You’ve got to feel for artist Mario Alfaro, whom Martinez officials last week ordered to paint over the beaver he included on a public mural because some of the town’s leaders didn’t think it belonged on the same canvas as hometown heroes John Muir and Joe DiMaggio. Martinez has for years been sharply divided over what to do about a family of beavers in Alhambra Creek that runs through the middle of town. (That’s the mural, before the beaver was painted over, from the pro-Beaver MartinezBeavers.org’s blog, Worth a Dam. You almost have to squint to see it near the lower right corner.)
Add: As for Alfaro, he was so hurt at being told to remove it, he’s also painted over his signature in protest, he tells the Chronicle. An excerpt:
I feel they do not respect me. Every day, people ask me, 'Where is the beaver?' So I want to please the people and I put in a beaver. It was really a very small beaver. But the city did not want it."
