Viva la Causa

Visitors to Chicago can walk around Pilsen, the Latino neighborhood where countless murals decorate the streets. Ray Patlán is one of the originators of this rich tradition. In voice-over he explains that, as a 10-year-old child of Mexican immigrants, he was introduced to the artform in his ancestral country. He was deeply affected by the evocative images that merge history, politics, and aesthetics, and by the ways in which local people were involved in their creation. 

Local residents, including school and college students, were always involved in the projects that he and his friend Mario Castillo instigated on the streets of Pilsen from 1967 onwards. They transformed the public space into a canvas for manifesting whatever was going on at the time in the Mexican-American community. Memories of the turbulent past and finding a new identity are among the themes explored in the second part of this short documentary, with Patlán and young people working on a new mural titled Viva la Causa. We see new talents emerging and passers-by sharing personal interpretations of this overtly activist image.