Roberto Maestas Sculpture

The Plaza Roberto Maestas was completed with a culminating centerpiece, a sculpture made by Casto Solano. It is a public art piece, combining a Bronze Statue and an interactive modern sculpture. The bronze statue is in honor of Roberto Maestas, founder and executive director of El Centro de la Raza, and community leader in social justice. His activism focused on efforts concerning the Latinx, Native American, Asian American, and Black communities of Washington state. His philosophies advocated for the collectivization of minority communities and the resistance against the “Divide and Conquer” tactic.

The modern sculpture represents the Native American Tulalip “lifting the sky” story as told by the Lushootseed storyteller, Vi Hilbert. The story is an allegory of diverse communities uniting to achieve a common goal. Each part of the sculpture symbolizes an aspect of the story: the steel tubes represent the cedar trunks that were used to lift the sky, the curvilinear tubes, and the mist represents the clouds in the sky. Facing the sculpture is a two-story mosaic mural depicting Roberto Maestas and his fellow activists, known as the 4 Amigos, and the women of El Centro de la Raza lifting the sky.