Public Art with a Social Impact: A Corridor of Art in Mexico City’s Guerrero Neighborhood LinkTV
go to original July 21, 2017

Corredor Arte Urbano Buenavista-Guerrero - Entrevista a Franck (Liberalia Colectivo Itinerante)

Brightly colored murals, between three and four stories high, line both sides of the main thoroughfare, Eje Mosqueta, that cuts through the Guerrero neighborhood in the north part of Mexico City. Where once there were indiscriminate scrawls of graffiti and signs of neglect, bright murals now celebrate aspects of Mexican culture and history: a profile of a beautiful Sonoran woman, crowned with purple flowers; an ear of corn transforming into a statue of an ancient god of maiz; a woman heaving a broken chunk of cement with the date of the Mexico City earthquake written across it; agave leaves wrapping around an entire building. All are brilliantly colored and styled and make use of contemporary and ancient symbols. This is Guerrero’s Corridor of Art.

Passersby commonly pause and take photos of the images. The Turibus now detours from Paseo de la Reforma, a large thoroughfare that cuts through the heart of the city, to drive down Eje Mosqueta. In the short time that they have been up, these murals have changed the once-overlooked neighborhood in myriad ways, inspiring its residents to take pride in their culture and surroundings in the same way Angelenos have benefited from community-minded muralistas. Isabel Rojas-Williams managed to collaborate with the community, local government and artists to restore the murals along the 101 freeway. And Levi Fonz Ponce brought his painting skills to Van Nuys Boulevard to create massive murals in a “part of the Valley that’s ignored.”

Street scenes along mural filled walls (Marlene Vizuet)

The people behind this project in Mexico, Liberalia Colectivo Itinerante (which translates to Itinerant Liberty Collective), worked with the community, the local government and artists to bring it into being. The founding members of Liberalia Colectivo Itinerante are a family who dedicated themselves to bringing change to their neighborhood. Claudia Barajas, Deyanira Garduño, Julio César Barajas are siblings and the children of Juana Garduño, all of whom grew up in Guerrero, right on Eje Mosqueta. They wanted to contribute to their community “by bringing art and culture here, to this neighborhood,” says Claudia Barajas, “because we knew that this neighborhood has a lot of delinquency, violence and conflict.” “It has been known as one of the most dangerous barrios in the city,” she adds.

They formed the collective six years ago and initially had expositions for artists and worked with individual artists and writers, but last year, Deyanira Garduño had the idea to start the mural project. To begin the project, the collective planned for a pilot mural knowing that they needed to get the community on board to move forward. To do that, Garduño organized meetings with neighbors to discuss the idea. At the start, many of them were against it, worrying that what she was proposing would be ugly and not much more than graffiti that was already on many of their walls. In the end, the neighbors not only agreed to starting with one mural along the half-block length of an apartment building on Eje Mosqueta, but to also split the costs of the materials for it. Claudia notes that, because “the neighbors have seen us grow up, and they knew us, it made it easier” to bring them around to supporting the project. It also helped that Liberalia wanted to have the pilot mural painted on a wall of the apartment complex where they live.

The pilot mural, finished this past December, depicts an indigenous man with ceremonial garb and then a panther, a snake and an eagle — each part of important Mexican history and culture — along the length of the wall. Once the pilot mural was finished, and the neighborhood was eager to continue the project,

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