Precita Eyes

Precita Eyes Muralists Association is a community-based non-profit muralist and arts education group located in the Mission District of San Francisco, California, founded in 1977 by Susan and Luis Cervantes.

History

Precita Eyes Muralists Association was founded in 1977 by Susan and Luis Cervantes who had come to the Bay Area several years before and started a family. Susan Cervantes herself had been inspired by “Las Mujeres Muralistas,” the first all-women group of collaborative muralists from which she applies her strategy of collaborative, accessible, community art.

The organization evolved from a community mural workshop in which the participants designed and painted the portable mural “Masks of God, Soul of Man” for the Bernal Heights Library. The group signed the piece as Precita Eyes Muralists because the project was a collaborative effort. The name of the organization comes from the fact that most of the muralists were from Precita Valley. Precita is a diminutive form of the Spanish word ‘presa,’ which means dam; the word ‘Precita’ means little dam. The ‘Eyes’ in the name are what we perceive the visual world with, our own eyes.