Urban Art as a Popular Expression in the Historic Centre of Mexico City

The public space is one of the main features that shape the urban landscape of most cities. Trying to define it seems a complex task, due to the number of elements that characterize it, leading researchers to set up perceptions that, to some extent, prevent them from being able to visualize all of the problems of a city in a suitable manner. This becomes even more complex and confusing when the public space is located within a historic centre. Furthermore, public space sometimes is not fully valued as an essential component of the urban cultural heritage. Each historic centre is different, not only for its formal, historical and cultural features, but also because of the people who live in them and the very different manifestations of spatial appropriation that can occur there over the time. The urban or street art is one of those manifestations that, as a cultural practice, has spread on many streets in the historic centre of Mexico City, giving it a particular identity and provoking several positive and negative views among its inhabitants. This paper does not intend to explain the phenomenon in depth, but it seeks to show a reality that is happening in one of the world’s biggest cities in the world, Mexico City