A Mystery at the East L.A. Civic Center

Of all the Gold Line Stations on the southern part of the line, the East L.A. Civic Center is the richest from an arts point of view.  There are sculptures, artistic ironwork, and murals at every turn. And one of these murals has a mysterious mosaic within it.

The Roybal Health Center is just across from the Gold Line station.  You can't miss it.  The broad brilliant primary color stripes of tile can be seen for blocks.  Nice colors, you think, looking at the side of the building that faces the station.

Then walk around to the front of the building and you will see a mosaic mural of Mayan pictograms embedded high up in the white stripe.  The series is almost one block long! 

My question is:  were they chosen for aesthetic reasons or do they contain a message? 


Does it say something like "Community Health Care at this location"?  Or "Bring sick people here"? 


Or are these just interesting figures lined up in a row to dramatize the cultural ancestory of most people in the neighborhood?  The color of the tiles in this mural are all the same: brown, blue, white and red.  Is that an artistic or cultural choice or was it simply a budget limitation?

The only thing I have seen that approaches this mysterious use of the Mayan alphabet is at the Heritage Square station, where Mayan characters have been cast in concrete and sited in a bed of plants beside the platform.  And I don't know what they say either.

To see the ones at the Heritage station, go to:

 http://www.pasadenaneighborhoods.com/heritage_square_gold_line_station_los_angeles.htm

More to come