El corazón de la merced

This monumental work, created in what used to be a former uniform factory, is a tribute to the working people of the La Merced neighborhood in the heart of Mexico City. The colorful composition rises above the 25-meter-high façade of a building that had remained gray for years, as a backdrop to the daily hustle and bustle of one of the city's busiest intersections. After a year of immersion in the area, interviews and many conversations with neighbors, tenants and collectives facilitated by cultural manager Joaquín Aguilar, the artists created a composition that speaks of the people who give life and drive to this community that has been vital to the fabric of Mexico's capital. Since pre-Hispanic times, La Merced has been an area of commercial activity and supply, with the market as the main institution in the life of the neighborhood. Ancient history dating from the Aztec Empire, as well as events of recent decades, and the current energy that circulates through this emblematic site of the city, fueled the creative process of the artists, who traced a composition that gives priority to the iconic, anonymous characters as protagonists of the mural. A colorful patchwork background alludes to the street stalls as seen from the sky. The arches represent the market of La Merced and frame, on the left, the most popular character of the neighborhood: a vendor and loader of merchandise, the diablero, along with his predecessor, the mecapalero. In the center of the mural, a giant adobe heart represents the earth as sustenance. From the heart also sprouts the symbol of Atlachinolli. "The heart] is made of earth, it has leaves, vegetation and roots. People live off the earth. The earth is the provider," explains artist Daniel González 'Laite'. To the right of the heart, a child participates in the work and a woman in a shawl carries merchandise, extends her hand and with it, controls a flame. The fire refers to the fire that occurred in 2013 in the market of La Merced. A fire that, although it caused a lot of damage, also generated unity and the birth of social collectives led by women. "They are in charge. They are the ones who are at the foot of the cannon, legally, culturally. There is a rebirth of the fire," says Dan Silva. This project, which had the support of cultural and academic institutions, private initiative and civil associations, is an example of the use of public space to generate identity, art and culture from participatory and collective processes. [ZOOM] From the upper part of the heart sprouts a pre-Hispanic symbol that integrates opposites: the Atlachinolli. In the Nahuatl language, this sign was expressed with the verbal diphrasism teoatl tlachinolli, "the divine water, the burnt fields", or atl tlachinolli, "the water, the burnt fields".