As part of the We Belong Here public art installation, LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes displays 13 neon signs by artist Patrick Martinez on its façade windows. These works illuminate powerful messages that explore the immigrant and undocumented experience, resilience, and collective response, while calling attention to the injustices affecting Los Angeles communities. 

Some of the messages on display include “THEN THEY CAME FOR ME,” “I DON’T SEE ANY AMERICAN DREAM, I SEE AN AMERICAN NIGHTMARE,” “TONGVA LAND,” “AMERICA IS FOR DREAMERS,” “INVEST IN THE OPPRESSED,” and “IT IS THE WEAK WHO ARE CRUEL.” 

Patrick’s neon sign works are fabricated to mirror street level commercial signage, but are remixed to present words and phrases drawn from literary and oratorical sources. 

Martinez (b. 1980, Pasadena, CA) maintains a diverse artistic practice that includes mixed-media landscape paintings, neon sign pieces, cake paintings, and his Pee Chee series of appropriative works. His landscape paintings abstract elements of Los Angeles’ urban environment—such as distressed stucco, spray paint, window security bars, vinyl signage, ceramic tile, and neon sign elements—to evoke place, socio-economic context, and sites of personal, civic, and cultural memory. 

We Belong Here is a region-wide public art installation that transforms LA Plaza’s exterior walls into a nightly canvas of resistance. The project features more than 30 large-scale images reflecting the ongoing realities faced by immigrant and undocumented communities in Los Angeles. 

Participating institutions include LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes, the California Community Foundation (CCF), the Japanese American National Museum (JANM), the Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC), and the Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA). Each site presents a distinct selection of images reflecting its own artistic and cultural perspective.