Enzo from Open Air Museum in La Pincoya, Santiago, Chile

Decolonization can be an individual and / or collective process, at an individual level, discovering our patterns imposed by the dominant culture. But also, at a collective level, developing a new culture that resists, which requires us to become aware of the norms and standards imposed by the dominant system. There can not be a true decolonization without the elimination of patriarchy, for example. Therefore, the term is against the norms imposed by the capitalist system, the feminist struggle, for gender equity; violence against oppressed groups, rescuing the roots and culture of our native people; and above all, fight against alienation and capitalist reification. In this sense, we created a mural inverting the symbols of the old 500 peso bill. In our ticket, the dominated-oppressed duality. A desperate cry of resistance that the Mapuche communities have been doing, for the recovery of their ancestral territories.

The Open Air Museum in the Pincoya, is a social project of muralist intervention in the streets of the town. The main objective is to portray the history of the population with a deep look at the popular historical reality through mural art.

The social mural has an important history in the population, since in the years of the civic-military dictatorship they expressed the most horrible pains. From the disappearances and executions of its inhabitants, to murals of collective love. Of those years, where the consciences of the settlers could be touched by the sentimental colors of works made by improvised muralist groups of settlers, and by those of the Ramona Parra Brigade styles, always trying to tie up the dreams that belong to everyone.

Our project seeks to be an activity of social commitment with the population, reflecting the own stories from the town and for the town. We seek to send a message of equality, dreaming of a more just society for our residents, who suffer from discrimination, exclusion in education and health, indebtedness even to feed families, among other problems. The reality of Chile below, of our neighborhoods. The colors in the spaces of the population influence all those who go through and see a message that seeks to question reality, to reactivate the unit’s neuron and social struggle, because Chile is a very united country, but one that is asleep.

The murals that we have made seek to be related to the historical popular struggles: the Common Pot, Urban Colonies, Village Woman, Workers, Children, Education, Mapuche People, etc. Murals that are linked to historical and current social demands. For us, the mural is a tool that seeks social transformation, at the same time that seeks to embellish and put joy in places where the desolation is most obvious, to touch the heart of anyone who can question the mural, transforming the sorrows and sorrows of the population in rebellion against the antisocial policies imposed by the neoliberal center-right governments.

It is known that the Pincoya population was a place of subversive organization at the time of the dictatorship, planning in its lands the failed attack on the dictator Pinochet. Therefore, the population before and now, has a desire for liberation, which makes more sense when each of its inhabitants becomes aware of the deep social injustice that affects us in its majority.

Today the project has become an innumerable group of friends, muralists and graffiti artists. Every day there are more urban artists in different corners of Latin America and Chile, who want to contribute to the cause, making a mural in the town. This inspires us more to break the boundaries in all aspects, because the dream is big and makes sense. Some of the artists who have participated so far belong to creators from different Latin American neighborhoods (Argentina, Colombia and Peru) and from our Chile, recognizing ourselves as brothers in the same Latin America subjugated to the machinery of global capitalism, but who are seeking its liberation .