painting the revolution war murals
urbanism | street murals by sara louiero
revolucion communication murals wal ls latin america
On July 19th, 1979 , Nicaraguan revolutionaries overthrew the country’s dictator, Anastasio Somoza. Hopes of a new future filtered through the air. Nicaraguans would have the possibility to construct a social utopia that they had been envisioning for so long. The revolutionary FSLN (Sandinista National Liberation Front) ruled the country for ten years, using the country’s city walls as a communication medium to spread their new values. The streets of major Nicaraguan cities were lined with bright murals concealing the destruction and civil war remnants that lay beneath them. These political murals attracted artists from all over the world. Murals are the art of the people; art is expressed publicly, the visual language employed makes it easily understood by less advantaged members of society. Muralism existed long before the Nicaraguan revolution. It was extremely
popular in Mexico during the 1930s with artists such as Diego Rivera using this art form for political means, and it gradually made its way south. Because they are so accessible, murals often carry some form of political propaganda – during the Nicaraguan revolution, the FSLN government commissioned over 3,000 murals across Nicaragua. National and international artists included Janet Pavone, Daniel Hopewell and Cecilia Herrero, each mural sharing its own unique relation to the values and history of the new political movement. 1 In the 1980s, US-funded contra rebels fought against the FSLN, setting the stage for a ten year civil war. Most of the contra armies lived in Honduras, creating heavily concentrated war zones in the cities near the border. Estelí, a city 102km from Honduras, was heavily damaged by the war. A shift in power in 1990 caused the
removal and destruction of Nicaragua’s murals—most were painted over, torn down, or destroyed by time and weather. Between 1990 and 1996, around 50 of the revolutionary murals in Estelí were painted over by Violetta Chamorro’s liberal government, and then more were lost during Arnoldo Aleman’s tenure between 1996 and 2000 (Moreno). Despite these efforts to cover up the history of the FSLN, a few of these murals have been preserved. One of the best, created in 1984, can be seen in Estelí’s Casa de Cultura. It explains the insurrection of the revolution. The protagonists have angry faces, guns and knives, shining a positive light on civil disobedience. The subjects in the mural are presented in a linear fashion which makes them easier to view while walking. Bullet holes can still be seen on the top of the building, providing concrete evidence of the details of war. Just around the
50 On Site review 22: WAR
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator