They arrived in the US as children. New Fresno mural tells story of immigrants

Delma Gorostieta is a lawyer, not a muralist.

But she’s up on a ladder, helping smooth out a large swatch of canvas as it is glued to a wall on the side of building facing Highway 180 in downtown Fresno.

Painted on the canvas, in black, gray and accented blue, is a rendering of her face.

“It’s such a big contrast,” says Gorostieta, who flew in from Texas on Saturday to be part of the installation and unveiling of this mural, which tells the stories US Childhood Arrivals like herself.

“I was taught to live in the shadows, to be under the radar,” says Gorostieta, who was born in Mexico and came to the United States at 3 years old.

It was only in college, and later in law school, that she began to tell her story. “And now, my whole face is up there.”

The US Childhood Arrival mural project

There are nearly two dozen faces on the mural, painted in contrasted shades of black and gray with understated pops of glitter, on a set of red fingernails or a gold necklace. The paintings themselves were done on canvas last month at community art sessions at the Chicano Youth Center, My Homies Kitchen and the Dream Centers at the city colleges in Reedley and Fresno.

On Saturday, those pieces were affixed to the wall of the Fulton Street Studios building as part of a community event that also served as a grand opening for the businesses inside.

The canvas was painted with a special glue and then finished with a protective varnish that is designed to last 10 years, says Lizbeth De La Cruz Santana, who curated the project from Fresno and from New York City, where she teaches at Baruch College.

The materials — the canvas, paint and glitter — were chosen to be seen, but also touched and experienced. As that happens, the mural itself will change, De La Cruz Santana says.

“It’s like a living wall, a living archive.”

Below each portrait is a QR code that leads to a website where you can hear each story as told by the person. “The mural is more than an art piece — it’s a call to recognize the humanity, resilience, and rights of a generation of immigrants we raised and who recognize this country as their home,” De La Cruz Santana wrote of the project.

Several of the faces are empty; just blank gray spaces where features should be.

This was a purposeful, if not necessary choice, De La Cruz Santana says.

In one way, it’s protective. Several of the people she chose to share stories had agreed, but later backed out of the project after Donald Trump was elected president and began his deportation efforts. Their stories are available by following the QR code, but only to those willing to do that extra bit of work.

But the blank faces are also representative.

They are the stories not yet told, says Jose Barrera, a political organizer and DACA recipient who came to the U.S. when he was 2 years old. Barrera, whose face and story are also included in the mural, has been doing legislative work and advocacy since he was in high school and says it was important for him to be at the unveiling to show support for the project, even as there is a growing tension and reluctance among many immigrants to be seen.

The mural’s unveiling purposefully coincided with the June 15 anniversary of DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. Created in 2012 by executive order of then-President Barack Obama. DACA protects undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children from deportation and provides them with work authorization and social security numbers. Obama expanded the program in 2014, only to have it rescinded by President Trump in 2017 during his first term.

By coincidence, the unveiling also followed a series of enforcement raids — and ensuing protests — in Los Angeles and rumors of possible enforcement actions at Fresno’s Cherry Auction.

Several people featured in the mural were scheduled to speak at the unveiling, but canceled Saturday morning due to fear of local Immigration and Customs Enforcement, De La Cruz Santana says.

Continued work for De La Cruz Santana

The US Childhood Arrivals mural is a bi-coastal project.

A similar mural — the same stories and images painted by different artists — was started in New York City early this year. It will be finished in October.

It is the latest in a series of such projects from De La Cruz Santana, a Fresno State graduate whose family moved to the Central Valley from Los Angeles when she was 15.

Last year, she created the “Deported Veterans Diaspora Project,” which showcased the faces and stories of deported veterans along the US-Mexico border. “Paso del Norte” shared a dozen stories of deportees through a set of murals in Ciudad Juárez and El Paso.

“I would see art at the border,” De La Cruz Santana says, but it never showcased the stories or faces of the people it was meant to represent.

Turns out, that is a hard sell. She worked for a year trying to find someplace to house the US Childhood Arrival mural in Fresno. Even with interest from National Geographic magazine, people were put off by the fact that the stories and faces were real, she says.

“It’s a lot to carry,” she says.

“Listening to these stories is heavy.”

This story was originally published June 16, 2025 at 2:29 PM.