"Aqui y Alla" Transnational Project by Michelle Angela Ortiz

"AQUI Y ALLA" MURAL

Mural Location- 1515 South 6th Street, Philadelphia (6th and Dickinson Streets)


The "Aqui y Alla" transnational public art project created and directed by local artist Michelle Angela Ortiz. The project explores the impact of immigration in the lives of Mexican immigrant youth in South Philadelphia in connection with youth in Chihuahua, Mexico.

For this project, Ortiz invited four artists and community leaders from Juarez and Chihuahua City, Mexico (David Flores, Juan Carlos Reyes, Oscar Gallegos and Antonio Leal) worked with youth in Mexico, who created transportable murals on fiber cloth panels that were brought to Philadelphia. The artists traveled to Philadelphia to work in collaboration with lead local artist Ortiz in conducting a series of writing, street art, and mural technique workshops with Mexican immigrant youth in South Philadelphia.


"Aqui y Alla", which translates to "here and there", refers to the youth in both Philadelphia and Mexico, whose lives are impacted by immigration through their family dynamic, sense of identity, shifting of cultures, socio-economic status, and violence against their communities. This project works simultaneously on both sides of the border to join the two cultural worlds through the vision of young people and their art in the creation of a permanent mural in South Philadelphia.

Collaborators in this project include Philadelphia Academies Inc. and the Mural Arts Program's Education Program. This project is made possible with the funding support of the United States Consulate in Juarez, the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures, the Leeway Foundation, Hispanics in Philanthropy and individual donations from supporters.

For more information go to www.aquiyallamural.blogspot.com

Copyright Michelle Angela Ortiz All Rights Reserved 2012

www.michelleangela.com