Fulton Mall mural “gives voice” to children yanked from families

The children in Lost Ángeles artist Lalo García’s most recent mural aren’t smiling.

They’re not playing games.

They’re not enjoying a childhood of laughter.

That’s because the ‘Children in Cages/No Más Family Separations’ mural is designed to bring attention to family separations at the border that have separated many children of asylum seekers.

“This inhumane practice does not represent who we are as a country, and we must do what we can to ensure that it never happens again, ever,” said Julio C. Bustos, founder/director of Teocalli Cultural Academy.

Dancers performed at the May 16 unveiling of the mural, which will be in front of the dance center at 1018 Fulton St. for up to two months.

Bustos said the mural, which is fronted by a section of chain link fence, is designed to give children a voice.

“We give voice to children who can’t be heard,” said Bustos, who told an audience at the Mariposa Mall that he came to the U.S. without papers and remembers crying while being cramped with other family members in a coyote’s car trunk.

Bustos hopes the mural will also give children a lesson.

“Some of them are too young to realize how lucky they are that they don’t have to go through the plights of other children. It’s about making sure they are also involved in the community when they grow up,” he told KSEE Channel 24.

Fresno City Councilmember Miguel Arias said the Fulton Mall location of the mural is perfect because the downtown area has been a gathering place for immigrants for decades.

“The Fulton Mall is exactly the right place for the mural that depicts the inhumane actions of the last administration to separate families,” said Arias.

“The mural, in my mind, is for everyone else who visits downtown, everyone else who doesn’t have the Latino experience. We lived that for years.”

Arias said separating families who flee their country in desperation to escape starvation or violence and lawfully seek asylum “is not the best part of us.”

“That’s not the better angels that this country was built on. And it doesn’t represent all of us,” said Arias.

He said the mural “is going to start that conversation, among others, who haven’t felt that immigrant experience that we felt for years.”

“Nobody should ever have their kids weaponized.”

The mural, he added, “is a reminder for everyone else that we stand silently and allow the most vulnerable to be treated humanely.”