Monday, January 20, 2025

A Mural to Protect a Water Source!

Mural by Carin Steen

Off to San Martín Jilotepeque (Guatemala), yet again. This time to paint a mural on a brand-new wall at the outskirts of town. It was recently built to protect the well and public wash basins behind it, half way down a steep trail that leads to a creek. This well has been an important water source for many neighbours for over a century. But in the last few years, some nearby homeowners have been tapping into the well. The basin dried up, it fell in disarray and was completely destroyed when not too long ago a huge oak tree tumbled down, right on top of it. The once beautiful public well of San Nicolás turned into a ruin and a garbage dump.

Mural by Carin Steen
A group of concerned citizens want to restore the well and bring back the water for the use of all, because there are still a lot of families in the area that have no running water in their homes.  They started by cleaning up the trash and planting trees in the beautiful, lush area. Next step was to build a retaining wall which was done with part of the materials and labour provided by the municipality. It will protect the place and will hopefully stop people from throwing their trash downhill. In order to make people aware about the well and incite them to protect the place, I was asked to design a mural for the 20-meter-long wall.

Mural by Carin Steen

But that was not all that the project embarked. Telma Calan, former director of the school for children with special needs and member of the COCODE (Community Development Counsil) wanted to give a group of children who had recently participated in a drawing contest (organised by the public library) the chance to learn more about painting and thus asked me to involve them in the process.

Designing a mural that involves the participation of children is completely different from designing one I’ll be painting just by myself. It’s much more difficult in a way, because the design needs to allow to participants to work more or less independently even though they have no prior experience. There are several approaches, but in this case, I opted for a design of simple elements, all representing water, of which I first drew the outline and then had the kids colour them in. In the end, I traced all elements with black, and the result was pretty neat. Of course there was much more to it than just colouring some pictures. First, we primed the wall, then applied the background colour. Next we drew a grid with a spirit level, which is not as easy as it looks! At least not if you have to fill up 20 meters of wall with 25 x 25cm squares, all neatly levelled out. Then finally the real action, followed by some tedious touch ups and last but not least, varnishing all. Twice!

Mural by Carin Steen
The conditions were tough! The sun was scorching, drying the paint even before putting it on the wall! Heavy traffic passed behind our backs, lifting up big clouds of sand and dust. The “water men” of the municipality were nice enough to drive by and hose down the dirt road, but still, each of us and everything we brought with us, was covered in a thick layer of dust. Every afternoon, a chill shadow covered the mural while the wind became stronger. The temperature dropped and from overheated we went to being cold in no time! But the kids did great and kept on painting!

Mural by Carin Steen

Despite it being at the outskirts of town, it was clear that the people from the community appreciated the art work. Cars stopped, people cheered us on and even brought us drinks and snacks. And told us stories about the neighbourhood. Horrible stories, truly. The civil war in Guatemala seems so far away already, but for many people it has been a traumatic experience they will never get over. The road we were painting the mural at was controlled by the military during the eighties. The high school located on a hill right above the place we were working, still a school to this day, was at the time a place where people were held prison and being tortured. The road leads out of town, along many high cliffs. It became a popular place among the military to make bodies disappear. It was literally the road to nowhere. Very eerie. It was kind of surreal to hear people telling their experiences to each other right behind my back while I was painting happy pictures, surrounded by kids doing the same. I hope they listened too, because as hard as these stories are to listen to, they should not be forgotten.

Mural by Carin Steen

Three days of hard, hard work and then the mural was done! Very dirty but also very well-watered and fed, we wrapped it all up. We did a little photo session, unfortunately with bad lighting for pics, and Telma and Doña Marta of the COCODE gave me and the kids a diploma and a gift. It was a wonderful experience and I hope the mural will indeed help to get the restauration of the water project of the ground. Despite being tired and ready for a break, we’re already planning the next mural in San Martín Jilotepeque!

Mural by Carin Steen

This mural was sponsored by Dutch foundation Uno Más. Thank you very much!
Also many thanks to: Telma Calan for organising it all; Doña Martha for all the support; the wonderful painters Doris Álvarez, Vicky Cumatzil, Hayden Álvarez, Gaby Chávez and Luís López. Thanks to my friend Cristy Velasco for the delicious treats and much needed (unsweetened) coffee! Thanks to Hyden and Doris’ mum for the delicious lunch; the “Water Men” for keeping us cool; and the traffic police for lending us their cones. Thanks to the entire community of San Martín Jilotepeque for your kind words and support! I hope you’ll treasure your precious water source!