Sagrada Familia Youth Take Paint
To Divisive Wall in Their Community
By Leland Baxter-Neal
Tico Times Staff
lbaxter@ticotimes.net

Nearly twenty young people turned out Saturday to paint a mural on the wall that separates the low-income, ill-reputed southern San José neighborhood of Sagrada Familia from the more upscale neighborhood of Mayorca.

According to organizers, the wall was built more than ten years ago to keep the crime and drugs that are rampant in Sagrada Familia from crossing over into the backyards of those living on the other side. Members of the Sagrada Familia community took offense to the division and opposed its construction, however the wall was left standing with the exception of a single doorway for people who needed to pass from one side to the other.

On Saturday, young people from various neighborhoods took paintbrushes to the gray cinderblock wall, continuing the 30-meter-long mural started the week before. The design the children and teens came up with was a long row of figures, their backs to the viewer, representing the different types of people found in their community, with a few bonus characters like an indigenous person in traditional clothing and Optimus Prime, the leader of the brutal and militaristic Decepticon army that opposed the Autobots in the popular 1980's cartoon The Transformers.

Breaking up the line of people are two sets of hands, one lifting the wall from above, the other pushing it up from below, revealing blue sky on the other side.

The long row of characters begins with a scene created by Nelson Ocampo, 18, from Sagrada Familia. A man in a blue business suit holding a briefcase is passing a dollar bill behind his back to a young girl in a school uniform who reaches behind her back to take the money. Next to the girl is a police officer, watching the exchange.

Ocampo explained that the scene is a common site in his neighborhood, and says that while the people from the more well-off side of the wall think his side is full of criminals, it is the people from that side that come to buy drugs and exploit young girls. The police, he says, see it but do nothing.

The mural was coordinated by the neighborhood social works organization Neighbors Education Center, which has operated in Sagrada Familia for 25 years, in an office a half a block from the wall.

Natalí Ramos, the coordinator of the project, explained that the mural is part of an arts outreach program called “Culture, Place and Creativity,” which is funded by the Finnish government and operates in various low-income neighborhoods in San José.

“In these neighborhoods, there aren't places where kids can go and do things, which lends itself a lot to drug and alcohol use, and the environment is very violent,” Ramos said. “(With this program) they have the possibility to go to a place where they are treated differently, with respect.”

See Friday's print or online pdf version of The Tico Times for more on the mural in Sagrada Familia.