For decades, the hundreds of murals in San Francisco’s Mission District have served as a visual history of the neighborhood’s diverse Latin American roots.
But in recent years, the cultural landscape of the Mission has radically changed. According to the Mission Economic Development Association, 8,000 Latino residents were displaced from the Mission between 2000 and 2013.
When local Latino dancers and choreographers staged performances May 3, 2015, in front of several murals along 24th Street, the act of reclaiming the area’s rich cultural past was as much on display as the street choreography.
Calle 24 Latino Cultural District’s Arts Consortium presented Baile en la Calle: The Mural Dances.
“We started these mural dances to bring attention to losing the visibility to the culture that created the Mission,” says Susan Cervantes, founder of Precita Eyes Muralists and a pioneer in the city’s community mural art movement. “So there’s better understanding and more respect.”