1971 Unidos para triunfar
Unidos Para Triunfar – Together We Overcome, 1971, restored 1997
John Pitman Weber
2100 W. Division Street
John Pitman and the Chicago Mural Group painted this mural in an effort to defuse tensions between black, Latino and white gangs in the West Town community. It shows youth brawling and killing one another on one side of the mural, while the other side calls for the unity of various groups to fight against various injustices including poor and inadequate housing. Weber restored the mural in 1974. As Olivia Gude and Jeff Huebner state in their book, Urban Art Chicago, “when Weber restored the mural in 1974, he added images of a coffin and a cop firing a gun, references to a Puerto Rican youth worker who had been slain the previous year by a policeman, sparking anti-brutality marches in the area.” This mural was restored a second time in 2004.
2004 Lolita Lebrón at Renovation of “Unidos Para Triunfar” restoration by original artist John Pitman Weber.
John Weber’s aunt, Esther Unger, wrote the poem below for Lolita Lebrón. Esther’s husband, Abraham Unger, was Oscar Collazo’s lawyer.
Lolita Lebrón
November 19, 1919 — August 1, 2010
Lolita Lebron
She kissed me when she went to kill the king
and gently brushed my hair aside
The bullet whirled and wounded her
but she had tried, failed but tried
She hunted tyranny with quiet step
and silently she stalked the evil king
She sought to end him, swift and clean and clear
the weapon swerved and caught her unaware
The trap snared her, left ruling evil wild
bars cage her path, while tyranny is free
She built a martyr’s cross in seeking good
How hard she tried, how hard she tries
