In a city of disappearing murals, can this Philly artist’s passion make one reappear?

In 2005, when Philadelphia-based artist César Viveros painted Fuego Nuevo, a fresco-style mural that incorporated elements of bas-relief at 233 W. Girard Ave., it was a way to pay tribute to the burgeoning Mexican migration to the city.

Five years later, the 35-by-30-foot mural was completely covered over by developers who built a new building that obstructed it without Viveros being able to salvage any elements of the mural, or ever hearing from the developers.

“I was very frustrated when that mural was covered,” Viveros said. “I feel a lot of nostalgia for [it].”

Now, Viveros proposes to recreate the mural on a corner of South Philly, where the Mexican population is concentrated. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, more than 15,500 people of Mexican origin or heritage live in Philadelphia.

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“The Mexican community deserves to be acknowledged,” Viveros said.

In a year, the artist plans to begin working on the new version of the mural in conversation with the community, and to formalize a proposal to Mural Arts Philadelphia, the nonprofit founded in 1986 to support the creation of public murals in Philadelphia.

Viveros made public the lingering feelings about the loss of his mural last December on Facebook. In a post with a photo of the mural during the construction process, he asked if the community was interested in redoing it, but as an “enlarged version, because nothing stops us.”

Support for the idea poured in immediately. “César, give it all you’ve got. I’ll help. It was ‘chingón’ (cool) the one they covered, but one day that work of art will appear as an archeological discovery”, read one of 17 comments that followed the post.

“The Mexican community deserves to be acknowledged.”

One of the most complex features of Fuego Nuevo was the cement Aztec calendar that Viveros made using a bas relief technique he learned in his native Mexico. The calendar was located at the bottom of the mural and took him two months to create. He was assisted by a group of Mexican volunteers, including one who focused on the engineering demands of the mural.

Another unusual part of the mural was the large-scale painting of a young girl wearing a traditional Mexican dress with feathers on her head that projected past the roofline of the building.

Fuego Nuevo took five months to complete and was supported by Mural Arts and the Pennsylvania Council on Humanities.

“When I saw the indication of [the later development project that would obscure the mural], I remember I pulled over, and I just put my hands on my head,” Mural Arts founder Jane Golden said. “I loved the project so much.”

How would the mural be recreated?

According to Viveros, the first step is to seek funding for the project. Mural Arts would be in charge of the fundraising strategy and finding a place not slated for development to work on the mural. Then, Viveros would develop the design to recreate the image for the new version of Fuego Nuevo.

“I would strongly agree with César that we should recreate that mural,” Golden told The Inquirer.

The loss of murals in the city has been a problem that has increased in recent years as a result of the construction and development boom.

Golden estimates that three to six murals are lost each year. In 2023, three murals were lost; in the past five years, the number of losses soars to 30, Golden told Streets Dept Magazine.

“We’ve lost murals that I didn’t think we would lose,” Golden said. “But we know there’s going to be development, and some murals are going to disappear. We want the memory of this work to be so powerful, to make us want more art in our lives.”

“As a city, we can hold both these things in our hands: public art and development.”

Soon, 12 murals will be at risk of being demolished or be completely obscured by new construction, according to Golden. Mural Arts is alerted by a developer or community member about the threat to public art in the city, and to stay vigilant, the organization has a database that tracks the status of murals that are at risk.

“We want to remain vigilant and tenacious and unstoppable in our commitment to the artists,” Golden said.

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When a mural is in danger, part of Mural Arts’ protocol is to contact the owners or their representatives to open a line of communication and gather information about their plans. Immediately, the community and the artist who created the piece are notified of the situation.

Among the alternatives Mural Arts offers to safeguard public art is to incorporate a new work of art in the same building, or to finance a project near where it is being built.

“We go out of our way to try to create a solution,” Golden said.

Golden shared a success story of how Full Court Development handled their construction in front of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. mural at 40th Street and Lancaster Avenue in West Philly, which commemorates King’s visit to Philadelphia on Aug. 3, 1965. The developers provided one of the walls to recreate the mural which is so significant to the community.

“Our city’s public art collection is iconic; it speaks to all Philadelphians, our history, memories, triumphs, struggles... I always think of the murals as the autobiography of the city of Philadelphia,” Golden said.

“As a city, we can hold both these things in our hands: public art and development.”

Last year, Mural Arts created 136 works of indoor and outdoor public art, large and small. The organization also has a mural restoration program and a database of completed works by city and district.

If you know of public art in danger of being demolished or any construction development in front of a mural, email Mural Arts office coordinator Amy Johnston at amy.johnston@muralarts.org.