Sidney students present winning mural to school board

A group of Sidney High students presented its prize winning mural to school board members on Monday evening.

In December, the students won first place for the mural and an accompanying skit at a cultural expressions competition in Denver. The event was sponsored by the Journey through our Heritage Program, of the Metropolitan State University of Denver Chicano/a Studies Department.

Fifteen students worked on the project during open and lunch periods, weekends and evenings, for more than 200 cumulative hours.

Student Sonya Virgil told Sidney School District board members she worked on both the skit and mural.

"It was good for all of us to come together and express our ideas," she said.

The colorful mural represents "the fire of passion to extinguish hate, fear, stigma and stereotypes about the Hispanic community, and the water cleans and purifies all of the hate, making way for the rich and beautiful elements that accompany the Hispanic culture," a summary provided by the group's advisor, Brett Avila, explained.

Student Karla Palomares said the mural displayed a cross section of negative stereotypes faced by people of Hispanic heritage.

But positive messages also emanate from a skull in the mural, student Lindsey Deaver said.

The skull represents openmindedness, she explained, and how negative stereotypes can be transformed.

A series of flags in the image represent the diversity of Sidney, and a cleaning woman represents the under-appreciated work of Hispanic people in the workforce, the summary said.

At the competition, students also performed a skit while a video of a fire played in the background.

Pieces of paper with negative stereotypes were read aloud and then symbolically tossed into the fire.

"At 2 1/2 minutes into the video, a pail of water is dumped onto the fire, extinguishing it," the summary reads. "All students turned over their signs to reveal positive words that represented how they actually identify themselves, and said, 'In reality, I'm ...' "

It was Sidney's first time at the event, which included 10 schools.

When asked what will become of the mural, Deaver said the Cheyenne County Fair Board has asked to display the work at this year's fair expo.

Avila said the students will also present the mural at events this spring – one for the school body and another for the community. A group that performed an Aztec dance at the competition will travel to Sidney for those events, he added.