Today we take a look at a mural that falls into the child-like, storybook genre of wall illustration:
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| Artist: The Guatemala Illustrator, Mi Linda Terra Guatemala, paint on concrete. |
Here the artist depicts a lovely picture of his ideal village square in Guatemala. The fellow in the front holds up the sign that announces "Mi Linda Terra Guatemala." I have not traveled in Latin America, but I believe this is the standard layout of a town that the Spanish settlers brought the Americas, a central common meeting area, with a church as the central focus point (see it in white all the way in the back). The block-style of housing with red-tile roofs also very Spanish.
One cannot help but notice that this artist sees the place as having paved sidewalks, and that the park is not green, but yellow indicating dry brush or sand/dirt, so this is an arid locale.
There are men in cowboy hats, but more are wearing the worker's baseball cap. Kids play with dogs and soccer balls. But one thing that stands out to me in this depiction is how many delivery men there are bringing boxes of new merchandise to the good townfolk. The artist has quite a consumerist vision here for his town--he wants new things for his people. Makes me wonder if it was a shipping company that sponsored this mural.
At first I thought the red, blue, and yellow colors of the central pavilion tent were those of the Guatemalan flag, but no, that is basically white and powder blue with an insignia in the center with laurel branches, crossed rifles and swords, a long-tailed green bird, and an scroll announcing the founding date of the nation. So the artist basically chose the primary colors, adding to the children's storybook vibe.
Just so you know a little of the local dynamic between Latino heritage groups here in L.A., the predominant ethnic group is Mexican (being the U.S.'s immediate neighbor), but in East Holly and nearby Pico-Union there are large contingents of Central American people, Guatemalan and El Salvadorans mostly. Those are much smaller, poorer countries and so the Mexicans harbor a little condescension toward them, kinda thinking of them like hillbillies and having "Polack" jokes about them.
Most Americans have NO inkling of these differences and just call all dark-skinned, black-haired Latinos "Mexicans," which I'm sure pisses off the Salvadorans and Guatemalans, but they chalk it up to Northern Americans being ignorant. I tend to have some empathy for the Centroamericanos because I tend to be about the same skin color as them and they're small in stature as I am; I'm pretty the sure the tropical Indian tribes from which they descend were a pretty small people.
I always crop mural images so that you focus on the artwork, but the here's a little bit of the street context that might help you locate this in a specific place.
The mural is located off Beverly Boulevard, I believe on Edgemont, the location of many Central American businesses.
No Malibu picture today. I'm home ill. Take care of yourselves and we'll see you next week for more street art!
Love,
Pops
I've always been jealous that Guatemalans get a resplendent quetzal as their national bird. The bald eagle has always seemed kind of funny-looking to me. Not that there's anything wrong with being bald. (-; The odd thing is that the bird is *not* bald--it just has a different color of feathers on its head. Very peculiar and not especially attractive, if you ask me.
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