Mateo
Artist: Dan Ferrer
Area: Los Amigos de la Esquina area, Tulum
Year: 2026
This mural was created by Spanish artist Dan Ferrer during the first residency organized by Moniker Foundation and Tulum Art Club in May 2026, as part of a collaboration connected to Los Amigos de la Esquina.
The work portrays Mateo, grandson of doña Cándida, one of the pioneer neighbors of this area of Tulum. More than thirty years ago, doña Cándida arrived here and built this house when there was almost nothing around: no streets, no houses and none of the movement that defines Tulum today.
Before Tulum became an international destination, families arrived, worked, built homes and gave life to the territory. This house is part of that memory.
By painting Mateo on the facade, Dan Ferrer connects the present with the origin. The child represents a new generation, but also the continuity of a family story that still lives in the same place. The bird leaving his hands seems to carry that memory forward, as a gesture of freedom, future and recognition.
This mural is a tribute to doña Cándida, her family and all the pioneer families who helped build Tulum long before the world turned its attention here.
Dan Ferrer is a Spanish artist whose mural work often combines portraiture, emotion and symbolic storytelling. In “Mateo,” he uses a real local story to create a public tribute to memory, family and place.
