A mural displayed to celebrate the Latin experience in SF LGBT culture was defaced just days after unveiling in the city’s Mission District.
Derogatory threats and accusations of cultural appropriation poured in after the “Por Vida” mural was unveiled Saturday. By Tuesday, the digital mural presented by Galeria de la Raza had been defaced with spray paint.
The director of Galería de la Raza, Ani Rivera, says “the defacing happened the last two nights after a conversation on social media shifted and turned negative.” Rivera said that on Monday night blue and red graffiti had appeared over both the gay and lesbian couple, followed Tuesday by spray paint defacing the transgender man in the middle of the mural. She speculated that the delay might have been caused by the perpetrators’ ignorance that the man was transgender.
Rivera also says, “I think it’s a hate crime when you’re vandalizing like this, based on everything that’s been happening on social media,” Rivera said. “This cult of violence — that’s the shocking part. This visceral reaction to male on male love — you’re wrong to call for violence for something you don’t understand.”
An employee at Precita Eyes, Maria Alvarado, said she guessed the mural would be defaced when she first saw it.
She said, “latinos are very macho and homophobic.When you put two men like that outside — they’re not going to like that. If you’re a little gang-banger, you’re not going to go for that.”
Police are investigating this case.
SOURCE: CBS
