The University of Northern Colorado’s mission with increasing Hispanic murals around campus should help Hispanic students and faculty feel comfortable and more at home when on campus.
‘El Centro de Educación de Aztlán,’ is a mural that was painted on the main level of Michener Library in spring 2023. Brenda Vargas, a first-generation Chicana/Mexican born student partnered with the Chicano Studies Department to present this new mural. Its purpose is supposed to serve the Hispanic student population by helping them feel safe and welcome while studying at the library.
Since the fall of 2020, UNC has been working on intentionally increasing resources and murals around campus to help serve the growing the Chicano/a and Latino/a community in Greeley. This effort is aimed to increase the student population of Hispanic students, transitioning UNC into a Hispanic-Serving Institution.
UNC features other Hispanic centered murals in other buildings around campus like the ‘Life and Times of Dr. Martin Candelaria’ mural located in the north stairwell of Candelaria Hall. As the first Hispanic professor at UNC, its purpose is to depict Dr. Martin Candelaria’s life in a unique and colorful way.
A mural painted of César Chávez, a civil rights activist and a farm labor leader, is hanging above the staircase in the University Center. Chávez is a Latino who led a non-violent movement in the mid-1900s, which paved the way for better wages and working conditions for millions of farm workers today. He is called one of the most important labor leaders of the 20th century by America’s Unions.
Another mural painted in 2020 titled “Somos Porque Eres,” located in the UC Commons brightens the room with its color, evoking emotion from anyone who looks at it. Now retired, Patricia Escobar was the director of the César Chávez Cultural Center in 2021 when the mural was first painted.
If you have time, check out these amazing murals around campus to understand the importance they have on the Hispanic students here at UNC.
