Michelle Guerrero believes that life is a collection of stories being woven together. We cross paths, change direction, lose people and find others. Somewhere along the way, we leave little pieces of ourselves with each other. That idea is now painted across a wall in Los Angeles.
Guerrero, the Mexican American and Puerto Rican artist known as Mr B Baby, is behind a new public mural at Las Fotos Project, a Boyle Heights nonprofit that gives young women and gender-expansive artists of color opportunities to explore photography, art and identity.
Created with Selena Gomez’s Rare Beauty for Hispanic Heritage Month, the mural brings together many of the themes that have long shaped Guerrero’s own work: culture, community and belonging.
© Wendy Cubillo @wendy.cubilloAt the heart of the mural is a Spanish saying: “El mar recibe todos los ríos,” or “The sea welcomes all rivers.” It is this year’s message for Rare Beauty’s 'RareConsejo' campaign, but for Guerrero, the words quickly became personal.
“The phrase, el mar recibe todos los ríos, for me it’s about the different paths that we take in our lives, this interconnectivity of all of us as a community”
Guerrero translated that idea into a world that feels distinctly her own. A female figure sits at the center of the mural, representing the inner child and the hopes and dreams we carry with us. Around her flows a river representing all the directions life can take.
“I hope that when people see it, that their story reflects within the narrative,” she said.
© Wendy Cubillo @wendy.cubilloWho is Mr B Baby?
Long before her work reached walls across the country, Guerrero was growing up in Chula Vista, California, just minutes from the U.S.-Mexico border.
Raised in a predominantly Spanish-speaking household, her Mexican and Puerto Rican roots and life in a border community became part of the visual language she would eventually bring to her art. Today, her work mixes elements of Mexican folk art and Caribbean color with characters and stories that explore identity, mental health and resilience.
Over the past decade, Guerrero has completed more than 150 large-scale murals in the United States and internationally. It is a long way from how she started, knocking on doors and asking for walls she could paint.
© Wendy Cubillo @wendy.cubilloHer hometown has taken notice. Chula Vista officially proclaimed March 5 “Mr B Baby Day,” recognizing an artist whose work began in the community where she grew up.
One character in particular has become closely tied to her work: Chucho, a little piñata whose cracks bloom with flowers. For Guerrero, what looks broken at first becomes a symbol of something much more hopeful.
“He’s this little piñata that gets broken, and through the cracks he actually discovers himself,” she said. “It’s this cute story about resilience.”
Murals gave Guerrero a way to tell those stories on a much bigger canvas
“When I became a muralist, I knew that I wanted to use my voice,” she said. “I get these large canvases, and I could tell any story I want to. And so the story that I choose to tell is to represent my culture and to be able to create something that people could look at and feel connected to.”
That makes the location of her latest mural especially fitting. Las Fotos Project is a Boyle Heights nonprofit that creates opportunities for young women and gender-expansive artists of color to explore photography, art and identity.
A message about belonging
The idea of community is also what connected Selena Gomez to the project. “One of the things I love most about being Latina is the incredible sense of community,” the Rare Beauty founder said. “There’s always this feeling of connection and belonging. This mural reflects that feeling in a space designed to bring people together.”
© Wendy Cubillo @wendy.cubilloThis year’s "RareConsejo" was selected by members of Rare Beauty’s Latine team, with each individual story imagined as a river that eventually becomes part of a larger sea without losing what makes it its own.
Guerrero’s interpretation takes that idea somewhere personal. Her river isn’t about everyone following the same path. It is about all those different paths existing together: the people we meet, the directions we choose, the ones we never expected to take and the pieces of ourselves we leave behind.
Through every twist and crossing, Guerrero believes there is still a younger version of ourselves carrying those original hopes and dreams, wondering where it will all lead.
© Wendy Cubillo @wendy.cubilloAnd maybe, as she puts it, all those roads are simply leading us home. The mural is open to the public at Las Fotos Project, 2210 E. Cesar E. Chavez Ave. in Los Angeles.
