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| Segundo Barrio murals, El Paso, Texas. |
The mural above is across the street from the Sacred Family Catholic Church, one of the cultural anchors of Segundo Barrio in El Paso.
The juxtaposition of the intentional art plus the prosaic scene of freshly-laundered jeans draped over a banister plus the loudness of that #619 - it pleases me.
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| Segundo Barrio murals, El Paso, Texas. |
The murals of Segundo Barrio are a draw for internal and external tourists to El Paso. There is a brochure you can get with a neighborhood map and numbered locations on the map, which match mural titles and descriptions.
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| Segundo Barrio murals, El Paso, Texas. |
I can't help but compare the influence of the murals in humble Segundo Barrio with the immense Equestrian (fka The Last Conquistador, Don Juan de Oñate) by the El Paso Airport. NOT from a perspective of holier-than-thou, reverse-elitist, "real people" versus the affluent.
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| Segundo Barrio murals, El Paso, Texas. |
No, I wonder about the comparison between the two in real, number-crunching terms. How many people actively seek out the Segundo Barrio murals; how many seek out the statue? How many tourist photos are there of the murals (as a group) versus how many of the statue?
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| Segundo Barrio murals, El Paso, Texas. |
If I move to a comparison of intangibles - what messages do visitors glean from the statue? The murals? Emotions? Lingering effects, if any? Which of the two say "El Paso" more loudly to the internal or external visitors?
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| Segundo Barrio murals, El Paso, Texas. |
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| Segundo Barrio murals, El Paso, Texas. |
For some visual reference, below is a map that shows some of El Paso's neighborhoods, which I saw at the El Paso History Museum:
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| El Paso neighborhoods. El Paso History Museum. |
And a slide show of Segundo Barrio murals below:
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