San Antonio resident Theresa Powers poses for a photo with volunteers who helped her restore her mural “La Quinceañera.” Powers painted the mural 30 years ago in Los Angeles, and it has become a symbol of pride in the Echo Park neighborhood.
Theresa Powers/Photo courtesy of Theresa Powers
San Antonio resident Theresa Powers works on restoring her mural “La Quinceañera.” Powers painted the mural 30 years ago in Los Angeles, and it has become a symbol of pride in the Echo Park neighborhood.
Theresa Powers/Photo courtesy of Theresa Powers
Carolina Flores Peterson was the model for Theresa Powers’ mural “La Quinceañera.” Peterson was on hand last month when Powers returned to restore the painting.
Theresa Powers/Photo courtesy of Theresa Powers
San Antonio resident Theresa Powers works on restoring her mural “La Quinceañera.” Powers painted the mural 30 years ago in Los Angeles, and it has become a symbol of pride in the Echo Park neighborhood.
Theresa Powers/Photo courtesy of Theresa Powers
Volunteers help San Antonio resident Theresa Powers restore her mural “La Quinceañera.”
Theresa Powers/Photo courtesy of Theresa Powers
Last month, San Antonio artist Theresa Powers traveled 1,300 miles to restore a bit of Los Angeles history that she’d help create.
Back in 1996, Powers had been asked to paint a 30-foot by 24-foot mural on the wall of an Echo Park restaurant building.
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She chose a cultural event that would resonate with the area’s residents: The quinceañera, the coming-of-age event that celebrates a girl’s 15th birthday in Latino culture.
Titled “La Quinceañera,” the painting features a patio-table-sized pink rose and 15-year-old Carolina Flores, swathed in her quinceañera finery, long black hair flowing over ruffled sleeves and a pink, floor-length gown. In the background, her mother and uncle pray in the aisle of a church.
In the years since, Powers’ mural has become a symbol of Latino culture and pride in the Los Angeles neighborhood, a touchstone for the thousands of pedestrians and drivers who passed by it every week.
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The mural has survived the years, but not in perfect condition. So on June 29, Powers was back in Echo Park to give it a needed touch-up.
She and her husband, Don Williams, arrived early that morning in their rental car, carrying a suitcase packed with acrylic paint. By the time volunteers showed up Powers had set up a command center with a small tarp, paint and brushes on the sidewalk. They used photocopies of the original to restore her mural that celebrates a young girl’s coming of age.
“They care deeply about the art,” said Powers, 57, “and keeping the roots of the city and the neighborhood intact.”
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‘We love this mural’
Powers, who is now assistant head of the Montessori School of San Antonio, never imagined her work would take on a life of its own.
In 1993, she’d graduated from the University of California Irvine with a degree in studio art. Two years later, she was living in Echo Park and working as an art teacher at a private school when she entered a contest to paint a mural.
People in the neighborhood gathered on community pride day to help paint the mural. She titled it “Echo Park the World,” and it depicted a girl who lived in the neighborhood holding up the world.
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“People loved that they saw themselves,” Powers said. “Especially their kids.”
Her wall painting won the contest. Powers said the mural lasted until a few years ago, when someone painted over it.
Then, in 1996, she received a call from the city council that led to her painting “La Quinceañera.” Her students and volunteers helped create the mural, which depicted the special day of Carolina Flores, who was then one her students.
Over the years, “La Quinceañera” faced the threat of erasure several times. In 2012, she received a call from the owners of Señor Fish, the restaurant that occupied the building with the mural. They had started to sandblast the art away when residents rallied against the action.
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“People said ‘no, we love this mural,’ ” Powers said. “I was humbled by the outcry. I wanted it to be meaningful to people in the neighborhood and certainly meaningful to young girls.”
She said the owners worked with artist Kiki Giet, who repainted the damaged section of the mural.
‘No words to describe it’
Since then, the art has mainly stayed intact even as its building has changed ownership. Powers said there’s been minimal tagging on the wall from local graffiti artists, and friends of the mural have always cleaned it up when it does happen.
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Over the years, Powers has stayed in contact with the mural’s protectors, and they called her when someone repainted the pink rose, changing its color to flat red.
“Pink is important for the mural,” Powers said. “Fifteen is about quinceañera, promise and innocence.”
When Powers returned to her old neighborhood, more than 20 friends, Instagram followers and volunteers pitched in to help repaint the image. The current restaurant owners offered the crew food. Residents handed out bottles of water. A documentary filmmaker filmed footage of the event. Two businessmen gave her a shirt adorned with one of her older murals.
“Everybody was so generous and open-hearted,” Powers said.
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She said the most surprising moment was when when the person depicted in the painting arrived, carrying a bouquet of flowers to present to Powers. Carolina Flores Peterson, who is now married with two grown sons, said the project is important to her.
“There’s no words to describe what this means to me,” she said in an Instagram video. “To have painted a little bit of it right now brings back memories of that summer and that time of my life.”
Powers said she has been touched by how much the mural means to so many people.
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“I feel I’m a shepherd of it at this point,” Powers said. “I’m so grateful that people care about it and love it.”