The Economist (2022-02-26) Riva

78 The Economist February 26th 2022
Culture

Artandregeneration

The drawing on the wall

I

ztapalapa, a teemingneighbourhood

on the outskirts of Mexico City, is largely

a sprawl of grey concrete. But look down

from the cable car that soars above it—a

city initiative that helps densely packed

residents get around—and the aerial view

is punctuated by brightly painted rooftops.

Down here, a likeness of Mercedes Hernán-

dez, an actor. Over there, a boy and a girl at

play, beneath the slogan: “We are equal”.

On the ground, pedestrians navigate

streets lined with portraits of locals, past

and present, or pictures of crops formerly

grown in this once-rural area.

Muralism has a long history in Mexi-

co—from wall paintings by the Olmecs, the

first major civilisation in the region, to co-

lonial frescoes painted by the Spanish to

dramatise Bible stories. Another mural

movement took off in the 1920s. After

the Mexican revolution, the government

sought to foster a sense of identity in a

country of numerous languages and eth-

nicities, whose citizens had fought to end

the old dictatorship for varying reasons.

The population was still mainly illiterate,

so the new rulers recruited artists, includ-

ing Diego Rivera, to paint murals showing

scenes and events from Mexican life. The

artists drew on the country’s heritage by,

for example, incorporating Mayan motifs.

Today tourists flock to the works of the

“big three” muralists of that era—Rivera,

David Alfaro Siqueiros and José Clemente

Orozco. “Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in

Alameda Park”, a lively depiction of some

of Mexico’s best-known historical figures,

was painted by Rivera for a hotel restaurant

in 1946-47; now in a museum devoted to

the artist, it is a regular pit stop in Mexico

City. In Guadalajara, on the ceiling of a for-

mer hospice (also now a museum), Orozco

painted “The Man of Fire”, which shows

a twisted body emerging from flames, a

startling image of rebirth.

From the 1960s, murals became a priv-

ate enthusiasm rather than a public

project. They can be seen from the walls of

schools in rural Oaxaca in the country’s

south, to Monterrey, the business capital,

in the north. Now, after a period of decline,

the art is being revived with gusto, and as it

was practised after the revolution—with a

social purpose and paid for by the authori-

ties. Iztapalapa, where some 7,500 new

works have been commissioned since

2018, is the heart of the trend.

There is plenty of beauty in the bright

colours and bold images on display in the

neighbourhood. But the aim is not purely

aesthetic. Officials in Iztapalapa want to

make it a safer place to live. Mexico’s sec-

IZTAPALAPA

Mexico revives a tradition of painting murals with a purpose

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— Johnson is away