Muralists paint over traces of violence in Salvadoran neighborhood

MEJICANOS, El Salvador —  From the window of her tin-sided shop outside El Salvador’s capital, San Salvador, Esmeralda Quintanilla watches artists get to work in her neighborhood on walls still pockmarked by bullet holes from the country’s civil war and gang conflict. Armed with brushes, paint and spray cans, muralists and graffiti artists have already covered the walls of several of the 40 five-story units in a housing complex in the Zacamil neighborhood of the Mejicanos district. “With the murals, everything looks really nice,” said Quintanilla, a 55-year-old seamstress who has lived in the neighborhood nearly half her life. “You start to see all this, and it gives the place a different image. I feel really happy, proud.” Italian artist Beatrice Vigoni paints a building as part of the Zacamil Project in Mejicanos, El Salvador, Aug. 13, 2024. A drone view shows members of the Fullpaint 360 collective installing cords in a mural titled “Constelacion de Zacamil” by Italian artist Adriano Lombardo in Mejicanos, El Salvador, July 30, 2024. A woman stands by a mural titled “Outside” in Mejicanos, El Salvador, July 11, 2024. The dozen murals already completed include a Mesoamerican pyramid, pixelated depictions of the Virgin Mary and...