CONGRESSIONAL SEEKING STAMP OF APPROVAL

By JUAN HERRERA

alvador Barajas is an artistic legend who made his name by thinking big — really big — including several towering murals in Chicano Park.

Now the 79-year-old master of murals is thinking small.

Really small.

Postage stamp small.

Barajas has designed a set of U.S. postal stamps that celebrate migrant laborers. “Los Indispensables” was inspired by the indispensable contributions of unsung workers to American society. He said he is thinking smaller so others will think bigger.

“These stamps are meaningful,” he said. “People who work at Walmart or Burger King, places like that, someone has to, but it should not be forever. Perhaps to earn money to buy a car or a computer, yes, but one’s aspirations should be bigger and grander than Burger King.”

Barajas has portrayed honorable migrant laborers including a field worker, a nanny, an agricultural worker, a construction worker, a hotel domestic and a busboy.

“I worked as a dishwasher and a busboy before I entered the Air Force,” he said. “I told myself being a busboy was not going to get me anywhere.”

Getting his stamps on the envelopes of America will take an act of Congress in the most literal way.

“I would like to present a sample of Los Indispensables to Juan Vargas, our Congressional representative for the South Bay,” he said. “I am hopeful he can help get the prototypes to the right people at the U.S. Postal Service.” u