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We're paying tribute to our city's Hispanic heritage, and the contributions of Hispanic residents past and present, with selections from our historic context study on Latino communities in DC. The study is being developed in partnership with the DC Preservation League and is funded by the National Park Services’ Underrepresented Communities Grant Program.
The legacy of the District’s Latino community can be seen in businesses, organizations, and public spaces across the city, especially in the neighborhoods of Adams Morgan, Mount Pleasant, and Columbia Heights. For this article, we're focusing on public art that reflects Hispanic culture in the Mount Pleasant and Adams Morgan neighborhoods. As Latin American immigrants arrived in DC in larger numbers in the late 1970s and early 1980s, murals helped foster a sense of community and were a source of pride for the new residents.
 Photos: guy_incognito on Flickr
A trio of three murals along Klingle Rd NW stretch across a long section of retaining wall. They were designed by artist Jorge Luis Somarriba. Young people from the Latin American Youth Center painted the sections, titled "A Tribute to Life," "Youth of the World," and "Canto a la Esperanza" from 1988-1990, which depict scenes from ancient cultures and folk stories alongside geometric shapes.
 Photo: Hola Cultura
The "Unity" mural at 2119 Champlain St NW has been in place for 42 years! It was painted on the side of the PEPCO substation near Marie Reed Elementary by about a dozen LAYC summer program participants. Local artists Allen "Big Al" Carter and Ligia Williams designed the piece as a medley of Latin American cultural symbols, such as a Caribbean-style image of a woman carrying a fruit basket atop her head and an Aztec scaled serpent.
 Photo: Criomatic Designs
"Un Pueblo Sin Murales" at 1817 Adams Mill Rd NW (the Kogibow Bakery building) is another longstanding piece. It was painted in 1977 by two emigres from Chile, Carlos "Caco" Salazar and Felipe Martinez. It was restored to new luster in 2005 and again in 2011 by artist Juan Pineda. The mural depicts scenes from the neighborhood's transition to the melting pot of Central and South American cultures it had become by the late 1970s.
The impact of the Latino community on the District is undeniable. OP’s context study, coming in 2025, will result in new landmark nominations and an amended nomination for the Mount Pleasant Historic District to the DC Inventory of Historic Sites and the National Register of Historic Places. The existing Mount Pleasant Historic District nomination will be updated to include Latino, specifically Salvadoran, history.
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