Mid January 2025

Introduction

The bus lane carrying public transit into and out of Old San Juan passes just south of our building. In the block immediately to the east, one story walls are found on both sides of the street. Over the years, the walls attracted mural artists and they produced a series of colorful works of art.

I use the past tense because in the last day or two the walls have been painted an ugly shade of brown. In this post, i will offer unfounded speculations as to why this happened and celebrate some of the art work that has been painted over.

Idle Speculations

Just down the street from us, an apartment building has been under construction. It is now close to completion. The front of the building is on Avenida de la Constitucion; the back is on the bus lane. I wonder if the building owners, now close to showing the luxury apartments to potential buyers, wanted the walls repainted to ‘tidy up’ the neighborhood.

The new apartment building. I took this image while standing in the bus lane. Our building is visible in the lower left of this image.

There are, by my count, twelve floors. There are perhaps four apartments per floor. And it is in a great location. I don’t know anything about apartment prices but these have to be expensive.

The owners probably had dominion of the wall along the back of their building; that was probably part of the parcel of land the developer bought. But I don’t know how they could extend their influence to the other side of the street, Perhaps the developers, wielding their political clout, convinced the government to paint the walls on both sides of the street. Or maybe the new governor, riding in her motorcade, thought the wall murals an eyesore and ordered the walls painted.

Or it could be some other reason entirely. As I say, these are but idle speculations.

Disappeared Art

So here are some of the murals now gone.

This was one the south side of the street. Actually, it had been painted over, perhaps by the same artist.

This was also on the south side of the street,

Crab Lady was on the wall on the north side of the street,

The Undertaker was a Puerto Rican professional wrestler. This too had been painted over. See my earlier post here.

This is what replaced The Undertaker.

A celebration of grass and surf.

I’m guessing this is an anti-hate statement. This was next to the Crab Lady.

A whimsical smiley face.

Another whimsical face.

Today

The walls, once filled with colorful, challenging, sometimes ugly, sometimes celebratory, sometimes whimsical paintings, is now an ugly shade of brown.

I’m glad I had the foresight to capture some of the images while they still existed.

Notes and Sources

The images are all mine. I use a Sony digital point and shoot camera and edit my images using Adobe Lightroom and/or Photoshop.