A historian uses street art to illustrate the centrality of Latinos in Santa Barbara
Michael Montenegro stands next to the most famous piece of street art in his hometown. It's a mural at Ortega Park that depicts Mexican-American farm workers tending crops as the sun rises on the horizon.
Each figure's hat represents a different color of the Mexican flag — white, green and red. Towering over them is what at first looks like an eagle spreading its wings. On closer inspection, it turns out to be the acronym for the United Farm Workers — UFW — a reference to this region's ties to the Chicano labor movement led by Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez.
"Seeing these folks rising with the sun, with the glory of the eagle in the background, it's very empowering," says Montenegro, a 32-year-old local historian and blogger, of the mural by Manuel Unzueta.
Montenegro began giving public tours of murals as a personal "passion project" a decade ago. It has become his way of pushing back against the idea that only the wealthy and the white can find belonging in this lush beach town
