Title: El Movimiento Sigue (The Movement Continues)
Artist: Jasmine Baetz
Type: Sculpture
Material: Concrete, glaze, clay, ceramic tile
Location: 17th & Pearl
Year: 2024
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El Movimiento Sigue (The Movement Continues), dedicated on May 28, 2024, honors six Chicanx student activists from the University of Colorado Boulder. This mosaic sculpture was conceptualized by CU Boulder alumna, Jasmine Baetz, who saw the need to memorialize the two car-bomb explosions in 1974 that took the lives of the activists. The tiles reference the solidarity work between the United Mexican American Students and the Black Student Alliance at CU Boulder in the 1970s.
Jasmine Baetz partnered with community members who helped to cut and fire clay pieces for the three mosaics. Each composition references the photography of Juan Espinoza, a political photojournalist in the 1960s and 1970s. In creating the memorial, Baetz sought to represent the multigenerational, coalition efforts, intended to fight against oppressive systems while advocating for education.
Three sites across Boulder memorialize the student activists. At the student occupation site on the CU Boulder campus, Baetz conceptualized Los Seis, a mosaic sculpture featuring portraits of the six activists. Chautauqua Park, the first bombing site, is marked with a stone inscription. El Moviemento Sigue, Baetz’s second memorial, was originally intended for the second bombing site at the corner of 28th and Canyon. Its current location near the heart of the city, along 17th St. and Pearl, elevates the significance of the activists in Boulder’s history.