Education: Eliot Elementary School unveils new mural

Artist mentored group of 4th and 5th graders on project’s inspiring themes

By Kaylee Arca

The afternoon of Día de Los Muertos brought a celebration of  art, culture, and community to Eliot Elementary School. After five years of imagining, planning, and creating, Principal Maricela Rivera and others unveiled a colorful mural created by students on an exterior wall of the school.

The Gilroy American Association of University Women helped to pay for half of the artwork located on a campus building facing Chestnut Street.

“During COVID, we wanted to do something for the teachers,” AAUW member Christina Tovar said at the Nov. 2 unveiling. “We wanted to do more than give gift cards and mugs.”

Rivera introduced the idea of creating a mural at the school when she became principal. Tovar worked closely with her and managed the project. She estimated the total cost at about $5,000. AAUW fundraised half of the funds and community members donated the rest.

“This is my fifth year here at Eliot,” Rivera said. “There was a blank slate here, and I always wanted a mural where my students can grow up, come by, and say ‘I did this.’”

Muralist Shile Cifuentes mentored the fourth and fifth graders in the afterschool program. For a year, they drew, sketched, imagined, and worked together to create a visual of traditions, culture, and academics with the help of art kits donated by the AAUW.

“The first time I met the kids, I told them they were going to paint on the wall,” Cifuentes said. “But I don’t think they realized that they were actually going to paint on the wall.”

Cifuentes has rendered other murals around the Gilroy Unified School District. She started training as a muralist at Gavilan Community College. Rivera chose her after her most recent artwork at Glen View Elementary School.

At first, the young students were nervous and apprehensive about the daunting project. Many of them had little to no experience creating art.

Cifuentes reassured the students she was not there to make fun of their talent. Her job was to provide critiques to help the young artists grow their creative skills.

“I wanted Shile to bring the kids on a journey to find things that inspired and reminded them of who they are,” Rivera said.

Cifuentes’ first order of business was to make a list with the students of everything they wanted to see on the wall. The long list of ideas ranged from rapper Snoop Dogg to mangos.

To help direct the students’ ideas, she asked them if they play lotería, a Spanish game similar to bingo. The students decided to create their own lotería, basing it on the original game but personalized to represent the school.

Once the design was finalized, the students traced the mural onto the wall of the stage outside of the multipurpose room. They were still apprehensive when Cifuentes bought the array of paints. The students painted the bottom six feet of the wall. Cifuentes painted the remaining top portion. After the pain dried, everyone signed the mural.

The result is a 12-feet-tall colorful canvas with the students’ favorite authors, athletes, musicians, scientists, food, songs, games, and more. Argentine soccer star Lionel Messi, basketball star Kobe Bryant, Latina artist Frida Kahlo, and civil rights activist Dolores Huerta make up the most prominent figures in the mural.

“Working on the mural was a good experience because I liked how it included my favorite author, Francisco Jimenez,” said Ashley, a fifth grader.” It was special to me because the flag of my country, Honduras, is on the mural. Whenever I look at it I feel special because we put a lot of effort into it.”

The mural’s design also includes  Eliot’s six character pillars: trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, citizenship.

“Shile was amazing with all of the stuff she did,” Tovar said. “She just has a way with the kids. She really helped the students realize what they can do.”

As an immigrant from Chile, Cifuentes encouraged the Eliot students to be proud of their cultures represented in paint on the wall mural.

She moved to South Valley from her homeland as a high school student. The artist only spoke Spanish when she arrived in America and felt embarrassed of her ethnicity. She now empowers students to embrace their cultures and share their diversity through art.

“Be who you are,” Cifuentes said. “You don’t have to be somebody else. But you have to be proud of yourself. People are going to talk no matter if you do something or you don’t. So it’s better to do it.”

The students, staff, and surrounding community of Eliot Elementary School can now appreciate the mural and the students’ dedication, Tovar said.

“I’m an admirer of art, so when I look at it, I see how AAUW, the community, and children came together and made this beautiful thing that is hopefully going to be here for many years,” she said.

Kaylee Arca is a Morgan Hill-based freelance reporter.