It is a West Side story depicted on canvases of brick and cinderblock, in a language that any visitor to St. Paul's District Del Sol can appreciate.

Just follow the neighborhood's two dozen murals. Murals on the walls of restaurants, markets, a hair salon, even an overpass. Murals showing Mayan warriors, eagles and pyramids. Murals that honor Aztec weavers, the environment and feeding the hungry. Murals celebrating a community.

The mural on the side of Morgans Mexican and Lebanese Foods in St. Paul

Stormi Greener

Star Tribune

You don't need a map or compass to find District Del Sol. Just follow the sun that never sets on the West Side of St. Paul -- the sleepy-eyed sun that gleams knowingly from the George Street overpass overlooking Robert Street.

"When we first began painting murals on these buildings, we wanted to show our abilities," said artist John Acosta . "Instead, we told the story of a community."

Drive from downtown St. Paul across the Robert Street bridge to the outskirts of this highly Hispanic neighborhood where, in some stores, English is spoken as a second language, if at all. The West Side has long been a melting pot where Germans, Irish, Jewish, Lebanese and other European immigrants settled, as have Mexicans, other Hispanics and, more recently, Hmong people.

Richard Schletty, left, and John Acosta painted "Hunger Has No Color" on the Captain Ken's Foods plant in 1985 with Armando Gutierrez.

Stormi Greener

Star Tribune

But if you really want to know who lives in this neighborhood, stop the moment you've passed the Captain Ken's Foods plant on Robert Street and look at the mural that stretches across the building's cinderblock wall.

Titled "Hunger Has No Color" and painted in 1985 by Acosta, Richard Schletty and Armando Guitierrez, it is void of the brilliant hues that highlight other area murals. But if this mural lacks color, it certainly doesn't lack passion.

George Street overpass in St. Paul.

Stormi Greener

Star Tribune

Painted in white and dark primer paint, the mural shows 27 people -- real people, and all former neighborhood residents -- sharing food from 12 baskets. Among those portrayed are Schletty's grandparents, his son, Mark, and Acosta's daughter, Santina, as well as the artists themselves.

The subjects were photographed. Then black-and-white sketches of their images were painted on the building wall. The artists planned to color those images, recalled Dick Goebel , then executive director of the St. Paul Harvest Food Bank, which paid the artists $4,000 to create the mural.

"They started with this brown background and people kept telling them how remarkable it looked," Goebel said. "So they kept it that way and made a statement, really communicating our message to the outside.

The Cuauhtemoc mural, 1978, by Pablo Basques was restored in 1994 by John Acosta.

Stormi Greener

Star Tribune

"That kind of communication is part of what the phenomenon with murals on the West Side was about."

Topic of interest

It flourished in the late '70s, with local artist Pablo Basques' paintings of the warrior Cuauhtmoc along the outside wall of the El Amanecer restaurant and of the Aztec weavers on E. George Street and of the Acosta-Carlos Menchaca collaboration "Juan Diego and Our Lady of Guadalupe" by Westside Haircare. In 1980, Acosta, Menchaca and Frank Sanchez created the "Aztec City" at Morgan's Mexican and Lebanese Foods.

``The Heroes of Freedom, Justice and Peace''

Stormi Greener

Star Tribune

"It became a topic of interest for folks," said Anne Briseno, former director of St. Paul's Riverview Economic Development Association (REDA) and now an assistant to Mayor Randy Kelly.

"Public art was a good component in our effort to revitalize the neighborhood," said Briseno, who came to REDA in 1991. She says she was particularly struck by Basques' 1979 "Midwest Canto al Pueblo," painted outside the Concord Drug Store. "It meant 'the cry of the village, the call of the village, the village speaks out.' And that's what District Del Sol was doing through this art."

Schletty, the artist who has lived much of his life on the West Side, said, "It's a pride thing. It is a way for artists to show their skills, tell different stories, offer different visions, tell about the culture of the West Side. It's a nice way to say we like our community."

In recent years, the torch and paintbrush have been passed as Teens Networking Together, a neighborhood youth group, has collaborated with established area artists. With Craig David, for example, they created murals such as "The Heroes of Freedom, Justice and Peace" at the El Burrito Mercado on Concord Street. And many of the older murals have been restored, often by the original artists.

This mural painting is one of many on the inside of a restaurant on Concord Street in St. Paul.

Stormi Greener

Star Tribune

Other murals are gone. Acosta estimates the average lifespan of an outdoor mural to be no longer than 10 years. Weather has been the most obvious culprit. But so has progress.

Art taking new forms

As buildings are sold or restored, murals have disappeared, said Julie Eigenfeld, current REDA director. In some cases, the murals were painted to cover up walls that needed to be rebuilt or patched.

But while building owners are encouraged to reconstruct where murals once glistened, area artists are anything but discouraged. Murals inside buildings are becoming more common throughout St. Paul.

So are sculptures. David, who painted several murals along West Side buildings and on the viaduct at George Street, is among the artists creating sculptures for the neighborhood. Lauded for the "Journey of the River and the Sun" environmental gateway sculpture and landscape at Concord and Wabasha Sts., David also created the stone gateway and garden across from the Boca Chica restaurant on Concord in District Del Sol.

"I want my art to be out on the street, with the people," he said. "To me, that's an honor, to be able to help serve the community."

Eigenfeld would like to see more diversity in future Del Sol art. But few, if any, complain about what has graced the neighborhood the past two decades.

"It's better than graffiti, that's for sure," said Herbie Howe, owner of the Cozy Cantina restaurant. The mural outside the Cozy Cantina was done by a group of elementary-school children, with Howe's blessing.

"They came in and said they have something that will keep in touch with the rest of the community," Howe said. "I'm not a real art admirer. You won't catch me in any museums. But I know what's important. And something like this adds flavor to the neighborhood."

-- Paul Levy is at plevy@startribune.com.