What the Murals in Comuna 13 Actually Mean: A Symbol Guide

Walk through Comuna 13 without context and you'll see colorful walls. Walk through with a guide — or with this guide — and you'll see a community's entire history encoded in symbols that repeat across dozens of murals by different artists. These aren't random artistic choices. Each symbol carries specific meaning rooted in the neighborhood's lived experience.

Birds

Birds are the most common symbol in Comuna 13's murals, and they carry dual meaning. Birds in flight represent the desire to escape — the thousands of residents who fled during the conflict, the dreams of people trapped in a neighborhood controlled by armed groups, the aspiration for freedom that existed even in the darkest years.

Perched birds represent the choice to stay. Residents who refused to leave during the violence, who came back after displacement, who chose to rebuild rather than start over elsewhere. A single bird on a wire, looking outward, is one of the most quietly powerful images in the neighborhood. It says: I'm still here.

Plants Growing Through Rubble

This motif appears in the Operation Orion memorial and across dozens of other murals: green shoots pushing through broken concrete, flowers emerging from cracks, vines wrapping around damaged walls. The symbolism is resilience — life persisting in spaces designed for destruction.

But there's a more specific reference too. After the military operation in 2002, many buildings were damaged or destroyed. In the months and years that followed, actual plants grew through the rubble of abandoned or damaged structures. Artists painted what they saw — nature reclaiming space that violence had cleared — and elevated it into a community symbol.

Oversized Eyes

Chota 13's signature element — faces with disproportionately large eyes — appears throughout the neighborhood in his work and in pieces by artists he's influenced. The eyes serve as witnesses. They stare directly at the viewer, creating a confrontation: you're being watched by the people who lived this history.

There's also a reference to the "see no evil" problem during the conflict years. Armed groups operated openly, and authorities either couldn't or wouldn't see what was happening. The oversized eyes are a corrective — a refusal to look away, a demand to be seen and acknowledged.

Tears

Crying figures appear in memorial murals and in more abstract compositions. The tears specifically reference the families of the disappeared — people who were taken during the conflict and never found. Many of these families still don't know where their loved ones are buried. The tears aren't historical — they're present tense.

Hands (Open and Raised)

Open hands with palms facing outward appear in murals throughout the neighborhood. They represent surrender (the experience of civilians caught between armed groups, forced to comply), peace (the gesture of showing you're unarmed), and community (open hands reaching toward each other).

Raised fists, by contrast, appear less frequently but represent resistance — the community organizing that eventually drove armed groups out, the protests that demanded government investment, and the ongoing advocacy for truth and justice around Operation Orion.

The Escalators Themselves

Several murals incorporate depictions of the outdoor escalators — not as infrastructure, but as a symbol of transformation. The escalators represent access: physical access to the city below, economic access through tourism, and psychological access to a future that wasn't available when the only way out was climbing 350 stairs.

Color Saturation

The overall palette of Comuna 13's murals — intensely saturated pinks, blues, yellows, greens — isn't just aesthetic preference. Before the escalators and the art movement, the neighborhood's buildings were unpainted concrete and brick. The explosion of color was itself a statement: we're choosing vibrancy over the gray of neglect and violence. Every brightly painted wall is a small act of defiance against the visual landscape of poverty.

How to Read Murals Without a Guide

When you stop at a mural, look for these elements in sequence: birds (what kind, where positioned), faces (expression, eye direction), hands (open or closed, raised or reaching), plants (growing from what surface), and colors (warm tones = hope/community, cool tones = memory/loss). The combination tells you whether the mural is about the past, the present, or the future — and often, all three at once.