The Heritage Society commissioned a mural to celebrate the many contributions of our city’s Mexican-American community. In the spirit of the great Mexican muralists, this vibrant collective artwork, Mexican-American History & Culture in 20th Century Houston, highlights the places, personalities, concepts and events that shaped the Mexican-American community and laid the foundation for the multicultural city we live in today. Set in Connally Plaza against a dramatic backdrop of City Hall and the downtown skyline, the new mural is a cultural landmark in the historic heart of Houston.

Mural artists Laura López Cano and Jesse Sifuentes, along with key fundraisers and government officials celebrated the unveiling to Houstonians in September 2018, the month of when National Hispanic Heritage Month begins.  For National Hispanic Heritage Month, we have several outdoor activities being celebrated around the mural.  The vibrant mural, located at 1100 Bagby Street, overlooks Connally Plaza and is impressively surrounded by the downtown skyline and majestic oak trees.

This mural spotlights 38 places, personalities, and events that played a key role in the growth of this community and provides recognition for the countless and essential contributions of Mexican Americans to the economy, culture, and vitality of our city in the 1900s.  Some of the people on the masterpiece are still actively playing a key role and representing the Mexican American spirit and way of life well into this century.  Locals and tourists will also see that there are U.S. presidents and first ladies who attended a League of United Latin American Citizens event at the Rice Hotel that made history.  One may also connect that it is befitting that those presidents overlook the Connally Plaza, because Texas Governor John Connally was with them that evening on November 21, 1963.  The story does not end there which is why one needs a historian to explain the history surrounding each subject.

The mural tells a story of how Mexican Americans developed their own neighborhoods last century during a time of segregation and showcases successful businesspeople, civil rights leaders, restaurant owners, veterans, government leaders, and community figures.  The mural’s themes include Mexican immigration as people fled the Revolution at home, the jobs that the new immigrants took on the railroads and in Ship Channel industries, and life in El Segundo Barrio.  Other cultural themes on the mural like entertainment and multigenerational families are relatable to most cultures in our diverse city.

Below is the legend of people who grace the mural and the places in Houston that embrace a lifestyle--

1. Bidding adios to family 2.  LULAC Council 60 Clubhouse 3.  Railroad workers 4.  Francisco Chairez 5.  Maria Jimenez 6.  Primitivo Nino 7.  Mexican Inn baseball player 1930 8.  Ship Channel longshoremen 9.  De Zavala Elementary School 10.  Ninfa Laurenzo 11.  The importance of family 12.  Aztec Theatre 13.  Pan-America Ballroom 14.  KLVL Radio 15.  Lydia Mendoza 16.  Our Lady of Guadalupe Church 17.  Roberto Zenteno 18.  Norma Zenteno 19.  Newsboys and Spanish-language papers 20.  Rusk Settlement House 21.  Tatcho Mindiola in East End grocery 22.  Macario Garcia 23.  Felix Fraga 24.  Leonel Castillo 25.  Christina Morales 26.  Yolanda Black Navarro 27.  Irma Galvan 28.  Joe Padilla 29.  Felix Mexican Restaurant on Westheimer 30.  Joe Campos Torres 31.  Vaquero statue in Moody Park 32.  Graciela Saenz 33.  Felix Tijerina 34.  Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy 35.  John Fitzgerald Kennedy 36.  Lyndon Baines Johnson 37.  Claudia “Lady Bird” Johnson 38.  John J. Herrera.

The style of the mural at THS evokes 20th century art in the vein of the great Mexican muralists, such as Diego Rivera. The artwork is a collaboration between highly esteemed artists Jesse Sifuentes and Laura Lopez Cano and is a significant contribution to Houston’s growing catalogue of public art. Come see The Heritage Society's newest permanent addition and get excited about our diverse history. For more information info@heritagesociety.org.

2022 and 2023- Our Mural Goes Digital!

“A 21ST Century Mode of Accessing Art and Experiencing Culture”

By Dr. Pamela Anne Quiroz and Juana Guzmán

Under the leadership of Dr. Pamela Anne Quiroz, Director of the University of Houston’s (UH) Center for Mexican American and Latino Studies (CMALS), plans are underway to launch the groundbreaking digital board, Latino cARTographies: Mapping the Past, Present, and Future of Houston’s Latino Visual Art.

This portable, bilingual, and interactive digital board funded by the University of Houston is the result of a three-year collaboration led by Dr. Quiroz, with the curatorial leadership of former vice president of the National Mexican Museum of Art in Chicago, Juana Guzman, the CMALS Research Team, and the International Gibson Group.

Rigo Miller, Basurda de la Tempestad, 2010, 10 x 20 ft. painting

The idea for Latino cARTographies began when Dr. Quiroz organized the city of Houston to host the country’s premier Latino art event, Latino Art Now!  Dr. Quiroz conceived the idea for the digital board and viewed it as a way to create a dynamic but permanent tribute to the Latino artists of Houston. She then persuaded the Gibson Group to collaborate with CMALS to achieve this goal. The result is a twenty-first-century mode to access the arts and experience culture – Latino cARTographies –that maps the past, present, and future of Houston’s Latino art. By utilizing technology that preserves, represents, and promotes Houston’s Latino visual arts and communities in an equitable and inclusive manner, CMALS is transforming how we experience art in the twenty-first century.

Center for Mexican American Studies-University of Houston’s Latino Art Now Billboard Project & Expressway, HTX ART Bus- created by Veronica Cabrera Morena and Mobile Art Studio for the Artists, founded by artist Tony Parana.

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