Artistic tradition spurs Mesa’s Southside renewal

There they are, larger than life: Hummingbirds, butterflies, agave, prickly pear. Aztec symbols, sugar skull, ballet folklórico dancers, mariachi. Legendary Guerrero family members.

There they are — writing on the wall, so to speak — about the people and place that is Mesa’s Southside: Mercado Mi Pueblo, the Superstition Mountains in the distance, a train that makes its presence known.

For the last four years, mural art has served as a creative catalyst for invigorating a neighborhood experiencing lots of change, growth and development around it. The proliferation of cultural relevant murals in the Distrito Latino neighborhood south of downtown Mesa builds upon and protects Southside’s identity.

David Martinez is responsible for 10 of the public-facing murals in the community where he was raised. The Southside resident did one of colorful, symbolic murals in the neighborhood more than 40 years ago. It’s still there, still relevant. He also has done one of the most recent Southside murals and plans to do more. 

“I’ve always told myself that if I’m going to do these murals, I’m going to do them to promote my culture, my identity in a positive way,” Martinez said. “That’s why I’ve always stuck to the Latino theme.”

Martinez, whose Southside mural work recently was featured in an immersive art exhibition at the Media and Immersive eXperience (MIX) Center at the Mesa City Center complex, describes the burgeoning mural art scene in his neighborhood as a massive outdoor gallery, one that’s curated primarily for the people who live there. 

In 2019, Martinez and RAIL CDC were key to the successful installation of a Southside community-build mural on the west wall bordering Guerrero Park. The project, part of an Urban Land Institute (ULI) Arizona community mural initiative called ULI2D, re-sparked neighborhood interest in the Latino art tradition.  

Jennifer Gastelum, community engagement specialist at RAIL CDC, said the Guerrero Park experience confirmed the neighborhood’s interest in wanting to do more art. But it also reinforced a commitment to ensure neighborhood residents participate in the art process going forward, she said. 

“This particular neighborhood is in a position where a lot of change is happening around it,” Gastelum said. “There is this idea of renewal. That word maybe even digs into some other elements, like re-surfacing the importance of art in the neighborhood that maybe was the case when David was doing murals many years ago. We’re kind of renewing that interest and that desire for the art to be existing in that place.”

Gastelum said momentum continues to build from the community mural experience four years ago.  

“The ULI project really was a catalyst to just sort of keep moving that along,” Gastelum said. “It didn’t end with those murals. It sparked what is going on now, which is awesome.” 

As shown throughout the nation, murals done correctly have positive community outcomes.
ULI2D is an ongoing community mural initiative in service to the organization’s goal of shaping the built environment for transformative impact on communities. 

“The goal is not to just paint murals and then have them exist, but how do we make them knit into the community,” Lindley said. “We’re not going to fund every few years, lots and lots and lots of murals. We’re going to catalyze things.”

Southside’s murals are collaborative and collective art pieces that have functioned as an empowering mode of social bonding. They are beautiful signs of the community’s presence.

ULI Arizona learned through experience with Southside and the Guerrero Park mural project the vital importance of community engagement and approval.

“That art has to tell the story of that community,” Lindley said. “It has to tell their story, and we have to earn their trust.” 

There they are: familiar faces; colors and symbols with cultural meaning; touchstones of the neighborhood. Mesa’s Southside.