To Protect the Beauty of a Community, a Mural Blooms in Mexico City Michelle Garcia - Al Jazeera
go to original June 10, 2014

Jonathan Ulisis Mendez, who goes by his graffiti tag ene, sits on scaffolding as he touches up a scene on the mural outside the Mercado Jamaica, a year-round flower market in Mexico City. (Keith Dannemiller)

MEXICO CITY — The artist waved his brush in the air searching for just the right rhythm before slapping the tip against the concrete wall. From a frenzy of quick strokes, he soon brought forth the contours of a baby's toes.

The painter, Jonathan Ulsis Mendez, surveyed his work: a few inches of a mammoth mural spanning the length of two city blocks and containing seven centuries of history. Mendez, 33, is a muralist but not in the spirit of celebrated artists such as Diego Rivera or David Siqueros.

He perfected his craft on the streets that have been his studio, his signature contained in the graffiti tag: ene. And, unlike Mexico's famous muralists, ene labors far from the city's wealthy art scene and trendy neighborhoods. His masterpiece rises from the sidewalk outside the thriving Mercado Jamaica, an all-hours, year-round flower market.



EXPLORE THE MURAL: (Click to enlarge image)

With hues evoking a deep-water fantasyland, the graffiti mural renders the era when this mega-city was navigable by canoe and known as Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec empire. Harvest scenes flow into images of deities worshipped for centuries by native peoples.

At the market's entrance stands a representation of Tlaloc, the rain god, who carries a bolt of lightening with a serpent's head, symbolizing the rain that fertilizes the land. From ene's brush has emerged a portrait of merchants gliding across rivers toward the island city. Vibrant sunflowers and a string of dreamy pink roses have blossomed from his touch. The cycle of life is completed with an interpretation of Tonantzin Coatlicue,"our venerated earth mother," who rests on a bushel of corn and carries the baby that is at the center of ene's attention.

Two years ago, ene and Luis Enrique Gómez Guzmán, aka Mybe (me-bey), co-founders of the graffiti collective Germen, convinced the flower market managers and private funders to grant them the rights to the wall. Nothing along the faded corridor of small shops and peeling paint suggested the rich colors and smells contained within a market or its deep history.

"They do nothing to protect the beauty in the community," said Mybe, also 33, referring to the local political leaders. "And so we decided to carry out a project so that no one could escape the color."

Read the rest at Al Jazeera

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