Group’s Mural Targets Teen Pregnancies

“Education first--babies later” is the message of a 51-foot-long mural unveiled Wednesday in Oxnard.

“We have to let kids know it’s not cool to get pregnant,” said Luann Rocha, executive director of El Centrito De La Colonia, the nonprofit organization that sponsored the 18-foot-high mural. “I think a mural is one way of doing it.”

About 50 people gathered to watch the mural’s unveiling on the side of an auto repair shop in the 100 block of North Harrison Avenue. The painting is visible from heavily traveled Oxnard Boulevard.

The colorful mural vividly illustrates the consequences of teenage pregnancy.

“Teen birth rates in Ventura County are highest among the Latino community,’ said Jesus Rocha, the organization’s program director and Luann’s husband. “Our newest mural weighs the responsibilities of raising a family at a young age versus the opportunities available to young people who pursue education.”

The state has identified pregnancy and parenting as the top reasons why teenage mothers drop out of school, Luann Rocha said. In Ventura County, two-thirds of the 1,200 teenagers who become pregnant each year are Latinas, she said.

The mural is the third the organization has painted that carries a socially relevant message.

El Centrito De La Colonia, which provides free counseling, support and prevention services to youths and their families in the La Colonia area of Oxnard, has previously sponsored murals warning of the perils of drunk driving and tobacco.

Speakers Wednesday included Richard Duarte, assistant superintendent of the Oxnard School District, and Judith Valles, acting president of Oxnard College.

Ventura College art instructor M.B. Hanrahan began painting the mural in July with 36 youths from El Centrito De La Colonia and eight community college art students, Luann Rocha said.