On December 13, 2014, the San Diego Union Tribune (
visit link) ran the following story about the new arch:
"Barrio Logan graced with gateway sign
Dedication ceremony highlights community input
By John Wilkens | 5:15 p.m. Dec. 13, 2014
Artist Hector Villegas grew up in Barrio Logan and remembers when it was “labeled as the place you stayed away from.” Young men wearing T-shirts with the community’s name on it might be viewed as gang members.
Those perceptions are changing, he said, and Saturday brought proof: The official dedication of a new gateway sign for Barrio Logan, similar to the street-spanning arches that welcome visitors to many other neighborhoods in San Diego.
“The sign,” Villegas said, “makes it OK to be proud of where you are from.”
Eighty feet long, 42 feet tall at its center, the sign has Mayan, Aztec and Kumeyaay motifs. There’s a fish, a nod to the historical importance of the sea as a food source, and an ear of corn, a staple crop for Native Americans.
Two pyramid shapes on the sign overlap, “representing the meeting of cultures,” said Armando Nuñez, a longtime Barrio Logan resident and artist who helped design the sign.
“It’s cultures joining together to form a future,” he said. “That’s something that occurs in this community every day.”
“Community” was a word mentioned a lot during Saturday’s festivities, which drew hundreds of people. Residents have been talking about a gateway sign at the intersection of Cesar Chavez Parkway and Main Street for more than a decade, and it finally came together through a partnership involving neighborhood groups, artists and government agencies.