Two new public art pieces installed on the West Side and downtown honor San Antonio’s Orgullo Tejano, or Tejano pride.
At the intersection of Southwest 37th Street and Old Highway 90 on the city’s West Side, Mexican artist Luis Lopez’s 15-foot-tall sculpture of an Indigenous man playing an accordion towers over a stretch of undeveloped land. It honors the legacy of conjunto legends like Flaco Jimenez and Lydia Mendoza, who recorded just steps away at Del Bravo Record Shop.
A scroll unfurling from the sculpture’s mouth symbolizes speech and sound in Mesoamerican cultures, Lopez said. The yellow, red and blue represent “the true colors of the accordion,” while the green, white and blue on the musician’s shirt evoke ’70s-era Tejano, he added.
“We’re Tejanos. Even though I grew up on the other side of the border, I consider myself a Tejano,” Lopez said.
At the River Walk Public Art Garden downtown, a colorful, ceramic-mosaic accordion greets tourists and convention-goers. Local mosaic company Heye Mosaics helped make the tiles, Lopez said.
Lopez was commissioned by the city to create the art pieces inspired by community feedback expressing the desire for music to be integrated into the next public art piece, a city spokeswoman said at a press conference at the River Walk on Tuesday.
The art will also be featured on the City of San Antonio’s official Fiesta medal for 2024.
“I look at it and I can’t help but to dance just a little bit and that’s what art is supposed to do. It’s supposed to invoke an emotion,” said District 6 Councilwoman Melissa Cabello-Havrda. “Every time I see it I just feel very proud of my own culture, my city’s culture and Mr. Lopez’s work.”
Onlookers, including local artists Diana Rodriguez and Lumia, approached the accordion and admired it, pointing out details, like the fact that the mosaic work has no sharp edges.
Rodriguez suggested installing a barrier to protect it from drunk drivers in the area, while Lumia said the plaque accompanying the sculpture should be translated into Spanish so more viewers can engage with the art piece that reflects the community.
“It’s exciting. It has a lot to do with conjunto music, which is also a really huge part of San Antonio and San Antonio culture, identity and people, and a specific identity of people in San Antonio,” Rodriguez said.
Lopez founded La Casa Rosa Art Studio in Tobin Hill in 2006 as a workspace and gallery to give local artists exhibit space. The studio is reopening on May 10 after a hiatus caused by the pandemic with a gallery exhibit called Mutations showcasing Lopez’s work over the past three years.
