Legends of Identity / Leyendas de Identidad


The West Side of Saint Paul is a community that was able to create itself in its place, integrating and feeding the social, economical and cultural dynamics with new practices. And within that evolution the people have not lost their identity matrix. This identity is also a multicolored mosaic of identities of diverse regions of Central and South America that add and juxtapose each other to create the new reality of Saint Paul. In the face of anti-immigration policies of the present administration that attack basic humanitarian principles and break the community, the immigrant and the native communities of Saint Paul make efforts to transform their reality into a more positive one. Neighbors take care of, protect and learn from each other. Despite all attempts to undermine it, the community makes efforts to strengthen itself. 

In partnership with El Burrito Mercado, the artists will organize community conversations with the people of West Side of Saint Paul, to hear their stories, fears, and hopes. They will then work on a creative design that will depict these stories. They will create an art intervention of murals, mosaics, color, art, history, hopes and more that adds identity to La Placita at El Burrito Mercado along Cesar Chavez Street, showing how the community defines itself, looks at itself and manifests its cohesion in the face of the terrible threats that afflict it today.