The Wall

reposted from Baja Report Blog dated 4/13/2016

Walls all over the world are the blank canvases of culture.  Building walls and vertical surfaces of train cars, trucks, overpasses, sound walls, are, in many ways, public spaces.  Individual expression, urban art, commissioned murals, graffiti, political frustration, social movement, are on the walls for all to see. A common forum used often in unique ways.

And Baja is no different.  The wall is truly a public space.

There are concrete block walls with plaster finish and paint everywhere in Baja.  It is a concrete world.

Businesses use this available space for advertisement of their shops.  Baja biz usually does not go to the sign shop and order a sign to hang on the building.  They get a sign artist to come out and paint, in the largest format and in bold colors, the business sign on the business.

And the walls are used for political campaigns and protests of political campaigns. Driving through the back streets of Cabo you will see painted signs for a candidate for office that may be many years old.  Or half painted over by the next round of candidates.  The wall is the permanent running fence of Mexican politics and social consciousness. Everywhere you look.

And art.  There are wonderful art pieces on the walls in La Paz and Cabo.  Typical of Mexican art and architecture in general much strong color is used.  And if you google street art of Mexico City you will be amazed.  Public art. For all to see.

But the most striking use of the wall in Baja and all of Mexico is public poetry.  One day I was in Todos Santos with Sal and I saw this Octavio Paz poem fragment on the wall. Mi mira lo que miro. It is very hard to translate poetry from Spanish but I found a couple of translations.  What I watch watches me or I am the creation of what I see. There is a black stencil portrait on the wall of Octavio Paz. The stencil is often  used  to create an instant, consistent, and  repetitively used symbol or slogan.  We have seen various stenciled street art in Baja.  Like the one on the 3 baby bridge from my blog Mexican Mind Fu.  

After we saw that poem we began to see them everywhere.  Writing on the walls.  This is a poetic sentiment on a wall in La Paz.  Down on the waterfront at the bay.  To write a poem is to create the wind.

There is an attribution to the right of the poem.  Accion Poetica La Paz.  Accion Poetica is a project started by Alanis Pulido in Monterey Mexico in 1996.It is now in over 100 Mexican cities and 30 countries.  wikipedia The artists of the project paint positive poetry fragments on blank white walls with black paint. The Octavio Paz line cited above is within their tradition of black on a white wall, but it is not attributed. This poetic  is also one of the favorite lines used by Accion Poetica. It is on many white walls in many Hispanic countries. www.accionpoetica.com

But poetry graffiti is not limited here to an organized group.  It seems to be part of the culture of Baja, of Mexico.  It is possible that Accion Poetica organically grew from a common method of expression already alive in Mexico. Writing on the wall.

This is a line on a wall near the marina in La Paz.  It is attributed to Bardimios.(we bard? we write poetry?) We haven’t been able to create a satisfactory translation.  Please feel free to translate and send to me through comments.

A sentiment possibly painted by field workers on a vegetable packing facility near our house. Viva El Amor. Needs no translation.

So, imagine you are going to work at your office in Cupertino.  In California. Estados Unidos.  You notice a line written on the white plaster wall near your building in perfect letters of black paint. IN DIFFICULT TIMES LOVE BECOMES URGENT   The office janitors are not attempting to paint over the line.  A few people are walking by.  Some look up at the poem. Some just rush by in a hurry to get to work. You stop.  Look. Read the line several times.  You remember something from your recent past that means much to you. Very much.  Perhaps you skip work. Somehow the chaos of life is diffused. Diferente.