Many upset after community murals on East San Jose building painted over – NBC Bay Area

Many were upset after two murals outside of a building sold about a year ago in East San Jose were painted over by the building’s new owner.

A social media post by nonprofit ConXión says Martha’s Kitchen painted over two community murals on the outside of the building ConXión sold to them in 2025.

“No warning, nothing else was painted, so it wasn’t like they were painting the whole building, it was just those things,” President and CEO of ConXión Lori Chávez said. “The murals themselves have a lot of significance because it shows history.”

Chávez says one of the murals was created with young people who participated in an after-school program for native American and Latino students.

“That mural was done by Jimmy Fonseca and it was done in collaboration with the youth, with kids at the after-school program,” Chávez said.

Chávez says ConXión discussed the murals with Martha’s Kitchen during negotiations to sell the building.

“We told them, we love these murals, they’re important to the community, we’d like for you to keep them, inside and out, and he agreed, ‘Yes they’re beautiful, we’ll keep them’,” Chávez said.

But Martha’s Kitchen Executive Director Bill Lee says that conversation never happened.

“They never raised the issue, and that’s one of the reasons I’m very disappointed with that social media post because they never asked us to preserve the mural,” Lee said.

Lee says Martha’s Kitchen told ConXión in October that it intended to paint over the murals.

He says the exterior needed to be painted, and the murals did not represent Martha’s Kitchen’s mission.

“Unfortunately, the mural neither represents what our organization does, we feed people who are starving, we feed the homeless,” Lee said.

Lee says Martha’s Kitchen plans to put a new mural on a nearby wall, one that he says will reflect the organization’s work.

“That mural will represent food being grown, food being prepared, food being consumed which is what we do, we’re here for the community, we rescue food that would otherwise go into the landfill and feed people that would otherwise go hungry,” Lee said.

ConXión says the murals represented an important part of the community’s story.

Martha’s Kitchen says it plans to replace them with artwork that better reflects its mission.

San Jose City Councilman Bien Doan sent a statement addressing the situation.

“I was very disappointed to see the murals were covered up. I know Martha’s Kitchen wants to be a good neighbor, but that means respecting and embracing our cultural values and histories, especially with respect to our children. It is my hope that this mural will be replaced soon and that they incorporate imaging representative of our youth and indigenous residents,” he wrote.