New murals in LA celebrate culture, local artists and FX's new season of Mayans M.C.

BOYLE HEIGHTS, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- The city of angels has many colorful and vibrant murals. Recently three new murals have been added to celebrate communities, culture, local artists and FX's season three premiere of Mayans M.C.

"I wanted the Mexican and Chicano culture that the show is inspired by or that it features, I wanted it to be featured in the mural," said Lalo Alcaraz, an artist who painted one of the murals.

This project was a collaborative effort between FX and the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts that selected three local artists who each painted a mural in Silver Lake, Echo Park and Boyle Heights.

"I think what the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts is doing is amazing, both on the screen and in this case off the screen. Representation has never been more important," said Levi Ponce, an artist who created the mural in Silver Lake. "They're doing work to make sure that we're represented on the screen; and the fact that they worked, you know, to create space to provide canvases for murals, I think is huge - especially in Latino neighborhoods."

The artists said they connected with different characters and scenes from the show and that's what inspired each of the murals they painted. Artist Sonia Romero painted her mural in her hometown of Echo Park.

"I wanted to portray the female character Adelita in my mural," said Romero. "I wanted to put in the bougainvillea motif in the background to symbolize, you know, this neighborhood. It's springtime right now, everything's blooming. But also our relationship with Mexico on the other side of the border, and I think it's a strong symbol of Latinx culture."

A unique aspect each mural has is a QR code that a passerby can scan to get info about the show, the artists and the community where the mural is located.

"We wanted to make that neighborhood part of our project," said Kenya Hardaway, senior vice president of integrated promotions at FX Networks. "And in doing so we curated a list of Latinx-owned businesses that we wanted to encourage people to explore and continue to support the community as part of this project."

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