​“Murals for Freedom” is a joint initiative from the Embassies of Spain, Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania and the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) through the grant program ART-EX. This project pays tribute to the Spanish Diplomats Julio Palencia, in Sofia, Ángel Sanz Briz in Budapest and José Rojas and Manuel Gómez Barzanallana in Bucharest, who saved the lives of thousands of Jews during the Holocaust. These diplomats refused to remain impassive against terror and brutality and carried out actions which ultimately stopped the deportation and extermination of thousands of Jewish citizens.

This humanitarian aid is well reflected in three large murals painted by the Spanish artist Okuda San Miguel between May 2016 and June 2017. The three artworks are located in the Sultan Tepe street nº 1 in Sofia (Bulgaria); on the façade of Miguel de Cervantes Bilingual Secondary Grammar School, in Dob street number four, at the very heart of Budapest’s Jewish Quarter (Hungary); and the last one, in Bucharest (Rumania) on Dimitrie Cantemir Avenue. This project was achieved thanks to the partnership between the Spanish Embassies in those countries and the municipalities of the cities where the murals are located. These Spanish diplomatic missions aim, this way, to keep alive the memory of those officials who saved thousands of lives.

Okuda is an artist with a long experience in the field of mural painting. His artworks are in Europe as well as in such diverse countries like India, United States, Japan, Chile, Brazil, South Africa or Mexico. The Cantabrian artist has managed to create his own style, which is based on geometric shapes and multicolour printings as well as grey colour ranges, which actually has enabled him to create his own identity within the world of mural painting art.