PACHUCA, Mexico — In the hillside down of Las Palmitas, a community project is bringing art to people’s homes. A group of artists known as the Germ Collective have spent 14 months painting the city’s houses with bright, beautiful colors in what they call the Pachuca Paints Itself Project. Now, facing the edge of the hillside, city’s houses proudly form one giant, vibrantly colored mural.
The Germ Collective worked tirelessly to paint a total of 209 houses in just a little more than a year. Beautifully bright pastel colors were strategically chosen and swirled together across each house’s façade. What resulted is a unique creation of a giant abstract sea-breeze mural, connectedly stretching across the outside of each house.
The city government funded this project in an effort to bring the working-class “barrio” closer together and to challenge the city’s poor reputation. The government placed the project into the hands of local artists, knowing full well of the beauty that these people could bring to the central Mexican city.
The project began with receiving permission from local homeowners to have their homes painted. Then, a whitewashing of each building took place, symbolizing that all of the city’s residents are equal. The houses were then covered with more than 5,000 gallons of paint.
The muralists worked alongside residential volunteers to transform the colorless, cement-and-cinderblock neighborhoods. They chose colors like bright lavender, lime green and luminescent orange to vamp up the city’s walls. More than 20,000 liters of paint were used in this bold transformation.
When looked at from afar, the individually painted homes and city buildings combine to form a cohesive, rainbow, “breezy” design. The artwork is supposed to be an homage to the wind. The city of Pachuca is nicknamed “la bella airosa,” or “the beautiful breezy city.”
Project Director Enrique Gomez explained that the project’s goal was to bring a sense of liveliness to the city and raise the spirits of local residents by changing the negative image of the neighborhood. Gomez is a former gang member who turned his life around by rededicating himself to graffiti art and muralism.
He explained that, before, Las Palmitas was known as a dangerous area where people could not travel the streets safely after dark. Gomez is happy to report that as the project is nearing its final stages, he has seen more people out on the streets having positive, friendly interactions. There is an improved sense of social cohesion.
Gomez has been pleasantly surprised at the scope of the project’s impact. He feels a renewed community spirit and is encouraged by witnessing motivated residents taking the security of their neighborhoods into their own hands.
In the project’s final stage, artists are painting more than 16,000 square feet of murals along the city’s streets. The Pachuca Paints Itself Project has had such a positive impact that plans are already being made to paint another poor neighborhood nearby called Cubitos.
It is amazing what a little positivity can do for people stuck in poverty. By bringing the city’s people together to work on a beautiful cause, this project has made long-lasting effects on the morale, safety and community spirit of the people in Las Palmitas.
Sources: Fox News Latino, Wisdom Pills
Photo: Wisdom Pills