Mid-March 2022

Introduction

In this post, I’ll share some recent finds in my quest to document wall art here in San Juan. I’ll also show some works that are gone – painted over, torn down, whatever. I’ll arrange the art roughly by neighborhood.

Calle Cerra: Newly Discovered Murals

Calle Cerra is a short street (four blocks long) in Santurce. Art work there has led to a continuing revitalization of the neighborhood. Here are some works I discovered there about two weeks ago.

The work above is signed by Angurria, the signature of Omar Garcia, a muralist from the Dominican Republic.

The next three are from a low wall in a narrow alley. I could not capture the whole work so these are sections of that one wall.

The mural above is signed by @mrbbaby. After a little research, I discovered that is the signature for Michelle Guerrero, out of San Diego. She comes from a Mexican-Puerto Rican family and earns her living as a muralist. She is on Instagram – check her out at @mrbbaby.

The work above is signed by Smite_Arte, which is the signature used by the Puerto Rican muralist Elvin R. Hernandez. He is on Instagram at @smite_arte.

Calle Cerra: Old Friends, and Questions

That artists come from various places to create murals in this neighborhood raises questions. Before I get to them, I’m going to show a few more examples of art in this small neighborhood.

I edited the image above. Hee is the original, as captured by my digital camera.

This striking mural is by the French-Canadian artist Danae Brissonnet.

Here is another example. I don’t think I shared this one before. I’ll show first what I had from my camera, and then the edited version.

I was not able to identify the artist who created the image above.

But all of this makes me curious: How is it that muralists from Puerto Rico, San Diego, Quebec, and the Dominican Republic (and other artists as well) converge to Calle Cerra in Santurce and make art there? Is the some kind of brokerage connecting walls with artists? Do muralists have agents? And how do communities decide to become a home for murals? Who does the promoting? Muralists? Agents? Community activists? And where does the money to pay the artists come from? Grants? Donations?

There is much I do not know.

Avenida Juan Ponce de Leon

This avenue is the main street through Santurce, and was at one time the premier street for movie theaters, restaurants, and department stores. There are occasional examples of wall art along the street and on some of the side streets.

Calle San Agustin

This street runs though our neighborhood towards Old San Juan. It is a side street, with apartments, a bar, a hardware store, a Mexican restaurant, and a pizza place. It also has some wall art.

Rio Piedras

Rio Piedras, in the southeastern part of San Juan, is home to the University of Puerto Rico. As you get away from the university neighborhood, Rio Piedras becomes a poor, gritty neighborhood that has seen better days. But there is a variety of mural art and so worth a visit. Here are some recent discoveries from there.

There are several murals around a government square near the entrance to the urban train station. I’m told this collection of murals is advertised on local television, apparently to get more visitors to Rio Piedras. Here are three examples, selected from nine works there.

Goodbyes

The next images are works that are gone – painted over, defaced, on buildings since torn down. By the way, the first three are from Rio Piedras.

Conclusion

So here you see some new findings. I have more – stay tuned.

Notes and Sources

The images are mine. I edit them using Adobe Lightroom and/or Photoshop. I have, in many cases, increased the color vibrance and saturation so as to bring out more details.