Monrovia’s public art program known as Neighborhood Treasures next plans to honor a Mexican American family that helped shape the city and inspire young Chicanos to higher education — but where to put the installation has stirred up controversy.
The Gutierrez family wants the two monuments, which will honor Francisco Gutierrez and his son, Felix Gutierrez Sr., installed at Monrovia’s Library Park in the heart of Old Town, but the program’s rules may limit them to a residential neighborhood.
This is the first time in the fledgling program’s history the city plans to unveil two Neighborhood Treasures simultaneously.
In a letter to the city’s Art in Public Places Committee, Felix Gutierrez Sr.’s son, Felix Gutierrez Jr., professor emeritus of communications at USC, requested that the monuments be placed along the sidewalk at Library Park on Myrtle Avenue.
However, the committee at a June 26 meeting unanimously decided to follow city staff’s recommendation, which suggested placing the monuments at the northwest corner of Recreation Park at Shamrock and Lemon avenues. City Council will vote on the proposed location Tuesday, July 16.
In 2016, Mayor Tom Adams contacted Gutierrez Jr. about creating a public art piece to honor his father and grandfather. The two agreed that Library Park was the perfect place for it, but when Adams and Gutierrez Jr. had that conversation, the program to honor the city’s social pioneers had not launched yet.
“When we looked up by Library Park, I thought, ‘This would be a great spot for it,’ and I meant that in my heart,” Adams, said. “Unbeknownst to me at the time, there was already a plan in place for all of the art and things that we do to honor people, which would not allow this to be in Library Park.”
That plan was the Neighborhood Treasures program. It started last year, with a tribute to Lt. Col. Allen Allensworth, the first African American Lieutenant Colonel in the Navy and first pastor of Second Baptist Church in Monrovia.
Looking back, had he been more prudent, Adams said, he would have asked city staff whether the request could be fulfilled.
The Gutierrez legacy
Francisco Gutierrez was born in 1871 at the original San Gabriel Mission site. He came to Monrovia from Azusa in 1905 as a foreman and cement finisher for the B.R. Davisson contracting company, according to a write up about his life by his grandson, Felix Gutierrez Jr.
In 1925, he opened his own cement contracting business, called Frank Gutierrez and Son; his older son, Frank Gutierrez, ran the company with him, Felix Gutierrez Jr. said.
Francisco Gutierrez was one of two business owners with a Spanish surname on Monrovia’s business registry at that time, he added. “F.J. Gutierrez” can still be seen stamped into sidewalks around Monrovia. Before moving to Monrovia, Francisco Gutierrez was an Azusa Deputy Constable and a Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriff, Felix Gutierrez Jr. wrote.
“He was living the American dream by going beyond the boundaries that others would place on him as long as he could as long as he could get back (to) his home below the tracks at night,” Felix Gutierrez Jr. said.
In the early 20th century, Mexican Monrovians could only live south of the railroad tracks, he added.
When people tried to confine him to roles deemed fit only for minorities at the time, “he’d say, ‘Give me a chance to show you what I can do,’ and they decided, ‘Why not show him that he could prove his worth?’” Felix Gutierrez Jr. said.
Felix Gutierrez Sr. was born in 1918 in Monrovia. He was the first cartoonist for Monrovia-Arcadia-Duarte High School’s newspaper, the Wildcat, Felix Gutierrez Jr. wrote in a memoir about his father’s life. The school, which largely served the three cities’ black and brown population, used to be referred to as MAD, he said.
Felix Gutierrez Sr. was one of two Spanish-surnamed graduates in the 1937 Monrovian yearbook, he added. As a student at then Pasadena Junior College in 1938, he founded The Mexican Voice magazine, a publication to inspire Mexican youth to educate themselves and break boundaries like he and his father did, Felix Gutierrez Jr. wrote.
The magazine circulated around organizations throughout the Southwest and inspired the Mexican American Movement, incorporated in 1942, of which Felix Gutierrez Sr. was a founder and president, Felix Gutierrez Jr. wrote. The publication grew out of the Mexican Youth Conference, a YMCA of Los Angeles program to create a pathway to higher education for Los Angeles’ Latinos, Felix Gutierrez Jr. said.
Visibility
Jimmy O’Balles, art curator and co-founder of the Monrovia Latino Heritage Society, believes because Library Park is home to a Mark Twain statue, the Gutierrez monuments should be installed there too.
“In Monrovia, the student body from K-12 is 70% Latino — those numbers aren’t going down,” O’Balles said. “I feel that it would be great for the young Latinos — or any young people — to see a Latino, distinguished family from Monrovia be honored in such a way where the city can be proud.”
O’Balles also spearheaded the renaming of Olive Avenue Park in Monrovia to Lucinda Garcia Park in 2011, the first time the city publicly honored its Latino heritage. Lucinda Garcia was an equal rights activist who in the 1930s, with O’Balles’ grandmother and other women in the city, went to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles to fight for equal treatment at the Immaculate Conception Church in Monrovia, O’Balles said.
“At the time, Mexican Americans had to sit in the back pews … and they weren’t allowed to participate as deacons” and in other clergy positions, O’Balles said.
The decision point
“This message deserves a place in the heart of Monrovia, where people going in (the library) can see the value of education, the inspirational quotes and such,” Felix Gutierrez Jr. said.
The city, however, is so far standing behind its goal to keep the Neighborhood Treasures near homes. Given how the program is structured, Adams said he can’t see an alternative.
However, Felix Gutierrez Jr. said he plans to keep lobbying to get his father and grandfather in Library Park and is optimistic the outcome will go his way.
Artist Jose Antonio Aguirre was handpicked by the Gutierrez family for the project, Craig Jimenez, community development director for Monrovia, said. He also created neighboring Azusa’s newest public art piece, an A-shaped statue bearing the city seal unveiled in April.
The city is considering another public art program based in Old Town, Jimenez, said. To get the Gutierrez monuments in Library Park, reconsideration of the two art pieces under another program could be possible, but would undergo a much bigger discussion with the City Council about changing its policies for public art, Jimenez said.
The City Council is set to decide the monuments’ futures Tuesday, July 16.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This article has been edited to correct the college home of magazine The Mexican Voice, which spurred the formation of the Mexican American Movement.
