Click here for photos of the murals in Santa Elena and Maní.
The first two weeks in December were dedicated to working on the design and production of several “periodicos murales” for the Subdirección de Atención a Migrantes, a department of INDEMAYA that provides Yucatecan immigrants and their families with legal aid, general information about their rights, and other assistance both here and abroad. The purpose of these murales is to provide current information to citizens. As the first pass, we used existing photographs from INDEMAYA staff. As we continue developing these, the intention is for people to add their own information to the mural – including letters and emails from the US, photographs, etc. It is a low-tech way to create an exchange and dialogue between immigrants and their families and friends. In this first round, we produced 5 murals of 35 that will be created (budget pending). Each print cost US$50 and the acrylic approximately US$250.
Each mural is a highly personalized experience. To prompt citizens to read, we customized each mural with the title of the town – Santa Elena Migrante, Maní Migrante, etc. – and statistics about population and immigration (the top blue area) relevant to the town. Photographs on each mural show citizens of each respective town and immigrants in the US – to create a relationship between being here and being there. The bottom green area highlights the services INDEMAYA offers and how to contact them and the yellow area communicates a message to the townspeople related to immigration and is from a current or former immigrant.
On December 14th, I went with Marcela Palacios and Luis Manzanero of INDEMAYA to install two of five murales periodicos in the towns of Santa Elena and Maní, Yucatán.
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