The Luciano Guajardo Historical Collection at the Joe A. Guerra Laredo Public Library recently launched Stories of Laredo: Community Journaling, a program intended to bring the community together to journal and reflect on the history of our city and the myriad of ways our lives and experiences shape it.

Guajardo, a librarian, library director, and forward-thinking leader who tirelessly advocated for libraries and the preservation of Laredo’s history established the Historical Collection in 1951, beginning with a few items. The collection now spans shelves of historical documents, photographs, artifacts, microfilm, scrapbooks, ledgers, and newspapers, to name a few. It’s a treasure trove of local history.

Through this journaling workshop, the community can create a richer Historical Collection and portrait of Laredo for future generations.

History is not just facts and maps in a book; it’s also deeply personal. It’s easy to forget we’re a part of history, and that we’re continuously living it. Although it’s important to read the books, honor the artifacts, and learn from the past, it’s equally important to document our own lives and memories.

Journaling serves as a perfect medium to preserve the present and capture the lived experiences of a community. It’s not just a method to document history; it is also a way to hone writing creativity and self expression, and reduce the stress and anxiety of our day to day routines.

The journals written in this program are first-hand accounts of our community, and they will one day become records of what life in Laredo was once like.

At the end of the program, participants who wish to donate any of their entries to the library’s Historical Collection are invited to do so.

In the journaling process participants are offered prompts, such as writing about their favorite memories in Laredo or their favorite places in the city, to inspire their writing. They’re encouraged to describe all that they can about their experiences and use their memories of the colors, smells, tastes, and sounds of Laredo to journal. Participants have 15 to 20 minutes to write for each prompt, and after the writing sessions are over, those who wish to share what they have written with the rest of the group are encouraged to read their entries aloud.

The next journaling session will be held on Tuesday, July 14, at 6 p.m. at the Joe A. Guerra Laredo Public Library’s Historical Collection. The community is invited to share their stories, reminisce about the past and the present of Laredo with others, and take an active part in the historical preservation of Laredo.

Future Laredoans may one day read these journals to better understand their city and themselves. The Laredo we know and love so well will live in these pages permanently as a period in time as lived history preserved in words and stories.

For more information on the journaling program, call (956) 795-2400, Ext. 2507.

Gabriela Mendoza-García Ballet Folklórico

June 5, 2026

Zapateando con todo corazón — Dancers of the Gabriela Mendoza-García Ballet Folklórico dazzled their audience at the June 5 Mexico Lindo 2026 concert at the LISD Performing Arts Center.

The Folklórico Infantil, Juvenil, Teen/Adults, Danzoneros, Grupo de Oro, and Company members performed traditional dances from the Mexican states of Aguascalientes, Colima, Veracruz, Tamaulipas, and Sinaloa. 

In its continuing commitment to support emerging and up-and-coming artists across the South Texas region and beyond, Daphne Art Foundation has announced seven artists selected for its 2026 Artist-in-Residence (AiR26) cohort.

They are Luis Coss, Paulina Aceves, Konan Martinez, and Oscar D. Gomez who will share studio space at the Frontera Beer and Wine Garden. Out-of-town residents Carla Santillana (San Antonio), Jacob Cardenas (Austin), and Clarissa Martinez (Brownsville) will work from their home studios. 

The artists will receive stipends that support the development of their work throughout the program. The cohort represents a dynamic range of perspectives and creative approaches shaping contemporary art across Texas. Their practices include painting, textiles, storytelling, animation, and interdisciplinary media. 

The residency began June 1 and continues through July 31. It culminates with a group exhibition at Casa Daphne on Friday, September 18. 

According to Daphne Art Foundation founder Alyssa Cigarroa, since its founding in 2021, the AiR program is “designed to contribute to the professional and artistic growth of selected artists, encourage self-identified up-and-coming and emerging artists to explore new ways to approach their concepts, and to create in a space conducive to focused work in the Laredo and South Texas region.”

This year also marks the launch of Daphne Art Foundation’s Distinguished Mentor Series. The foundation welcomes artist and educator Jesse Shaw, who teaches printmaking at Texas A&M International University. According to Shaw, he values “experimentation and creative research, encouraging artists to allow ideas to shift, grow, and become clear over time.” 

The local residency artists will open their Frontera studio doors to the public during Caminarte on the first Fridays of June, July, August, and September, offering visitors an opportunity to engage with works in progress and gain insight into each artist’s creative process. The public may follow the entire cohort’s development through the Daphne Art Foundation’s social media platforms at daphneart.org | Instagram: @daphneartfdn.

(Daphne Art Foundation is a nonprofit organization founded in 2019 with a mission to enrich the cultural life of Laredo and the South Texas border region. Driven by a deep passion for the arts, the Foundation works to make creative experiences accessible, meaningful, and engaging for the community. Through exhibitions, workshops, artist residencies, and professional development opportunities, Daphne Art Foundation has cultivated a dynamic space for artistic expression and cultural exchange. By supporting artists and expanding access to the arts, the foundation actively contributes to a more vibrant and artistically connected region.)

(Photos by Nic Lewis)

INSPIRING AND WELL-ATTENDED!

(Photos by Nic Lewis)

The Laredo Center for the Arts invites members of the media, artists, supporters, and friends of the Center to an exclusive preview reception for YONKE EncontraDOS, a two-person exhibition featuring South Texas artists Gil Rocha and Ruben Luna. The exhibit is curated by Rigoberto Luna in collaboration with San Antonio’s Presa House Gallery.

The June 4 special preview offers guests an opportunity to experience the exhibition before its public opening, engage in conversation about the artists' work, and explore the themes that connect their practices. The exhibition will be officially inaugurated during CaminARTE on Friday, June 5. The Laredo Center for the Arts is at 500 San Agustin Avenue. The exhibit remains up through August 7.

YONKE EncontraDOSexamines the creative ingenuity, humor, and resourcefulness that emerge from life along the U.S.–Mexico border. Through assemblage, found objects, mixed media, and sculptural interventions, Rocha and Luna transform discarded materials into works that reflect cultural memory, identity, and everyday survival.

Their shared approach is deeply informed by the concept of rasquachismo, a term theorized by Chicano scholar Tomás Ybarra-Frausto to describe an aesthetic and worldview rooted in making the most of what is available. Rasquachismo embraces improvisation, resilience, and creative adaptation, elevating ordinary and overlooked materials into expressions of cultural pride and artistic innovation.

In this exhibition, rasquachismo extends beyond aesthetics and becomes a methodology that foregrounds problem-solving, invention, and the ability to create meaning from circumstance.

The artists draw upon the visual language of junkyards, neighborhoods, border crossings, family histories, and vernacular culture to reveal how communities transform scarcity into possibility.

About the Artists
Gil Rocha is a Laredo-born multidisciplinary artist, curator, and former educator whose work spans painting, collage, sculpture, assemblage, installation, and writing. Rooted in the lived experience of the Mexican-American border, his practice explores themes of identity, migration, memory, and place. Alongside his artistic career, Rocha has spent more than two decades serving the community as an educator, muralist, public artist, curator, and cultural advocate.

Ruben Luna, also known as Gacho Style, is a self-taught artist from San Antonio's South Side. His work explores the principles of rasquachismo through inventive mixed-media constructions made from found, recycled, and commonplace materials. Luna's practice pays homage to working-class Mexican-American communities through works that celebrate ingenuity, nostalgia, and the ability to "make do" with available resources.

About the Curator
Rigoberto Luna is a curator, cultural organizer, and co-founder of Presa House Gallery. Through his curatorial practice, Luna has championed emerging and mid-career artists across Texas and the Southwest, with a particular focus on Latinx and underrepresented voices. His exhibitions frequently investigate themes of place, identity, border culture, and materiality.

About Presa House Gallery
Founded in 2016, Presa House Gallery is a DIY, artist-run gallery located in San Antonio. Dedicated to supporting emerging and mid-career artists, the gallery provides a platform for experimentation, innovation, and cultural dialogue. Presa House is widely recognized for its commitment to showcasing artists from Texas and the U.S.–Mexico border region, fostering conversations around contemporary art, community, and cultural identity. In 2026, Luna was selected as Guest Curator for the prestigious International Artist-in-Residence Program at Artpace San Antonio, further solidifying his role as an influential voice in contemporary art across Texas and the border region.

This special preview celebrates the artists whose work continues to illuminate the creativity, resilience, and cultural richness of our border communities

78041 - E5 9NJ exhibition features three collections that fill Casa Ortiz through June 21 

ENTREVISTA

This interview was conducted by Jorge Santana, Operations and Creative Director of the Laredo Cultural District.

Jude Hinojosa’s fashion exhibition opens Friday, June 5 (Caminarte eve), at 6 p.m. at Casa Ortiz, 915 Zaragoza, and remains on exhibit through June 21.

Jorge Santana: Who is Jude Hinojosa? 

Jude Hinojosa: I’m a designer and creative from Laredo, and I create clothes for those who have a romantic rage within them. They battle angels and demons in their heads while searching for experiences they want to keep forever. I embed memory and emotion into my garments, exploring feelings of nostalgia, mysticism, horror, masculinity, and sexuality. Upcycling, zero waste design, and material reclamation are foundational to my inspiration, allowing each piece to carry the residue of a prior time as it is born into a new life. 

JS: What is your educational background? 

JH: I received my MA in Menswear Design from Central Saint Martins in London. Prior to that, I studied theatre with a concentration in costume design at Texas State University. I also have a background in costume design and fashion in NYC and London. 

JS: What is in the future for you as an artist? 

JH: I’ve always created, and I will continue to do so. Whatever that means when the time comes is the answer and I look forward to finding out as well. 

JS: Tell us about the fashion exhibit at Casa Ortiz. 

JH: The exhibition is titled 78041–E5 9NJ, and it’s an immersive presentation of my Central Saint Martins graduate collection, GoD: Ghosts of Daughters, which debuted at London Fashion Week, along with its reworked version, GoDS: Ghosts of Daughters & Sons, and my latest body of work, Hostia. It’s an exploration on memory shifting over time, how home moves beyond a single place, and what stays just out of reach. The title is the zip code where I grew up and the postcode of the last place I lived. This exhibition came from longing for home, even as I had built a life across the cities in which I resided. Over time, I kept questioning what home means when it’s no longer tied to a single physical residence. The work holds that feeling of reaching for something always just out of grasp. Theres’s a familiarity but also a disconnect because you can’t fully define what it is you’re seeking. Memories change as we do and the places we long for are reshaped by time and life. The exhibition is a reflection on the tension between memory and reality, as well as the quiet realization that home might be something we carry within, even if we can never fully return physically. 

JS: Your exhibit is more of an experience, what are people going to find when they enter the transformed Casa Ortiz? 

JH: My goal is to give visitors a glimpse into the atmosphere I envision while creating my garments. Rather than simply displaying the pieces, I wanted to create an environment that visitors can move through and experience. Each room within Casa Ortiz carries its own story through light, sound, and spatial interventions. The rooms respond both to the garments they contain and to the character of the house itself. There are moments of allure and comfort alongside uncertainty. I wanted to create a sense of moving through something recognizable but not entirely accessible, reflecting the way memories often appear incomplete or obscured. Ultimately, I hope visitors leave with a feeling rather than a conclusion. I want them to experience the beauty of the work without being told exactly what to take from it, allowing their own memories and emotions to shape their journey through the exhibition. 

JS: Why did you choose Casa Ortiz, home of the Laredo Cultural District? 

JH: I chose Casa Ortiz because I have always had a deep love for downtown Laredo. Many of my childhood memories are rooted there, so being able to share my work and the result of everything Laredo has given me means so much to me. Casa Ortiz has witnessed generations of lives passing through this city, including my own and my family's, and that sense of history connects closely to the ideas of memory that are present throughout my work. I was seeking a space whose atmosphere could exist in conversation with the garments themselves. I don’t want visitors to forget where they are when viewing the exhibition because Casa Ortiz is an important part of the experience. My hope is that entering the house feels like returning to a place from the past, a home that may have been left behind as life moved forward, but one that still holds memories waiting to be revisited. There is a presence to the history of the home, and I wanted to acknowledge that. I felt that Casa Ortiz was the perfect setting to allow the garments to highlight the beauty of both the space and its stories. 

JS: How do you feel about coming back to Laredo? 

JH: I feel like a ghost visiting a city I once knew. It is extremely familiar, but not the Laredo I grew up with. There is a strong sense of nostalgia, but also an opportunity to see the city through a different lens. Coming back allows me to reconnect with my family and to understand both them and the city in our present growth.

JS:  What is your view of Laredo’s cultural movement? 

JH: I think it’s amazing that Laredo is growing in its artistic expression and embracing different mediums and interpretations of the lived experience. There are stories that need to be told because it’s important for people to understand how we feel now, and they will be culturally rich records for future generations of the city to reflect on. 

JS: What would you like to see for Laredo in the future? 

JH: I think the future is now. Laredo is already doing exactly what it needs to and it’s only going to become more fruitful as it continues to expand. In the past, I felt that the artistic side of the city had been overlooked but now it is finally receiving the attention it deserves. I look forward to seeing even more expansion and recognition of that creative energy. 

JS: What is the most rewarding experience fashion design has given you? 

JH: It's the ability to offer my perspective and lived experience to others through clothing and to see it exist outside of myself. It allows my work to enter the world in a way that can be understood, interpreted, or even be pushed against. I find meaning in that exchange. Either response means it has entered a dialogue. It is no longer just personal; it becomes something considered. 

JS: Why did you choose fashion? 

JH: For me, thinking in clothing has always been instinctual. It became the language I defaulted to. I think of fashion as a tangible documentation of history and I use it as a way to express how I navigate through the world and how the world has shaped me in return.

The Friday, June 5 Mexico Lindo 2026 Folklórico Dance Concert will feature performances of traditional Mexican dance by members of the Gabriela Mendoza-García Ballet Folklórico and the Espuelas de Oro-J.W. Nixon High School Ballet Folklórico. The concert begins at 7 p.m. at the LISD Performing Arts Center

Dancers of the Gabriela Mendoza-García Ballet Folklórico Infantil, Juvenil, Teen/Adults, Danzoneros, Grupo de Oro, and Company members will perform traditional dances from the Mexican states of Aguascalientes, Colima, Veracruz, Tamaulipas, and Sinaloa. 

The Espuelas de Oro-J.W. Nixon High School Ballet Folklórico will perform an entire suite of dances from the state of Jalisco as choreographed by their director Jesse Solis. This suite showcases all that they have worked on for the last year. Espuela de Oro graduating seniors will perform for the last time on stage. The group, which was established in the Fall of 2025, has offered beautiful folklórico performances across the community. 

Dr. Mendoza-García will address concertgoers with an excerpt from her scholarly writing on the Nacionalization of the Costumes and Dances of Mexico. She will connect 1920s post-revolutionary Mexican government policies with the creation of a physical education curriculum designed to include Mexican folklórico dance and will explain how the nationalization of dance is still prevalent today. 

Company members of the Gabriela Mendoza-García Ballet Folklórico will premier dances of the indigenous Mazahua people. Maestro Javier Aguilar of Zinacantepec, Mexico, taught the choreography and coordinated with the Mazahua people to create the costumes. The costumes are cross stitched by hand by the Mazahuas and are works of art. 

“Join us for an evening steeped in Mexican history, traditions, and culture as we dance with all our hearts,” said Dr. Mendoza-García.

  The accomplished dance instructor and ballet folklórico scholar earned her Doctoral Degree in Critical Dance Studies at the University of California-Riverside in 2013. She began her dance school and company as way to engage, examine, and continue Mexico’s dance legacies. 

The México Lindo 2026 Concert is a ticketed event with general admission tickets at a cost of $15. Tickets may be purchased at the door. For more information, contact Gabriela Mendoza-García at (956) 725-1832, visit her webpage at https://gabrielamendozagarciafolklorico.com/ or browse through her Facebook and Instagram pages at Gabriela Mendoza-García Ballet Folklórico.

The Webb County Heritage Foundation (WCHF) has been recognized by the Texas Association of Museums (TAM) at its annual conference, receiving two honors in the prestigious Mitchell A. Wilder Publication Design Award Competition, which celebrates excellence in museum communications and design.

TAM is a statewide organization dedicated to advancing the museum field in Texas through professional development, resources, and advocacy, while promoting the highest standards and best practices across cultural institutions.

WCHF received both a Gold Award and a Bronze Award, recognizing the organization’s commitment to producing thoughtful, high-quality materials that reflect its mission and connect with the community. The Gold Award was presented for the Junior Curator Journal brochure, an engaging educational resource designed to enhance the museum experience for younger audiences, while the Bronze Awardwas recognition for the 2025 newsletter, The Year We Shared, which highlights the events, programs, and accomplishments of the WCHF in 2025.

Named in honor of Mitchell A. Wilder, founding director of the Amon Carter Museum, the competition promotes the highest standards of graphic design and media production across museums of all sizes. From newsletters and brochures to digital and print materials, these awards recognize communications that reflect a museum’s identity and public presence.

“To be recognized at a statewide level, and to bring home two awards in a competition that includes some of the largest museums in Texas, means a lot to us. We’re a small team, but we’re really intentional about what we create. We care deeply about how we tell our stories, and this feels like a reminder that our work and our community belong in those spaces, too,” said Andrea Ordoñez, Director of Operations of the WCHF.

Previous recipients of this award include the San Antonio Museum of Art, the Witte Museum, and the Dallas Museum of Art. This year, the Webb County Heritage Foundation and the Republic of the Rio Grande Museum join that list, marking a milestone moment for the organization and for Laredo’s presence on the statewide stage.

The Webb County Heritage Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving, sharing, and celebrating the history, culture, and stories of Webb County. Through its two museums, the Republic of the Rio Grande Museum and the Villa Antigua Border Heritage Museum, as well as educational programs, community events, and publications, WCHF works to make local history accessible, engaging, and meaningful for all. For more information about the Webb County Heritage Foundation and its programs, visit webbheritage.org or find them on social media @webbheritage

The Laredo Cultural District’s (LCD) upcoming Concierto en El Jardin – Bolero Jazz Bajo La Luna Llena and the art exhibit of Bethany House residents is set for April 1 at 7:30 p.m. at Casa Ortiz (915 Zaragoza).

The outdoor Lunada concert features Esther Tovar, la dama del bolero, accompanied by Los Jazzdelics. Members of Los Jazzdelics are Ric Cortez, Bobby López, Luis Angel Pérez, Carlos Morales, and José Luis Vara III.

The art exhibit, which is made possible by a collaboration of the LCD with the Texas Commission on the Arts, features the art of Bethany House residents who have participated in LCD workshops that began in January with Laredo artist Christina Zorilla Speer as instructor.

The artwork of eight men who reside at Bethany House debuted at Casa Ortiz at the February Caminarte event. Thirteen women who participated in the March workshop for Bethany House residents will exhibit their work April 1. An April workshop of family art will correspond to a May exhibit.

“We are fortunate to have this relationship with Bethany House that presents the art and narratives of its residents,” noted LCD creative manager and director Jorge Santana. 

“Esther Tovar’s performance is the first of the 2026 Garden Series. Visitors will enjoy the full moon evening in the beautiful, recently restored gardens of Casa Ortiz,”, “The public is invited to this free concert that promises to be a magical night downtown at historic Casa Ortiz, which will mark its 200-year milestone in 2030,” he added.