Mural: Tú Eres Mi Otro Yo by Elizabeth Blancas

Curator: COVID Art Projects for SF COVID Command Center 

Tú Eres Mi Otro Yo by Elizabeth Blancas, Clarion Ally Mural Project, Mission District, San Francisco. 2020-2021

San Francisco’s COVID Command Center (CCC) partnered with the Clarion Alley Mural Project to commission Tú Eres Mi Otro Yo by artist Elizabeth Blancas as part of the City’s COVID-19 arts recovery efforts. The mural delivers a message of safety, love, and hope to the Latinx community, which has been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. Featuring portraits of poet and public speaker Yosimar Reyes embracing his grandmother, Mardonia Galeana (“Mama Doña”), the work highlights the vital role of intergenerational care during a time of crisis.

The figures wear masks, and above them the words “Tú Eres Mi Otro Yo” (“You are my other me”) appear, drawn from Luis Valdez’s Pensamiento Serpentino. The phrase reflects a Mayan philosophical concept of shared humanity, echoing both the mural’s intent and the lived experience it depicts. Reyes, who returned to the Bay Area at the start of the pandemic to care for his grandmother, described the mural as a declaration that immigrant and undocumented communities—so often existing in the shadows—are essential and resilient.

For Blancas, the work is both personal and collective. “When tasked with creating a work for the Latinx community, I knew I wanted to send a message of intergenerational care, a reminder that we must take care of one another,” she said. City leaders praised the project as a testament to resilience and equity, with CCC Executive Director Mary Ellen Carroll calling the mural “an example of the warmth, unity, and resilience the Latinx community embodies,” and a lasting reminder of San Francisco’s commitment to communities most impacted by COVID-19.