Mission Muralismo

Scholars have suggested a bilateral relationship between environment and inhabitants placing the core of human identity in inextricable relation to the social cultural and environmental landscape in which it resides. If this correct then the existential question of self—Who am I? Who is community X?—can be answered with an observational analysis of the surrounding environment. With the highest concentration of public mural art in the world San Francisco’s Mission District and its community-based Mission Muralismo movement provide a uniquely variegated and colorful platform from which to begin this analysis. In what follows I have worked to understand the Mission community by examining the public mural art concentrated within the historically significant Balmy Alley. I will provide photos and a brief description/analysis of each Balmy mural piece in hopes of creating a reaching a conclusion that can be represented into a diagram of Mission District identity.