I was having lunch and showing these photos of Mexican walls to a friend when the Chinese restaurant owner looked over my shoulder and asked, “You were in China?” There’s something universal about these walls.
These photos are all of walls in Patzcuaro, a small town in Central Mexico best known for its tradition of celebrating the Day of the Dead.
As an interesting sidenote, I ran into an architect who didn’t much like Patzcuaro, saying, “All the walls are painted the same colours, all the signs use the same font. It’s like the town has decided to brand itself. Booorrrring…”
He was talking about the red and white walls and the font used on the walls of this general store ‘Lo Tengo’, whose names translates as ‘I Have It’. Too bad I didn’t have these other photos with me to show that not all the town was boring and ‘branded’. (More on Patzcuaro and a few traditional foods of the region.)
More on the Weekly Photo Challenge: Wall
Albatz Travel Adventures 
Wow, beautiful images. Love the story.
What a great story and I love the photos!
janet
I love the textures on old walls….
I see me trying to overlay these textures on other photos in the future!
Boring is all in the eye of the beholder… even green grass could be boring but in the correct hands it is Ireland, Frosty in New England. Burnt in Texas, the list goes on and on… you have a wonderful collection of photo that are not boring at all. 🙂
Thank you!
I remember that font and wall color choice (the lower red portion hides the dirt and doesn’t need to be repainted as much as an all white wall) from visiting Patzcuaro back in the 90s when I lived in Mexico D.F. so they’ve been “on brand message” for several decades now. It was pretty popular in Taxco too!
I also seem to remember that Patzcuaro had a disproportionately large amount of dentists and my traveling companion had a terrible toothache but never summoned up the courage to go to one 😉
Great photos, and would love to see you use those textures!
I was there in 76 and it seems to me that Patzcuaro ‘branded’ itself before anyone knew what the word meant… I don’t know about dentists but I did see some odd toothache medicines for sale. And their Tarascan soup is to die for…
Ha! Maybe the toothache was making us see dentists! Mmmm, Tarascan soup! My one meal memory there was a simple flan. Found everywhere in Mexico, but so delicious right then and there…I love your food associations!