Enrique Chiu is the creator of the Mural of the Brotherhood on the border walls and fencing that currently separates Mexico from the United States. A project that began in 2016, the artist hopes that upon completion the potentially 600 mile long mural will hold the Guinness World Record for the world’s longest mural, surpassing the record of 3 miles previously set by The Pueblo Levee Project, which once stood painted along the Arkansas River levee in Pueblo, Colorado.
Though, there is more to this concerted effort, which now involves some 3700 volunteers. Chiu told the Business Insider that he sees the project as, “a way to unite the two nations that are divided,” he commented in reference to the controversial border wall debate happening in the United States. Chiu went on to say that the purpose of the murals is to, “leave a positive message to support Latino people.”
With permission from Mexican border authorities, Chiu and his team have so far painted around 1.3 miles of works on the border fencing that stands in Tijuana, Mexico. The murals themselves include messages of positivity, symbolic imagery from Mexican Folklore, as well as tell the, “stories of deported migrants and people who have crossed and lived the American dream,” Chiu told Business Insider.
Since its conception, the Mural of the Brotherhood has picked up the attention of cinematographer, Alejandro Argüelles Benítez who is currently working in collaboration with Chiu and the National Foundation of Independent Artists to produce a documentary about the project titled, ‘Un Mundo sin Muros’ (‘A World without Walls’).
As stated in the trailer for ‘Un Mundo sin Muros,’ the project is dedicated to, “all those people who are looking for a better life, who take enormous risks and have been separated from their families,” and describes the project as, “An opportunity to redefine the wall, to create a borderless place through art, and be free to make visible what others can’t see.”