Salvador Barajas is an artistic legend who made his name by thinking big — really big — including several towering murals in Chicano Park.
Now the 79-year-old master of murals is thinking small.
Really small.
Postage stamp small.
Barajas has designed a set of U.S. postal
stamps that celebrate migrant laborers.
“Los Indispensables” was inspired by the
indispensable contributions of unsung workers
to American society. He said he is thinking
smaller so others will think bigger.
“These stamps are meaningful,” he said.
“People who work at Walmart or Burger King,
places like that, someone has to, but it should
not be forever. Perhaps to earn money to buy
a car or a computer, yes, but one’s aspirations
should be bigger and grander than Burger King.”
Barajas has portrayed honorable migrant
laborers including a field worker, a nanny, an
agricultural worker, a construction worker, a
hotel domestic and a busboy.
“I worked as a dishwasher and a busboy
before I entered the Air Force,” he said. “I told
myself being a busboy was not going to get me
anywhere.”
Getting his stamps on the envelopes of
America will take an act of Congress in the most
literal way.
“I would like to present a sample of
Los Indispensables to Juan Vargas, our
Congressional representative for the South
Bay,” he said. “I am hopeful he can help get the
prototypes to the right people at the U.S. Postal
Service.” u
