New mural welcomes customers
Is it art or is it commercial signage?
Sometimes, the line may be a bit blurry, but in the case of a
new mural outside of Hollister Super on Third Street there can be
little doubt. Welcome, art lovers.
New mural welcomes customers
Is it art or is it commercial signage?
Sometimes, the line may be a bit blurry, but in the case of a new mural outside of Hollister Super on Third Street there can be little doubt. Welcome, art lovers.
The mural is one of three completed this summer by former Hollister resident Ronald Rocha. Rocha, who now lives in Texas, visited several local businesses while vacationing to see family members.
While his other works key into Hollister’s biker Mecca reputation, even flirting with local sign ordinances in at least one case, the mural flanking the entrance at Hollister Super has its own message.
The mural depicts verdant fields, and an agricultural worker in the foreground stretches a well-muscled arm to pluck an apple bearing an American flag.
“It’s about the American dream,” said Elvira Bustillos, store manager. “You’ve got a lot of field workers or immigrants reaching out to attain the American dream.”
That’s a message that is likely to resonate with many of the supermarket’s customers. Hollister Super caters to a Latino clientele with pristine produce, a service butcher counter and hard-to-find staples. The music playing in the store is invariably in Spanish and the staff is fluently bilingual.
“We’d been wanting to do a mural for quite some time,” Bustillos said. “He [Rocha] got it together and showed a design to me. I liked it, so I took it to my boss and he liked it too.
The market is one of three groceries in San Benito County owned by Jim Gibson and Hank Soo.
For Rocha, the murals are an opportunity to leave an indelible legacy in his hometown. Bustillos explained that Rocha’s son said the murals are a way of leaving some of himself and his personality behind for his grandchildren.
Rocha seems to have a soft spot for kids. When he was working on the mural, any children who showed an interest were invited to daub on a little paint themselves.
Even though the Hollister Super mural is inarguably a work of art, it still falls within the city’s regulatory network. The mural required a permit and prior review, including a check of its dimensions.
Murals are regarded as signage, according to Abraham Prado. Commercial enterprises are entitled to three square feet of signage for every linear foot of street frontage, he said.
But that may change soon. As the city works to create specific provisions for updating its recently revised general plan, there’s interest in the downtown community to bring all mural requests before the planning commission for review.
