Inspiring, engaging and dynamic. These are the words used to describe the 300 plus mural route in the Province of Las Hermanas Mirabal, specifically Salcedo, Tenares and Villa Tapia. Covering schools, hospitals, churches, businesses, parks, prisons, court houses and private residences, these murals capture the history, culture and stories of these towns. Initiated by the Minister of Culture, these murals were designed to depict peace and development.
To complete the mural route, they hired Hector Blanco, a local artist who graduated with honors from the National School of the Arts in Santo Domingo. Having worked with artists from across the island, Hector was able to recruit highly talented and trained artists not only from the Dominican Republic but from other countries as well.
Through his leadership role as the artistic coordinator of this project, this mural route soon became the Caribbean’s largest muralist project with a wide and diverse range of artists including Candido Bido, Maximo Ceballos, more examples…....
Hector typifies the philosophy that an artist both needs to know and is responsible for knowing his/her community — it’s histories, stories, hopes and dreams — before painting a mural. This extends to the belief that each mural has a story to tell; and that its story is inherently valid as a communal biopic. So each artist was charged with depicting peace and/or development while also capturing an image that resonated with those living in the area. As seen from in the following mural, “Freedom as a Process” which is painted on front of Tenares High School, one sees a woman breaking the chains that hold her enslaved.
However, she is not fully free and continues to carry the weight of her past, present and future struggles. This image is one particularly resonant story of the Dominican woman, told one way. It expresses broad themes through the narrow implementation of paint and technique.
At the same time, a mural project has the potential to bring together different groups of people.
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