Milwaukee mural depicting paletero; Brewers, city officials help debut
MILWAUKEE - The Milwaukee Brewers debuted on Friday, May 17 a community mural depicting the beloved paletero, pushing his cart and selling sweet frozen treats, throughout the city.
The mural, painted by artist Michael Cerda, is located near 3rd and Florida on Milwaukee's south side. It spans approximately 100 feet along the side of Heavy Hitters Athletic Facility, a sporting facility dedicated to youth baseball.
"The Brewers have, played a kind of a big role growing up," Cerda said. "I see this kind of like a full circle moment for my parents, too, and for, for me, to be able to work with the Brewers and to paint something that I drew two years ago. I had a I had a vision of just wanting to paint an iconic figure. And for me, like the palette kind of taps into like, memories. It taps. I feel like everyone has a memory of chasing the ball to get there. I have that memory and I feel like he's an iconic figure. It's an iconic figure. I drew it, and being able to paint it at this scale, it just it means the world to me."
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"This only adds to the vibrancy of public art that we have all over our city," said Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson. "I was fortunate enough. I mean, this is my first time seeing it in person, and I am just blown away."
A news release says Cerda, a Milwaukee native, is the owner of Cerda Design Co. where his artwork is seen throughout the city in branding and creative design. This is Cerda’s first mural installment, inspired by his reverence for the paletero, their pride in their work and throughout the community. During Cerda’s work, recent news and concerns around the safety of the paleteros arose.
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The mural was completed Friday morning – when Cerda made some finishing touches on the mural – including adding his signature to the work.
"There are so many things that divide, folks, not just in our community, but our state and our country. But sports, sports is what brings us together. And the Milwaukee Brewers organization, the Milwaukee Brewers, Community Foundation, has done such a great job over the past number of years of working to bring our community together," Johnson said.
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This mural is one of several the Brewers are installing throughout the city in collaboration with various artists.