Struggle and change
Up until a few years ago, when gentrification began setting in, residents of the mostly Latino Mission District considered Frida Kahlo their patron saint and Diego Rivera their artistic director. The Mexican mural movement that Rivera brought to the city in the 1930s had a second flowering here in the 1970s, and Balmy Alley was its center. Starting in 1972, a small group of Chicana artists, the Mujeres Muralistas, painted the first large works on the wooden garage doors and fences that abut this narrow residential alleyway. Their murals were political statements against conflict, but from a distinctly feminine perspective, depicting the transcendent power of the earth, women, children, and the cycles of nature. Thousands of immigrants fleeing civil unrest in Nicaragua, Salvador, and Guatemala settled in this neighborhood in the 1980s, and the murals reflected their struggles.
Each successive wave of residents has left an indelible artistic imprint on the alley. Recently restored, the painting titled Culture Contains the Seed of Resistance that Blossoms into the Flower of Liberation was one of 25 murals created in 1985. The iconic Naya Bihana (New Dawn) painted by Martin Travers in 2002, depicts the women of Nepal struggling to break the chains of oppression, the theme of so many of the murals here. The gentrification that began in the late nineties is also portrayed in various works, such as Lucia Ippolito’s Mission Makeover, which depicts a day in the life of a Mission teenager who gets searched by a police officer drinking Starbucks coffee; or the fantastic Victorion, by Sirron Norris, in which a giant robot-like character made of Victorian houses is sent to crush the real-estate developers under his feet.
Info
Address 1-100 Balmy Street, San Francisco, CA, 94110 | Public Transport Bus: 12, 14 (Mission St & 24th St stop); 48, 67 (Folsom St & 24th St stop) | Tip For an al fresco Mexican dining experience, treat yourself to a couple of tacos at the El Gallo Giro Taco Truck on Treat Street and 23rd Street.
Not long ago, however, one of the larger apartment buildings was renovated; and the garage abutting the alley was clad in painted steel. A surveillance camera now discourages any new creative embellishments.
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