MARY, OUR MOTHER

Our Lady of Guadalupe on a surfboard
Mural in San Diego beach town stirs controversy


Authorities in the northern San Diego County beach town of Encinitas will likely order the removal of an illegal mural depicting Our Lady of Guadalupe on a surfboard despite pleas from some citizens to leave it alone.
The 10-foot-square mosaic made from pieces of stained glass showed up on a support wall below a train trestle on Good Friday, April 22. It shows Our Lady of Guadalupe surfing, with Juan Diego riding the tip of her surfboard, and bears the slogan: “Save the Ocean.”
According to various press reports, the elaborate “guerrilla art” was the work of a group posing as construction workers.
“Throngs of people came, one group after another, caressing the glass pieces forming Our Lady of Guadalupe on a surfboard or snapping cell phone photos of each other in front of the artwork,” the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.
Fr. Brian Corcoran of St. John the Evangelist Parish, located about a mile from the mural site, told the Union-Tribune he hoped the artwork would not be removed – but that if city officials ordered it taken down, he would welcome at his parish. “It is a great representation of God being close to us,” Fr. Corcoran told the newspaper.
An online Union-Tribune poll revealed that 90 percent of those responding favored leaving the mural alone. Supporters and opponents of the mural have also begun online petitions. Supporters of the mural even showed up at last week’s meeting of the Encinitas City Council.
But, according to the North County Times, it seems highly likely the city will order the mural removed. Encinitas assistant city manager Richard Phillips told the newspaper the artwork, regardless of its merit, “fits the definition of graffiti."
“Phillips emphasized that the city has a standard public art review process in which proposals are vetted by the city's Arts Commission before they can be installed,” reported the Times. “Allowing the mosaic to remain in place subverts that process, he said.”
Encinitas Councilman Jerome Stocks told the Union-Tribune he had even received complaints from Catholics, who found the depiction of Our Lady of Guadalupe as a surfer offensive.
“Chances are if we don’t take this down -- if someone puts a loving, glowing mosaic of Hitler or Osama Bin Laden across the street -- then how could we take that one down?” Stocks told the Union-Tribune.
Municipal officials were reportedly meeting with the city attorney yesterday to discuss their options. Because of the way the mural was erected – glued to the wall – authorities said it was unlikely it could be removed without doing damage to it.