PACHUCA: A community project in central Mexico is bringing art to people’s homes. Literally.

A group of artists known as the Germ Collective have spent 14 months turning the hillside neighbourhood of Las Palmitas into a giant, colourful mural in an effort to bring the working-class “barrio” together and change its gritty image.

Working hand-in-hand with residents, muralists have painted the facades of 200 homes bright lavender, lime green, incandescent orange — hues more commonly found in a bag of Skittles than in the drab, cement-and-cinderblock neighbourhoods where many of Mexico’s poor live.

Seen from afar, the individually painted houses combine to form a cohesive, if abstract, swirly rainbow design. Bright stripes that begin on one wall run across several homes before swooping into graceful curlicues.

It’s an homage to the wind: the city of Pachuca is nicknamed “la bella airosa,” a Spanish phrase that loosely translates as “the beautiful breezy city.”

Project director Enrique Gomez said the goal is to promote community integration and change the negative image of the neighbourhood.

“I never thought we would have such a big impact,” said Gomez, a tattooed and goateed former gang member who turned his life around when he rededicated himself to graffiti art and muralism.

Before, he said, Las Palmitas was a sketchy area where people avoided going out after dark or interacting with each other. But as the project nears its final stages, you see people talking to each other more, children hanging out on the steep stairways that cut through the neighbourhood.

“Honestly, what surprises me the most is that people are really changing,” Gomez said.

“They are growing, there is more community spirit. People are taking the security of their neighborhood into their own hands.”

Published in Dawn, August 2nd, 2015

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