Paola Delfin: From Mexico City to the Mediterranean

Paola Delfin arrived in Lebanon almost by accident. “I came to Lebanon for personal reasons,” she admits, “but as always, life surprised me. I ended up staying here because I really like the country and feel like my culture is an extremely close one.”

What began as a visit turned into a connection, one strong enough to move her to action. “I wanted to spend a long period in the Middle East and try to bring my work here to tell your stories through my eyes. I feel at home here.”

She approached the Mexican Embassy in Lebanon with an idea: to paint something monumental. Something that would embody the bond between the two nations. The proposal came at a perfect time as 2025 marks 80 years of diplomatic relations between Mexico and Lebanon. Soon after, the municipality of Jounieh extended an invitation to host her mural.

Painting the stories that connect us

Now, in Jounieh, the wall has begun to breathe. Colors twist and stretch across its surface, telling a story of migration, memory, and identity; two nations meeting in one sweeping gesture of paint.

“I started painting murals 13 years ago in Mexico City,” she says.

A city full of art, still breathing the legacy of the muralist movement that shaped my country’s identity after the Revolution, a hundred years ago.

“I decided to follow this path because I love interacting with different environments, learning about people and their stories,” she says. “After a few years, I understood that art and culture will always be powerful tools for creating change, to give voice to the people and highlight their identities and causes.”

A wall that holds two worlds

The piece tells the story of migration, identity, and intertwined heritage. “I got inspired by the story of the first people from Lebanon who migrated to Mexico,” Paola explains.

They merged the Lebanese identity into our Mexican society.

The mural depicts two women, one Lebanese, one Mexican, each surrounded by the symbols of her culture.
Behind the Lebanese figure, a historic photo of the first Lebanese families who arrived in Mexico, the Mexican nopal, and the cactus that adorns Mexico’s flag, standing as a symbol of resilience, both there and here.

On the Mexican side, another woman wears traditional attire, her presence anchored by a pre-Hispanic statue and the echoes of Frida Kahlo’s Las Dos Fridas, a painting that inspired Paola’s composition and her theme of connection. Around her, the Lebanese cedar, an emblem of endurance and belonging, grows freely, weaving the two worlds together.

Stories written on walls

“My murals are inspired by the stories of the people and the places I visit,” she says. “I try to spend time on site before creating, to understand the environment and represent what I see through my perspective. I’m especially drawn to stories that have less visibility, so they can be noticed and known.”

Her process is deeply human. Before the first brushstroke, she listens. She observes. She allows the walls and their surroundings to speak. “I like the challenge of big-scale murals,” she adds.

They allow me to reach a bigger audience and create an instant impact on the surroundings. People can make their own interpretation, reflect on them, and see how their environment can be shaped through art.

Art as a language of connection

For Paola, art is more than aesthetics, it’s a form of resistance, memory, and unity. “I want to remind people that art and culture are a key part of society,” she says. “Without them, we wouldn’t have identity or heritage. Art nowadays is sometimes considered an ‘extra,’ not a must, and yet it’s art, in all its forms, that has created movements, helped people through difficult times, and made a simple moment special.”

Her words reflect the same honesty that fills her walls. Each mural, no matter where it stands, carries the same quiet manifesto: that art should never belong to the few, but to everyone. “It’s something that should be integrated in us, supported and preserved,” she says. “I try to enrich myself with the beauty of all the cultures I’ve met and lived, to expand my vision and remind myself of the link between all of us, to always carry the roots that made us who we are and integrate them with others.”

On a sunlit wall in Jounieh, two nations meet in color, movement, and memory.
Through her art, Paola Delfín reminds us that borders never divide the stories that make us human.