Betances Mural in Boston, MA

“Sepamos combatir por nuestro honor
Nuestra libertad”
-Ramon Emeterio Betances

We must know how to fight for our honor
Our liberty

This work of public art by Lilli Ann Killen Rosenberg and local children, entitled Betances Mural, celebrates the Villa Victoria housing unit in the South End of Boston, home to many Puerto Rican immigrants. The housing complex was established in the late sixties in order to protect neighborhood residents threatened by displacement due to rapid gentrification. The mural is an astonishing forty-five feet long, composed of ceramic mosaics and tiles sculpted by children living in the neighborhood. The heterogenous nature of the work lends it a buzzing exuberance, radiating patchwork brilliance. Images of fish, plants, houses, musical instruments, lightbulbs, fruit baskets, and more coalesce to form an unlikely yet coherent whole. The work is richly textured like a seashell-encrusted sedimentary rock, carved faces rising up from the surface of the wall as if animate. Its playfulness, certainly in some part owed to the children who worked on it, does not detract from the gravity of the artwork. The mural dominates the surrounding landscape, which is increasingly seen as one of Boston’s most upscale neighborhoods. It bellows into the townhouse-lined streets: We are here. We’re not going anywhere.

2 thoughts on “Betances Mural in Boston, MA

  1. I think that the last few sentences of this piece are incredibly powerful. Personifying the work, with “It bellows,” and “We are here. We’re not going anywhere.” are two lines that capture a vivid and compelling sense of urgency, that help me contextualize this work.

  2. That phrase, “radiating patchwork brilliance,” is really connecting with me. It’s describes a visual work in a way that’s almost tactile. I love how concrete you make that sensation for the reader.

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