LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Well over fifty community members turned out last Thursday night for an update on the new architectural and landscape redesign of The Wall Las Memorias AIDS Monument in Lincoln Heights, Los Angeles.
The Wall Las Memorias Project was founded in 1993 with the intent to build an AIDS monument to address cultural stigma around the epidemic and to support HIV prevention services in the Latino community of Los Angeles County.
Through the grassroots efforts led by the staff and volunteer support of The Wall Las Memorias Project under the leadership of Richard Zaldivar, the organization dedicated the monument in 2004. Today the organization provides programs and services including HIV testing to the Men-who-have-Sex-with-Men (MSM) and Transgender community, substance abuse prevention, mental health prevention to LGBTQ transitioning-age youth, and provides health and wellness education to the Latino faith-based community.
“The Wall Las Memorias AIDS Monument has been a source for healing, spiritual growth and community engagement”, stated Rev. Kathy Cooper Ledesma, past board member and Pastor of the Hollywood United Methodist Church.
The monument contains eight wall panels of which six contain painted murals depicting life with AIDS in the community and two panels for names of people who died from AIDS.
The renovation project is funded through the efforts of Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis. Funding will financially support new landscaping, LED lighting, and new pedestrian pathways that will provide an intimate setting for reflection and historical educational milestones.
“It was my dream to construct an AIDS Monument with beauty and serenity, and one that is engaging for all of our people,” said Richard Zaldivar, executive director and founder of The Wall Las Memorias Project. “Those of us who lost our loved ones to this epidemic deserve the most beautiful setting as possible and this project will accomplish that,” Zaldivar further stated.
Following Thursday’s meeting additional architectural renderings will be completed with a projected construction date of January 2018. The dedication of the refurbished monument is slated for the summer of 2018.
