Juana Alicia, as part of the faculty Berkeley City College, founded and directed the True Colors Public Art program.
[1] Her sculptures and murals are principally located in the San Francisco Bay Area, Nicaragua, Mexico, Pennsylvania, and in many parts of California.
Alicia attended the University of California Santa Cruz earning her Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Teaching Aesthetic Awareness from a Cultural Perspective, with a Bilingual Cross-Cultural Emphasis Credential in 1979.
In 1972, Juana Alicia was recruited by labor organizer Cesar Chavez on one of his national speaking tours, to work for the United Farmworkers Union as an artist.
She worked up until September 1976 in the fields but then stopped because at the time she was seven months pregnant with her son and was exposed to pesticide poisoning.
[5] Juana Alicia's first big mural project in San Francisco was Las Lechugeras (The Women Lettuce Workers).
One of the women is pregnant (and her uterus is transparent, allowing the viewer to see the fetus) and the others are picking lettuce, wrapping it in plastic or looking out at the field.
[4] It also has a strong environmental and human rights message signified by the crop duster which sprays the workers with no regard to health.
The mural takes its title from the widespread Mexican myth of a woman who allegedly drowned her children and spends the rest of her life weeping for them.
Indian farm workers in the Narmada Valley who advocate against government's irresponsible dam projects that damage their homes.
Through her Mural Design and Creation course at BCC, and also in collaboration with the City of Berkeley's Youth Works Program, Earth Island Institute and other community-based organizations.
This project aims to support the development of young artists and activists for the improvement of the urban environment through a creation and collaboration of public murals.
True Colors trains young artists to design and create community murals with social and environmental justice themes.
As sponsored by SFSU's Rebound Project, a specific department at SF State that offers special admission to ex-convicts, the mural speaks to this particular community as well as the wider university student body and faculty.
Ultimately, the mural placed on the San Francisco State University campus will be used to raise awareness of this organization and garner support for it.
As stated by the SFSU website, "Project Rebound is a special admissions program assisting formerly incarcerated individuals who might not normally qualify for university acceptance because of application deadlines and minor academic deficiencies.
I want my work to contribute to the transformation of a violent world into a humane one, reflecting values of love, mutual respect, and awe at the beauty of nature.