One stands three stories tall over the Holyoke Community College courtyard, featuring a sepia-toned likeness of a bomba dancer and drummer. Another lines an entire wall on the second floor of the HCC Campus Center, spelling out “E-L C-E-N-T-R-O” in bold, blue letters from floor to ceiling behind silhouettes of icons of Latin American history. The third, a brightly colored image of a traditional Puerto Rican vejigante mask, welcomes visitors into El Centro, HCC’s bilingual student-support program, while also, it is said, warding off evil spirits. All three were painted by muralist Betsy Casañas in collaboration with the City of Holyoke and the nonprofit Beyond Walls project. “There is such a large Puerto Rican presence here in Holyoke,” she said. “I wanted to bring a little bit of Puerto Rico here to HCC.” She called the large indoor mural a kind of “starter package of Latin American history.” Among the 16 figures represented there are baseball legend Roberto Clemente (of Puerto Rico), Nobel-prize winning author Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Colombia), and many more lesser-known but no less important people, such as the Mirabal sisters, who were murdered after demonstrating against the dictator Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic. “Not only are the murals beautiful,” said El Centro director Julissa Colón, “but they show our students that their history has value, that they come from incredible stories of strength, success, bravery, and joy.”
~ CHRIS YURKO
Mural on the second floor of the HCC Campus Center
Mural in the HCC courtyard, featuring a likeness of a bomba dancer and drummer
