Today the city re-unveiled "América Tropical," "the only surviving public mural by David Alfaro Siqueiros in the United States still in its original location," according to a press release. The mural was first painted on the second story of the Italian Hall at El Pueblo on this day in 1932--it depicts "a Mexican Indian tied to a double cross with an American eagle above him, and revolutionary soldiers--one aiming at the eagle--closing in." The subject matter was too controversial for The Man of the 1930s and the piece was partly whitewashed almost immediately (and completely covered over the next few years). The Getty Conservation Institute and the city spent a couple years reviving the mural, calling it a conservation, not a restoration: "Owing to the early whitewashing and ongoing exposure to the elements, the mural's pictorial surface is significantly deteriorated and its colors have become faint." Architecture firm *Pugh + Scarpa added a canopy and sun shades to protect the mural, as well as a rooftop viewing platform; they also worked with design firm IQ Magic on an interpretive center about the mural at Sepulveda House. The GCI has agreed to take care of the mural for the next decade, but after that it's up to the city.
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