Mexico.- Batman, Superman, Spider-Man and other characters embodied by urban artists recorded some streets of Mexico City on Thursday in demand for help from the authorities in the face of the economic crisis suffered by the COVID-19 pandemic. Some 150 artists and their families, including dozens of clowns and costumes of characters such as Mario Bros, video game symbol, or cowboy Woody, from the film “Toy Story”, manifested itself on a symbolic day in Mexico, on Children’s Day, in search of financial help to save a little situation.
Although Mexico’s health authorities have called for avoiding people’s meetings, the artists marched in order and peacefully, with distance between them and their respective cover. Wearing his black suit and Batman bat mask, presented by Elvis Guadarrama, he said in an interview with Efe that he and his companions have been out of work for “more than a month” and no money into their homes, so the situation has become pressing. Record that your work is atypical as it is not Monday to Friday, does not have a fixed schedule and does not have social security.
We work from Thursday to Sunday in children’s parties and in the streets of the Historic Center and the health emergency closed the spaces, specifically Guadarrama.
Record that by decreeing social isolation and suspending meetings of more than 50 people, such as children’s parties, their sources of employment were automatically closed. Elvis said that he is 100% dedicated to the activity of impersonating several superheroes, among them the famous Murciélago Man and led by the group Alebrijes, of urban art and culture, composed of about 50 families from both the capital and the State of Mexico.
The artists marched in order and peacefully. Photo: AP
Not even the man of steel is saved
In the same vein Superman was expressed, personified by Alberto Galván, who said that COVID-19 has “affected them too much” economically. One disadvantage facing these artists is that their work, like that of millions of people in Mexico, is informal.
Many of us have seen ourselves in the need to sell our costumes and equipment to survive. (…) We’re practically catching up, Galván said.
As they abided by hygiene and prevention measures, including staying at home and congregations, artists saw their agendas empty a little until they ran out of events. According to the 2018 National Demographic Dynamics Survey (ENADID) in Mexico, 38.5 million children and adolescents from 0 to 17 years old reside, a part of that audience is run by these artists. Compromised situation
For the clown Tushita, whose real name is Maria, the request of the artists is simple.
We ask for financial aid to pay our expenses for whatever the pandemic lasts, we do not ask for more. We do it because at the moment we don’t have to generate revenue, he explained.
Explained the economic situation of urban artists was complicated in just over a month without work and believe that the next stage will be more critical after the estimated health authorities back to essential activities from 1 June. The march recorded in the Monument to the Revolution and engraved the semi-empty streets of the historic center of the capital until reaching the Zocalo where the characters bet outside the National Palace.In the place expressed their claims peacefully, singing “Las mañanitas” and throwing batons to the children, and asking for support from the federal government and the capital. A clown, who served as a representative of the street artists, delivered a document to two representatives of the Mexican government at the door of the National Palace, where The President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, dispatched.
