Center Mural

In the fall of 1997, Professor Haiming Liu collaborated with Lui Amador, coordinator of the Asian & Pacific Islander Student Center, and Eliseo Silvia, a Southern California Filipino American muralist, to offer a course entitled Asian American Murals.  In this class, eighteen students who were Asian, Pacific Islander, and non-API in ethnic descent, learned about different Asian American murals while researching contemporary issues facing the API community today.  Students participated in workshop-style sessions that helped them determine the best material to use for a mural.  The students then determined the themes and issues in API cultural and political history that felt most relevant to them.  By working with closely with Eliseo Silvia, these students were instrumental in determining the final image of the mural, and even painted the mural itself in April 1998. Currently, the 20-foot mural stands at the entrance of the APISC, welcoming the Cal Poly community into our space.

The goal of our project is to educate the community on a few of the prominent Asian American and Pacific Islander murals within the greater Los Angeles County. It is our hope that through understanding these murals, people will gain a better sense of the history of activism Asians and Pacific Islanders come from, as well as the struggles and achievements that the API community has experienced. After countless hours of exploring the many different API communities through art and conversing with artists and those knowledgeable about these murals, we are proud to present to you a glimpse of the heart, mind and soul that build and maintain our diverse communities.