Artists and citizens transform police fences to demand a free Palestine.

▲ “People want to participate, and we invite them to paint, even if they have no knowledge. We guide them,” Gustavo Chávez (left) said in an interview. Photo by Gustavo Chávez Pavón

▲ Driven by a sense of justice for the genocide perpetrated by the State of Israel against the Palestinian people, artists and citizens created murals on the fences surrounding the Juárez Hemicycle, located on the Alameda Central. With symbols ranging from hummingbirds, emblematic watermelons, a Benito Juárez covered in a keffiyeh, and a Zapatista wielding a slingshot, the activists transformed the protective metal fences into canvases and created their paintings with materials they received as donations. Activist Gustavo Chávez Pavón, who participates in this art and resistance movement, explained that the idea is to generate collective awareness: “We know they will erase them or try to do so; so, we will paint them again, even if we don't have paint or money to buy it. We will do it again because we are stubborn, foolish,” he commented in an interview with La Jornada . Here are images of the community activity that began yesterday in the center of the country's capital. Photo: Gustavo Chávez Pavón

Eirinet Gómez

La Jornada Newspaper, Monday, September 8, 2025, p. 2

From the Alameda Central—Mexico City's first public park and a witness to multiple chapters of its national history—artists, citizens, and activists raised a resistance front for a free Palestine. Through murals, they made visible the demand for justice, launched a call for international solidarity, and to stop the genocide.

On their tour of the Historic Center, visitors encounter a Benito Juárez covered in a keffiyeh, a Zapatista wielding a slingshot, and a hummingbird suspended in flight—images that intertwine local symbols with the struggle of the Palestinian people.

“Here, art becomes a teaching tool against injustice: we unite a dissatisfied society and generate identities and belongings around the defense of a people who are being cowardly murdered,” said Gustavo Chávez Pavón in an interview with La Jornada.

The locations chosen for the murals are the metal fences that the capital's authorities installed around historical monuments, such as the Benito Juárez Hemicycle and the Angel of Independence. "Wherever the police put up their fences, we go and use them to communicate our discontent with injustice," he said.

Collective protest

Chávez Pavón explained that if there's one thing that enriches this work, it's its collective and community nature. The participating artists don't receive payment for their murals, and to build them, they rely on donations of paint and financial support from those who come to observe the process.

On many occasions, he added, passersby themselves have joined in the creation. “People want to participate; we realize that, and we invite them to paint, even if they have no experience. We, who in some ways have a little more experience in this business of doodling and making marks on walls, guide them.”

The murals also have an ephemeral nature, as the billboards are frequently replaced by the police, who erase the paintings. However, he warns that this doesn't stop them or consider it a problem, but rather part of the message they seek to convey: resistance is rebuilt again and again.

"We know they're going to erase them or try to; so we'll paint them again, even if we don't have paint or money to buy it. We'll do it again because we're stubborn, foolish. If they erase that wall, someone will give us another one," he noted.

Chávez Pavón, who in the past accompanied the Zapatista struggle with his paintbrush, explained that the painting of murals in support of Palestine has been coordinated with other artists and activists such as Martín Compa Espiral and Dani González, who enthusiastically gather materials and invite others to join the project.

"We see art as a means of social articulation, resistance, communication with society, and a link with peasant, worker, and student movements. Art is a trench from which we fight, from our perspective, for justice and truth," he emphasized.

For the breakdown of relations

For the artist, the murals in the heart of Mexico City are part of the actions undertaken by activists and citizens to demand that the Mexican government stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people. “We are waiting for President Claudia Sheinbaum to speak out and break ties with those who promote genocide. Maintaining ties with them is like having ties with Hitler at one time.”

He recalled that relations with Hitler were broken off in his time; so, "Why not now? How many commitments are there? What's going on? Why aren't relations with this murderous country broken off?" the muralist asked.

Chávez Pavón considered it essential to take to the public squares and, from there, exercise our right to communicate, express ourselves, and articulate ourselves.

Among the painted murals, a large Palestinian flag stands out in green, white, black, and red. Other flags and symbols are displayed within: doves, women in keffiyehs, watermelons, and Palestinian and Mexican faces.

"In our country, muralism has always been a tool for communicating injustice, and it continues to be so. Without arguing with anyone, it puts on walls what many don't want to see.

"In addition to representing them in their iconography, we now invite people to join us in the creative process, and we also have other Latin American artists who come to paint," he concluded.