In terms of art, I believe it is the expression of feelings, opinions, stamens, that in a way or another can influence others perspectives. Movies, for example, are the most common way of entertainment to represent minorities or social problems, and have an indirect duty to educate and show that everyone is equal despite their colour, hair, sexuality, etc. Likewise, urban artists should be allowed to express themselves without unacceptable behaviour such as destroying others properties or disrespecting other opinions, art, situations.

It is also important to consider the issue that can come with urban art. Damage to public and private property. Whereas certain stories may expose unacceptable behaviour, for example, the damage to Transmilenio in Bogotá, others could say, it is part of a revolution of the society. Articles concerning the damage of different places, even though they are important to show that there is always a dark side of every movement, for instance, overshadow the marvellous work of the urban artists to express their revolution and message in peace.

All things considered, I believe that urban art should be free if this benefits a rightful movement, the society and if it does not destroy other’s things. Otherwise, I think it is unfair to dismiss every urban expression for the sake of a few. I certainly would not like my own house to be painted without my permission unless it is my own pair of wings.

Ma. Alejandra Severiche

In terms of woman's rights backgound, in the early years of the 20^th century, women rights were vulnerable. Men could hurt and rape their wives with no fear of being imprisoned and the right of women to prosecute their husbands for assault was denied. Women could not work or study and were often seen as a fragile cleaning and house object only. There can be much more examples about this inequality happening at that times. There were even many protests about it and women started to fight for their rights until they could accomplish it. Nowadays, we are often still seen as weak by some people but not as much as before. I believe, women have shown their real power and had fought for what was theirs the whole time. Now, women have so much more rights since they can study and work hard to achieve their dreams.

It is also important to consider how women perceived themselves on those old times. As a result of being treated so poorly and unfairly women started to get used to it and bow their heads and saw men as the key to power and control. They also started to accept that women could not do the same things as men. By that time, women preferred to ignore the situation for a long until they realized that they could protest and fight about it. They opened their eyes and started looking at the world with a different perception, not to mention the distinct discernment of themselves. They rose their self esteem and respect started to show. Now we are aware that we also have the power to do anything we propose.

Lastly, my thoughts about this topic are that women in the old days had situations to fight for and therefore confronted and earned their respect and power. But nowadays I believe that women are domining substantial advantage on this. They started by encountering for equality but nowadays they are asking for more than equality and honestly it is not quite fair for men.  In conclusion, this is the reason I am in favor of women fighting for their rights but do not consider myself feminist.

Natalia Cuervo

Before anything else, graffiti or street art is known, is an art form that is created in urban public spaces, it is characterized because it is almost always done without asking for an authorization. Its origin dates back to the epigraphs that were left on the walls made by artists or even normal people since the times of the Roman Empire, especially those that are satirical or critical.

Secondly, there are countless murals and street art expressions, some critically acclaimed, others not widely accepted and totally refuted by society. These last generally, do not have a meaning and are usually forms of vandalism or of raising one's voice against something and someone. However, most of the murals around the world are made by very talented artists who want to give a message with their art or simply want to leave something beautiful and representative of their culture, such as works on religion, folklore, food, fashion or music.

While there exists democracies and known morals, I believe that in many cases they are not followed by presidents or politicians. The problem comes when this is not seen, but it is covered by promising lies and that even if people are the ones choosing their leader, they are not accomplishing the things they promise, breaking the liberty of deciding who will be the president, which does not follow what people thought they chose.

It is also important to consider this issue regarding as to why politicians lie to people, whereas they could just make promises they can and will actually make, transforming our world into a sincerer one, they, on the contrary, lie to people, who put their hopes on their leaders continuing with this cycle of corruption. 

Now, from the perspective of a politician who is looking forward to gain the power, whereas they are in an important position, we have to know that they are humans too, just as everyone; they feel, they are not perfect, they are fragile, they will not always make the best decisions, and more importantly, they are ambitious. Ambition is a feeling we all feel to an extent, and it is what drives people to have the leadership, clouding their head, morals, values, empathy and making everything that it is to get to that position, even if it means not telling the truth. All of these things together, brings them the feeling of control, of wanting more, the knowledge that they can be the best of all drives them crazy, and that can also be something good, wanting to have a better country, for example, but as I said, this could also turn into an egocentric desire. 

All things considered, we cannot expect leaders to make the best decisions, however, in the position that they are, the least they could do is tell the truth, choosing the most beneficiary decision for their people, being honest with them, so that we can actually put our trust on them, without being scared that they might throw it away and put their own desires over everything.

Alexandra Mejia

 

Most of these artists try to make an statement with their artworks, finding in art a way to deal and expose different problematics. This whole community usually is harassed by violence and economic difficulties due to their origin places, and with the street art; they try to hold on to hope and make peace instead of war. Whereas, some people in the name of art make some graffitis that turn out to be offensive, damage the cities and therefore the reputation of the community. In my point of view; vandalism taggers should not be associated with the other artists, the ones who want a better world and found in art a way to help the cause, the people I am referring are willing to damage properties, ruin the name of something or someone and ever hurt the others only to create chaos and disaster. For example in Bogota there are some murals that illustrate different topics, while they are others that are only there with the purpose of damaging places and disrespect the city. 

 

It is also important to consider this issue with regard to public and private assets. I mentioned before that graffitis are a different way of doing art, which purposes a setting that uses the city as a stage, whereas every city has some rules in regard to many installations. For example, some determine that is not allowed to make murals in historical monuments or government buildings, while there are some places arranged for this type of art.

Not following those rules and recommendations and doing murals in forbidden places will be considered as vandalism and an act of disrespect with the city and citizens. I believe that the artists have to follow this statement, because although they are trying to do the right thing with expressing themselves and raise their voices though those artworks, that cannot lose respect for the place and the community that opened their doors to art. Doing such a thing would definitely be considered vandalism and betrayal.

 

To sum up, is important to learn to separate these two sides and therefore not to generalize to an entire community that fights against adversity every day only because of the actions of others. Street art brings light to the lives of many, helps people to make an statement, however this always should be with respect and love first. Artists are citizens too, this means that have a duty with their birth, home and work place, and this duty is to protect it, to take care of it and help with their art to make it beautiful, not to hurt it.

Street art is not vandalism, is a way of doing art like many others, is a way of proposing peace instead of war, while missing that same rule it is.

Stephany Díaz

Understanding capitalism as a system that prioritizes private property being the main source for capital production for wealth generation. I reckon that giving people the opportunity to work for their own benefit and in an independent way gives people the motivation to contribute voluntarily to the economic upgrowth making it constant and dynamic. Additionally, the distribution of economic powers and wealth, that capitalism offers makes people feel free in a certain way while still making part of a unique economic system. For example, the United States has always worked under a capitalist way of government; and it has let them to be one the greatest economic influencers in the world nowadays. 

On the contrary, there is evidence that shows how the communist system has failed throughout history for example, Venezuela has been suffering under a dictatorship for many years now by the fact that the government decided to turn their capitalism system into a communist one that clearly did not work for the benefit of the society. Communism is supposed to ensure equality of conditions for everyone whereas the real purpose of those who hold the power is to have total control over all aspects of their country making it more likely to provoke rebellion against the state weakening it to its failure. 

To sum up I have showed why I consider capitalism is the most stable economic system, since over the years the capitalism has offered several chances for economic growth. Having said this economic system has worked very well always but there are going to be things to improve and this is not the exception,  and more if the generations are changing and with that the way the people perceive the world.  

By: Sofia Carvajal

Messages of peace in the ’60s. In our history, 1960 was a century full of innovations, the moon landing, the first woman orbiting the earth, the many protests over the racism brought to humanity new knowlege. Whereas, there was a war going on,and the hippie movement was born. Personally, I rekon that the Hippie movement has been one of the greatest ideologies around the world, the fact that everyone was trying to spread love and peace meant everything in a time of war.
 

To make contrast, as I said before there has always been a temptation to destroy the others differences, for example, in the Holocaust most people were suffering and they were from small communities. The Nazis were trying to enforce their ideology, indeed. However, years have passed through and now we are all the same, our generation believes that differences are something to celebrate and the Hippie movement has overcome nowadays. While, I still consider that even if we celebrate our differences, there are still wars going on, and violence had not been vanished from our streets. 

To sum up, as a supposedly developed society we should learn to tolerate others differences and to learn how to debate without the need of violence. Dialogues and agreements should always the best solution. As new generations we should teach other peace, dialogues and love so we can all live decent world. 

By: Alejandra Rincon

 

From the viewpoint of a teenager, we see that women are being treated fairly and the gender discrimination has fairly decreased, however, if we have as a reference the first decades from the 20^th century, we can see that women were treated as mere objects, as if they did not have the capacity to do the same things as men. This prejudice towards women had as a consequence women being unable to vote, work and being forced to stay at home to raise the children and fully dedicate to domestic chores.

 

In terms of the present time, we can see that most countries women have taken over the issue, nontheless, there is still some discrimination left; one clear example is that women do not earn the same salary as men when working at an office, and also companies prefer to hire men than women even if the woman has more working experience or more titles. Some other examples are more noticeable in Asian countries. For instance, in South Korea; young girls are taught to use makeup, otherwise, they are considered lazy people who do not care about their looks or being presentable. On the other hand, in Japan, they still make women stay at home raising the children and managing the money in the house whereas the husband works all day long.

 

In conclusion, I think humanity has a long way to go until we fully realize and accept that women are as capable as men and even more, and we should keep fighting for gender equality in every single aspect, we should never feel ashamed or embarrassed of our gender and just because a society that has the patriarchy marked ever since the start of existance does not mean that it will be like that forever.

Sara Abadía

It is well known how society has been dealing with multiple problems throughout the years: economic problems, environmental issues, among others. Therefore, people decide to deal with these situations in many different ways, especially younger people who, for example, decide to use their creative skills and abilities to describe all these problematics that are tough when it comes to finding a solution. This is why art itself has been some peoples answer to the reality that we face every day, because of the direct message that this transmits.

In addition to this, street art is an example of it, due to the fact that it is a common visual art that many anonymous people practice. For example, the unknown street artist who created the mural, Nobody likes me located in Stanley Park, Vancouver: which depicts a boy who is sad and dissatisfied with the fact that he has zero likes, mentions and followers on his Instagram account (which portrays one of the main aspects that may be controversial nowadays: social media, being a tool that both edifice and destroys our social interactions). This is the second most famous mural in the world, proving how people acknowledge how they definitely can relate to these insecurities and boundaries that are given by society.

On the other hand, even thought most people see this visual art from a good perspective, there are many as well who disagree on continuing to show it in the city’s streets. It is mostly known how adults and elders cannot understand the main point of street art, calling it instead an act of vandalism. Many affirm it is disrespectful towards citizens and the architectural work itself not only by painting, but by giving very explicit messages as well.

To sum up, street art has helped a lot of people when it comes to expressing ideas and opinions without using violence to portray them nor hiding the reality that we all live in our daily basis. This has also permitted to demonstrate people’s creativity and artistic talent publicly, which helps give others a motivation to join the message and the artistic filled. Nevertheless, people should be conscious about the messages that their artistic work is giving to others: using these pieces for good and positive for society, not signs of hatred instead. Certainly, we can only respect each other’s  opinions about this topic, always looking for the best way to improve our social interactions. 

 By: Mapaz Jiménez