{"id":16629,"date":"2017-04-20T22:43:25","date_gmt":"2017-04-20T22:43:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/?p=16629"},"modified":"2023-10-02T22:53:25","modified_gmt":"2023-10-02T22:53:25","slug":"casuse-mural-may-return-to-gallup-sidewalk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/2017\/04\/20\/casuse-mural-may-return-to-gallup-sidewalk\/","title":{"rendered":"Casuse mural may return to Gallup sidewalk"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY CHRISTOPHER S. PINEO<\/strong>
\nNAVAJO TIMES<\/p>\n

GALLUP \u2014 The city of Gallup got a complaint about a trash can and acted promptly to remove the off ending receptacle.<\/p>\n

But it turned out it wasn\u2019t a trash can but a planter, which the city removed on April 5. The city said they got a complaint about the planter regarding a mural painted on it, which had a revolutionary theme and the image of the late Larry Casuse.<\/p>\n

Barry Klopfer, a lawyer, sponsored the mural as part of a Business Improvement District project. Recently he said he received word that the city plans to return the planter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that one way or another, Mr. Casuse will come back,\u201d Klopfer said.<\/p>\n

What image created such a controversy?<\/p>\n

Ric Sarracino painted the mural. He said he has painted Navajo men with tomahawks, an image of a woman with an AK-47, and the likeness of Casuse on the planter at the request of Klopfer.<\/p>\n

\u201cBarry\u2019s kind of a radical,\u201d Sarracino said.<\/p>\n

The mural contained revolutionary imagery and recalled an incident from the history of Gallup that apparently drew a complaint to the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like controversy,\u201d Sarracino said. \u201cI like things to be talked about.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mural got people talking about the 1973 incident when Casuse kidnapped then-Mayor Emmett Garcia in an attempt to hold the mayor \u2013 also a liquor store owner \u2013 accountable for the number of liquor licenses the city issued and alcohol-related deaths of Din\u00e9.<\/p>\n

Police shot Casuse in the incident, killing the University of New Mexico student.<\/p>\n

\u201cI basically know the story,\u201d said Sarracino.<\/p>\n

He depicted the story on the planter and understood why it could cause controversy but not why the city reacted by removing the piece completely.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it was kind of stupid,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s art. It\u2019s history.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he understands Casuse being perceived as a rebel to some and a revolutionary to others.<\/p>\n

\u201cGeronimo was a rebel, and he\u2019s on T-shirts and stuff,\u201d Sarracino said.<\/p>\n

He experienced something similar earlier this year, when he was asked to remove a mural of President Donald Trump from another building.<\/p>\n

He expressed some sympathy for the position of the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s two sides to every story,\u201d he said. \u201cIf it offends people, remove it.\u201d<\/p>\n

City Manager Maryann Ustick said the city responded to a complaint and acted with all possible haste.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got a complaint from a member of the family of the former mayor,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The mural on the planter was the result of a summer contest held to decorate city-owned receptacles such as trash cans and planters in time for Ceremonial in August. Ustick provided a letter to business owners about the program.<\/p>\n

The letter said the Business Improvement District, in collaboration with gallupARTS, Main Street Arts and Cultural District and the city, organized a downtown trash can painting competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe goal of this project is to help revitalize downtown Gallup by showcasing our community\u2019s creativity and talent,\u201d the letter says.<\/p>\n

She also provided the rules of the competition, which included no nudity, no copyright-protected imagery (including logos), no gang-related or violent imagery and no culturally insensitive or offensive imagery.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we found out there was one that did not comply with the guidelines, we had it removed,\u201d Ustick said.<\/p>\n

The image of the AK-47 was cited as falling outside of these rules, even though the potter wasn\u2019t painted for the competition.<\/p>\n

Klopfer later posted on Facebook photos of other murals in town that feature firearms.<\/p>\n

The event \u201cDemand City of Gallup Return Confiscated Political Street Art\u201d takes place on April 25 and has 34 Facebook users who say they are going and 134 interested.<\/p>\n

Francis Bee and Archie Baca, of BID, did not return calls for this story. However, Ustick said the contest ended with a surplus of funds. BID later used those funds to create a few more murals according to Ustick.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe one in front of Barry Klopfer\u2019s office was done without the involvement of the city,\u201d Ustick said.<\/p>\n

She said the Gallup Parks and Recreation Department has the planter now and it may be returned.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe board is working with the property owner,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

COURTESY PHOTO
\nThis potter was removed from the sidewalk in front of the law office of Barry Klopfer in downtown Gallup. It features the late Larry Casuse and the date when he was shot and killed by police after abducting the mayor in 1973.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY CHRISTOPHER S. PINEO NAVAJO TIMES GALLUP \u2014 The city of Gallup got a complaint about a trash can and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16632,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[88],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16629"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16629\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16633,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16629\/revisions\/16633"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv45.demowebsitelinks.com\/ColleenKeane\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}