A new mural just cropped up, right above the bicycle one I introduced here. You can even see the empty wall that used to be in its place, which I think is pretty cool. The location is still the corner of Vicente Eguía and Juan Cano in the San Miguel Chapultepec neighborhood of Mexico City.
Plenty of Water
The image shows a view that should actually be unmistakably common in Mexico City, even though it may strike you as surprising the way things currently are. It depicts a canal or river flowing under a bridge, complete with lots of vegetation all around. Looking at this city nowadays, one would find it more typical to see parking lots and superhighways, skyscrapers and shopping malls, and all kinds of other types of concrete buildup. But that's not how it's always been!
Due to its geographic conditions, the valley of Mexico has always been well saturated by water. Most famously you'll think about the lake that Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital was built on. But even up to only half a century ago, there used to be a network of canals, as well as various rivers feeding the local water supply. What happened to them?
Build up and Encased in Concrete
The rivers, such as the Lerma and Churubusco, are still there, though they have been channeled into a concrete riverbed and covered up, so a highway could be built running along them. A similar fate befell the canals, which have been converted from important waterways to similarly important roads and metro lines. The only thing that remains is the memory of a city built on the water, preserved in old photographs.
For this reason, I am particularly glad to see this wonderful wall painting, right in my own neighborhood. Its lush greenery and still waters offer a tranquil impression of how this very place may have looked like not so long ago. Very well done! Unfortunately, I have not seen any identifying marks anywhere on this mural, so I can't link in the artist's page.
As always, this post is my entry to this week's CCC's Street Art Contest, an amazing source of incredible street art, with new images every week. If you would like to see more of my own collection of Mexican Murals, please check out my growing collection!