Puerto Rican Flag Mural Comes to Cleveland’s Clark-Fulton Neighborhood.

After attending Grandparents Family Day at Luke Easter Park, we hurried over to Cleveland’s Clark-Fulton neighborhood to see internationally recognized Puerto Rican muralist Héctor Collazo Hernández at work on a massive Puerto Rican flag mural at CentroVilla25.

The mural project, part of Collazo Hernández’s celebrated “78 Pueblos y 1 Bandera” (“78 Towns and One Flag”) initiative, brought a powerful symbol of Puerto Rican culture and pride to one of Cleveland’s most vibrant Latino neighborhoods.

Héctor Collazo Hernández and 78 Pueblos y 1 Bandera

Before visiting the mural site, we researched Héctor Collazo Hernández and learned more about the remarkable project that has made him so well known.

The 78 Pueblos y 1 Bandera movement began in Puerto Rico with a simple but powerful idea: paint the Puerto Rican flag in each of the island’s 78 municipalities. The project transformed walls and neglected spaces into colorful public works of art while celebrating Puerto Rican identity and encouraging people to explore communities throughout the island.

The movement has since expanded beyond Puerto Rico, including projects in the Puerto Rican diaspora. Cleveland’s mural at CentroVilla25 became part of that larger story. Local coverage describes it as Ohio’s second official 78 Pueblos y 1 Bandera mural and the sixth mural created through the project in the Puerto Rican diaspora.

According to the National Puerto Rican Day Parade’s profile of Collazo Hernández, his murals have helped transform abandoned buildings and other neglected spaces into vibrant works of public art that encourage tourism and community engagement.

A Rainy Weekend Delayed the Mural

Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate during the weekend of the mural celebration.

Saturday was rainy, and the wet conditions meant that Collazo Hernández could not work continuously on the mural. The weather also affected the following days, so the painting progressed more slowly than originally anticipated. A firsthand account from the Saturday event likewise noted that rain left the wall too wet for the artist to paint.

Héctor was very gracious about the delay. Rather than rushing the project, he extended his stay in Cleveland so that the mural could be completed properly and with the professionalism for which his work is known.

Between Saturday and Tuesday, we made several trips to CentroVilla25 to see how the mural was progressing.

Finally, when we stopped by Tuesday at approximately 5 p.m., we were happy to discover that the work was finished.

The enormous Puerto Rican flag mural was beautiful.

A Puerto Rican Landmark in Cleveland

The mural is especially meaningful because of the longstanding importance of Cleveland’s Puerto Rican community.

Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens rather than immigrants in the conventional legal sense, and their history in Cleveland is distinctive. According to the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History at Case Western Reserve University, Puerto Ricans became the largest group within Cleveland’s Spanish-speaking population during the 20th century. A major migration to Northeast Ohio took place after World War II, when Puerto Rican workers were recruited for jobs in the region.

Over the decades, Puerto Rican families have made important contributions to Cleveland’s cultural, economic, educational, civic, and social life.

That history makes a large, permanent Puerto Rican flag mural in the Clark-Fulton neighborhood particularly significant. It is not simply a colorful painting on the side of a building. It is a highly visible celebration of a community with deep roots in Cleveland.

Talking With Leticia Lopez About the Mural

During one of our visits to CentroVilla25 on Saturday, we had the opportunity to speak with our friend Leticia Lopez, Executive Director of the Julia de Burgos Cultural Arts Center, about the significance of the project.

Ms. Lopez explained that the creation of the mural at CentroVilla25 had been in the planning stages for months. She described it as an excellent example of what can happen when community leaders and organizations work together on a project designed to benefit an entire neighborhood.

The Julia de Burgos Cultural Arts Center has been a supporter of the 78 Pueblos y 1 Bandera project at CentroVilla25, helping connect the project to Cleveland’s Puerto Rican community and its broader arts and cultural network.

Art, Culture and Community in Clark-Fulton

The mural also fits naturally into the mission of CentroVilla25, a Latino marketplace and community destination located at 3140 West 25th Street in Cleveland. CentroVilla25 describes itself as a place dedicated to cultivating community, celebrating heritage, and creating opportunities.

That makes the building an especially fitting location for a monumental Puerto Rican flag.

From the initial planning and community celebration to the final brushstrokes, the project brought together artists, cultural organizations, community leaders, local businesses, residents, and visitors.

For us, it was a wonderful experience to follow the mural from its rain-delayed beginning on Saturday to its completion on Tuesday afternoon.

And now, anyone traveling through Cleveland’s Clark-Fulton neighborhood can see the result: a huge Puerto Rican flag standing proudly on the side of CentroVilla25 and serving as a lasting reminder of Puerto Rican culture, history, pride, and community in Cleveland.