For our usual biweekly Wednesday meeting at a North Laredo pizzeria, artist Jorge Javer López and I sit off in a corner — “so the God-fearing people don’t have to listen to us,” López joked. I told him to ignore the recorder, and we began. 

López has painted on the border for nearly three decades. “I’m Mexican American … but my religion is art,” he said. 

From his early Cyst series to his most recent show at Casa Daphne, The Price of Admission, he focuses on mutli-limbed, cyst-plagued figures frozen in static motion. His figures and their wens are inspired by a multitude of sources — Japanese color theory; the works of Yayoi Kusama; the indigenous works of the Mayans, Aztecs, Africans, Egyptians, and Indonesians; and the sun-weathered textures of South Texas. His works are haunting in unapologetic depictions of humanity’s fretful place in the world. 

Despite his talent, he is confused why people buy his work. “I don’t see it hanging in someone’s living room,” he said, laughing.

For all of his self-criticisms, López has been a steady figure in the Laredo art scene. 

He discovered art with a group of emerging local artists – Alex Chapa, Eduardo García, and Bruno Rendon. Rendon and López traveled to Nuevo Laredo daily to study under Julio Ortega, a furniture maker and relief artist. The entire group participated in an art exhibition in Nuevo Laredo’s Casa de la Cultura in 1999. 

He recalled a pivotal moment with Ortega. López’s work at the time explored Jungian and Freudian imagery, but audiences focused so heavily on the sexuality in his works that López felt dejected. Ortega offered simple counsel with, “Is it coming from you? Is it real? Then it’s art, because it is you.” 

López thereafter gained “blind confidence” in his work.

His influences weren’t just from el otro lado. His other mentor was Chapa’s father, Dionisio, a painter, sculptor, craftsman, and historian who instilled in López and his friends the importance of art education. He exposed them to Latin American music, lectured on history and politics, and emphasized the connection between world events and art. 

“Art is a sacred thing,” Chapa told them. “Don’t treat it like it’s nothing.” 

Both mentors advocated that the young artists recognize their integral part of society by striving for continued dedication and honesty in their work, advising that the medium didn’t matter as much as the artist’s tenacity. They reminded the young men that they were lucky to find friendship in each other, relationships that pushed their artistic abilities. 

Eduardo García and his former partner would later open Sound, an experimental art space in Laredo. Graphic designer Alex Rodriguez was also an intricate part of Sound. While García ran the frame shop, Rodriguez and López often collaborated — López designing shirts and buttons and Rodriguez making them.  

The first artists at Sound were García’s contacts from Austin, but eventually the exhibits featured Laredo artists. López’s friends García and Chapa moved to Austin and Rendon to study in San Francisco. López and artist Poncho Santos kept the gallery afloat for over a year. 

Without the support of his friends, López found difficulties with his own art. Coupled with the death of Julio Ortega, he struggled. 

Of the nine years he stopped painting, López said it felt like it was but a year. Without the collaboration and the support of his friends, he felt his work lacked motivation and direction. 

Tragedy returned him to painting. A week before a beloved tia died, she called López during his “sabbatical from humanity” and asked why he stopped painting. As he tried to explain, she told him, “Mijo, it’s what you do.” 

“I started again the next day,” he said, adding “Someone recently asked if returning to art was difficult, or was it like riding a bike. It was more like going to bat after a long time. It took a while to get my swing back.”

His return was met with criticism about similarities to previous works. He likened his return to “picking up a book where I left off.”

The focus of his latest works returned to his “cave-painting style,” beasts, dog-like figures with human teeth, many mouths, and many legs — all meant to have more universal impact.

López said his beasts are symbols of anxieties that follow people like dogs — “guilt and remorse and anything that follows us and weighs us down.”

 Many of these works were on exhibit in the recent The Price of Admission. While his own projects remain a priority, López said he wants to foster the growth of the next generation of South Texas artists.

He said he worries about the art scene’s fractured nature. “There should be a coalition of artists by artists,” he said. “A place where representatives of all artistic mediums can meet to find common ground. This coalition should be built on the principles of accountability,” he said, adding that honesty and integrity expand artistic knowledge, no matter the medium.

“We must stop being accomplices to our own shortcomings,” he said, adding, “Artists are minorities and need to forge connections and networks among their artistic peers.” 

According to López, there is no other way to become the foundations and springboards for emerging artists. He is careful to say he has no definitive answers, only ideas. 

(Mario E. Martinez is a novelist and short story writer from Laredo, Texas. He is the author of Ashtree, NEO-Laredo, and The Chickens That Are Not Her Chickens. To find more of his work, go to marioemartinez.squarespace.com/)

At Laredo College’s Fall 2025 Commencement, the student respondent felt right at home  delivering an inspiring speech to his graduating class, celebrating with them two years of hard work and achievement. 

The story of Jack Keefer, 71, is one of resilience, reinvention, and an insatiable love for learning. The Minnesota native and U.S. Army veteran graduated with an Associate of Arts degree. His selection as student commencement speaker reflects not only his academic success, but also his vibrant presence on campus. His age has never been a deterrent. In fact, it underscores his message that college is for everyone.

Keefer’s journey spans decades and countries. Born in Iowa and raised in Minnesota, he left home at 16, joined the Army at 17 and spent years traveling and working in construction across the country. Later, life took him to Mexico, where he married and built a career teaching English, eventually becoming the school’s director despite not having a college degree. He continued teaching privately before turning to higher education through online classes. 

He eventually found his home in Laredo, and with it, a new purpose. His English Composition class at Laredo College sparked a passion that changed everything. “I think I might actually have some talent for writing,” he said. That realization led him to an immersion in literature and language, parsing through texts, and penning essays that reflect a thoughtful, playful mind. Readers of his work will find sentences that envelop them, drawing them into a grammatically impeccable imaginary journey embellished with descriptive language.

“Tree leaves had prematurely begun their perennial multicolor transformation. Soon all the foliage would be shed until spring. Spectacular yellow sunlight bathed a sea of sky so hypnotically periwinkle that, if you had stared at it too long, you might have felt yourself rising to swim in the serene blue,” he writes in one of his essays. 

His talent for words and his love for learning were evident from his very first day at LC, according to English professor, Amelia Arguijo, who praised him for his enthusiastic participation in classroom discussions. “His eagerness to learn and ask questions encouraged other students to engage, leading to lively discussions. Jack is an outstanding student,” Arguijo said. “He narrates his life experiences in a very unique way – giving each piece of writing his personal touch. He is a natural writer whose personality shines inside and outside of the classroom. Students look for Jack not only for academic guidance and tutoring, but also for everyday advice. They look up to him. He is a great role model.” 

Keefer’s commitment to helping others is evident. He had business cards printed and a shirt that read, “Hi, I’m Jack. I’m a student at Laredo College.” He was hired as a part-time Language Arts tutor, formalizing his love for teaching and helping fellow students. Keefer was actively involved with various student organizations such as Phi Theta Kappa and IMPACT Student Organization. 

A first-generation college student, he is the quintessential LC student and an overachieving learner with an unending respect for education and the people who make it possible. “When I came here, I was so impressed and so amazed by all the great people and so many opportunities available here, like the workshops offered by CLASS and other departments,” he said. 

Through the power of the written word, Keefer has found a way to create entire new universes filled with opportunities, challenges, and experiences. His essays mirror his own way with words — eloquent, immersive, and larger-than-life. At the end of the day, he’s just Jack, a Laredo College student seeking a meaningful way to fulfill one of his deepest desires: to get a college education and be an outstanding student. As he graduates, one thing remains certain: Laredo College could not have a greater supporter or spokesperson than Jack Keefer. 

His passion for learning and love for Laredo College are undeniable, and his talent as a writer unmistakable. He will continue his studies at Laredo College in the spring, pursuing a Bachelor of Applied Science in Organizational Leadership, proving that his journey is far from over. 

Keefer’s essays and other written work are at go.laredo.edu/Jack.

(Joana Santillana is Director of Community and Media Relations at Laredo College. A proud product of Los Dos Laredos, Joana has a deep passion for news, storytelling, and literature. When she’s not spending time with loved ones or sharing the great things happening at LC, you’ll find her immersed in fantasy and thriller novels.)

The white SUV that I happened to be driving into downtown Laredo on a cold, Sunday night hummed with its heater on with a low, whooshing sound. The highway had some traffic with most lanes clear.  

As I pulled into downtown, no one seemed to be there. Buildings hid their age in the darkness. Pockets of dull scattered light emanated from the gas station and the Tornado bus depot with a few people milling about.  

 Three commercial banks provided large, empty parking lots and bright lights. Further into downtown, Jarvis Plaza, and the Greyhound bus station, some wandering eyes might see figures in the shadows or an older man sitting on a park bench by himself in the forty-degree weather with a crisp, cutting breeze.

As an old city, by American standards, why should we care about artists and art in our community? Can public art turn the lights on for Laredo’s downtown? Can it breathe life back into a forgotten place that we hold dear deep in our hearts? Can art give a sense of place, of community, of comfort and home – hope and joy and inspiration for those who need it when they walk alone on the streets of Laredo? 

“Music washes away from the soul, the dust of everyday life,” wrote Berthold Auerbach. Maybe, we can interpret Berthold’s quote that art can serve as a spiritual therapy. And maybe we can further interpret and analogize that art can be a representation of a person, of a community, of the soul of the city: our hopes, our dreams, and our unique realities. And through this could reveal in some ways who we are as a place and celebrate why we call this place our home — with all the love, complications, and the dust of everyday life that we may feel.  

This September and October the Laredo Center for the Arts welcomed over a thousand students from LISD, UISD, St. Augustine, United Day School, and Laredo College to participate in the Don Quixote exhibit.  Students toured the exhibit of enlarged engravings, saw paintings and sculptures by local artists who were inspired by Don Quixote, watched a video about the life of Miguel Cervantes, checked out period costumes, saw a massive and incredible mural of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza gazing towards the windmills with an actual windmill constructed by hand in the foreground, and participated in the modern printing process to learn about how these images were sketched, engraved, and imprinted.  

The takeaway was not just about art. Their amazing teachers, administrators, and everyone involved with the Laredo Center of the Arts cared about them and wanted to create a special experience. In addition, one artist, who submitted a sculpture, shared that his Don Quixote sculpture was made 50 years ago and thought one day there might be an exhibit of Don Quixote in Laredo – incredible!

We have artists across every part of our City and County from Canta Ranas, Hillside, Río Bravo, El Cenizo, Mines Road area, North Laredo, Los Presidentes — everywhere.  As Frida Khalo stated, “Feet, what do I need you for when I have wings to fly?”

You can feel the heartbeat of art in our city gently beating and at times pounding with exuberance through the exhibits, programming and productions of Daphne Art Foundation, Laredo Center for the Arts, Laredo Little Theater, the Laredo Theater Guild International, Casa Ortiz, the Laredo Film Society, the music being produced out of our educational institutions, and with print making by Eric Avery and the greater art community.  

I recently participated in an art exhibit and one of the best parties and best kept secrets in town at Casa Daphne, which had incredible musicians and DJs playing. 

One of the most fun events held monthly is CaminArte Laredo, an art walk into different buildings downtown to see various art exhibits while musicians jam out with their music reverberating across downtown. It’s a glorious experience. One person I spoke with posited, “What if this was every day in downtown? What would that feel like?” 

When you walk through Aldo Tatangelo Walkway downtown and see the mural by Abel “El Picasso” Gonzalez, it feels absolutely magical. You are transported into something different, more alive. We need more of this in downtown and across our city.

All of this is to say that I believe in the transformative power of art for good. We live in a harsh, brutal world with so much cruelty, when we think about some of the things happening on our little blue planet all alone somewhere in the universe. Then, thinking about what humans to do to other humans can be paralyzing, and yet there is so much good and kindness and love in our world. Art strives to paint in all its iterations and variations the full human experience.  

Quoting Frida Khalo again, “I paint flowers so they will not die.”  This reminds me of the fragility and bitterness of life as well as the word agape, a Greek word translated by William Tyndale in the New Testament as the idea of sacrificial, unconditional love. Maybe art and public art can be a representation of agape, of love, of the soul of our city — of a kinder world that brings people together.  

My hope, if I can be so daring, is that you can join me in advocating for public art, especially downtown, and support the arts in Laredo.

(Cliffe Killam, an active community civic and business leader, is passionate about giving back to Laredo and South Texas through leadership that generates positive, high impact outcomes. He believes the arts can develop creative and critical thinking for future artists and leaders. He has a deep commitment to improving Laredo and Webb County through education, healthcare, economic development, and downtown Laredo.)

I dreamed of this journey to Candela long before it began. 

For years, I’ve longed for a deeper connection to my roots in Northern Mexico. What better way to do this than through my work as a visual artist? This project grew legs the second my proposal was selected by Daphne Art Foundation, and as a newly named artist-in-residence, I was excited to embark upon my journey. The goal of my project titled, Cognizant Distance, was to trace my paternal lineage from my home in San Antonio to my birthplace of Laredo, ultimately to Candela, Coahuila, Mexico, my ancestral home. In this work, I will honor my family’s origins in Mexico and shine a light on our shared regional and cultural heritage.

 After many weeks of work, it was time to see Candela first-hand. Fellow artist, Karla Kopalli, in an abundance of care for my safety, contacted the local government in Coahuila and alerted them to my plans. Pamela Cortez, the Secretary of Culture in Candela, upon learning about my project and my family’s origins there, agreed to receive us in the main plaza as we arrived. With great anticipation, I drove into Mexico via the Camino Colombia Solidarity Bridge with my father by my side. 

 All my life, Candela had existed only in my dreams. I had known it only through stories, which were the stuff of folklore. The stories painted the town as a place bathed in sunlight, a place of eternal fecundity on the foothills of a mesa, fresh water flowing at the kind mercy of the Ojo de Agua. Candela had become my own Macondo, existing in the fringes between magic and reality. 

My eyes were wide as we turned off the two-lane highway surrounded by mesquites and nopales, the familiar brush country landscape. I saw the hazy Mesa de los Cartujanos, deep-purple like a too-ripe plum, squatting low on the horizon, beckoning us beyond the abandoned stalwart white train station.  

Once within the town of Candela, it hit me: I could see my great, great, great grandmother Rosalia Perales (my family’s link to our indigenous roots) sitting tall for a family portrait. I could see my grandmother in the vibrant fruit market in the plaza or floating on her back in the healing waters of Candela. I felt at peace and at home.

Candela surpassed my dreams of it. Pamela ushered us through a receiving line of Matachines about to begin their performance. As they danced, my heartbeat seemed to sync with their persistent drumbeat. 

We toured the city’s landmarks, cooled off at theOjo de Agua, and tasted the local cuisine. I am beyond thankful for those experiences, seeing the lifestyle enjoyed by the locals who are lovingly nicknamed the “Tortugas.”

 The images I accumulated during this visit have informed my subsequent paintings and monoprints, all of which will be exhibited in my upcoming solo exhibition, Cognizant Distance, at the San Antonio Central Library Gallery on March 7, 2026. I invite you to visit and see my work, a heartfelt pictorial road trip spanning from San Antonio to Laredo and ending where it all began, in Candela. 

I have since been invited by the City of Candela to have a solo exhibition there. Words fail me trying to describe the honor that is for me. My show will be the first art exhibit in the town’s history, tentatively scheduled for November 2026. 

 I understand, now, why I dreamed of this journey. Candela is in the fiber of me, and like the beat of the Matachines’ drum, it pulses through me. I close my eyes, and can hear it. I put my hand on my heart and can feel it.

It was November 2021 when I crossed from Nuevo Laredo to Laredo for the first time after the pandemic. I had the simple intention of buying Christmas gifts, but inspired by my friend Keyla, who frequently posts about her outings within the regional art scene, I decided to visit the Laredo Center for the Arts where I found a varied exhibition of oil paintings, drawings, and mixed media.

I was standing before one of the mixed-media works on a back white wall when one of the associates approached me, telling me, “Hey, I guess you got here early. The opening is at 7 p.m.” I went back to my shopping list and returned at 7. A full celebration was on by then, the center resonating with the sounds of Mariachi and joy in honor of the homecoming of artist César Martinez.

It was the second show of the Laredo Center for the Arts’ Art Acquisition Program, which has the vision of creating the first Public Contemporary Art Collection for the Laredo community. 

Since then, we’ve experienced art that before we could only have seen by visiting museums or galleries in San Antonio, Austin, or Houston. We have seen the exhibitions of many Laredoans who are breaking ground elsewhere, such as Angelica Raquel and Juan Juárez, and works by artists collected by institutions like the Smithsonian, including that of Luis Guerra, Eric Avery, and Cruz Ortiz, alongside his lifetime partner, Olivia.

It was divine coincidence that I was there that night, and since then I’ve always been there — not only at the Center, but also at exhibitions at Daphne Art Foundation’s Casa Daphne, Casa Ortiz, and our beloved, now-gone Gallery 201.

Four years have passed since that November day. As the Center has become a space where we gather to experience and discuss remarkable artwork, we cannot speak of the evolution of art in Laredo without acknowledging the professionalization of artists through the efforts of Daphne Art Foundation. Through its Cultivarte Artists-in-Residence (AiR) program, the Foundation has supported more than thirty artists with a place to develop their practice, exhibit their work, and receive the guidance and mentorship so essential in the early years of an artistic career.

Another important contribution to the arts is the advent of this very magazine, Tragaluz, A Borderland Journal of Arts and Culture, another program of Daphne Art Foundation. We, its staff and writers, document the continuing growth of the arts in and around our community.

Writers play a significant role in the ecosystem of an arts community. The pages of Tragaluz celebrate the arts, informing and offering insight into the inspiration, drive, and method of those who create. The quarterly publication serves as a bridge between artists, artwork, and audiences — documenting in the present tense the pulse of a community creating with both joy and resilience.

A colleague recently told me that we, as writers, “need to stay close, to share, to dialogue, to gather, and to challenge our ideas.”

It is also important to have safe “third spaces” where we can gather and discuss. The first place is your home; the second is your workplace, and the third is the communal places where we meet to talk, exchange, and simply be ourselves.

At the Laredo Center for the Arts, every Thursday evening there’s a program called Third Space, a dynamic gathering where artists and creatives come together to work on their practice. And spaces like Los Olvidados Coffee Shoppe and Gallery and Jardín Contreras have become those third spaces for many of us. These spots on which local art graces their walls are where we run into after an art opening or a community screening, where we debrief and keep the conversation going. 

San Antonio has varied examples of third spaces, among them Liberty Bar, Dwight Hobart’s bohemian dream, a restaurant inside a large pink church-like building on South Alamo Street in the vibrant, artsy historic King William District. Hobart recently launched the Liberty Bar Arts Department with an exhibition by artist Daniel Rios Rodriguez, a show that speaks to the forty-year legacy of the space and dialogues with his newly inaugurated solo exhibition at Ruby City.

An example of such a space locally is Lolita’s Bistro on McPherson, which reserves a wall featuring the work of Laredo artists. The work there is carefully curated by Gayle Aker-Rodriguez whose Gallery 201 opened its doors downtown to artists for twenty years. 

Other restaurant and café owners can also create collaborations with artists by crafting immersive art exhibits by which their patrons can enjoy a meal, a drink, or an evening of entertainment while experiencing local art.

There is much to come, and so much still to do to foster, encourage, fund, and engender the continued growth of the arts. I encourage my fellow creatives to keep the momentum going. Read. Discuss. Show up. Be disciplined in your practice. Partner with fellow artists and seek the vision of mentors who have been here far longer than we have. Be humble enough to grow, to improve, to receive feedback.

I could never have imagined living times like these on the borderlands. I can’t help but feel proud to be part of this blooming art community. It has been the honor of my life to get to know the artists and the spaces, and the incredible people fighting for this beloved land.

(Neo Laredense Seyde García is a human resources professional in international trade and logistics. She lends her support to the arts in both Laredos in numerous ways, among them by writing about exhibits and artists. She can be reached at seydeg91@gmail.com.)

What art does is far more interesting than what art is. While revisiting Amalia Mesa-Bains’s seminal essay, Domesticana: The Sensibility of Chicana Rasquachismo, highlighting the importance of Chicana creativity, often in the home, seen most clearly in manifestations like altars, it occurred to me that art history follows a similar path; “What art history does is far more interesting than what art history is.” 

This art history’s doing began with a contemplative revisit to the text; one I had not read in several years. Since that last reading, Chicana/o/x art history had taken me to the Mexic-Arte Museum in Austin as Curator of Exhibitions and Director of Programs and then to Los Angeles as Curator of Collections for the AltaMed Art Collection; a collection focused on Chicana/o/x art and finally, back to San Antonio, where I first met Chicana/o/x art. Reading the essay again was like returning home after being away for many years; reflecting on how everything is the same and nothing is. 

My recent reading of the text was deeper, wider, and more nuanced. Since my last reading, how many Chicana artworks had I studied, curated, and written about? How much time and effort had I dedicated to everyday, domestic, cultural, spiritual, and familial objects; those like the ones that Mesa-Bains uplifts in her essay?

The doing of this art history continued with it as a catalyst for community building. This rereading was done to prepare for the La Lucha Sigue Chicana/o/x Art History Book Club, a group that discusses Chicana/o/x art history. During this month’s (November 2025) discussion, five people came together, sharing knowledge, anecdotes, laughs, and confidences, informed by Domesticana: The Sensibility of Chicana Rasquachismo. Our discussion ranged from how it builds on the work of Tomás Ybarra-Frausto’s Rasquachismo: A Chicano Sensibility, to how the text fits into modern understandings of creativity, to how our lives are reflected in its words. What was clear throughout the discussion was that Mesa-Bains’s heightened importance on Chicana creativity, domestic space, spiritual preparations, cultural continuity, and familial histories rings true as vital to where we’ve come from and who we are. 

Finally, the doing of this art history came with a visit with my mother to Centro de Artes Gallery to see the exhibition, Madre Land: South Texas Memory & the Art of Making Home. On the advice of a book club member, I visited the gallery, because the exhibition is grounded In the work of Amalia Mesa-Bains, Tomás Ybarra-Frausto, and Amelia Malagamba-Ansótegui. This is an exhibition that, “honor[s] domestic aesthetics, rasquache sensibility, ancestral healing, and natural world/environmental motifs.”

My mother, who has not studied Chicana/o/x art history was delighted by the exhibition, finding reminders of her childhood throughout the gallery. The joy my mother radiated is something I was glad to share with her and will not soon forget.

Art history is a living thing. We take it with us as we move through time and space. It affects how we interact, not only with texts, but with art, exhibitions, and one another. This text, by Amalia Mesa-Bains, is a special one for me, my friends, and family and one that I look forward to returning to in reading, writing about, experiencing, and sharing.

(Isabel Alexander Servantez III is a San Antonio born art historian, curator, and artist. He earned his B.A. in art history at UT-San Antonio and an M.A. in art history at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His research, writing, and curatorial focus is Chicana/o/x art and Latina/o/x art. In his free time, he enjoys spending time with friends and family, and attending San Antonio Missions baseball games in the summer.)

I met Héctor Romero-Lecanda in 2008 on my first day working at Estación Palabra in Nuevo Laredo, a day that coincided with his birthday. I learned that day how much he loves his city and the borderlands.

I remember that time as a golden age for the arts in Nuevo Laredo – a vibrant, arts community driven by creativity, support, and camaraderie. At that time Romero-Lecanda already had a lengthy trajectory in arts and culture, having founded the nonprofit Cultura Fronteriza A.C. in 1989. From 2008 to 2010 he served as Director de Arte y Cultura in Nuevo Laredo, leading the conceptual design and direction of key cultural spaces like Museo Reyes Meza and Centro Regional de Promoción de la Literatura.

After his work at the Instituto Tamaulipeco para la Cultura y las Artes (ITCA), he began collaborating with Mexico’s highest cultural institution, serving as Deputy Director of the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes (INBA) in Mexico City.

Romero-Lecanda returned to his beloved ITCA, where he now leads and drives programs that foster community engagement. He has hosted the Stereo 91 radio show, Espacio Alternativo, for the last 15 years, alongside cultural promoter, gallerist, and curator Rosa del Carmen Contreras.

He shares his thoughts here on what makes art and cultural programs sustainable.

Seyde García (SG): In the 1980s and 90s there was an exciting art community in Nuevo Laredo. You founded Cultura Fronteriza AC in 1989. There was the craft magazine Cariátides, directed by Paloma Bello. Most of the efforts that favored art and culture then originated in civic and non-governmental initiatives. Can you tell me about the state of the arts at that time?

Héctor Romero-Lecanda (HRL): At that time, important cultural activities were generated by civic society rather than by public institutions. These cultural groups were in charge of the activities, and the municipal government, through the Casa de la Cultura was dedicated to artistic training. There were some groups such as Academia de Arte y Literatura or El Taller de Arte Renacimiento dedicated to holding poetry conferences or meetings. It was the time when the painters’ collectives began. These groups nurtured the cultural activity in the Casa de la Cultura.

Cultura Fronteriza was born in 1989 to foster cultural collaboration between Laredo and Nuevo Laredo, and to preserve the culture, architecture, and heritage of the border region. Festivals and meetings were held between the two cities in joint projects that included artists from both cities and awards for heritage preservation. 

Cultura Fronteriza fostered many relationships between artists, promoters, and historians from both Laredos. At that time the Festival Internacional de la Raza began, a project of the Mexican government through the Colegio de la Frontera Norte and CONACULTA based in Tijuana and Juárez. The association coordinated the Festival at headquarters in Nuevo Laredo and encouraged it to be held in other cities on the border. Finally it was called the Festival de la Frontera, which promoted the culture of Mexicans and Mexican-Americans. That festival is sorely needed!

SG: What were the main challenges and successes during your tenure as Director de Arte y Cultura in Nuevo Laredo in the period 2008-2010?

HRL: The main challenge was to stop seeing culture as an accessory and the department as the organizer of events. The challenge was to build cultural policies, create processes for better opportunities for artistic development, foster the professionalization of creators, and to restructure art spaces and give them purpose.

Museo Reyes Meza, Estación Palabra, Centro Regional de Promoción de Literatura, and Maquila Creativa – a space for arts and crafts – were established. There was investment in the training of cultural promoters and creating the first community cultural collective in Tamaulipas.

SG: What is the responsibility of government in matters of art and culture?

HRL: It is the government’s obligation to guarantee the human right to culture. That we can all participate freely in cultural life and the arts, that is their greatest responsibility. That is why the government (federal, state and municipal) has to invest in artistic training and professionalization by providing fellowships for opportunities for cultural development and the preservation of history, and developing cultural and artistic practices as tools to build community and citizenship. This task is not exclusive to government. It is also the work of universities, companies through social responsibility programs, and society itself. There is a big difference between promoting economic stimulus for the arts, as in the United States, and cultural development as a public policy as it is in Mexico.

SG: What would be the ideal state of the arts in Los Dos Laredos?

HRL: Nuevo Laredo has a great cultural infrastructure, and Laredo encourages artistic training and professionalization. They would have to complement each other to make collaborative agreements and exchanges, to create mechanisms so that artists, creators, and promoters from Laredo have confidence in crossing into Nuevo Laredo.

SG: As artists, cultural promoters, civic associations, and government entities, how do we move toward that ideal state?

HRL: I think about building processes, not events – processes that allow sustainable development and promote the exchange of knowledge and experiences to work collectively. We need to train and continue working so that culture continues to be the axis of transformation.

Jorge Santana (JS): ¿Cuál es tu conexión con Nuevo Laredo? 

Felipe Flores Montemayor (FFM):  Mi conexión con Nuevo Laredo es su gente. A pesar de qué he trabajado en México DF. y Monterrey, siempre mi gente me hace regresar. Esa conexión es fuerte por el amor que le tengo a mi ciudad y a mi gente.

JS: ¿Desde cuándo te empezaste a involucraren el arte o como promotor cultural?

FFM:  Desde muy joven sentí ese vínculo por el arte. Mi tía Beatriz Flores de Jaimes fue la causante de este amor por el arte. Ella era una gran pianista y me llevaba a recorrer México y sus museos. Posteriormente seguí sus pasos llevando a mis sobrinos a todas las diferentes manifestaciones del arte involucrándolos también. 

En Octubre me visitaba la Ciudad de México en su temporada de ópera y visitaba museos y galerías. Tuve la oportunidad de conocer a grandes artistas como a Carla Jean Rippey Wright, de quien adquirí varios grabados al igual de José Luis Cuevas, Jan Hendrix, Teodulo Rómulo, Lucia Amaya y otros tantos más. Posteriormente fui invitado a ser Jefe del Museo Reyes Meza en donde inicia mi promoción cultural. 

Luego fui invitado a ser presidente del Grupo de Artistas Plásticos “Los Siete “. También fui invitado a ser miembro del Patronato Cultural de Nuevo Laredo. En el inicio de la administración del Lic. Carlos Canturosas Villarreal, fui nombrado Presidente del Patronato Cultural de Nuevo Laredo. Y he continuado posteriormente en dos ocasiones como Director de Arte y Cultura, Director de Turismo, Coordinador de Bibliotecas y Coordinador del Centro Cultural.

JS: ¿Cuál ha sido tu mayor satisfacción como promotor cultural?

FFM: Haber logrado de la mano de mi gran amiga Dana Vázquez, llevar a su mayor esplendor a la Compañía de Danza de Nuevo Laredo. Llevando 10 niñas de escasos recursos a concursar a Córdova Veracruz y posteriormente al Youth American Grand Pix en la ciudad de Nueva York. Y ver que hoy muchas de esas niñas y niños ya están teniendo grandes logros en el mundo de la danza.

JS: Has tenido varias veces el puesto de director de Cultura, platícanos tu camino

FFM: He sido Director de Cultura en dos ocasiones. En esta segunda oportunidad me ha tocado ver un crecimiento de artistas tanto en la música, el canto, el teatro y en la plástica que me llena de mucha satisfacción. Cada vez encontramos grandes talentos en nuestra ciudad. Y mi labor es gestionar las cosas para que esos nuevos talentos consigan sus metas.

JS: ¿A qué se debe el éxito que tienes como Director de Cultura?

FFM: Se hace un trabajo que beneficia a la gente, y son ellos quienes deciden si se convertirá en exitoso. Nosotros hacemos nuestro trabajo de la mejor manera tratando siempre de apoyarlos en todo.

JS: ¿Qué piensas son los retos que enfrentas para realizar tu trabajo?

FFM: Diariamente es un constante reto, pero nos enfocamos en la meta para superar ese reto día con día.

JS: ¿Cómo ves a Nuevo Laredo en temas de cultura?

FFM: Hay una gran oferta cultural, ya que contamos con muchos espacios para apoyar a los artistas. Tales como casas de cultura, contamos con 2 museos, el de Historia Natural y el Reyes Meza y galerías de arte. Edificios históricamente importantes como la Antigua Aduana que cuenta con una galería y una sala de conciertos. 

Otro edificio es Estación Palabra con una galería y dedicada a la promoción de las letras. El archivo Histórico. Contamos con cuatro teatros, teatro Principal del Centro Cultural, Teatro Experimental, Teatro Adolfo López Mateos, Teatro Lucio Blanco. Y hoy tuvimos la gran fortuna de que la alcaldesa Carmen Lilia Canturosas Villarreal inaugurara un nuevo foro al aire libre en el Parque Viveros para uso de los artistas de toda la ciudad, contamos con el Festival Internacional en la Costa del Seno Mexicano, muchas plazas públicas donde ellos puedan mostrar su talento.

JS: ¿Qué opinas del movimiento cultural en Laredo Texas?

FFM: Sociedad Civil. Prueba de eso es la gran labor que hace la directiva de Daphne Art Foundation a cargo de Alyssa Cigarroa, Linda LaMantia y Mary Lamar Leyendecker. Y también el Centro de las Artes de Laredo, Casa Ortiz, Museo del Rio Grande, Distrito Cultural de Laredo y la Comisión Histórica del Condado de Webb. 

JS: ¿Qué es lo que debe de saber Laredo Texas de Nuevo Laredo en el tema cultural?

FFM:  Creo que están haciendo una gran labor en la promoción del arte y la cultura. Cada vez la calidad del trabajo que se presenta va superando las expectativas. Tienen todo para hacer un gran trabajo.

JS: Nuevo Laredo es un referente en el tema de cultura, cómo lo ves en 5 o 10 años.

FFM: Yo lo veo superando todas las expectativas. Ya que por la infraestructura con la que contamos podemos albergar a grandes artistas y espectáculos de primer nivel, un ejemplo en nuestros escenarios hemos tenido al ballet Bolshoi de Rusia, al maestro Raúl DiBlasio,  los tres tenores Carrera, Plácido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti, Ballet de Amalia Hernández, Obras de Salvador Dalí, Jorge Marín, Pedro Friedeberg, y próximamente este 03 de Octubre a la estrella de Broadway Bianca Marroquín. Con todo esto hace que nuestros artistas sean cada vez más mejores. Veo un futuro brillante en todas las expresiones artísticas. 

JS: Para finalizar platícanos los proyectos que tiene en puerta incluyendo alguna colaboración con Laredo Texas.

FFM: Siempre en el mes de Noviembre montamos la exposición “La Muerte Desmitificada, que fue solicitada por Texas A&M Intencional. Dónde los artistas dan rienda suelta a su creatividad en cráneos de unicel. También a través del Distrito Cultural de Laredo nos invita el día 5 de Diciembre con un concierto navideño de la Centenaria Banda Municipal. Y Proyectos viene la apertura de un Museo de Ciencia y Tecnología en el Centro de la ciudad a un lado de la Presidencia municipal. Múltiples exposiciones en el Museo Reyes Meza y las galerías con las que contamos. E invitamos a la comunidad de Laredo que nos acompañen del 3 al 12 de Octubre. Al magnífico Festival en la Costa del Seno Mexicano con una gran programación artística.

A blue and red accordion splayed open above the words, “En Vivo y A Todo Color Laredo.” I found the flyer at a local cafe, advertising a new art exhibit by Rio Grande Valley native Cande Aguilar. Another postcard on the board showed the unmistakable painting Blue Bato con Sunglasses by César A. Martinez. 

In the Fall of 2022 I was visiting Laredo from Austin for what was supposed to be an unremarkable weekend with family. In my downtime, I stopped at the Border Heritage Museum to check out an exhibit on Cantinflas, featuring old movie posters of the iconic Mexican caricature.

Then I walked to the Laredo Center for the Arts (LCA) for Cande’s barrioPop exhibit, which in part was a tribute to conjunto musician Gilberto Perez Sr., the artist’s padrino. 

A long mural on a curved panel offered surreal glimpses of the life on the streets many of us grew up with: a stand advertising “Ricos Elotes,” followed by a line of characters ranging from the devil to El Chavo del Ocho waiting to enter a club named “Conjunto.”  

I had unfortunately missed the César A. Martinez exhibit, which happened to be the first in a series of exhibits that have brought new life and energy to Laredo’s arts scene. 

Both Aguilar and Martinez are pillars of the Chicano arts community. I would later see more of their work in a visit to Cheech Marin’s Center for Chicano Art in Riverside, California. Though the subject matter of their work aligns with the art and culture of South Texas, their work seemed somewhat out of place there. After all, Laredo had never fully embraced Chicanismo like other parts of South Texas. We were a whole other beast, the Río Grande Valley’s rebellious younger primo.

Historically, Laredo has been culturally isolated despite the near constant movement of people and commerce from across the globe through this port city. In addition to our personal conflict with Chicanismo, our traditions like the George Washington’s Birthday Celebration are headscratchers to most outsiders and many of our own. Our top-notch sense of humor thrives only within county limits and falls flat as you move farther out of our radius. 

Something had changed in the 2010s while I was away working in Houston and then Austin. I did not quite grasp it at the time that I visited barrioPop, but what I had experienced at LCA represented a sea change in the Laredo creative community that would have ripple effects through downtown and the city at large. 

As I continued meeting people in Laredo’s arts space, I realized I was not entirely correct that Laredo’s creative scene was anything new. This city’s unique history has always borne fascinating creatives, and interesting things had been going on in the arts for a very long time. After all, this was the headquarters of Laredo’s iconic feminist journalist Jovita Idar, who in her family’s newspaper, La Crónica, focused her writing on civil rights, the education of Mexican-American children, and women’s suffrage. Hers was a voice of protest against racism and lynchings. In her circle were intellectuals and revolutionaries who passed through our port to and from the Mexican Revolution. 

The boom of tourism to Nuevo Laredo drew all kinds of wildcards. The 1960’s brought hippies and rock stars and Laredo’s own brief psychedelic scene centered around the La Paz complex downtown. But like the river that cuts through us, these people and ideas have been fluid and fleeting, flowing through us to provide brief nourishment as they flee to greener pastures. 

The hardening of the border since 9/11 and then through consecutive migration crises stifled much of this flow, but it had the result of causing us to look inward instead of out. Without our cultural outlet across, new movements and creatives sprung up en este lado from the grassroots. The Laredo Center for the Arts, the city’s arts powerhouse, seized the moment with its Arts Acquisition Program and associated exhibits that began with the homecoming of César Martinez and has continued nonstop after Cande Aguilar with Ethel Shipton, Jorge Javier López, Angel Cabrales, Eric Avery, Los Outsiders…the list goes on. 

In 2019, newcomer Daphne Art Foundation came to life with a focus on emerging young artists in South Texas. Surrounding the orbit of LCA and Daphne are various smaller spaces like Los Olvidados Coffee Shoppe that give younger creatives spaces that they did not have a few years ago. The result is that more people are staying and building a richer community rather than leaving and never looking back. 

During December 2025 CaminArte, I returned to the LCA to check out the new exhibit by Sarah Fox. Though not from Laredo or the border like many of the other recent hits, you can always tell when somebody should be an honorary Laredoan after a test with our sense of humor. Her provocative, sexually-charged sculptures, puppets, and experimental short films would probably have been unimaginable in Laredo 20 years ago. 

According to a gallery assistant of that era who is now a player in the arts world, exhibits less provocative were rejected in years past. 

Fox’s exhibit visibly wowed anybody who visited, but this was just one stop during CaminArte. On the other pole was Casa Ortiz, which frequently has too many different exhibits and happenings to count. This Saturday, the courtyard was filled with tejano music from the movie Chulas Fronteras, co-hosted by the Laredo Film Society (LFS).

The heart of CaminArte beats under the umbrella of the Laredo Cultural District, formed in 2021. Under its helm, the Laredo arts scene just got notice of a game-changing grant from the Mellon Foundation that will fund collaborative activities among the District, the LCA, Daphne, and LFS. 

As we toast a new year of endless possibility, I’m proud to call this place home. 

(Native Laredoan Ryan Cantú has 10 years of experience in civil litigation. He is on the board of the Laredo Film Society, and is currently under contract with Texas Tech University Press for a book about the culinary traditions of South Texas and Northeastern Mexico.)