The Brief

Artist Román O’Cadiz crouches down, dips his brush into freshly poured black paint, and adds the finishing strokes to the raised letters that spell out his grandfather's name.

He takes a step back and gazes at the finished mural, the painted words “Sergio O’Cadiz” gleaming in the sunlight.

The concrete relief mural in the entry plaza of Fremont Elementary School in Santa Ana was originally created by his grandfather, J. Sergio O’Cadiz Moctezuma.

In the last month, it has undergone a much-needed restoration led by the Santa Ana Community Artist(a) Coalition, a grassroots collaborative that works to promote and preserve public art through community-driven mural arts projects. The family of the late artist, who died in 2002, was also involved.

“It's cathartic,” said Román O’Cadiz. “It alleviates some of this frustration that my family has felt, and how his work hasn't been represented or appreciated in the way that we always felt it should.”

Decades ago, J. Sergio O’Cadiz Moctezuma was a prominent artist in Orange County, where he settled in the early 1960s after moving to the U.S. from Mexico City. O’Cadiz was instrumental in creating art for several of the county’s public buildings, including Cypress College, where an imposing brutalist concrete relief mural he made for the school’s library building still stands.

He created the Fremont Elementary mural in 1973, with the assistance of community members. The concrete mural spans two walls, set back from the street in Santa Ana’s Artesia Pilar Barrio, a historically Mexican American neighborhood just a few miles west from downtown.

The mural incorporates images like the sun, pyramids, and galleons, symbols that connote Mexico’s rich history. Over the years, neglect has taken its toll — there has been natural wear and tear, like UV damage and environmental degradation, and school district staff at one point changed the original color scheme of the stained concrete design. Still, O’Cadiz’s piece remained a timeless, powerful emblem of Santa Ana’s Mexican American community.

Peeling back the layers

Maria del Pilar O'Cadiz recalled the shock and dismay she felt upon seeking the extent of the damage to her father’s mural.

“It was tragic,” she told LAist. “These murals need to be conserved for our historical cultural patrimony, and it's a crime against the humanity of this community to destroy them. So this restoration is a realization of one of my lifelong dreams, and I'm full of joy for it — but it's unfortunate that we have to do it.”

Maria del Pilar O'Cadiz, the artist's daughter, visits the Fremont Elementary mural restoration site on June 9, 2023.

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The process of removing layers of saturated acrylic paint that were applied to the mural had to be done with care. It entails applying a special solution created by MuralColors, an L.A.-based business that produces art and architectural materials. In what is known as “delamination,” the solution was gradually applied to the piece in segments. Then a pressure washer was used to remove the paint without destroying the original art.

It’s a fraught but rewarding process, said Alicia Rojas, restoration project director and a founding member of the Santa Ana Community Artist(a) Coalition.

“This restoration carries a great responsibility and it’s important to us that we honor Sergio’s brush and vision," Rojas said. "It's a process that goes beyond the individual artists and parties involved — it's about our collective work, to uplift and amplify his art.”

Now, O’Cadiz’ intrinsic deep-relief patterns — rhythmic linear arabesques, abstract geometric designs, and Mondrian-like pops of primary colors — appear as ebullient as when the mural debuted 50 years ago.

The Fremont mural is one of two O’Cadiz pieces being restored at Santa Ana schools. An O’Cadiz mural at Monroe Elementary School is earmarked for restoration next. Santa Ana Unified School District officials say they recognize the district’s lapse in stewarding the murals over the years.

“Unfortunately, we have not always kept murals that had historical significance because we didn't understand,” said Robyn MacNair, art administrator for the school district. “We want to prevent that from happening again.”

A rich artistic legacy

Not all of J. Sergio O’Cadiz Moctezuma’s works have survived over the years, but he looms large in Orange County arts history.

“His work makes OC stare uncomfortably at what it never dreamed of when it came to its Mexicans: unapologetic. Proud. Talented. Successful,” wrote Los Angeles Times columnist and author Gustavo Arellano in an essay for a retrospective exhibit of the artist’s work and legacy at Cypress College in 2019. He quoted O’Cadiz from a Times article dating to the 1970s: ‘My idea of America,” the artist told the newspaper then, “is the right to be as Mexican as I want.’”

Roman O'Cadiz, the artist's grandson, sits among the products used to wash and revitalize the 1973 mural at Fremont Elementary in Santa Ana.

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O’Cadiz’s family shared recollections of the artist and his accomplishments with LAist.

Born in Mexico City in 1934, O’Cadiz attended the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) to study architecture, and along the way studied with legendary painter Diego Rivera.

He first established himself as an architectural designer, lending his talents to some of Mexico's landmark modernist construction projects and public works. According to his family these include the Museo Nacional de Antropología (Museum of Anthropology) in Chapultepec Park, on which he worked as part of the design team.

In 1961, O’Cadiz came to Orange County to work with renowned architect William Blurock, who is credited with designing hundreds of schools and colleges in California and around the world, along with other notable buildings. O’Cadiz joined Blurock’s firm as an architectural conceptual draftsman, his family said.

Orange County buildings that O’Cadiz contributed to include the Cypress College Library, home to one of his more famous concrete murals from 1967; the Santa Ana City Hall, home to a 1972 concrete relief mural; and Century High School in Santa Ana.

Though trained as a modernist, O’Cadiz introduced his expressive forms and diverse surfaces into the brutalist architecture of the era. His diverse body of work included paintings, drawings, graphic designs, sculptures and public murals.

Whitewashing history

But over the years, many of O’Cadiz’s works have been destroyed, most recently a well-known painted mural on Raitt Street in Santa Ana that had been deteriorating; after a solo artist tried to begin restoring it without permission, the property owner had it painted over in 2019.

In 2000, part of O’Cadiz’s Santa Ana City Hall relief mural was removed for a building renovation, his family said; sculptural fountains created for Fountain Valley's Civic Center in 1962 were eliminated and replaced with a prefab fountain.

A signature reading "Sergio O'Cadiz 73" is still visible on the mural at Fremont Elementary in Santa Ana.

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Another well-known loss was a 625-foot-long painted mural in Fountain Valley’s Colonia Juarez neighborhood, which O’Cadiz painted between 1974 and 1976. With the help of community members, the artist depicted the story of Colonia Juarez’s heritage and cultural history — images that ranged from the arrival of Mexican peasants in California at the time of the Mexican Revolution to a scene of police in riot gear dragging a Chicano youth to a patrol car.

That last scene, according to the family, cost him city financial support for the mural. O’Cadiz finished the mural with his own money, but couldn’t raise enough to seal it properly. It deteriorated over time, and the city destroyed and replaced the wall in 2001.

Rediscovering art that's 'like jazz'

Cypress College held its 2019 retrospective exhibition after completing a restoration of O’Cadiz’s monolithic Library Mural, outside what is now the Cypress College Complex building.

And as his Santa Ana school campus murals are being restored, local students have been learning about the artist.

In the weeks leading up to the restoration, the Santa Ana school district’s arts program and the artist coalition invited 20 SAUSD visual and performing arts high school students to learn about O’Cadiz.

Students attended a series of workshops, including a lecture from the artist’s daughter, Maria del Pilar O'Cadiz, who works as an associate program director in UCLA's engineering school. The students created their own art at Cal State Fullerton’s Grand Central Art Center, and took in a walking tour of remaining O’Cadiz murals in Santa Ana, along with other community murals.

Local Santa Ana artists work on restoring the O'Cadiz mural at Fremont Elementary.

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The restored Fremont Elementary mural will be officially unveiled Friday afternoon.

Meanwhile, the Santa Ana Community Artist(a) Coalition is getting ready for its next O’Cadiz project — the mural at Monroe Elementary, on which work starts next year. One of those working on the restoration will be multidisciplinary artist and coalition founding member Roger Eyes R. — a former Monroe student.

Eyes recalled the first time he saw O’Cadiz’s art as a child.

“I just remember walking up to the school and going, ‘What is that?'" he said. “I had never seen art like that, it just blew my mind. It was like jazz.”

How LAPD responds when someone is experiencing a mental or behavioral health crisis is getting a closer look. 

Last week, Mayor Karen Bass issued an executive directive ordering an independent review of the department’s response, including its policies, training and use of force. 

“There is a severe shortage of mental and behavioral health care, and too many people in crisis have nowhere to turn,” Mayor Bass said in a prepared statement. “People cycle between the streets, emergency rooms, and detention facilities, and too often come into contact with law enforcement.” 

The Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners will need to retain an independent firm to conduct the audit and report back recommendations to the mayor’s office within six months. Bass said that the firm selected should be experts in constitutional policing and crisis response. 

The review will determine how officers identify people in crisis, including those with intellectual and physical disabilities, and people who are under the influence of illicit substances.

LAPD officers fatally shot more than 60 people between 2021 and 2025, according to the most recent data the department reported to the California Department of Justice. All of those deaths will be reviewed.

The audit will also look into how the department tracks repeat calls about a person who is in crisis or needs help. Yong Yang’s case is one example. Yang was fatally shot by police in 2024, after his parents attempted to get him help during a behavioral health crisis.

His parents previously told The LA Local about how Yong Yang had nonviolent encounters with police before the encounter that ended in his death. They question why officers failed to de-escalate the confrontation before he was shot.

They’ve continued to call for accountability, even after LAPD closed its investigation into his death. Under Bass’ new directive, his case is one that would be reviewed. 

The audit will evaluate:

• Use of force: Incidents over the last five years of uses of force and arrests that resulted in death or serious bodily injury to determine if the person was experiencing a behavioral health crisis or had an intellectual disability.
• De-escalation: Incidents over the last five years that did not result in death or serious bodily injury to determine how they were de-escalated.
• Repeat calls: The department’s procedures for keeping track of people involved in repeated calls to police, including those who have a disability.
• Training: The training officers receive about incidents with people experiencing behavioral crises.
• Less-lethal options: What less-lethal force options are available to officers.
• Custody and care: Uses of restraint and processes for medical treatment for people in police custody. 
• Officer wellness: Protocols for providing officers with mental health care after these confrontations.

Bass’ order comes about a month after the police department released graphic videos of men who died during police encounters. One video captured officers sitting on and restraining a handcuffed man for an extended period of time at a holding facility in the San Fernando Valley. The man, Jose Carlos Hoyos-Munoz, died soon after. 

“When an encounter results in death or serious injury, we must rigorously examine whether our policies, training, tactics, supervision, and accountability systems are sufficient,” Bass said after the videos were released.

The post Mayor Bass orders independent review of how LAPD responds to mental health crises appeared first on LA Local.

A new law will require local agencies to publicly disclose audio recordings and written records of 911 calls originating from privately run immigration detention facilities. The bill was prompted by CalMatters reporting on alleged sexual assaults at the Otay Mesa Detention Center.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 423, called the Detention Facility Transparency Act, on Tuesday. It was one of 21 immigration-related bills in a package his office announced the same day.

The law will require local agencies to turn over recordings and written records of 911 calls from privately run detention facilities, if a member of the public requests them. It includes an exception if an active investigation is underway and requires redacting the names of affected individuals.

“Well, it goes without saying, these past two years, Donald Trump has brought fear and has brought anxiety, disruption and stress to our immigrant communities,” Newsom said in a recorded video statement on his website.

“So, today, I sign a number of bills to strengthen transparency and to strengthen accountability and oversight over federal immigration enforcement and civil detention in our state,” the governor said.

State Sen. Lena Gonzalez, a Democrat from Long Beach, introduced SB 423 as state investigations and courts found serious gaps in essential medical care within the facilities. She said the aim was to stop private operators, and the agencies that work alongside them, from keeping what happens behind detention walls from the public's view.

In February, L.A. Taco reported that detainees inside Otay Mesa were throwing lotion bottles wrapped with notes about conditions inside over the wall of the facility to organizers standing outside.

“For 280 days we haven’t eaten a single piece of fruit, banana, apple, orange, or anything fresh," an Otay Mesa detainee wrote, the news outlet reported. "We are all in one big room with no doors or windows. We can’t see any grass or trees. We are all constantly sick.”

Gonzalez, who is chair of the Legislative Latino Caucus, said no person “should have to resort to throwing notes over the walls of a detention facility to have their needs met and their voices heard.”

Earlier this year, CalMatters sought information, including 911 audio records and other reports, about alleged serious incidents at detention facilities through a California Public Records Act request. While a San Diego County sheriff’s spokesperson said the agency was not investigating those cases, he said he was unable to turn over additional records because they were part of “a law enforcement investigation.”

“When journalists and reporters attempted to obtain records about reported incidents at these facilities through the Public Records Act, they faced severe pushback from law enforcement, citing vague investigatory records exemptions, despite there being no active investigation,” said Gonzalez.

Immigrant Defense Advocates and the First Amendment Coalition co-sponsored the bill.

“The governor has sent a powerful message: No more secrecy. SB 423 makes clear that 911 calls and related records about events in detention must be released upon request. This will shed more light on a notoriously opaque system, leading to stronger oversight and accountability,” Ginny LaRoe, Advocacy Director, First Amendment Coalition, said in a written statement.

Gonzalez’s bill was one of several detention oversight bills Newsom signed Tuesday. Others impose a new 25% tax on private detention facilities, expand health, safety and oversight requirements for the centers, and add to the state attorney general’s oversight role.

The new laws take effect Jan. 1.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

Six Flags Magic Mountain is retiring its famous X2 roller coaster amid lawsuits alleging serious brain injury caused by the ride.

The Southern California theme park said Tuesday that it is permanently shuttering the ride after nearly 20 years. Six Flags recently settled a wrongful-death lawsuit from the family of a 22-year-old man who died after riding the coaster in 2022, and three more lawsuits alleging traumatic brain injuries were filed last week.

“While X2 consistently passed a multitude of safety tests, we have decided to close the ride because we believe it’s the right thing to do,” park President Brian Oerding said in an online announcement. “Ride safety is a cornerstone of our business, and when we see guest confidence affected, we take it seriously.”

The ride has been closed since the evening of July 12, after two women who rode the coaster less than a week apart both needed to be rushed to the hospital after they exited.

One of them, 25-year-old Naomi Greer-Wilkinson, collapsed shortly after the ride ended and was found to have massive brain bleeding inside the skull that required emergency brain surgery. She remains in a vegetative state in the hospital, unable to speak or move and dependent on a ventilator. Her family filed a lawsuit against Six Flags on her behalf.

Her attorneys said more than 100 people claimed they suffered brain injuries from the roller coaster in the past two years, and more lawsuits would be filed in the coming weeks.

According to the Six Flags Magic Mountain website, the X2 roller coaster reaches a top speed of 76 mph (122 kph) and has a total length of 3,610 feet (1,100 meters). The seats rotate 360 degrees “so your body will be flipping around the entire time,” and the ride features two “raven turns” — half loops that turn into sheer drops midway.

It debuted at the park in 2002 under the name X as the world’s first “fourth-dimension” roller coaster and reopened in 2008 as X2 with new trains and special effects. The uniqueness of the ride drew thrill-seekers from around the world and garnered a fervent fanbase.

The park settled a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by the family of Christopher Hawley, a 22-year-old who died the day after he rode X2. He was taken to the hospital after the ride with severe brain bleeding. The medical examiner’s office said his death was from blunt head trauma. The case was settled at the end of August, a few days before the trial was scheduled to start.