Barrio Patronato
For those who like to see the off beat parts of cities then Barrio Patronato is your kind of place in Santiago. To a Chilean, Patronato is the place where you would go to buy textiles. Just about every street in Patronato is lined with clothing shops. While to some this might sound like a great reason alone to visit Patronato, it is the buildings that will catch your eye. Walking through Patronato one cannot help but to stop and stare at the graffiti on the buildings. At first glance, you might think that this is just another run down neighborhood like so many in North America, but upon closer inspection something seems out of place. This is not the traditional or normal graffiti that you have seen before. You start to notice the graffiti has a purpose as each building seems to have its own theme. Then you start to realize that the graffiti looks more like it was put there with an artistic perspective. Something is very strange about Patronato, and it gets even more strange when you find out that the locals are proud of their buildings with graffiti all over them.
You see a few years back a newly elected mayor wanted to spruce up Barrio Patronato, but did not have the funds to do it all himself. Many of the exterior of the buildings needed a fresh coat of paint. So the mayor devised a plan to embrace those who graffiti buildings. The mayor told the people of Patronato that they should embrace these "artists" and give them a place to express themselves. The results can be seen all over Patronato today.
The scheme was really simple. An artist would contact the building owner and offer to paint the outside of the building. If the owner accepted then the owner's building would get a fresh coat of paint, with the artist's touch of course, and the artist would get a canvas to show the world his work. This was great for all involved as it cost the building owners nothing to get a fresh coat of paint and it gave the artists a unique medium to show their work. This has created a very unusual neighborhood in Santiago. So to see a unique side of Santiago and some creative government policy at work, head over to Barrio Patronato.