On 18th Street in Pilsen, the murals tell two stories at once. The older ones — from the 1970s and 80s — celebrate Mexican-American identity, labor rights, and community solidarity. The newer ones, painted in the last five years, increasingly depict resistance to gentrification, with images of families being pushed out by cranes, condos, and rising price tags.

"The murals are our newspaper," said Carlos Mendoza, a muralist and community organizer who helped launch the Rudy Lozano Library newsroom. "They've always been how Pilsen communicates with itself."

But the murals themselves are now under threat. As buildings are sold to developers, exterior walls that once held community art are scraped clean or demolished. The Pilsen Alliance estimates that at least 15 significant murals have been lost in the last decade.

Carlos has been photographing and documenting every mural in the neighborhood — over 200 so far — with GPS coordinates, artist information, and the stories behind them. The project, run through the library newsroom, will be published as an interactive map and printed guide.

"If we can't save the walls, we can at least save the record," he said. "Every mural is a piece of community memory."

The Rudy Lozano Library, named after a labor activist who was assassinated in 1983, feels like a natural home for this work. "Rudy's whole thing was that the community tells its own story," said Carlos. "That's exactly what we're doing."