“San José is a dynamic and vibrant city with a rich history of inclusion, activism, and industry. The intermixing of cultures and ideas is one of the features that I like best about the city. My mural, Cross-Pollination, depicts a few of the prominent cultures and histories of San José that I was introduced to when I first moved to the city. The area had a long agricultural history which helped shape the region. I felt it was important to pay homage to the area’s past designation as the Valley of Heart’s Delight since the street names and remnants of orchards can still be found around town. Additionally, the agricultural past led to a thriving canning industry; my beloved art studio space in San José was located in the Citadel Studios, which was formerly a cannery building that was said to be the birthplace of the fruit cocktail. Fruit and plants are interspersed throughout the mural to represent this former cornerstone industry. Of course, tech is a major aspect of modern life and of San José today, so the name SAN JOSE is spelled out in binary code.

When I first moved to San José, I lived next to Japantown. I quickly fell in love with the unique character of this historical neighborhood. As I learned more about the history of Japantown and the effects of Executive Order 9066, I came to realize just truly how special it was to still have a thriving Japantown since such neighborhoods effectively vanished forever as a result of E.O. 9066. In the mural, a boy of Japanese descent is pictured waving an American flag, to symbolize the unjust treatment of a group of American citizens by the United States government. While this is a painful history for many, I think it is important to celebrate the resilience of the people who survived through this episode of incarceration and rebuilt their lives and community. 

The city has a long history of citizen action for social change. This is represented in this design both by the bunch of grapes in the upper right, which is a reference to one-time San José resident, Cersar Chavez’s leading of the Delano Grape Strike and Boycott; as well as with the black-gloved fists rising toward the sky from within a bunch of calla lilies. The fists depict the seminal moment at the 1968 Olympic games when SJSU students Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their fists in the air as they stood on the medal podium while the Star Spangled Banner played. Calla lilies are said to represent purity of heart which seems fitting to surround these athletes as they took a stand for human rights with the eyes of the world watching despite the great cost this act had on their lives in the immediate aftermath of the Olympics as well as on their future careers. 

In the center foreground of the mural is a hummingbird which is a central figure in a creation myth of the Ohlone people. The hummingbird is meant to recognize the Muwekma Ohlone people and to acknowledge that we live within their unceded ancestral territory.” — Jessica Eastburn