A New Dawn – Balmy Alley, Mission District, San Francisco, California

Since the beginning of time, humans have expressed their view of the world, including their fear and aspirations, through art. You don’t have to go to a museum to see these masterpieces. In some cases, it is not a canvas that conveys the message but rather a mural on a wall or some other open space. This is the art of the people, and there is no better place to appreciate the medium than on the walls of San Francisco’s Mission District. Named after Mission Dolores, the city’s oldest standing building, erected in 1776 as part of the network of West Coast Spanish Missions, the area is full of funky cafes, taquerias, boutiques and old-fashioned bookstores. It is also home to numerous Latino artistic and cultural institutions where pride blooms around aesthetic and cultural traditions such as the murals.

"Naya Bhinana" (A New Dawn) is a mural painted in 2002 by Martin Travers. It depicts three generations of women in Nepal, working in the shadow of the snow-covered Himalayas. To the right, one determined-looking woman breaks the chains of oppression while others stand with their fists in the air. Travers has said that he was depicting "a community resisting injustice, learning self-sufficiency and regaining local power."