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Panmela Castro: Brazilian artist brightens up Willy Street

by A. David Dahmer March 21, 2012

(l-r) Melissa Morales and Eugenia Podesta of Vital Voices Global Partnership, Panmela Castro, Mother Fool's owner, S tephanie Rearick, and Alberto Vargas, Associate Director of the Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian Program (LACIS ) at UW-Madison.

Panmela Castro's finished mural at Mother Fool's Coffeehouse If you are going down Williamson Street on M adison's near east side any time soon, you're are going to see an amazing mural done by one of the most

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important figures in the Brazilian graffiti movement.

Panmela Castro, winner of the Vital Voices' "Leadership in Public Life Award" in 2010 and world renowned Brazilian grafiteira, was in town M arch 13 to paint a beautiful mural on M other Fool's outside wall.

“This was my first trip to M adison and I really love the city and the lakes,” Castro tells The M adison Times. “I like the people and how they came up and talked to you. They are very friendly.”

Castro was able to paint the mural in about three hours and then stuck around to mingle with the many onlookers who amassed on Willy Street. Vital Voices Global Partnership, an international NGO based in Washington, D.C., partnered with Latin American, Caribbean, and Iberian Program (LACIS) to bring Castro to M adison for this unique event.

Castro is a young multimedia artist from Brazil who uses graffiti and street art to promote social change and awareness. She has received numerous awards and recognitions, including the Hutúz Award, the most important Hip Hop award in Latin America. In M arch 2012, she was honored at the DVF Awards, supported by the Diller-von Furstenberg Family Foundation to honor extraordinary women, in New York City.

“I've been doing the graffiti for seven years but I used to draw and paint paintings ever since I was a child,” Castro tells The M adison Times. “Art is something that I've always loved and enjoyed.”

Castro realizes her vision with the human rights organization Comcausa and Grafiteiras Pela Lei M aria da Penha, a project that links graffiti and urban culture to combating violence against women. Through this project, Comcausa carried out a campaign to educate disadvantaged women about the recently passed M aria da Penha Law on Domestic and Family Violence against Women, a law named after a woman who was so severely beaten by her husband that she was paralyzed for life.

“I have an organization in Brazil that I am the founder and president of called 'Rede Nami,'” Castro says of her urban art feminist network that promotes women's rights through culture and the arts. “We used the graffiti in our murals and in our workshops to promote women's rights.”

Castro ventured into the slums of Rio de Janeiro to create murals that promote awareness about the existence of the M aria da Penha Law and to educate women about their rights under the new legislation. “In this project we had graffiti workshops for young girls in the favelas (shanty towns) about the M aria de Penha Law and against domestic violence,” Castro says.

In M ay 1983, biopharmaceutist M aria da Penha Fernandes was fast asleep when her husband shot her, leaving her a paraplegic for life. Two weeks after her return from the hospital, he tried to electrocute her. The case da Penha filed languished in court for two decades, while her husband remained free.

Years later, in a landmark ruling, the Court of Human Rights criticized the Brazilian government for not taking effective measures to prosecute and convict perpetrators of domestic violence. In response to this, the Brazilian government in 2006 enacted a law under the symbolic name “M aria da Penha Law on Domestic and Family Violence.”

“The M aria de Penha Law is a relatively new law — 2006 — and it's our law against domestic violence,” Castro says. “In the past, we never had a specific law against domestic violence. If a man did something to his wife or to his daughter, nothing would happen. But thanks to this, we have a law that protects women in Brazil. And we need to promote it so women know their rights and men know that they will get in trouble if they do this.”

Castro uses her art to extend a lifeline to victims or witnesses who were previously too afraid to speak up but are now informed of their rights, unable to ignore or avoid the messages that her murals portray about the importance of M aria da Penha and the law that has been named for her. M aria da Penha herself has been featured in some of Castro's work.

“When I construct a mural and I see that other women like it and that it is important to them, this is a feeling that inspires me and keeps me going,” Castro says.

Castro co-founded Artefeito, an organization that carries out social projects and uses art as an instrument of cultural transformation. Castro travels internationally to share her vision through lectures, exhibits, and workshops hosted by the United Nations, the OSA Art Forum, the German Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, the La Familia Ayara and the Caramundo organization. She believes that she can make the world a better place by using graffiti to portray messages of positive social change.

“As an artist, I want to continue to go around the world making graffiti and to talk about my ideas and to talk about the ideas of different cultures,” Castro says.

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