New mural honors Chicago’s intergenerational Mexican heritage with butterfly symbolism
Monarchs are the only butterfly species to make a two-way migration — back and forth from Mexico to as far north as Canada. Chicago muralist Robert Valadez, a third-generation Mexican American who paints monarch butterflies, said that unlike many people in Latin America who try to come to the United States, monarchs can cross the border freely.
Large bronze and yellow butterflies dot the top of his latest mural, “México del Norte,” in the Colores Mexicanos store at 605 N. Michigan Ave. Valadez is a Chicago-born artist who has painted murals across the city for over 40 years.
The mural, whose title translates to “The Mexico of the North,”Itis the centerpiece of the . But it tells a larger story about generations of Mexican Americans who call Chicago home and the need for the city to pay homage to that heritage, Valadez said.
