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Un Pueblo Sin Murales... Mural |
Neighborhood: Adams MorganAddress: 1779 Columbia Road, NW
Artist: Carlos Salozar and Felipe Martinez
Date: 1970s
Metro: Woodley Park-Zoo/Adams Morgan (Red line). Metro bus going east at Connecticut Avenue and Calvert Street or a 5 - 10 minute walk across the Duke Ellington Memorial Bridge.
Un Pueblo Sin Murales... (A People Without Murals...), also known as The Adams Morgan Mural, is the oldest remaining outdoor work in Washington that dates from the mural revival of the 1960s and 1970s. The painting was designed and executed by Carlos Salozar and Felipe Martinez, Chilean immigrants who joined thousands of their compatriots in fleeing the repressive Pinochet regime in the 1970s.
The townhouse silhouettes and tiny Washington Monument establish the local venue, but the surreal images dominating the mural clearly do not depict the “Federal City.”
The ghostlike figure with huge eye at the left is said to represent government surveillance, a constant fear of the new arrivals, and the three grotesques around a monopoly table under a naked light bulb caricature property speculators who purchased and renovated low-income housing in the 1970s.
But the mural is not all negative - the painting celebrates diversity, showcasing revelers of all skin shades and indeterminate genders. The medley includes an exuberant band and artists painting a mural. The legend in Spanish beneath the painting sums up the message: “A people without murals are a demuralized (i.e., ‘demoralized') people.”
Contributed by: American Dreams & Associates
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