Mujeres de San Antonio: Murals of Emma Tenayuca, Corazones de la Comudad, and Rosita Fernandez

There is a muralist from San Francisco by the name of Juana Alicia. She inspired me to paint the murals that I painted in San Antonio. I became familiar with her work while living in the Bay Area. Her collaborative work on the Women's Building on Eighteenth and Valencia is a masterpiece on historical women of color. Her mural that wraps around the Cesar Chavez Elementary school in its bright, vibrant colors illustrate the value of letters and learning. What struck me about Juana Alicia's art is how it focuses on women, how she uses color, and the size of her art (huge). I thought, "I want to do murals like hers, and focus them on Chicana women of San Antonio."

When I returned to San Antonio I went to Southtown Neighborhood Association in the area where I lived, and which is also the neighborhood where I grew up. I told the director that I had a dream of creating murals on several of the walls of buildings on South Presa Street and South St. Mary's corridor. Thus began the series of murals collectively named Mujeres de San Antonio .

The women depicted in the three murals are all native San Antonians who contributed to their communities through their activism, art, and vision. The first mural was created in 1995. It honored one of my heroes, Emma Tenayuca, a civil rights leader and labor organizer. I am a painter who usually works alone in my studio, but with this project I had to collaborate with friends, other artists, people from the community, and people waiting for their clothes to wash (the mural is on the wall of a laundromat).

The second mural was created in 1999. After the Tenayuca mural was completed, I thought that I would love to see the whole building wrapped in a mural. Again, the neighborhood association funded the project and Corazones
de la Comunidad was completed. In this mural I portrayed four more heroes: Lydia Mendoza, a singer/songwriter; María Antonietta Berriozábal, a community activist/politician/educator; Bambi Cardenas, a politician/educator; and Manuela Sager, a community activist/hell-raiser. On the east and west sides of the laundromat I painted men and women washing and folding rebozos /shawls. There are also dichos /sayings about washing clothes and a brief history about rebozos written by Sandra Cisneros.

In this same year I created La Rosa de San Antoino—Rosita Fernández . This mural is on the same street as the other two and was also funded by the Southtown Neighborhood Association. Unfortunately, the wall was/is not in very good condition, but we went ahead and painted the otherwise gang graffitied/
placazo (ed) wall.

I am hoping that in 2004 that I will find another wall on South Presa Street to paint for my next mural. I would paint the Hernandez Sisters and Las Carpas /Tent Shows. The Hernandez Sisters were Mexican American acrobats in the 1940s. I can imagine a two-story mural with the hermanas somersaulting or flying in the air. Espero, que en the future this mural will come to be. Since the others were dreamed up and then became a reality, it can happen. The reality of documenting and educating every day through the power of art about women who would otherwise be forgotten is the importance of these murals. A community needs help in remembering their history, so what better way than through art?