BREAKING WALLS.
A monumental City of Hayward mural about migration, movement and transformation — painted across retaining walls and underpass spaces.
SEE THE
MURAL.
Details, scale and views of Breaking Walls across Hayward's retaining-wall and underpass environment.
A WALL BECOMES
A MESSAGE.
For the City of Hayward, Javier Rocabado was commissioned to paint a series of mural surfaces on retaining walls and underpasses. The physical conditions were very different from working inside a studio: the architecture, traffic, changing light and people passing through the site all became part of the experience of making the work.
Javier titled the project Breaking Walls. In his account, the title grew out of a period when construction and debate around a wall on the southern U.S. border had become a powerful political image. Rather than reinforce the idea of separation, Javier imagined the wall as a surface that could speak about movement, migration and connection.
Stretching approximately 460 feet long and 15 feet high, the mural turns a piece of infrastructure into an extended visual narrative. Butterflies, swallows, hummingbirds and children move across the composition — living forms chosen by Javier as symbols of migration.
SYMBOLS OF
MIGRATION.
BUTTERFLIES
Transformation and migration — small, fragile bodies capable of extraordinary journeys across borders.
SWALLOWS
Seasonal movement, return and the instinct to travel between places that can each be understood as home.
HUMMINGBIRDS
Motion, endurance and the improbable energy required to remain in flight.
CHILDREN
The human dimension of migration: families, futures and lives that cannot be reduced to lines on a map.
Together, the figures soften the massive concrete environment. The mural's title asks viewers to think beyond a wall as a fixed boundary: birds cross it, butterflies transform around it, and human life continues on both sides.
ART IN THE
EVERYDAY.
Javier describes painting on location as a unique part of public-art practice. A mural develops in full view of the community. The work is encountered while it is still being made, and the artist sees immediately how the image changes the feeling of the surrounding space.
For Javier, that transformation is part of the medium itself. Public art can embellish and beautify an overlooked piece of infrastructure, but its value goes further: it can help residents and visitors see a familiar place differently and encourage a stronger sense of pride in the neighborhood.
Breaking Walls uses precisely the type of environment Hayward's mural initiative was designed to address — infrastructure and public-facing surfaces that can become civic landmarks rather than anonymous or repeatedly vandalized walls.
CITY OF HAYWARD
MURAL ARTS PROGRAM
ART AS
REVITALIZATION.
Hayward established its Mural Art Program in 2009 in response to escalating graffiti and vandalism and as part of the City's Safe, Clean and Green priorities. The program places murals on sites including commercial buildings, schools, utility boxes and overpasses.
According to the City, the program has grown to more than 200 murals and tile-mosaic installations and has involved more than 1,200 volunteers, including schools, senior citizens and community organizations.
Hayward reports that properties previously subjected to repeated tagging have experienced reduced graffiti after mural installations. The City describes the larger purpose in terms that closely parallel Javier's own philosophy: murals can beautify neighborhoods, build relationships, strengthen identity and belonging, encourage conversation and create connections across a community.
The City of Hayward's official Mural Arts Program photo archive specifically includes “Breaking Walls by Javier Rocabado,” placing the project within that broader municipal public-art initiative.
EXPLORE THE
PROJECT.
Official Mural Arts Program overview and public-art resources.
VISIT ↗ 02 PROGRAM HISTORYThe City's history, mission and impact statement for the mural program.
READ ↗ 03 INTERACTIVE MURAL MAPExplore public artworks and mural locations throughout Hayward.
EXPLORE ↗ 04 CITY PHOTO ARCHIVEHayward's official Flickr album includes Breaking Walls by Javier Rocabado.
VIEW ↗ 05 BREAKING WALLS / CITY PHOTOThe City of Hayward's individual Flickr entry for the mural.
VIEW ↗ 06 JAVIER / PUBLIC ARTMission Local profile noting Javier's public-art work across the Bay Area, including Hayward.
READ ↗