In the basement of the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center, a 100-foot mural tells the story of the United States armed forces.
The mural encompasses four, 25-foot panels along the hallway outside the Veterans Assistance Commission of Cook County office, which shares a home with the courthouse. It tells the story of the U.S. Armed Forces, starting with Army soldiers wielding muskets and ending with a woman in uniform standing next to two younger versions of herself and gazing up at the sky as part of the United States Space Force.
Chicago muralist Ali Cantarella says she spent about six months working in the courthouse basement, painting the evolution and representation of the armed forces in the hallway and a welcoming vision of home inside the office waiting room.
“My strategy was to try to include as many representations of people as I thought was possible,” Cantarella says. “There’s a queer couple that is planting the LGBTQ flag at a memorial site, but they’re also wearing Army-Navy-Marine memorabilia to show and represent the queer personnel in the military. I wanted to represent women of color. So, in the Space Force, I showed a little girl and then her transitioning and growing up to be an officer. What is the future of our military going to hold?”
The Veterans Assistance Commission of Cook County helps veterans and their families obtain the benefits and services available to them after serving their country.
When she started in February 2024, Cantarella says, the basement hallway was “just blank walls.” Working indoors, aerosol paints weren’t an option. So she painted the entire mural by hand with an assistant, Z. Vickers. It wasn’t easy, with deep grout and the bricks soaking up paint.
But the extra time gave Cantarella a chance to speak with veterans who visited the office and would tell her how much they appreciated her work.
“There was a lot of personal, emotional gratitude for having something represented that was very important and essential to these people,” Cantarella says.
She got to know some of the veterans as they came back every month for their benefits. They’d watch and comment on how the mural was coming along.
“That was, at times, very emotional and very rewarding,” Cantarella says.
Those bonds also meant a lot to Elizabeth Soto, the veterans agency’s superintendent, who commissioned the mural.
“It was quite an experience for everyone,” Soto says of watching the mural take shape. “She was able to capture the veterans’ sacrifice in her artwork.”
The inside of the office is painted to represent coming home. One wall shows a window with a hanging plant and cat perched on a sill. A tool wall, worktable, wood pallets and a brown bag lunch are tucked in a corner. In another corner, a dog is shown curled up asleep on a blanket.
“These are veterans,” Soto says of the clients visiting her office. “Their service is complete, and they are home. And now they’re here, seeking services they earned.”