Mural debuts with museum’s opening

By DAVID LOPEZ
Special to the NEWS

While San Benito residents on Robertson Street are accustomed to waking up to the smell of fresh bread from La Especial Bakery, this week they were welcomed by the smell of fresh paint.

The Texas Conjunto Hall of Fame and Museum commissioned Rio Grande Valley artists Alexander “Alexandro” Gonzalez and Uriel Landeros to complete a mural across from their new location, the Aztec Building.

The work, which features pioneers of the Conjunto genre as well as Freddy Fender, began on Monday and is scheduled for completion this weekend in order to coincide with the museum’s grand opening of its new location on Saturday from 3:30-7 p.m.

“Art is an excuse to empower people, art is that medium that helps us tap into a bigger voice,” said artist Uriel Landeros. “I realize as I’m here, that all these founders and musicians were storytellers and activists in their own way. Alex and I joked earlier that we were summoning these conjunto players while painting their faces, so this is about empowering our Latino community, and that’s why we’re here.”

Landeros is a multidisciplinary artist, activist, painter, muralist, photographer, and social sculptor. Born in Edinburg in 1990, he was the youngest artist in history to have an exhibit at Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City at the age of 21. He studied at the University of Houston, where he lived for ten years before returning to the Valley last year.

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