 |
Balmy Alley Murals This alley is filled with murals and, to get a hint of the impact of this little avenue, look at all six pictures. Come along for a tour.
|
| Balmy Alley is in the Mission District, off
24th Street. The Mission District, in particular around 24th Street, is the
Hispanic neighborhood of San Francisco. The culture of the Latinos and Latinas
living here is reflected in the murals, some of which are elaborate works of public art.
Others, as here in Balmy Alley, are smaller in scale and more personal. They
are also fluent in symbolism. Can you understand them? On El Dia de los Muertos, the Mexican Day of the Dead, in 1990, I participated in a night procession through the Mission District, led by a group of Aztec dancers and drummers. To the heavy beat of the drums, the procession went down Balmy Alley -- underneath a huge paper and cardboard sculpture of a human skeleton straddling the alley and giving birth to an infant skeleton directly above those walking. The next day the art was gone.
|
|
