ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Around Indigenous Peoples’ Day, the wall beside Marcela’s Bakery at 3856 Mount Vernon Ave. was white. On Thursday afternoon, under a gray sky that began to sprinkle midway through the program, about 100 people gathered in the parking lot to see what 19 teenagers and four artists had put there in three or four painting sessions over the past month: the torogoz, El Salvador’s national bird; a woman named Ruth carrying her village in a backpack; two fruit vendors who work the sidewalk on Mount Vernon Avenue outside; a girl with a megaphone; and a boy from the youth group, lifted into the air by his neighbors.

The mural is titled “Chirilagua Por Siempre: Nuestras Raíces, Historias y Aspiraciones,” Chirilagua Forever: Our Roots, Stories and Aspirations. It wraps the parking lot between La Feria Grocery Store at 3842 Mount Vernon Ave. and Marcela’s Bakery at 3856: both long walls, and the archway over the entrance, which read “Mt. Vernon Shops” until the artists repainted it. It now says “Chirilagua” on both faces, to drivers pulling in and to drivers pulling out.

The archway over the lot read “Mt. Vernon Shops” until the project repainted it; it now says “Chirilagua” coming and going. (Ryan Belmore/The Alexandria Brief)

Some of the paint was hours old. The artists were still finishing sections Thursday, said Sindy Carballo Garcia, the youth organizer for Tenants and Workers United who emceed the unveiling.