Street Art In San Miguel: Remembering Artist Spaik Spike

By Colleen Sorenson

In 2012, artist Spaik Spike visited San Miguel de Allende and painted on walls with Juice, Cuen and Meik. This began the push for legal painting on the street. At the time, despite the explosion of the world-wide art phenomenon, street art was not permitted in San Miguel. When a mural was painted it wasn’t long before Desarrollo Urbano came along to ensure it was painted over. As soon as a mural appeared, it quickly disappeared. This was regardless of permission given to the artists by the property owner. I first met Spaik in 2012 when he joined local artists Juice and Cuen to paint a wall across the arroyo from Colonia Guadalupe. This was the first. It was also when I learned painting on the street was not allowed. The property owner decided against a paint-over and the mural became hugely popular. It was sadly defaced in 2020, and a new mural painted in 2021.

Spaik then returned for another visit in 2013, painting a small wall on Prolongoción Aldama, a school in Montes de Loreto with Meik, and a brick arch at the arroyo. The images on the arch are still there, barely. The next two visits in 2013 came after the permission was finally secured for legal street art. With Cuen, he painted in Colonia Guadalupe at the corner of Juan de Dios Peza and Estrellita.

For La Calaca 2013, he and New Jersey artist Daniel Patrick Helmsletter painted my next-door neighbor’s house in Colonia Guadalupe - ‘Madre Nunca Se Fue’. At the time, it was easily viewed as the colorful backdrop for the restaurant affectionately known by the neighbors as The Food Truck. The mural is now behind a closed gate, still looking almost as good as when first painted. His last mural in 2013 of a colorful lizard on a private house in Montes de Loreto is also still there.

Spaik Spike, Israel Guerra Romero, originally from Zacatelco in the state of Tlaxcala, grew up in a place celebrating indigenous Náhuatl songs and dances. He was also surrounded by the field and farm animals of his grandparent’s farm. These memories from his childhood would later become a major influence in his murals. Like so many others, his self-taught career began on the streets as a graffiti artist, around age 15. He painted lettering in aerosol, copying US urban art styles, and chose his own pseudonym of Spaik Spike because he liked how the shapes of the letters came together. Eventually, it wasn’t so much fun on the streets anymore after being chased down numerous times by the police. There were just too many problems in general and he figured there had to be a better way. In 1999, he moved from Tlaxcala to Michoacán to study film at the Mexican Institute of Cinematographic and Humanistic Research, IMICH, in Morelia.

Spaik continued to paint, developing his own unique style of what came to be known as the new Mexican muralism, rather than continuing to be influenced by US styles. Most influenced by his life-long interest in pre-Hispanic art, he painted intensely colorful images of Latin American folklore and folk art along with the birds, reptiles and farm animals from his childhood.

“There are people who dream and believe in other things, which they want to do well and with their heart.” He wanted to create a happier world.

With the internet and social media, street artists began connecting all over the world. Through the years, Spaik traveled the world beyond Mexico, painting in Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, US, UK, Ireland, Germany, France, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Czech Republic, Norway, Egypt,Morocco and Russia. Whew! He came to be internationally known as one of the very best artists of the new muralism, recognized for representing the colors and vibrancy of México and sharing his messages of equality, peace, harmony, unity, joy and hope.

Spaik Spike left us all this past April 15 at the age of 38.

Klaudia Oliver, a founder of La Calaca Festival, also met Spaik at that first wall and sponsored his mural at The Food Truck with Daniel Patrick Helmsletter. “Spaik Spike conjured worlds where pre-Hispanic symbols danced with cosmic wonder - his art a bridge between earth and stars. His light rose swiftly, his absence echoes deeply. He will be missed.”

Colleen Sorenson: Urban Art Advocate in San Miguel since 2012

colleensorenson.com for mosaic-tiled collaborations with local, national and international street artists.

colleensfsa@yahoo.com