08/27/2025
We would like to congratulate artist Álvaro Daniel Márquez for their recent completion of a civic art project at Bassett Park.
"Memories of La Puente" is a three-panel linocut-based mural that was designed in consultation with local residents, and which captures three distinct eras in the shaping of the Bassett and La Puente communities. With one panel referencing the Tongva settlement of Awigna, which existed prior to the establishment of Rancho La Puente, the mural honors the area's first inhabitants while acknowledging the subsequent settlers who developed the surrounding communities. A second panel makes references to the history of agricultural production that was centered in the area in the early 20th century, where the land was fertile and used for walnut and avocado production. A third, center panel refers to contemporary activities in the area, like the popular swap meet across from Bassett Park, as well as the vibrant culture of keeping horses for which the surrounding areas are known.
Álvaro Daniel Márquez (b. 1981, Salinas, CA) is a multi-disciplinary artist whose artistic practice encompasses printmaking, mixed media, installation, and public art. Their artwork centers on the overlapping regimes of displacement that have shaped the American West, including Spanish colonization, Mexican statehood, and Yankee settlement after the U.S.-Mexico War, all of which produced different forms of displacement for Indigenous and Mexican residents of LA County and shaped contemporary issues like redlining and segregation, homelessness, and gentrification.
Bassett Park is a park owned or operated by the County of Los Angeles Department of Parks and Recreation
