Gloria Casarez wanted to save the world, even as a child, said her mother Elisa Gonzalez, while painting a portion of a memorial mural that will eventually cover the brick façade of 12th Street Gym in the heart of the Gayborhood.
Casarez, a lifelong LGBT advocate, died Oct. 19, more than five years after being diagnosed with stage-four breast cancer.
“I used to say, ‘Gloria, you can’t fix everything,’” Gonzalez said. “But she said, ‘Mommy, you do.’”
A single mother, Gonzalez raised her daughter in the Far Northeast and later Harrowgate. Casarez moved in with an aunt in New Jersey during high school and came out as a lesbian at age 17.
She majored in criminal justice and political science at West Chester University before moving back to Philadelphia in the mid-1990s. Casarez eventually served as the inaugural director of the city’s Office of LGBT Affairs. Earlier in her career, she worked at the LGBT Center at the University of Pennsylvania, helped organize the first local Dyke March and directed the Gay and Lesbian Latino AIDS Education Initiative, known as GALAEI.
While at GALAEI, she met Tricia Dressel and the two married in New York around the time of their 10th anniversary in 2011.
As the one-year anniversary of Casarez’s death approaches, dozens of people joined in the painting of a mural Sept. 18 to commemorate her commitment to the LGBT community.
The mural was designed by artist Michelle Angela Ortiz, one of Casarez’s favorite painters, and organized with the help of the Mayor’s Office, Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations, 12th Street Gym, William Way LGBT Community Center, Bread and Roses Community Fund, GALAEI, Leeway Foundation, Philly Pride Presents and the Mural Arts Program.
“It’s necessary that Gloria not be forgotten,” Gonzalez said. “Everyone who came up to me at the funeral, I said, ‘Please don’t forget her. I will not forget her.’ I told everyone, even the mayor.”
Mayor Michael Nutter, who appointed Casarez to head the newly formed Office of LGBT Affairs in 2008, was on hand Friday to help paint the mural. He and Nellie Fitzpatrick, the current LGBT affairs director, were working on a section that showed Casarez with a Dyke March banner.
Nutter joked that he may lack artistic talent, but said it wasn’t going to stop him from lending a hand.
“The most important thing for me is to have some part, some connection to this great mural recognizing our great love and passion for Gloria,” he said, adding that he worked very closely with her while she kickstarted the Office of LGBT Affairs.
Fitzpatrick said participating in the mural painting was personal for her too. She remembered Casarez sharing a lot with her as Fitzpatrick started her own career as an assistant district attorney in Philadelphia.
“She shaped my direction as someone who was beginning to advocate,” Fitzpatrick said, noting that, in addition to prosecuting cases she also served as the liaison between the district attorney’s office and the LGBT community.
“We can still hear her words ringing in our ears,” Fitzpatrick said. “This to me is just a small, creative and expressive way for our community to always see Gloria.”
Casarez was known for her moving speeches, said Rue Landau, executive director of the Philadelphia Human Relations Commission.
Landau pointed out Casarez’s words, “Engage, find your voice, expand your community,” which will be painted in a circular design around a portrait of the late leader.
The mural will also feature Wonder Woman stars, representation of the immigration papers of Casarez’s great grandfather, Casarez’s and Drissel’s hands overlapped and Casarez’s own depiction of her scooter, among other elements.
“Gloria was such a beautiful person and such a powerful force in the civil-rights community,” Landau said. “Even though she was sick for a long time, her death was still sudden for all of us who knew her.”
“There have been a lot of tears, even today,” she said while painting. “We put all our hearts and energy toward memorializing her. It was a very important passion project.”
Casarez’s mural is expected to be dedicated in a public ceremony at 1 p.m. Oct. 11 during OutFest. For more information, visit www.muralarts.org.