MEXICO CITY — Observed from a soaring cable car, the city is a
sea of concrete stretching to the horizon, ruptured only by clusters of
skyscrapers and the remains of ancient volcanoes. Some 60 feet below is the
borough of Iztapalapa, a warren of winding streets and alleyways, its cinder
block houses encasing the neighborhood’s hills in insipid gray.
اضافة اعلان
But then, on a rooftop, a sudden burst of color: a giant monarch
butterfly perched atop a purple flower. Farther along the route of
Mexico City’s newest cableway, a toucan and a scarlet macaw stare up at passengers.
Later, on a canary yellow wall, there is a young girl in a red dress, her eyes
closed in an expression of absolute bliss.
The 6.5-mile line, inaugurated in August, is the longest public
cableway in the world, according to the city government. As well as halving the
commute time for many workers in the capital’s most populous borough, the cable
car has an added attraction: exuberant murals painted by an army of local
artists, many of which can be viewed only from above.
“There are paintings and murals all along the route,” said César
Enrique Sánchez del Valle, a music teacher, who was taking the cable car home
on a recent Tuesday afternoon. “It’s nice, something unexpected.”
The rooftop paintings are the latest step in a beautification
project from Iztapalapa’s government, which has hired some 140 artists over the
past three years to blanket the neighborhood with almost 7,000 pieces of public
art, creating explosions of color in one of the most crime-ridden areas of
Mexico City.
“People want to rescue their history, the history of the
neighborhood,” said the borough’s mayor, Clara Brugada Molina. “Iztapalapa
becomes a giant gallery.”
Sprawling toward the outer edge of Mexico City, Iztapalapa is
home to 1.8 million residents, some of whom are among the poorest in the city.
Many work in wealthier neighborhoods, and before the cable car, this often
meant hourslong commutes.
As with many poor urban areas of Mexico, Iztapalapa has long
been afflicted by both a lack of basic services, like running water, as well as
high levels of violence, often linked to organized crime.
The mayor’s art initiative is part of a broader plan to make
Iztapalapa safer, including with street lamps that now bathe in light the main
roads that were once shrouded in darkness.
The murals feature national icons like Aztec deities,
revolutionary leader Emiliano Zapata and artist Frida Kahlo, with a dash of
turquoise across her eyes.
But there are nods to more local heroes, too.
Against a scarlet backdrop with blue, yellow, teal and
lime-green shapes floating behind her, the image of a short-haired woman smiles
at the viewer: It’s Lupita Bautista, an Iztapalapa native and a world champion
boxer who is almost as colorful in real life.
On a recent morning, Bautista, 33, stepped into her gym wearing
fluorescent green sneakers, a pink beanie and a rainbow tie-dye sweatshirt with
her name scrawled in fuchsia glitter across the front.
“I love that the colors are so strong,” she said of the
government-funded project that, in addition to creating the murals, has
transformed the neighborhood where she trains into a mosaic of color by coating
the cinder block houses in bright hues, a paint job that would be unaffordable
to many residents. “It gives it a lot of life.”
Bautista’s childhood story is a familiar one in the borough.
When she was young, her house in Iztapalapa had no electricity — lit only by
the glow of candles at night. Her neighborhood did not have sidewalks or even
paved roads.
“Everything was gray,” she recalled.
Crime was an issue, too, with robberies and murders so common
that Bautista said her mother only let her or her sister leave the house to go
to school.
“I was terrified,” she said. “I felt like something was going to
happen to me.”
With many avenues now brightly lit, she said she felt much safer
jogging after dark.
“I was built running through the streets,” she said of her youth
spent weaving through the neighborhood’s avenues and alleyways long before she
became a champion fighter. “Now you can run with a lot more security and focus
— not thinking about when someone’s going to jump out and scare you.”
But despite the government’s efforts, most people in Iztapalapa
continue to live in fear: According to a June survey from Mexico’s national
statistics agency, nearly 8 in 10 residents said they felt unsafe — among the
highest rate for any city in the country.
Women in particular face pervasive violence in Iztapalapa, which
ranks among the top 25 municipalities in the country for femicide, in which a
woman is killed because of her gender. From 2012-17, city security cameras
recorded more instances of sexual assault against women in Iztapalapa than in
any other Mexico City borough, according to a 2019 report from the National Autonomous
University of Mexico.
That gender-based violence is what prompted the mural and
lighting project in the first place, according to the mayor: to create pathways
where women could feel safe walking home. Many of the murals celebrate women,
either residents like Bautista or famous figures from history as well as
feminist symbols.
“We’re trying to reclaim the streets for women,” said Brugada,
the mayor.
Alejandra Atrisco Amilpas, an artist who has painted some 300
murals in Iztapalapa, believes they can make residents prouder of where they
live, but she admits they can only go so far.
“Paint helps a lot, but sadly it can’t change the reality of
social problems,” she said.“A mural isn’t going to change whether you care
about the woman being beat up on the corner.”
Still, Atrisco believes her work can affect residents’ lives by
representing the characters of Iztapalapa in full color.
“Every day you confront a new challenge, every day a new wall
and a new story,” she said. “You make dreams come true a little bit — you
become a dream maker.”
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