Open Air Art Museum in Bario Logan – Chicano Park

After living in San Diego for almost 10 years, I still discover some very interesting, unique places that I di not know exist in San Diego. One of those place is an “open air art museum” in Bario Logan – Chicano Park.

Is Bario Logan area safe to visit?

I work in National City close to Bario Logan and every time I mention it to someone I got whole bunch of comments and questions about safety. Dear friends, National City and Bario Logan are safe just like Tanzania, Morocco, Belize and whole bunch of other countries that I visited but did not have a chance to write about yet, but common sense is a key. In my 1 Day in Moshi Tanzania post I have some safe traveling tips that apply to any domestic and international travel.  Not only those areas are safe, but also there are a lot of interesting local non-touristy places and photo opportunities in Bario Logan and National City.

Open air “art museum” in Bario Logan – Chicano Park

Today during my lunch break I drove to Chicano park just to walk around for 10-15 minutes and take couple of pictures of the graffiti. I passed the park many times looking for places to eat in Bario Logan, but never bothered to stop by and look around. I used to think that Chicano park is just a random collection of graffiti. To my big surprised those “graffiti’ turned out to be famous almost 50-yearls old mural paintings, so I discovered open air free art m museum that is 7 minutes’ drive from my work. I ended up spending almost an hour there walking around the columns and admiring amazing mural art.

Best time to visit Chicano Park

When I got to the park around 11.30 there were plenty of parking spaces and the park was almost empty. It gets busy on weekends, but you can also park on the streets if the parking lot is full.

Visiting Chicano park

So, back to Chicano park. Chicano park is a small area underneath the Coronado bridge entrance, very local non-touristy place that starts getting more popularity due to Instagram and Pinterest. It totally worth visiting at least once to enjoy the colors and beautiful murals paintings.  The paintings looked very fresh and bright. Later on, I learned that majority of the old paintings were restored in 2012.

The history of Chicano Park

The park was formed in 1971 during San Diego re-zoning project, and couple of years later the bridge pylon towers painting history began. Chicano park faced some dark times when the paintings were rolled over, but it survived thanks to painters’ dedication and hard work.  Many local artists contributed to the park and now it has a rich collection of murals and modern contemporary art.

Mural in Chicano Park

So, the murals..Each bridge column tells a story, each painting has its own color scheme, style and every single painting delivers a message. The park is a tribute Murals and working-class Mexicans immigrant community of San Diego.

If you get to the park from Logan street you will see a huge wall painting dedicated murals and farmers workers.

Several  pylon  dedicated to Chicano movement and Viva La Raza.  The first thing that caught my attention the moment I entered the park was Frida portrait. As I followed the road under the bridge into the park Che Guevara image caught my attention.

Some art is still work in progress

The park has a small herbs garden across the street from the park. I was amazed how much work was invested into this little garden, little stones around agaves painted in red, green and white, old kids playground was in the process of restoration.

Chicano park is a great collection of Mural Art in San Diego, it is city history in colors.

Are looking for something non-touristy and very authentic to see in San Diego? If yes, add Chicano park to your list and enjoy your visit.