New mural in South Gate is part of 'Conectando Comunidades' project

A new mural project called “Conectando Comunidades” was recently unveiled in South Gate. 

Kemper Auto Insurance introduced their new mural on February 22 to beautify and connect with urban communities through their culture. Kemper Auto’s first stop of this venture is Griffith Insurance Agency, where they unveiled their mural done by Michelle Guerrero, or better known as MrBBaby, her artist name.

Tim Paul, director of Kemper Auto Marketing, explained that their goals began with thinking of how they can build a deeper connection to their community, even by just providing a service.

“Once you really know the Hispanic communities across the country, you realize how important the cultural heritage of their neighborhoods are and how that culture is represented in beautiful murals throughout many of the cities. Many of our agents have buildings just like this one that have large, blank walls facing the street,” Paul said, discussing the new enterprise. 

“We said, 'What if we brought our muralists together, muralists that know the area, that are embedded in these communities and have them reproduce something beautiful?' So that's really why we started here. It's not about us. It's about bringing something to this community that they're going to enjoy for years,” Paul said. 

Kemper Auto bringing these murals that connect back to the community allow residents to feel welcome and more at home than they already do, while breaking the concrete jungle mold that is a part of inner cities. 

Kemper plans to continue this enterprise at different locations around the country with different artists from the communities to paint a mural.

Michelle Guerrero was very delighted to have had this opportunity to collaborate with Kemper Auto. She gathered inspiration from her personal life of being a Latina living in South Gate, CA. 

“When I designed this, I thought of Tweedy Street Fair. It's something that they do annually, and I wanted to kind of use that as my building point. And then from there, I just had all my characters kind of joined together. And it's a celebration of community, essentially. And all of my characters represent different things. I paint these Maria Lelé dolls. They're from Mexico, and I use them often in my work because they're kind of like a nostalgic element,” said Guerrero about her mural. 

Guerrero is originally from Chula Vista, CA, visiting her family in Tijuana, Mexico. It's those ties to her home country inspire her art. “My grandma would always take me down to check out all the street vendors and the people crafting their different crafts on the street. And I think that was where my inspiration originated from. I was always inspired by all the masks and all the different elements, and they're repeated in my work a lot, and they inspire me a lot.”

“When I create these murals, I want people to kind of see themselves in it and feel a sense of nostalgia and joy, like, kind of the reason why I paint them in the first place,” Guerrero said.

Guerrero plans to continue her art in a different form, with plans to release a children’s book in the future.

“It's touching on a lot of the characters that I paint, [touching] on issues of mental health, but I do it in a really light-hearted way where kids can understand. I feel like growing up in Latino households… I was oftentimes kind of shut down when I mentioned my anxiety and depression. And so I'm trying to create a book that's for kids that talks about these issues, but in a light-hearted way, where it's, like, family-friendly and everybody could really understand, and where it talks about these taboo issues and makes them less taboo,” Guerrero said, in regards to her future plans.

Guerrero was recognized by the California Department of Insurance, the Vice Mayor of South Gate Maria Davila and Vanessa Bautista from State Senator Lena Gonzalez’s District 33 office for her mural.

Kemper decided to have the local artists in their respective communities paint these murals in order to show the core of each city. Artists like Guerrero, who want to use their art forms as a way to uplift the community shows the true meaning of  “Conectando Comunidades.” Companies like Kemper Auto conducting projects like these relieve the stigma that surrounds these cities of color and brings life back to them.

The mural is located at 4000 Tweedy Blvd, South Gate, CA 90280.