends.

The Legacy of Cesar Chavez was produced for Santa Ana College. This continuation of Vasquez’s many works depicts the urban experience of working-class Chicanos.

Located in the school’s Cesar Chavez Building, the mural shows Chavez with his United Farm Workers co-founder, Dolores Huerta; El Teatro Campesino founder Luis Valdez; and community organizer Fred Ross among migrant workers and the working-class community. It’s said that Vasquez considered this mural his favorite.

Location: Santa Ana College, 1530 W. 17th Street

Directions: About a 1-minute diagonal walk from the Cesar Chavez Building, Nealley Library is located west of the administration building. Closed on weekends.

Santa Ana College art history professor Shifra Goldman recruited Mexican artist Sergio O’Cadiz Moctezuma to design a mural in collaboration with several students from Santa Ana College’s MEChA organization (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan) in 1974.

Though several of O’Cadiz Moctezuma’s public works have been whitewashed or destroyed, History and Evolution of the Chicano in the United States is well-preserved inside the college’s Nealley Library. The mural depicts the historical and cultural roots of Chicanos as well as present-day themes, including the controversial death of Los Angeles Times reporter Ruben Salazar in 1970.

Sarah Rafael García is an award-winning Chicana author, multimedia artist, and digital archivist from Santa Ana. Along with local muralist Roger Reyes, she created the Mapping Santa Ana project to help visitors and history enthusiasts navigate murals and other landmarks across the city.