In Memory of Celia Cruz by Chico and Pete, East Village, Manhattan
I took this photo of a mural done by Chico and Pete in Memory of Celia Cruz on the corner of Houston Street and Avenue B while waiting for the bus. Celia Cruz, the Queen of Salsa, died last year at the age of 79.
In this photo that was taken in daylight the artists’ signature is to the right of the mural. In my photo the signature is in the upper left and to the right is an ad for Duane Reade.
See also:
– Murals of NYC’s Lower East Side by Gabe Kirchheimer
– RIP Mural by Chico by Matty and Omari
– Chico’s Graffiti Murals by Jonathon White
i love wall murals. they’re a great way to honor people who’ve died. and that one of celia cruz is incredible.
the one of celia cruz really is nice.. as are all of chico’s murals.. this has gotten me started on researching his work. i dont know who pete is though. also, remember those beautiful murals we saw in harlem? i wonder who did those.
I live right across the street from that mural and Celia is one of the first things I see when I wake up. About a year or 2 ago Chico did a mural on that same wall of George Bush, The Pope, and Sadam… it was up for about 5 days before he redid it and took out GWB and Sadam. Word on the street was that a bunch of men in black suits went into the Duane Reade on 2nd and B (then it was Kings) and told them to redo the mural. I think the pharmacy must rent the wall for advertising.
i came across this page this morning when i started my research (at least this insomnia is good for something!).. the page shows a before & after of the pope/bush/saddam wall. .. and also a little bit farther down is a photo of a note someone left by the painting of bush that said “he tried to kill my daddy”.
ยป http://wrybread.com/gammablablog/archives/street-art-paint.htm
Where in Harlem were the murals you saw? A lot of the murals up here are by theTats Cru. In East Harlem there’s a lot of work by James De La Vega. east-harlem.com has a large gallery of wall art images.
For what it’s worth, I have another daylight picture of the Celia Cruz mural over here…
http://www.picpatrol.com/graffiti_murals/200402/celia_cruz_memorial.shtml
And that wall has been used for other memorials in the past such as this one to Selena and Elisa…
http://www.picpatrol.com/graffiti_murals/200302/selena_elisa_murals.shtml
jack, thanks for the links.. wow.. great site.. i look forward to exploring it more!
joe, im not sure where the murals were up there. they were on a busy street and were on the gates of closed stores.. anyone remember? jeannette? masako?
it was on the way back to the a/c subway from amy ruth’s. on a big avenue. but i can’t remember exactly where…
oh, i bet it is the one on Fred Douglass up near the Magic Johnson theaters.