UCLA Activist-in-Residence Marlené Nancy Lopez discusses inspiration and process behind "Grieving Sun Mural" ahead of MacArthur Park reveal August 13
By Travis Dagenais Aug 8, 2023
Marlené Nancy Lopez was one of UCLA’s four 2023 Activists-in-Residence, and the inaugural Activist-in-Residence at UCLA cityLAB. Born and raised in LA’s MacArthur Park, Lopez has devoted years of service as a teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District and as a community organizer and art-based activist in MacArthur Park and throughout the city.
During her time at UCLA, Lopez developed an artistic vision she had been cultivating for decades: “Grieving Sun Mural,” an art installation that ecourages visitors both to acknowledge personal grief and loss, and to seek peace, joy, and love through community. Lopez reveals “Grieving Sun Mural” with an activation event in MacArthur Park this Sunday, August 13 at 3:30 pm, as part of Mundo Maya Foundation's sixth-annual Mundo Maya Day.
“Grieving Sun Mural" is inspired by histories and personal stories Lopez gathered from the MacArthur Park community, and nods to Indigenous architecture and cultural wisdom. Ahead of its reveal, Lopez discusses the project’s inspiration and how it took shape during her time at UCLA.
“Grieving Sun Mural” is a capstone for your year as an Activist in Residence at UCLA. But, it is also a project that you have had in mind for a long time.
When I was 13 years old, my father was suddenly killed on the Long Beach freeway after a night out with his co-workers. He was my best friend. Losing him destroyed my family's mental and financial health.
Lopez at her father's funeral age 13
We held his memorial service in his native Guatemala, near the home he grew up in. As we walked down the memorial procession, our family and neighbors from my father’s village walked beside me. We decorated his tomb with flowers, letters, candles, and prayers. My Guatemalan family held me, and created space for me. Their compassion and remembrance held me together in such a dark time. As I tried to make sense of this tragic moment, I needed my father’s life to matter, and Guatemala made me feel like his life mattered. Because of them, I felt stronger.
How did you nurture this mission from an idea to action?
I began with art parties through my family's creative collective, CrewNative, and became a teaching artist for the City of Los Angeles’ Summer Night Lights program. This work brought me to over 40 at-risk neighborhoods that the city works with as part of its Gang Reduction and Youth Development program. In these spaces, I witnessed the prevalence of mental health issues found in our youth today, as well as a shared need to heal and say goodbye to fallen loved ones and personal loss. Both factors, of course, grew more severe during the Covid-19 pandemic.
These experiences and stories inspired my art, including “Grieving Sun Mural.” I want people to find sacredness in the piece; I want them to feel like it was made for them to use and touch, but more importantly, I want anyone who is grieving a lost loved one to feel like we are all walking next to them with a wreath. The mural offers a space to write a letter, leave a photo, or just sit and remember. I wish for community members to leave items for music and art-making, and create impromptu art or music circles. I wish to fill my neighborhood with its own music and art–anything that summons healing, so they can go on and eventually free themselves from suffering.
I am so thankful to cityLAB for giving me the first opportunity to work on what has been a life-long project in the making.
Header Image: Marlené Nancy Lopez speaks at a campus event honoring the Monterey Park victims. Photo courtesy Luskin School of Public Affairs
