Street Art on Public Transport in Guatemala and Mexico
Today I want to post a couple of different examples of street-art. Different, because it doesn't have to do with murals or wall paintings. Still it should qualify as street-art, since it is out on the streets that these works of art can be seen, namely on the buses and vans running around on the streets of Central America.
Looking for the Perfect Chicken Bus
I remember way back, before even coming to this continent, seeing movies about Mexico with old school buses painted in the craziest colors, transporting everything from sacks of produce to live chickens. But even 15 years ago, when I first set foot in Mexico, those legendary images seemed to be somewhat off: Sure enough, there were plenty of local and regional buses loaded with any type of cargo its passengers needed to transport (including the occasional chickens), but the vehicles were typically old Geyhound type buses, and most importantly, without the colorful paint jobs.
This bit of a let-down was more than made up for in Guatemala, where virtually every single bus, including the long-range cross country ones, were exactly those typical painted school buses. And yes, I remember going crazy about taking lots of pictures of them. So now, inspired by a recent comment on my last post in the StreetArt Community, I went to look for those photos. And as these things tend to go, I only managed to find no more than three bus photos.
Changing Times Everywhere
As I said, these pics are from 2005 and 2009. Since then I haven't even been back to Guatemala! But even the last time I could see that in many cases small compact minivans replaced these lovely painted old school buses. And for whatever reasons, corporate or otherwise, these vans are kept mostly white.
American school buses have been popular in other Central American countries too, but their appearance varies from place to place. In Honduras, for example, most of them have been left in their original cheese-wagon yellow. In Panama, on the other hand, where most city buses in the capital are made up of former school buses, they have gotten insane airbrush paint jobs, featuring anything from Bin Laden wearing a FC Barcelona jersey, to evil jesters jumping out of exploding jack-in-the-boxes.
Again, I knew I had taken lots of bus photos, but they must have gotten lost on a hard drive or a cloud somewhere... So instead, I want to leave you with an airbrush image on a van I saw in Mexico. It's not public transport (I believe) but it's more than impressive.
Wow that airbrush image is amazing.
I wonder why they don't paint art on buses anymore? A shame. I love street art as it's counter to capitalist art aka advertisements and it's a social study. I really want to organise the council to hire someone to paint the railway bridge pillars that go over our river.. better than the kids swear words and tags for sure.
Oh yeah do it! Sounds like a wonderful idea.
As far as the buses, I can only speculate: I think the old school buses belong to one person, a family, or a small company in any case. So they painted them really cool, including the driver's wife's / girlfriend's name, their favorite saints, rock bands and cartoon characters of their choice, etc. But the "micros" seem to belong to a large company, owning a whole bunch vans. So they like to keep a "professional" appearance, in plain white, maybe a company logo, that's it. I know, it's sad!
Wow, the last bus pix is so detailed, truly a work of art. Thanks for the tour, some of those buses are just so colorful and unique Cool stuff.
Original Street Art... And beautiful work on the last van 👍 Thanks for sharing these pics, The StreetArt Community.
Those buses are getting a much more interesting life in their later years. I can't remember where I saw it, but I think there is a documentary about the competitiveness of the bus scene in Guatemala, where informal bus racing was/is common.
Oh wow, sound wild, but I can totally see that happening. Everyone wants to make the best time (including the passengers) and such a race can unleash the drivers' competitive spirit. Of course my inner safety-first mind is screaming in agony at such a thought, still I can't deny that it makes sense. I want to see that documentary!
Oops, guess it was Panama. I think this is the film I saw -
Nice! I call those Panamanian ones "designer schoolies" because each one of them is an incredible work of art, like this one in the title image. As for the races... yeah, can't wait to watch it and get scared out of my mind.