A Latino Art Exhibit in Querétaro, Mexico Draws Attention to a Shared History

An exhibit of Chicano art, Al Otro Lado del Espejo [The Other Side of the Mirror], opened at the Museo de Arte de Querétaro, Mexico on September 20, 2024.  San Antonio artists Lionel and Kathy Sosa and Museo de Arte de Querétaro Director Antonio Arelle Barquet organized the exhibit.  The exhibition features twenty-three artists from San Antonio, and the organizers plan a reciprocal exhibit of artists from Querétaro.

Elizabeth Rodriguez, “La Mesera.” Photo by Ricardo Romo.

The Museo de Arte de Querétaro is housed in a former Franciscan monastery that dates from the mid-17th century.   In 1689, Franciscan missionaries trained at the Colegio de Santa Cruz in Querétaro began traveling to Tejas [the original name of the northern province]  with assignments to accompany soldiers to East Texas to establish Spain’s first missions and presidios north of the Rio Grande. When the East Texas missions failed, the Franciscans joined Spanish soldiers in founding the San Antonio missions and presidio. Three hundred years later, San Antonio’s five beautiful missions have garnered world recognition. 

There are 26 UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the United States and only one in Texas.  All five San Antonio, Texas missions, including Mission Valero [the Alamo], constitute a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Coahuiltecan [Payaya] Indians built the missions under the supervision of the Franciscan friars from Querétaro beginning in 1718. No other city in North America enjoys the presence of five Spanish missions. The history of this early period is rich and merits discussion. 

Larry Portillo, “Mission Espada.” Photo by Ricardo Romo

 The first governor of Texas, Domingo de Teran, and his Franciscan ecclesiastical aide, Father Damian Manzanet, kept diaries of their expedition to Texas and recorded impressions of the land and rivers from Querétaro to the French Louisiana border. Their tales reveal both great hardships and moments of joy.

Indian guides first brought these explorers and religious entrepreneurs to the heart of Texas in 1718, three hundred and thirty-four years ago.  When they entered the valley of the Payaya tribe near the headwater of the present San Antonio River,  Governor Domingo Teran wrote: “We traveled five leagues over the fine country–broad plains, the most beautiful in New Spain. We camped on the banks of a stream adorned by a great strand of trees…I named it San Antonio de Padua.”   Father Manzanet’s diary stated, “We found at this place the encampment of the Indians of the Payaya tribe. This is a very large tribe, and the country where they live is very fine.” 

Elizabeth Rodriguez, María Félix: “La Doña.” Photo by Ricardo Romo.

To commemorate the shared history of Querétaro and San Antonio,  the City of San Antonio, the Alamo Colleges Foundation, local philanthropists, and corporations assembled a groundbreaking art happening in Querétaro. The exhibit opening included San Antonio Latino artists, scholars, photographers, and ceramists. Presentations by poets, historians, art collectors, and museum directors shared experiences and artistic inspirations with their Mexican counterparts.

The Museo de Arte de Querétaro, located in the heart of the city's colonial zone, hosted the exhibit opening in a restored former convent.  Constructed in 1745, the Museo de Arte building is one of Querétaro’s most breathtaking Baroque buildings. Beyond its magnificent courtyard are salons with a collection of 16th through 18th-century Mexican and European paintings. 

 The Mexican Zona Colonial has a rich history. The 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo which ended the Mexican War was signed in Querétaro.  A quarter century later, Mexican soldiers executed Emperor Maximilian in the Querétaro Plaza de Independencia in 1866.

Elizabeth Rodriguez, “La Lupita.” Photo by Ricardo Romo.

At the entrance of the  Al Otro Lado del Espejo exhibit a gigantic “Lupita” doll welcomes visitors to the splendid museum space. Elizabeth Rodriguez constructed the ten-foot Lupita papier-mâché doll for an earlier Westside San Antonio show dedicated to “Lupitas.”  Inside the exhibit, three large Rodriguez portraits were placed next to each other. The “Mesera” and “La Duena” are especially stunning.  The “Mesera” is a tribute to an ordinary working-class person, in this case, a waitress at the popular Mi Tierra Mexican Restaurant in San Antonio’s Market Square.  The painting titled “La Duena” honors Maria Felix,  Mexico’s most famous movie star of the Epoca de Oro [Golden Age] from the late 1940s and 1950s in Mexican film.

There are twenty-three artists in the  Al Otro Lado del Espejo exhibit including seventeen artists I have covered in previous stories. Those artists I have written about include Ricky Armendariz, Mel Casas, Celeste de Luna, Carolina Flores, Jacinto Guevara, Cesar Martinez, Cristine Noriega, Cruz Ortiz, Larry Portillo, Al Rendon, Chuck Ramirez, Eva Sanchez, Kathy Sosa, Lionel Sosa, Jesse Trevino, Kathy Vargas, and Terry Ybanez. 

Jesse Trevino, “La Fe.” Photo by Ricardo Romo.

I was pleased that Chuck Ramirez’s work and Jesse Trevino's painting were prominently placed in the immediate entrance of the gallery.  Trevino’s “La Fe” [The Faith], a painting of a tattooed hand reaching up to pick an orange, was completed in 1972 during the time he was finishing his studies at San Antonio College [SAC] and starting his classes at Our Lady of the Lake University [OLLU]  in San Antonio. Trevino is one of OLLU’s most prominent graduates, and it was fitting that OLLU’s president Dr. Abel Chavez and his wife Naomi attended the art panel sessions and stood by the Trevino painting to talk to admirers. 

Chuck Ramirez, “Dia de Los Muerto.”  Photo by Ricardo Romo.

Chuck Ramirez also grew up in San Antonio, and art gallery owner Patricia Ruiz-Healy facilitated the loan of his photographs to the Querétaro exhibit. Art curator Elizabeth Ferrer wrote that Ramirez’s artistic preparation did not follow the typical route of earning art degrees when she noted that Ramirez “worked as a graphic designer in San Antonio,  first for local advertising agencies and then at HEB supermarket headquarters designing and photographing store-brand packing.” 

Lionel Sosa, “Sandra Cisneros.” Photo by Ricardo Romo.

Larry Portillo’s paintings of San Antonio missions drew good crowds. Art lovers are drawn to Portillo’s work because of his excellent layering of basic colors.  His paintings with brilliant reds, blues, and yellows are all the more remarkable because he is largely self-taught. It is obvious though that he has studied great paintings.  Portillo acknowledged that few artists have inspired him more than Vincent Van Gogh, and brush strokes similar to those of Van Gogh appear in his paintings. 

Cruz Ortiz, “Juan Cortina’s Raid.” Photo by Ricardo Romo.

Because I closely follow the work of South Texas artists, I was familiar with many of the works in the Al Otro Lado del Espejo exhibit, but several new works by Cruz Ortiz drew my attention. An Ortiz painting of horsemen galloping in the open range represented the army of Juan N. Cortina. A Brownsville native, Cortina rebelled at the illegal confiscation of Mexican American lands in South Texas in the aftermath of the Mexican War of 1846. In 1859, Cortina’s army of angry ranchers captured Brownsville, Texas. Ortiz’s other painting portrays a Mexican sitting with a maguey plant in his hands thinking of important historical figures including labor activist Emma Tenayuca, writer Jovita Gonzales,  professor Americo Paredes, and borderlands hero Gregorio Cortez. Cruz Ortiz appears to be advising Latinos to learn their history. 

Cruz Ortiz, “Ponte Trucha.”  Photo by Ricardo Romo.

Coinciding with the grand opening of the exhibit, leaders from both Querétaro and San Antonio signed a Friendship City agreement, the first step to a future Sister City designation.  Educational programming and workshops open to the public exploring the cultural linkages between San Antonio and Querétaro will continue to inform San Antonio residents and visitors of this important shared history.