ABSTRACT
In this chapter I analyze the first five years of a legal street art project in downtown Mexico City, focusing on the plywood-boarded façade of Regina 56, six streets due north of the Zócalo, or main square, where a graffiti mural has been painted approximately every three months since 2009. Within the three pedestrian blocks of Regina, as well as on San Jerónimo, the street directly behind it, several painted cement walls form a changing gallery of contemporary spray-can art. What are the advantages and pitfalls of such a scheme? How does it fit into the comprehensive Master Plan for the Historic Center, proposed in 2001 and implemented in five-year stages, that seeks to secure and revitalize the area (i.e., gentrify a former workingclass neighborhood)? And what image of Mexico does its graffiti convey in a period of rampant globalization?
