El Grito del Arte: The Independence Murals of Lares

Reading time: about 5 minutes.

TL;DR

El Grito del Arte is a mural festival in Lares that ties street art to the September 23, 1868 uprising in which Puerto Rico briefly declared itself a republic. Three editions ran between 2021 and 2023, and the murals around Plaza Revolución are permanent and free to see any day. This is the only project on the island where the walls are about independence rather than neighborhood revitalization, which makes it the most politically direct street art in Puerto Rico.

Why Lares is different from every other mural project here

Santurce, Yauco, Ponce, and Aguadilla all attach muralism to the same idea: paint a struggling neighborhood, bring it back to life.

Lares attaches it to an insurrection.

On September 23, 1868, hundreds of Puerto Ricans from across the social spectrum took the town of Lares and proclaimed the Republic of Puerto Rico against Spain. The uprising was put down within days. It is also the origin point of the Puerto Rican independence movement, and the town has carried the name La Ciudad del Grito ever since.

Organized by Alexis Bousquet, the same curator behind Santurce es Ley, El Grito del Arte put that history on the walls around Plaza Revolución de Lares. The festival runs in November, timed near the anniversary. The first edition was in 2021. The third ran November 11 and 12, 2023, for the 155th.

The murals, and who painted them

The walls read as a portrait gallery of a political lineage.

Ramón Emeterio Betances, the leading revolutionary of 1868, rendered alongside the Lares flag by the collective The Stencil Network.

Pedro Albizu Campos, the defining nationalist figure of the twentieth century, in black and white by GoFive.

Rafael Cancel Miranda, one of the four nationalists who attacked the U.S. Congress in 1954 and who served 25 years for it, painted in spray cans by Don Rimx, whose given name is David Sepúlveda and who is probably the most internationally recognized muralist Puerto Rico has produced.

El filo del machete by lareño woodcarver and artist Ángel Pagán Cardona: the word Lares built out of more than a dozen machetes. The machete was a farm tool before it was a symbol, and Pagán Cardona has connected it to the 312 women who faced Spanish forces in 1868.

Dennise Zoé González Crespo, who works as Usuaria 210, painted herself riding on her father’s shoulders, remembering being carried to the September 23 commemorations as a child. She also painted a chronology of the island’s left from 1868 to the present.

Luis Alejandro Rodríguez contributed a portrait of José Feliciano, who was born in Lares.

Near the plaza you will also find El OG Lareño by OmarCitronarte, which is the piece most likely to come up first if you search the town’s murals by map rather than by name.

The Colectivo Moriviví has worked here too.

Visiting: what you need to know

The murals are permanent, free, and concentrated around Plaza Revolución and the surrounding casco urbano. The municipality now promotes a Ruta del Arte de Lares through the town center.

Give it an hour to see the plaza and the immediate walls, two if you want to walk the casco properly.

There is no close airport, and that is part of the appeal. Lares sits in the mountains and is a drive from any direction. That also means almost nobody arrives here by accident, which is precisely why the murals feel different from the ones a cruise passenger can reach. The closest airport would actually be Aguadilla though as Lares is closer to the West than the San Juan Metro area.

Lares is the cradle of Puerto Rican coffee, so the trip pairs naturally with the haciendas and the rest of the Central Mountains. If you want to build a coffee-and-murals itinerary route, our Yauco coffee festival coverage is the other end of it. Yauco is also home to the sister art movement called Yaucromatic.

Is the movement still active?

Straight answer: probably not, at least not on a regular schedule.

The festival’s own website has not been updated past the 2023 edition. I found no confirmed 2024 or 2025 edition from any source. Instagram at @elgritodelarte is possibly where any revival would be announced first. Though Puerto Rico is definitely a Facebook island.

None of that changes the reason to go. The murals are on the walls and Lares is worth the drive. It’s a beautiful little town and a pinnacle part of the history. Just do not book a November trip around a festival that may not happen again.

A note on what you are looking at

This is politically charged work in a place where the politics are live. Puerto Rico’s status is an unresolved question, and these murals take a clear position on it.

You do not have to share that position to find the walls worth your time. But it is worth knowing what you are photographing. A visitor who treats Albizu Campos as a colorful backdrop is missing the entire point of the town.

For the wider context of how Puerto Rican street art became civic argument rather than decoration, see our guide to street art in Puerto Rico. For the indigenous history underneath all of it, the Taíno Route is the place to start.

FAQ

What is the Grito de Lares?

An armed uprising on September 23, 1868, in which Puerto Ricans took the town of Lares and declared the Republic of Puerto Rico against Spanish rule. It was suppressed within days but is considered the birth of the island’s independence movement, and the date is still commemorated annually.

Are the Lares murals free to see?

Yes. They are on public walls around Plaza Revolución and through the casco urbano, with no ticket and no set hours.

When does El Grito del Arte happen?

Historically in November, near the September anniversary. Three editions ran between 2021 and 2023, and it has gone quiet since, so check @elgritodelarte before planning around it.

How do I get to Lares?

By car, from any direction. There is no nearby airport and no realistic transit option. It is a mountain drive and the roads are what you would expect in the interior.

Have you been up there?

Lares gets a fraction of the visitors that Santurce does, and the people who make the drive tend to have a reason.

If you have stood in Plaza Revolución, what brought you? The murals, the coffee, the history, or something else entirely? Tell us in the comments, and if you photographed a piece we have not named, we would like to hear about it.