A woman is recovering in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood after she was attacked while trying to stop a local mural from being vandalized.
The mural, located in Pilsen, depicts a Palestinian man and a Mexican man resting together in a peaceful field.
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WATCH HEREIt was vandalized Friday night when the face of the Palestinian man was burned off. Natalie Figueroa, who works nearby, witnessed a woman attempting to vandalize it with paint.
"I yelled at her and I’m like what are you doing? Stop doing that. And then we start arguing," Figueroa told NBC 5. I followed her to try and get a picture of her face because I wanted people to know what she was doing and she kept screaming at me... and at one point she just hits me, and I realize it’s with a metal hole punch."
Figueroa had two swollen black eyes still when NBC 5 interviewed her Sunday afternoon. She shared cell footage of the attack, which showed a woman sitting on top of her with the metal object next to her.
“The mural was created out of love, and to show solidarity and a similar hurt," Figueroa said when asked why it was important for her to intervene.
The mural was painted by an artist named Taqi Spateen from the Middle East who traveled to Chicago to create it. It was organized through a local group called The Mural Movement, founded by Delilah Martinez in 2020. Since its conception The Mural Movement has orchestrated 231 murals across the country for social justice messaging.
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"It symbolized the struggles between Mexican and Palestinian culture," Martinez said. "How different and similar they are... we welcomed him [artist] with open arms, and then for his mural to be vandalized and treated like this is disheartening.”
Organizers said they were harassed several times by the woman while the mural was going up. They are hopeful the original artist can fix what was destroyed.
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SIGN UP Police responded to the scene Friday night, and Figueroa filed a police report.
No one is in custody and no further information was available Sunday evening.
