The city of El Monte has long championed its role in American expansion by hailing white “pioneers” as town heroes, with a horse-drawn wagon and the words “End of the Santa Fe Trail” appearing prominently on the city’s official seal. Drawing on Greater El Monte’s radical and multi-ethnic past, detailed input from more than one hundred community members, and conversations with Tongva Elder Gloria Arellanes, artist Daniel González and SEMAP created a peoples’ seal: a seal not for the city, but for all those who identity with the region and are inspired by El Monte’s history.
