Very special mural kicks off Olympics
By SABRINA WALTERS
Herald Staff Writer
--Published Friday, October 23, 1998,
in the Miami Herald
For a little while each day, Cinthia
Castro managed to control her usually uncontrollable twitches and jerks and command her
feeble fingers to hold a brush and paint.
Out of her creativity, and that of 12
students like her at Kensington Park Elementary, evolved a grand mural with splashes of
bright blues, shocking pinks and sunlight yellows, sprinkled with bats and balls and
self-portraits.
The 60-foot mural -- which they named
``The Gift'' -- stands as a symbol of achievement in spite of at times insurmountable
obstacles for thousands of children who tonight officially become athletes of the 1999
Special Olympics in Miami-Dade County.
The mural will be unveiled during
opening ceremonies to kick off the Olympics at 6:30 p.m. in downtown Miami's Bayfront
Park.
For the past 3 1/2 weeks, Cinthia, 9,
and her classmates at the Little Havana-area school diligently labored on the painting,
supervised by Miami artist Xavier Cortada.
He was asked by Special Olympics
officials to work with mentally disabled children to create a mural for the games.
Kensington Park, at 711 NW 30th Ave., is one of the district's Exceptional Student
Education centers and enrolls 200 in its special education programs.
``I knew what it took for these kids to
do this. It was very, very difficult,'' Cortada said. ``For many of them, it took
everything they had.''
It was a long, tedious process.
Even before bringing out a single paint
brush, Cortada had to find a way to explain the concept of sports to the youngsters -- 10-
and 11-year-olds whose minds function like kindergartners.
``I got dolls and had them running
around paper bases so that they could understand the game of baseball,'' Cortada said.
``Then we went outside to the playground and we played.''
Finishing the work was a testament of
will power for the mentally and physically challenged fourth- and- fifth-graders, all of
whom have trouble performing the simplest of tasks, like tying their shoes or holding a
pencil.
About half of those in the class suffer
from Down's syndrome, a congenital condition that makes them especially susceptible to
infection, including bacterial meningitis.
Cinthia and several others, whose bodies
move spontaneously even when they don't want them to, have cerebral palsy.
``I kept challenging them,'' Cortada
said. ``I wouldn't just step in for them. I wouldn't draw for them.
``I felt it would have been patronizing
for me to do the work for these kids,'' he said. ``Whenever I needed to do touch-up, they
were always in the room. I wanted them to feel the connection.''
Slowly, a stroke at a time, the children
caught on.
``As a result, their social skills have
improved and their ability to follow directions,'' said exceptional education teacher
Janet Ludwig, who works with teacher assistant Luis Alvarinas. ``They somehow got the
message that there was no second chance, that they had to do what he said at the time he
said to do it.''
The kids followed difficult
instructions, like tracing outlines of each others' bodies to create 13 silhouettes lined
along the canvas like pint-sized soldiers.
They cut out squiggly hearts and placed
them at the center of the images -- a symbol of the strength it took for them to remain
focused for so long, even when they felt they couldn't.
``We thought it appropriate to place the
hearts there, because many of these kids have had multiple heart surgeries,'' Ludwig said,
``and this is definitely a work from the soul.''
The children weren't the only ones who
got a lot out of this oftentimes emotional exercise in stretching beyond limits.
``It was sheer joy,'' said Cortada, who
has worked before with children with AIDS and cancer. ``It was about me as an artist
learning from these kids, seeing joy in a subtle way. The way they called me X when I
walked in the classroom. The way they smiled.
``My heart became very soft. I saw the
world in another way by being with these kids.
``I remember walking out of the class
one day and saying, `My God, I'm blessed.' ''