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<p>A mural was recently unveiled at one of the busiest streets in San Ysidro, near the United States and Mexico border.<br>
The project titled “San Ysidro, A Place Where Soles Meet” has the goal of building a better community in San Ysidro through cultural actions that promote unity and not division on both sides of the San Diego-Tijuana border.<br>
The San Ysidro Chamber of Commerce and the Border Art Public Committee set the art mural with help from the Institute for Mexicans Abroad, a subsidiary of the Mexican government’s Foreign Ministry.<br>
“The objective is to stimulate the economy in San Ysidro. We hope this is the first of many more projects to come; we invite the Tijuana community to create projects together and that both sides support each other,” said Christopher Sanchez, Founder and President of the Border Art Public Committee. “This is the committee’s first project and we have also launched a banner program aimed at having banners by different artists placed all over San Ysidro, which are going to change seasonally.”<br>
There are currently 110 banners by artist Gerardo Meza already placed all over San Ysidro.<br>
Sacha Boutros, creator of the “San Ysidro, A Place Where Soles Meet” art mural, said the painting includes soles drawings of the people that cross the border every day with the idea that soles sounds like souls, because San Ysidro is a place where souls, and soles, meet.<br>
“The idea came to me since I used to drive with my grandmother here to pick up my grandfather, Cirilo Cazares, every day he came from Tijuana,” said Boutros. “My grandfather always had the same Florsheim shoes, he was charming,” Boutros said. “I wanted to make the wall like a place where souls meet, because in it also sounds like soles, so the mural has all the soles of people that go from Mexico to the United States or from the United States to Mexico.”<br>
The art mural unveiling was held with a ceremony that included the presence of people behind the project as well as community leaders, like Marcela Celorio, Consul General of Mexico in San Diego.<br>
“The border variable is a big challenge and also a big opportunity, this day we unveil a mural that is an obvious sign of the importance of cultural exchange and the interdependence that both of our countries have,” Celorio said. “These are the elements or facts that demonstrate this interdependence. We know we continue to work locally and that we continue to walk together because we know we are part of a solution not a problem.”</p>