MLK and Pancho Villa
MLK and Mexican President Benito Juárez
MLK and the Virgin of Guadalupe
Latino imagery invades MLK murals
In observance of MLK Day, TIME magazine’s Lightbox presents a slideshow containing a series of point-and-shoot photos taken by Chilean photographer Camilo José Vergara, who has spent his career photographing the poorest and most segregated communities in urban USA.
This piece is remarkably different from what you can normally find in TIME’s Lightbox series, mainly because most of these pictures would never qualify as “astounding” neither by art photography standards nor by traditional photojournalism criteria. What is meaningful though, is the significance they bear as an impromptu collection, something Camilo José explains in the original post (throwing the Latino imagery into the mix):
I didn’t set out to intentionally document murals and signs—rather, I found one and photographed it, then another, and soon I had a unique, well defined collection of images of Dr. King.
On the streets, Dr. King is represented in many ways—sometimes a statesman, other times a visionary, hero or martyr. The sign painters and amateur artists who create these portraits use iconic photographs of Dr. King to model their subject. However, they often fall short of producing a perfect likeness.
It is not uncommon for Dr. King to look Latino, Native American or Asian. In Los Angeles, after the riots in 1992, many Latino shopkeepers painted Dr. King’s portrait on the façades of their businesses in the hope of deterring rioters. Furthermore, in other Latino neighborhoods, figures such as Pancho Villa, Benito Juárez and the Virgin of Guadalupe appear with Dr. King.
FJP: Right below Benito Juárez’s depiction, the painter added the well-known quote attributed to that Mexican President: “Respect for the rights of others is peace.” That quote is perhaps the most famous saying ever recorded in passive voice (it’s legalese, after all).
Bonus: If you are curious about the MLK-Chile connection, go ahead and read Ariel Dorfman’s essay Martin Luther King: A Latin American Perspective. It’s worth your time.
Images: MLK murals by Camilo José Vergara, via TIME Lightbox.