Santurce es Ley, Puerto Rico’s Urban Art and Music Festival

Messages behind some of the murals commissioned at this year's sixth annual edition of Santurce es Ley, Puerto Rico’s Urban Art Festival

Puerto Rico's economic disaster and climate change are the driving messages behind some of the murals commissioned at this year's sixth annual edition of Santurce es Ley Street Art Festival.

Santurce es Ley is an annual cultural festival that celebrates international artists, music, and food. For this festival, artists volunteer to create a mural on different buildings around Santurce for the enjoyment of the community. The festival is located on Cerra Street!

“Santurce es Ley” directly translates to Santurce is law. This supports the idea that graffiti and painting on buildings is not vandalism, it is art.

A big favorite this year is a mural painted by Australian artist, Fintan Magee, named 'Glass Half Full.'

Pictured a local boy carrying an iceberg through his small fragile world as water levels rise around him. Despite the low C02 emissions of small island states in the Caribbean; rising sea levels, increasing natural disasters and other affects of climate change are a huge threat to the small nations who's economies are dependent on fishing, tourism and agriculture -Fintan Magee

'The Rebirth of SANTURCE', by muralist, Elvin Hernandez, has a message of hope for the future.

"The Rebirth of SANTURCE" depicts a young girl sitting in a garden holding a palm tree plant. I had the pleasure of spending some time with the artist on the morning he was finishing his second mural, 'Treehouse,' in Santurce es Ley.

'The Rebirth of SANTURCE' is about the future. The child represents the future and the palm tree depicts life. The neighborhood is going through tough economic times. I want my mural to breath vibrancy and fresh air to the community. -Elivin Hernandez

Unemployment was most recently clocked at 12.2 percent by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the rut of a more than $70 billion debt certainly doesn’t help. There are 35,400 taxpayers who still haven’t received returns from last year.

Elvin Hernandez works as a full time artist working on commissioned murals and fine art portraits.

Mural 'Treehouse,' by @smite_arte From: Puerto Rico Calle Las Palmas Santurce, Puerto Rico Photo taken: March 2016