Meet the Latin American women leaving their mark on Montreal, one mural at a time

Montreal's longstanding Latin American grocery store Sabor Latino has managed to become even more Latino with the help of two Argentinian muralists.

The side of the building in Montreal's Petite-Patrie neighbourhood now boasts the warm- and cool-toned artistry of painters Marila Tarabay and Alejandra Zeme, who work together under the name Nereidas R.

The mural, titled The Seed Guardians,shows Latin American women coming together to preserve various seeds from fruits and vegetables. They're surrounded by some of Canada's endangered species and scenes depicting pressing environmental issues in this country.

"We idealized Canada in a way but soon found out that no, it deals with some of the same environmental problems like forest fires, water contamination that we see in Argentina," said Zeme.

Their mural, completed last month, is the second that public art curator Rodrigo Ardiles is bringing to the RosemontLa Petite-Patrie borough in collaboration with Plaza Saint-Hubert.

"There's a lot of untold stories in the neighbourhood," said Ardiles, a Chilean muralist now living in Montreal and the creative director of the non-profit Creativo Arts Collective.

The collective not only hosts muralists from Latin America but also co-ordinates opportunities for local artists to go there. The organization completed a similar project a few years ago with the Dundas West Open Air Museum in Toronto.

"Ideally we would like to have most of the countries represented here where the diasporas have a large amount of population," says Ardiles. "We would like to have artists reflect their integration, too."

A third mural by Uruguayan artist Florencia Duran Itzaina just outside the Beaubien Metro station was completed Monday with funding from the Uruguayan Consulate in Montreal.

That one depicts a group of women associated with the Centre d'aide aux familles latino-amricaines (CAFLA), an organization that supports families recently immigrated from Latin America.

Duran Itzaina says leaving behind "giant women" in a space where they're safe and depicted working collaboratively has been a satisfying experience.

WATCH |Florencia Duran Itzaina's Giant Womenmural comes alive:

Montreal mural route highlights Latin American women painters

18 days ago

Duration 2:32

Uruguayan muralist Florencia Duran Itzainas Giant Women outside Beaubien Metro Station in the RosemontLa Petite-Patrie is the third work in the mural corridor. The Creativo Arts Collective brings muralists from Latin America and co-ordinates opportunities for local artists to go over there.

Ardiles commissioned the route's first mural by Mexican artist Dolores (Yuda) Navarro in 2022 with support from the Mexican Consulate in Montreal, but had to put the broader project on hold while he secured additional funding.

Invitations have now been sent out to artists from El Salvador and the Dominican Republic.

He says he's putting a particular emphasis on women painters for the mural route in Montreal. Muralism, because it involves working on the streets, is often associated with male artists, he said.

Duran Itzaina says it's important to cut through that noise and show that "we also know how to operate lifts, we can lift heavy things, we can handle an entire wall on our own."

"Muralism's history was written and its foundation laid by men because they were given importance and priority. But in recent years we've been seeing a change where more women are taking up that space," says Duran Itzaina.

Zeme and Tarabay say they're also all too familiar with that association between street art and men.

"It was really difficult for us when we were first starting out," says Zeme. "There's been a lot of progress, yes, I'm not saying we're in the Middle Ages, but there's still some way to go."

Even in Montreal and Toronto, where the duo painted another mural, if Ardiles was around people would sometimes congratulate him for the work assuming the two women were his assistants.

"'Who drew the sketch?'" is another question they hear often, saidTarabay. "[As though] we didn't conceptualize it and are just executing someone else's vision."

Ardiles' invitation came at the perfect time for Tarabay and Zeme who were looking to do something big to celebrate 20 years of working together. In Argentina, opportunities for muralistshave dropped in recent months due to significant cuts to the arts and culture sector and rampant inflation affecting people's ability to commission work.

"Before this crisis we had work all year long one mural after the next. We even had to turn work down," said Tarabay.

"Competition for the little work that's left is fierce and it doesn't pay much," said Zeme.

They say coming to Canada has been an eye-opening experience.

"It seemed impossible for us to be able to travel so far, get paid for our work and have everything work out," said Tarabay."Now that we've seen that it's possible, that it's been done and it's not unrealistic, we're going to go for it more."