Painting As Protest On Mexico’s Walls
In the 1920s and ’30s, Mexican muralists like Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco painted murals that powerfully illustrated the issues of their day. Today, street artists rule the nation’s walls, addressing its problems with an arsenal of wit and aerosol cans. Rosario MartÃnez and Roberto Vega are two of those artists. In 2006, when their native city of Oaxaca erupted in protests following the state’s brutal response to a teachers’ strike, they formed the collective Lapiztula. The name combines lápiz (pencil) and pistola (gun), an allusion to the old adage that the pen is mightier than the sword.
