Sanctuary City, Sanctuary Neighborhood

As a follow-up to the Families Belong Together mural (2536 N Front St), this 3,000-ft. paint-over installation highlights the resilience and strength of immigrant communities. The long scene facing Huntingdon Street is of a blossoming Afro-Boricua woman, Francesca, depicting elements of the Yoruba religion in her hair. The Yoruba are Puerto Rican people who are ancestors of western Nigerian slaves. These symbols – pictographs, skulls, candles, corn and deities – are objects the artists chose as a way to pull the immigration crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border closer to Philadelphia.

The mural at rear wall is dominated by an indigenous woman leading a large group on a trek from South or Central America north. If you count, there are 400 small followers. By her right elbow a baby is pulled over the wall into a new country. At top, colorful designs/emblems represent people of all cultures from the southern Americas.

The mural was designed and approved after the community learned the muralist was also the artist of the original underlying mural. It was painted and installed in six weeks. The project also included a listening session with other local artists, community leaders, and North Philadelphia residents, who helped frame the concept of the project. The artists worked with art students from the Mural Arts’ Restorative Justice youth program, and The Guild, as well as young leaders with the Providence Center’s WorkReady program.

Despite more than 1,800 miles from here to the border crossing, processing centers and detainees in McAllen and El Paso, Texas, the mural in North Philadelphia’s Puerto Rican barrio calls viewers to reflect on Philly’s immigrant communities. It asks how Philly welcomes them as a sanctuary city, and how new South and Central American populations are migrating to parts of long-time Caribbean neighborhoods such as Fairhill and Hunting Park.

The Providence Center was founded by the Society of the Hold Child Jesus in 1993 in response to the closing of St Edwards, a local parish and school where the Sisters taught and worked for over one hundred years. It is focused on addressing the pressing needs of the community, family retreats and prayer groups, English as a second language classes, and after-school and educational programming to the Puerto Rican and Latino population in the Fairhill section of the city.