the mexican magnificent mile. with over hundreds of shops, i needed a local guide, so i m meeting up with hollywood legend and chicago native, michael peña. you might have seen him in his breakout role in crash. - you talking about that bullet that came through your window? - or his huge hit ant-man. - yeah, this dude sounds like a badass, man. - michael went from the hood to hollywood, but he always comes back home. michael, what s up? how you doing? - what s up, bro? - how s it going, dude? i m sorry i m overdressed. - no, no. i think you re the first person i ever seen with a suit here. - in this town? - no, not in this neighborhood, because there s a lot of quinceañeras here. - oh. - so you thought i was going to a quinceañera? - yeah, yeah. - [laughs] so this is your favorite spot, huh? - i ve been coming to this spot since i was four, you know? - wow. - my dad every time before and after soccer games, we would come here. it just it s always been a part of my life. and if i
- he was a rapper, right? he was a rapper? - he was a rapper. he was an emcee. but he was killed getting ready for his big first public performance, unfortunately. - oh. i mean, the lyrics are great. we need to work hard to make the world better. stop killing each other start coming together. i love when a mural celebrates heroes and as well shows us some of the damages done to our communities. you know, it doesn t all have to be celebratory or it all doesn t have to be about oppression and pain, either, you know? - absolutely. we do both, right? and i think we do both well, right? - yeah, yeah. people think that we re silent or that we re not speaking up or acting out. we are in art, which is the best way to speak out. - you know, if the art is done well and it s done with great materials like the one that we have here. - oh, it s so beautiful. - i s work that can live on forever, right? - in pilsen, their art is here to stay, with collectives like instituto gráfico de chicago,
- oh, that s his house. - the artist lives here. - oh, it s beautiful, man. it s so powerful. - it was actually this mural that was my introduction, i feel, to a lot of the things i do now. - the great street art, or you like to call it public art. - yeah, yeah. - i love that. - héctor duarte studied muralism in méxico, right, under schools that were opened by the masters of muralism. - oh, yeah, the great muralists of the world. - yeah, yes. [upbeat music] - check it: the three giants, or los tres grandes, david alfaro siqueiros, josé clemente orozco, and diego rivera are the fathers of the modern mexican muralist movement. they painted murals that spoke to cultural identity, politics, oppression, and resistance, a message that is alive and well in pilsen. - so this is a self portrait of the artist. the body is constructed from the desert on his torso and his arms. and the rio grande as the jeans, right? there s a connection to those who died attempting to cross the border. so this
voltaren. the [upbeat music]t. - chicago s pilsen neighborhood is known for its art, thanks to the mexican americans who painted murals all over this barrio starting back in the 1960s. before long, pilsen became hip and the property values then went up and so did the rent. over the last 20 years, thousands of mexican americans have had to move out. gentrification strikes again. but the murals they left behind continue to tell their stories, and mario, a tour guide from the national museum of mexican art, knows what s up. how are you doing? - hey, john, how are you? - so you re an expert on pilsen murals? - i like to believe i know a little bit. - [laughs] - mario grew up in pilsen and has been fighting every day to preserve the heritage of this community. - we have a lot of public art here in pilsen, murals that deal with social issues such as violence, but also celebrate the heritage of méxicanos. so this first mural was done by an artist named héctor duarte, and it s painted on his
all: sí, señor! - bravo, bravo. amazing. you guys killed it. chuy, what a welcome. i don t deserve it. - [laughs] yes, you do. welcome to little village, la villita, and jardín esperanza. - the garden of hope. - yes. - absolutely. - there used to be a house here. it burned in a fire. there were efforts to make it a parking lot. we said, oh, no, it can t be a parking lot. we need green space to instill hope in this community. - they don t understand how important green spaces are for mental health. - yeah. this neighborhood represents home for so many people. it represents family. it represents our culture. - and all that s here? - all that is here every day. - who instilled that in you? - i learned it from my parents, especially my mother. she raised us while my father was working in the u.s. he came as part of the bracero program. we arrived in what became the largest mexican migration to the u.s. - wow. - and it s been home ever since.