Local Art Walk

The Sacred Offering

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Isabel Figueroa, 2020

Corner of Horne St and Civic Center Blvd, on Civic Center Blvd at Northern Pine Brewery
Part of the Art That Excites program by MainStreet Oceanside

📸 2023 © Brigid Parsons (except image with artist)

“The Sacred Offering,” Figueroa's first mural, is a tribute to the women of Oceanside’s Eastside Pozole Neighborhood.

The day Isabel Figueroa completed her mural she walked us through the amazing meaning behind her work. “The mural tells a story about a woman named Anita Cruz Romero who moved to California from Mexico in 1910 and was one of the first residents in the Eastside neighborhood. In order to make more money for herself and her son she began to make and sell pozole; walking around the neighborhood shouting ‘pozole!’ Attracting many people near by they came together as a community and the neighborhood later became known as Eastside Pozole. One hundred years later this is how many locals still refer to the neighborhood as Pozole and this mural is a tribute to that very woman who brought a whole community together with the power of her famous soup. She is depicted pouring the bowl of soup that later extends into a serpent who is an Aztec god by the name of Quetzalcoatl. He is a creator god born of the deities Ometeotl which is the image depicted at the center of the mural. Ometeotl was chosen as a symbol of the good and the bad that happens in the neighborhood as Ometeotl is about duality. The two women on each side represent motherhood, taking care of each other and the wisdom and strength that comes with age. The eagle at the top is representative of Indigenous Mexican roots because the Mexican flag has a golden eagle at the center and the eagle holding a snake is the marker of where the Aztec settled to build their empire.” ⁣- Isabel Figueroa