And to the left of her I’m going to put up a Mother's Day gift that she gave to her mother, and right next to that is a drawing I am going to add from Alithia that she won a contest in the school for an anti-bullying campaign. And it says, “kindness takes courage”.

Abel Ortiz

Juan Velázquez’s Artist Statement from Instagram

Me and @sarahrayala [Sarah Ayala] got to meet Alithia Ramirez's dad and for me it was the most emotional part of the trip, I didn’t know what to say so I just told him “I’m so sorry” He liked the mural and specially that one of the characters we painted on her shirt was from a Father’s Day card she made for him. He said she wanted to be an artist and now her art (the characters on her shirt) are in a mural.