Bogotá's Ever-Changing Graffiti

Two homeless men on a wall outside of the National University. 

Bogotá's graffiti changes constantly. Here are some which are new - or new to me, at least. 

As always, many are political, particularly in the National University, known as La Nacho. 

Two new murals on 19th St. Check out BogotaStreetArt.com for an overview of four major Bogotá muralists.

In the National University, a critique of the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement

Latin American leftist leaders.

'Imperialists out of Latin America!' Setting afire the United States in very unsubtle art in La Nacho. 

Also in La Nacho's Plaza del Che, Uncle Sam turns Juan Manuel Santos into a marionette.

'Dirty Money,' on 26th St. near the National University and the U.S. Embassy.

Interpret this one, in La Nacho, for yourself

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours, which also offers graffiti tours.

Occupy La Nacho

Protesters on the National University's Plaza del Che prepare a communal meal beneath a mural celebrating student protests in Chile. 

Sarcasm? 'Education for Prosperity'

Colombia's public university system is mostly shut down because of student strikes and protests  against a proposed reform, known as the 30 Law, which would allow private financing of public univeresities. Some of the public university students - or, at least the ones who make themselves heard - are very leftist and wary about control by either the private companies or government exercising control over the universities - even tho the government heavily subsidizes the public university system.

UN on Strike

The repeated marches thru Bogotá and constant demonstrations on university campuses aren't really modeled after the 'Occupy' demonstrations in the U.S., or even the Indignados in Spain. Rather, anti-government protesting is a long tradition on Colombia's public university campuses, and in this case the protesters' most direct inspiration appears to be coming from the students in Chile, who have been demonstrating there for months. But the Chilean students are occupying Santiago's central square, something which hasn't happened in Bogotá.

Guerrilla priest Camilo Torres has been
decorated by protesters' paint bombs.

The Colombian government says it's modified the proposed legal reform, taking the protesters' concerns into consideration. Certainly, private financing would permit increased enrollment, allowing more lower-income students to get subsidized public educations instead of having to pay for expensive private universities. But it's also true that private money comes with strings, and that few companies are generous enough to pay for research which conflicts with their business interests.

A speaker who warned that reforms would
mean universities would turn out
'slaves of consumerism.'

While we were on Che Plaza, a protester yelled out that the proposed reform would turn students into 'Slave of consumerism.' Well, if they follow U.S. patterns, that could certainly happen.

And, in any case, the opposition generated by the proposed reform doesn't appear to be waning. I wonder whether there's a possible third way, such as establishing new public/private universities, or reaching agreements with private universities in which they would receive corporate financing in return for accepting low-income students on scholarship.

But the protesters, as is their wont, do a lot of denouncing but little proposing of solutions.

Related post: Protesters Paint the Police

Everybody Join the Strike!

Staging a strike also includes fun and games. 

'Here, the people's education is being fought for.'

Che Guevara's portrait overlooks it all. 

'We are going to stop the neoliberal education.' (It rhymes in Spanish)

'Militarization is speciest.' Have to think about that one...

'Liberty for political prisoners.'

'Race for education.'

¡Warning! Building free, quality education.

Carrying a table past a graffiti proclaiming that 'Education isn't merchandise.'

Taking advantage of free time while waiting for the revolution. 

'This is what I think of your reform,' says a mural in the National University.

'Long live the strike,' proclaims a mural in central Bogotá.

A list of demands hangs beside the portrait of El Che on the National University's Plaza del Che .

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

150 Years of the National University

Take a walk across the campus of the National University, and you'll feel like you're anywhere but conservative, militarized Bogotá. The National University, in Teusaquillo, is an island of radicalism, political and otherwise. A huge campus, formally called the 'University City,' but known affectionally as La Nacho, the National University has a special 'autonomous,' legal status, which means that police can't enter campus and the university can make its own laws - or enforce no laws at all, as is often the case. Note the smell of ganja on the quad. And the guys selling square yards of pirated CDs.

This year, La Nacho's School of Engineering is celebrating its 150th anniversary, and several other university anniversaries are coming up over the next years. Congress created it in 1867. 

La Nacho is famous for radical political activism and equally radical and colorful graffiti - much of it anti-government and pro-guerrilla. The 'University City' name is appropriate for at least two reasons: the 121-hectare campus is almost as big as a city, and the campus almost looks like a city, with its street vendors, protestors and cultural events.

The mural by the Teusaquillo entrance -
each American nation is labeled with an image.
Venezuela is a gasoline pump and weapons rain down on Colombia. 

The graffiti changes steadily as artists add to it, university workers paint over walls and artists add new murals.

Whether despite or thanks to the political fervor, La Nacho is a good university. And it's subsidized, so that the poorer the student, the less he or she pays in tuition. People I know who've taught at both La Nacho and private universities say La Nacho students are more questioning and intellectually inquisitive. 

An impromptu game of futbolito near 'Lenin Plaza'. 

Cuban/Argentinan revolutionary Che Guevara, one of the university's icons, did visit La Nacho, during his motorcycle trip. However, he did not like Colombia, which was then ruled by a right-wing government, and left immediately for Venezuela.

The university's central plaza, named Che Plaza by students.
(Ignore the smell of ganja)

Two of the most famous people associated with the National University were Camilo Torres, a Catholic priest who founded La Nacho's sociology department. An idealist and leader of the Liberation Theology movement, in 1966 Torres joined the ELN guerrillas and was killed in his first battle, making him a martyr for Colombia's left. Antanas Mockus, the university's rector from 1991-93, later became Mayor of Bogotá and ran several times for president of Colombia.

The dream of anarchism lives on in La Nacho.

An unsubtle critique of the police. 

Campus vendors. 

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours