Fifteen+ years ago our Baja sea turtle team set out to create a series of sea turtle murals spanning the 1000-mile long Baja Peninsula. I remember starting the turtle mural project w/ a self-taught artist in Puerto San Carlos, he said "just buy me paints, brushes and food and I'll make beautiful turtle murals all over."
And he did...
That project is still underway. Recently SFS/Tufts University student, Alyssa Irizarry, studied their impact.
Her conclusion: keep going...
turtle mural downtown Puerto San Carlos >
Photos of some of the murals, and their fans and creators follow, higher res available. The GT holds its 12th annual meeting in Loreto on 29-31 January, 2010. http://www.grupotortuguero.org/content/1/1/1.html
Murals depicting marine life can be found in most towns on the Baja peninsula in Mexico - on restaurant walls, the façades of schools, or the sides of gas stations. What were once drab, white block walls now feature large illustrations of endangered sea turtles in a variety of scenes: a grinning anthropomorphic turtle recycling a bag of plastics, a bale of turtles feeding on shrimp; a group of citizens releasing “Adelita,” a famed local equipped with a transmitter to track her migration. In nearby Magdalena Bay, their real-life counterparts slice and row through the waters of their breeding ground with large teardrop shaped shells, rubbery flippers, and little, blunt heads. These endangered turtles are the flagship species of conservation in Baja and murals act as tools of a larger movement to protect marine flora and fauna.
< procaguama mural, lopez mateos
How does a college student with a combined major in art history and environmental studies make use of this phenomenon? Alyssa Irizarry, a senior at Tufts University, used hers to create an award winning research project while studying in Baja, Mexico last spring with The School for Field Studies (SFS). Her pioneering project Imaging Conservation: Sea Turtle Murals and their Affect on Communities’ Environmental Consciousness and Behaviors in Baja California Sur, Mexico, which won her the School’s Distinguished Student Researcher Award, not only broke ground in academic circles but also reinforced the mission of this conservation movement in Mexico.
Irizarry set out to discover just how much of an impact these murals make on local awareness, opinions, and actions in regard to conservation. Her project contributed to a component of the SFS Center for Coastal Studies’ Five Year Research Plan, which investigates the outcomes of the sea turtle conservation movement in Baja California Sur. Under the direction of SFS professor A.J. Schneller, she sought to better understand how this medium works as an effective means of developing local awareness of an environmental issue, which could in turn incite community behavior change. Complementary to the School’s scientific methods, her work posed the question, “Can the artist as well as the scientist make a contribution to toward developing this environmental ethic?”
Public murals throughout Mexico’s history have not always been utilized as a tool for environmental conservation. Nor have they always been designed to be purely aesthetic. In her paper Irizarry outlined a history of public art in Mexico as a platform for protest and social commentary. Jose Guadalupe Posada, whose early 20th century prints, often depicting skeletons living the high life with fancy hats and drinks in hand, not only mocked bourgeois attitudes in a time of social strife but also conveyed ideas that were both accessible and easy to understand by the general public. Irizarry cites McCaughan (2000) who said that public art can be a “function of democracy inspiring public debate and a sense of entitlement among broad sectors of the population.” She argues that sea turtle murals can be used as a powerful tool to transmit conservation ideals as well as bring together a community that may be conflicted.
< Garcia family at mural
Indeed, the sea turtle has acted as an icon of conflicting cultural values throughout Baja’s recent history according to Irizarry. Since Spanish colonization, sea turtle meat has been heralded as an important food item which continues to present day. Beginning in the mid 1900s, they were commercially harvested in Baja for trade in the international market. Overexploitation caused the collapse of turtle populations in the 1980s. Despite a federal ban in the 1990s on the extraction, capture, and pursuit of all sea turtle species, their consumption remains an important cultural tradition in many communities. Furthermore, economic activity of Baja depends on marine resources and fishing, in spite of decreasing productivity and overexploitation. Irizarry’s survey responses, however, show a trend that indicates a shift away from the consumption of sea turtles and the “increase in the desire to care for them.” Sea turtles are becoming an icon of preservation rather than nutrition.
< Sea turtle monitoring team, 2002, Puerto San Carlos, BCS
The seeds of preservation were initially planted in community consciousness with the formation of Grupo Tortuguero in 1999, a marine conservation organization with the goal of enhancing public cooperation and participation through a community-based, grassroots model. The group is made up of concerned fisherman, scientists, and NGO representatives from acrossNorth America. Grupo Tortuguero has received international attention and has led to the formation of other community groups around Mexico, all encouraging civic engagement in the protection of Baja’s marine resources. The sea turtle, their flagship species, is used as a visible community icon of their message in various creative outlets including murals, comic books, videos, and posters.
Concepcion with mural >
All of Irizarry’s surveys results from town showed that exposure to sea turtle murals are especially effective in developing pro-environmental consciousness and possible action. As Irizarry states in her paper, “It is unknown whether or not the actions are realized, but sea turtle murals can provide the motivation for community discussion and participation in turtle conservation." Students and adults alike responded that their behaviors were affected beyond the initial attraction to the mural’s aesthetic qualities. A substantial number of students reported that sea turtle murals were a strong reminder to the plight of the species. Irizarry attributes this to existing knowledge on sea turtles arising from exposure to environmental education in schools and suggests that viewing the murals reinforces the message.
< Carl Safina in Puerto San Carlos, BCS. With sea turtle mural by Monchy
Irizarry’s research project provides both a fresh contribution to academia of art history and environmental studies and a rural Mexican community with meaningful information. In discussing a future career she says, “Ideally, I would love to do environmental education with children or young adults using art. I think encouraging an environmental ethic at a young age is critical if we want an environmentally conscious future generation, which we undoubtedly need. Art can be a way to get students to think outside of the box, see the environment from a different perspective, and build appreciation for it.”
What does a college student with an award winning project on murals and sea turtle conservation under her belt do next? After graduation from Tufts, Irizarry hopes to intern at the SFS Center for Coastal Studies in Baja where she will continue her mural research in secondary schools.
